When Xiayu Summer Chen left home in Canton, China, where she grew up — first for college in Beijing, then for graduate school in New York City — she faced a problem familiar to students everywhere: How do you stay close to family from thousands of miles away

Her challenge came with an added complication. Chen was raised by her grandparents, who had never used social media or FaceTime.

So she turned to the technology she knew best: painting. She drew step-by-step instructions showing them how to use both. When her grandmother died during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chen began creating video tutorials her grandfather could watch on his phone.

She didn’t call it research. It was just what you do for the people you love.

“I went from seeing my grandparents as very independent people to watching their functional capacity decrease, and I wanted to do something to help,” says Chen, assistant professor of social work in UCF’s College of Health Professions and Sciences.

That instinct — helping people remain independent, safe and connected — now drives Chen’s research at UCF. She’s using generative artificial intelligence to help older adults and their caregivers navigate an increasingly digital world.

Approximately 60% of adults age 50 and older feel that technology isn’t designed with their age in mind.

By 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older, outnumbering children under the age of 18 for the first time in history, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections. At the same time, more older adults are adopting new technologies. Yet 60% of adults age 50 and older feel that technology isn’t designed with their age in mind, citing a lack of confidence in their digital skills and concerns about technology’s design, according to AARP’s 2026 Tech Trends and Adults 50-Plus report.

“We are living in the digital era,” Chen says. “As we use AI more in our daily activities, we have to provide ways for aging populations to learn and adapt just like everybody else.”

Improving Digital Literacy for Older Adults

After graduating from New York ����ֱ�� in 2019, Chen worked as a patient ambassador at Maimonides Cancer Center. A few months later, COVID-19 hit.

“All of a sudden, our services transitioned from face-to-face to being online, but a lot of my patients were older adults and immigrants who had low digital literacy,” she says.

Beyond navigating diagnoses and treatments, patients had to learn how to log in to a telehealth portal, order prescriptions and pay their bills. Chen’s job shifted with them, and she spent much of her time walking patients through screens, one click at a time.

“That’s when it occurred to me to explore the digital divide and help equip older adults with digital literacy,” she says.

Over the past two years, Chen has authored nine journal articles and book chapters examining the digital divide among older adults and the use of technology to address dementia, loneliness and mental health.

That work has culminated in Wise to AI, a gamified learning platform Chen built with generative AI. Alongside lessons introducing AI and chatbots, the platform teaches users how to recognize when AI is being used to scam them, guided by a trusty animated dog modeled after Chen’s own Shiba Inu, Rumi.

The stakes are real and growing. Americans age 60 and older reported losing $7.7 billion to online scams in 2025 alone — up 59% from the previous year, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. Actual losses are likely higher, as many victims never report being scammed.

“I created this game to teach older adults some of the tricks and scams they may experience.”

One Wise to AI module tackles the growing problem of AI romance scams. Users choose a persona, such as Rose, and enter a scenario in which Robert, a charming older man she has been talking to online, tells her he’s making money by investing in cryptocurrency. A few days later, he offers to help her get started.

Would she send him $500?

Users must decide whether to send the money, think it over, or say no. If they choose incorrectly, the Rumi-inspired avatar steps in and suggests they call a family member first. The family member then warns them not to send a dime.

After completing enough lessons, users earn a certificate.

“I created this game to teach older adults some of the tricks and scams they may experience,” says Chen, who plans to pilot the platform in senior living facilities.

Using AI to Support Caregivers

Chen’s work extends beyond older adults to the people caring for them.

Last January, Chen and a team of researchers published a study in the Journal of Technology in Human Services investigating how AI could support caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Drawing on interviews with caregivers and a review of 20 studies on interactive AI in dementia care, the team concluded that realistic AI-generated human avatars “hold considerable promise as supportive tools.”

The findings build on a review Chen co-authored earlier this year in the Aging & Mental Health journal, which found that AI-based conversational agents show strong usability and acceptance among older adults.

To test those findings, Chen is using generative AI to pull information from sources including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Alliance for Caregiving into a series of YouTube videos presented by AI avatars. The videos will cover topics such as shared caregiving and coping with grief and guilt. The team plans to start recruiting caregivers for feedback this fall.

The need is urgent. Caregivers of people with dementia report greater emotional, financial and physical challenges than their peers, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2026 report. In Florida alone, more than a quarter of dementia caregivers report experiencing depression, the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2024 report found.

“Some caregivers are quitting their jobs to become full-time caregivers without pay and are experiencing a lot of stress, loneliness, and self-neglect,” Chen says. “Instead of having users search for answers via text, we’re hoping AI-generated [avatars] can better deliver the content they’re looking for.”

“If AI is designed in a humanized way, it [could]  provide the comfort and companionship … we all need.”

Across both projects, Chen is exploring a bigger question: Can AI help address some of the complex challenges facing the growing elderly population and their caregivers?

For Chen, the answer isn’t simply about making technology smarter. It’s about making it more human.

“More and more older adults are living alone and feeling lonely,” she says. “It’s getting hard for them to go out and visit community centers and participate in social activities. There are valid concerns about the ethics, equity and transparency of AI, but if AI is designed in a humanized way, it may be able to provide the comfort and companionship that we all need.”

What if an existing drug could be repurposed to treat a rare disease?

That’s the question UCF researchers are exploring with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) to find a cure for rare nerve tumors that can cause paralysis, hearing and balance loss.

Led by UCF College of Medicine Pegasus Professor Cristina Fernández-Valle, the team is investigating whether medications already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for other conditions could be swiftly repurposed to treat schwannoma tumors.

The researchers have narrowed a field of about 200 potential drugs to 10 of interest, with three emerging as the most favorable targets.

Their goal is to find new treatment options for patients with Neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2)-related schwannomatosis. The genetic disorder causes benign tumors to develop on nerves throughout the body and head. As the tumors grow, they can damage nerves responsible for movement and sensation, including those needed to hear and balance.

The disease affects about one in 25,000 newborns worldwide, according to the Children’s Tumor Foundation, with symptoms often appearing during adolescence and early adulthood. When diagnosed in children, the disorder can be severe and may require multiple surgeries during puberty to reduce tumor size and prevent further loss of function. The Children’s Tumor Foundation is supporting UCF’s research with a $280,020 grant.

“The Children’s Tumor Foundation was critical to us because they fund the exploratory research that helps advance science,” Fernández-Valle says. “All of this foundational data is needed to attract the additional support needed to demonstrate a treatment holds real promise.”

Looking for Treatments Beyond Surgery

Schwann cells normally help repair nerves and transmit electrical signals throughout the nervous system. In patients with NF2, however, these cells can form visible tumors that cause chronic pain and neurological issues depending on the affected spinal or cranial nerve.

Current treatments center on surgery and radiation, but removing these tumors can be challenging without damaging critical nerves, including those that affect hearing. Surgery also is not curative, as tumors can regrow.

That’s why the research team is looking beyond surgery to potential drug therapies.

While schwannomas are not cancerous, the researchers believe some cancer-fighting drugs may help patients with NF2.

The research began with an AI model called TxGNN, developed by Marinka Zitnik’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School. The model analyzes data and biological mechanisms across thousands of diseases and FDA-approved drugs to identify potential treatments for a queried disease.

“It essentially generates a map for a disease or condition, like schwannomas, and finds overlaps in targeting similar pathways or related diseases,” says Ethan Hass, a UCF College of Medicine M.D./Ph.D. candidate working in the lab.

Researchers at Sage Bionetworks used the TxGNN model to identify about 200 FDA-approved medications that could potentially benefit schwannoma patients. Fernández-Valle’s team then used an innovative imaging system to observe how each drug affected human schwannoma cells.

Using a camera inside a microscope, the team watched how schwannoma cells in a dish reacted to small amounts of each drug. The most promising candidates – medications currently used to treat diseases as varied as lung cancer and acne – stopped tumor cell growth by impacting different cellular mechanisms.

A Step Towards Personalized Treatment

The research continues.

The UCF scientists are determining therapeutic doses for the most promising drugs using patient-derived schwannoma cells. They’re also studying how the drugs affect the tumor growth pathways at the RNA level.

Ultimately, the researchers hope their findings will help identify drug combinations tailored to individual patients. Complicated and understudied genetic conditions like NF2-related schwannomatosis often require treatments that address multiple targets, Fernández-Valle says.

“I think this work is encouraging, and I’d say like with many cancers, you need a cocktail of drugs to treat it,” she says. “I think what we’re doing here is helping to identify some of the ingredients you might need to make an effective cocktail.”

From Lab Bench to Patient Bedside

The project also provides UCF students with the opportunity to participate in research that can make a real-world impact.

Since joining Fernández-Valle’s lab, Hass says his interest in caring for patients with difficult neurologic conditions has grown.

“As an M.D./Ph.D. student, translation is the magic word for me,” he says. “I absolutely love seeing research that can be brought from the bench to the bedside. I want to be that bridge between patients and research.”

Whether you’re attending a job fair or trying to advance to the interview stage for a position you’re applying for, you can increase your chances of success by following some tried-and-true tips from UCF’s .

How can you make a strong impression on your job interview?

• Know your professional story/prepare your elevator pitch
• Offer a confident greeting, handshake and smile
• Think about two to three key selling points about your professional self. For UCF students, start with your major/expected graduation and talk about related skills/experience including student clubs and class projects
• Research employers and showcase your knowledge in conversation
• Give examples to back up your answers. Storytelling is a big part of the interview experience.

How can you craft an effective elevator pitch?

Your elevator pitch introduces you to recruiters in 30-60 seconds. Follow the present-past-future format:

• Present: What are you currently studying? What’s your major or program?
• Past: Highlight a recent relevant experience (e.g., internship, research project, volunteer work).
• Future: State your career goals and explain why you’re excited to connect with this employer.

What are some ways you can make your resume stand out in a pile?

• A resume should be concise, organized marketing document highlighting your education, experiences and achievements; its purpose is to secure an interview and evolve with your professional growth.
• Keep formatting clean and consistent: 1-inch margins, 1 page (up to 2 max), standard 10- to 12-point fonts, professional appearance and easy-to-scan layout.
• Focus content on relevance: tailor to the position, connect transferable skills, emphasize contributions and quantify results whenever possible.
• Use strong writing mechanics: start bullets with action verbs, maintain consistent verb tense (present for current roles, past for previous) and keep statements concise.
• Include core sections as appropriate: Heading, objective (optional but tailored), education (reverse chronological order), summary of qualifications (skills-focused) and experience (employment, internships, research, projects).
• Add optional sections when relevant: Activities, leadership, honors/awards, publications or research.

What software or AI tools can help build your resume?

• is a fantastic tool available to all students by logging in with their NID credentials
• VMock is a 24/7 virtual career assistant that utilizes technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and sophisticated analytics engine to deliver instant, personalized, and smart career guidance to students and professionals.
• Do not rely only on AI to write content for your resume. Double check wonky spelling/grammar and word choices to make sure it is your voice.
• Be aware that employers are now reviewing resumes and running them through plagiarism detection software to check for AI.
• Utilize AI (VMock can do this) to make sure your resume matches the language in the job description closely enough so that it will pass through applicant tracking systems successfully.

What questions should job candidates ask the interviewer?

Typically, it’s best to focus on two to three questions to have prepared to ask at the end of the interview.

• Ask about the company culture. What is it like to work there?
• Ask about the position or opportunity in a way that helps you learn more than what you have already learned on your own research. In your opinion, what qualities/traits do you look for in an ideal candidate to be successful in the role?
• Ask about what to expect in the interview process. What are next steps?

Are there any best practices for following up after an interview?

Within 24 hours, send personalized thank-you emails to the recruiters you spoke with that include:

• A brief recap of your conversation
• An expression of gratitude
• A question or statement to keep the dialogue going

As artificial intelligence (AI), virtual assistants and robots become increasingly woven into everyday life, more researchers are asking this question: What happens when technology stops being just a tool and becomes something we can communicate with?

UCF faculty have spent years helping create a field dedicated to finding the answers.

“Human-machine communication is about studying how humans perceive and interact with technology as a communicator rather than simply as a tool.”

This summer, human-machine communication (HMC) reached a major milestone when the International Communication Association (ICA) elevated it from an interest group to an official Division, recognizing it as an established area of communication research. The achievement reflects the rapid growth of a field exploring how emerging technologies are reshaping the way people communicate, form relationships and make decisions.

“Human-machine communication is about studying how humans perceive and interact with technology as a communicator rather than simply as a tool,” UCF College of Sciences Professor Jihyun Kim says. “It’s about communicating with machine agents as interaction partners.”

Among those who helped shape the field are faculty members Kim and Professor Patric Spence, whose leadership has contributed to HMC’s development both at UCF and within the international research community.

When Technology Becomes the Communicator

Traditional studies of technology-mediated communication typically examine technology as a channel connecting people. HMC shifts the focus to interactions between people and technologies such as AI assistants, social robots and virtual companions.

Researchers explore how these interactions can influence everything from trust and relationships to decision-making and communication.

Although scholars have studied human-computer interaction for decades, HMC is a relatively young field within the communication discipline. It formally emerged in 2015, bringing together researchers interested in studying machines not simply as tools, but as communicators.

Since then, the rapid adoption of generative AI has accelerated both public interest and scholarly research.

Kim, who recently completed a four-year leadership term with ICA’s Human-Machine Communication Interest Group, witnessed that growth firsthand.

“During my four years in leadership, I saw a drastic increase in the volume of HMC research,” she says. “I also saw scholars from interpersonal communication, organizational communication, public relations and many other communication specialties begin collaborating to better understand AI from their own perspectives.”

“We’re studying how humans perceive AI and communicate with it for good outcomes.”

But as public conversations increasingly focus on whether AI could replace human work or relationships, Kim says that’s a common misconception about human-machine communication research.

“A lot of times people assume we’re glorifying AI, but that’s not what we study,” Kim says. “We’re studying how humans perceive AI and communicate with it for good outcomes.”

Her own research explores how people perceive and interact with AI or machine agents and how people can instead use AI to strengthen, rather than replace, human relationships.

“I’m studying augmentation,” Kim says. “How can AI help strengthen the relationships we already have? How can we communicate with AI more effectively, so it enhances our social relationships instead of replacing them?”

Building a Scholarly Home

As interest in HMC grew, so did the need for a dedicated scholarly community.

Spence was among the founding members who organized the first HMC post-conference in 2016, creating one of the first formal spaces where researchers with shared interests could collaborate and exchange ideas.

“Through our research and leadership, we’ve helped put UCF on the international stage.”

He later helped establish the journal, which launched in 2020 and is hosted under a UCF domain. Before its creation, researchers published HMC studies across broader communication journals, as no publication was dedicated exclusively to the emerging field. The journal provided a central platform for sharing HMC research and scholarship, building an international academic community, and further positioning UCF as a leader in the discipline.

“Whenever we do something meaningful in this field, UCF is represented alongside that achievement,” Kim says. “Through our research and leadership, we’ve helped put UCF on the international stage.”

Kim continued that work during her tenure as vice chair and later chair of ICA’s Human-Machine Communication Interest Group.  She focused on mentoring early-career researchers, expanding the field’s international presence and helping prepare the review dossier that ultimately led to HMC’s elevation to Division status.

From Momentum to Milestone

For Kim, the new designation signals more than organizational growth.

“[The recognition] especially matters for junior scholars because they’re contributing to a discipline that’s formally recognized by the world’s largest communication association.”

“Having this formal recognition within the International Communication Association sends the message that human-machine communication is now an established field,” Kim says. “It especially matters for junior scholars because they’re contributing to a discipline that’s formally recognized by the world’s largest communication association.”

The milestone is expected to create new opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration, including partnerships with researchers studying AI from technical, behavioral and social perspectives.

And as AI continues to evolve, Kim believes HMC will continue growing alongside it, helping researchers better understand not only the technologies themselves but also the people who use them.

“We want to make sure it’s not about studying bad things,” Kim says. “It’s about how we can leverage what AI offers to improve our lives and how we can communicate more effectively.”

What happens when graduate students go beyond the classroom to tackle real-world artificial intelligence (AI) challenges facing the financial industry?

At UCF’s , that experience comes to life in the FinTech-AI Lab.

The lab puts fintech master’s students to work on complex AI and machine learning problems alongside faculty researchers and industry mentors. Beyond technical expertise, the experience gives students a front-row seat to how AI is being used to solve business challenges and the opportunity to contribute to what comes next.

Established to bridge the gap between academic learning and industry innovation, the lab pairs selected students with leading industry organizations to develop solutions with the potential to influence products, improve decision-making and drive innovation across financial technology.

Each semester, just two to four students are selected through a competitive process based on academic performance and faculty interviews. Instead of completing a traditional capstone project, they join a faculty-led research team conducting applied AI research for industry partners.

Partnership Powering Innovation

One of the lab’s most impactful collaborations is with Equifax, a global leader in data, analytics and technology.

Together with Miller College of Business faculty, Equifax identifies high-impact business challenges, provides resources and mentors students throughout the research process. Fintech faculty members, Associate Professor Cuneyt Akcora and Assistant Professor Yafei Zhang, lead the lab’s research initiatives, meeting weekly with student teams and collaborating with Equifax to review progress and refine projects.

Students spend more than a year working on AI research, gaining an experience that closely resembles a part-time industry internship.

“The partnership shows what makes UCF’s master’s in fintech distinctive,” Zhang says. “Students not only learn finance, AI and data science in the classroom; they apply these tools to real industry problems with guidance from faculty and industry mentors. In the AI era, that kind of hands-on, corporate-partnered experience is essential.”

Turning AI Skills Into Industry Solutions

The impact of the FinTech-AI Lab comes to life through the work of its students, whose research tackles real challenges facing the financial industry.

Fintech graduate student Michael Azzi set out to help address synthetic identity fraud, the fastest-growing financial crime in the United States.

Azzi developed an address-intelligence framework that combines Google’s Gemini large language model, the Google Places API and a rule-based risk engine to identify high-risk addresses, including virtual offices and private mailbox services. The approach could help improve fraud detection within consumer credit files.

“Working on synthetic identity fraud detection at Equifax showed me how AI can be applied to real-world business challenges,” Azzi says. “Being able to combine large language models with live address intelligence to help protect consumers made this one of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on.”

Another fintech graduate student, Clare Anandra Eric Hamissi, investigated how government intervention programs, including stimulus payments and loan forbearance, influenced consumer default risk.

Her findings revealed that lower-income consumers and those with lower credit scores experienced the greatest reductions in default risk.

The projects don’t necessarily end when the research does. When a project demonstrates strong business potential, Equifax evaluates the results for possible productization or internal implementation, giving students the opportunity to contribute to solutions that could make a measurable impact across the financial industry.

Opening the Door to Experiential Learning

The FinTech-AI Lab demonstrates the Miller College of Business’ commitment to experiential learning while providing students with a new way to prepare for and help shape an AI-driven future.

Students gain experience working with enterprise-scale data, collaborating with faculty researchers and industry professionals, and solving problems at the intersection of finance, AI and data science.

As the lab prepares to welcome its third cohort of fintech student researchers this fall, it continues to set UCF’s Master’s in FinTech program apart. Students don’t just learn about AI, machine learning and financial technology — they put that knowledge to work alongside faculty and industry experts, solving real business challenges with the potential to influence products and business decisions.

The UCF master’s in fintech is a STEM-designated graduate program that prepares the next generation of fintech leaders through AI, data analytics and emerging financial technologies. The first program of its kind in Florida, the program is offered each fall with in-person and online options.

 Applications are now open for Fall 2027.

The top three finalists from the new program, organized by UCF Alumni, are creating jobs, strengthening communities and introducing innovative approaches in industries ranging from health care and hospitality to technology, finance and motorsports.

Their origin stories are shaped by education, family, friendships, unexpected career turns and the ability to adapt. UCF helped the Ever Upward honorees build the knowledge, relationships and confidence to turn their ideas into impact. Rodney M. Grabowski, UCF’s senior vice president for and CEO of the UCF Foundation, connected the honorees’ work to the university’s founding mission.

“UCF was founded to support the space program … to launch humanity even further. And that spirit still defines us today,” Grabowski says. “We’re launching students into careers and leadership positions in every industry. We’re launching ideas from our classrooms and labs into the real world.”

Recognizing Excellence

Ever Upward is UCF’s first program recognizing the fastest-growing Knight-owned and Knight-led businesses around the world. The 2026 rankings were based on cumulative percentage revenue growth over a consecutive three-year period, using calendar years 2022 through 2024.

Explore ways to

UCF Alumni accepted applications in January before announcing the top 25 finalists in June. Companies were ranked by percentage of cumulative annual growth in revenue. The final rankings were revealed at a special celebration in August.

Grabowski says, “The success of Knight-led businesses is part of the momentum shaping UCF’s future. Through the university’s $3.5 billion campaign, UCF is investing in people, ideas, research and partnerships that will help bring tomorrow within reach.”

“These companies demonstrate the transformational power of entrepreneurship,” says Mike Harding, UCF associate vice president for partnerships. “As they grow, their success creates opportunities for employees, strengthens the industries and communities they serve and inspires other entrepreneurs to pursue their own ideas.”

Learn more about this year’s top three finalists. 

No. 3: Reception 24/7

Ryan Rapolti ’11MBA, founder and CEO of Reception 24/7, traces his approach to leadership to experiences he had at home.

Rapolti watched his mother return to college while raising a family, which shaped his understanding of perseverance. His stepfather’s work in vocational rehabilitation also influenced his belief that business can be a vehicle for helping people.

Those influences became part of the foundation for Reception 24/7, which provides around-the-clock answering services for businesses. As artificial intelligence reshapes customer service, the company combines aspects of that technology with human support so clients can remain responsive and accessible. Rapolti applies the same people-first philosophy to the company’s workplace culture.

For Rapolti, innovation begins with understanding what both clients and employees need, then using technology to strengthen rather than replace human connection.

“You take away so many things from the UCF experience — not just what you learn in a textbook or from the professor, but from the people sitting next to you,” says Rapolti. “I am so excited to have been in the top three. Being able to grow quickly is great. Hopefully it will allow us to hire more UCF graduates and continue to do great things with the university.”

No. 2: Sebring Driving Club

Four years ago, W. Paul Jones ’94 had a choice to make: accept his fate or pivot.

Jones was the longtime managing director of the Palm Beach Driving Club before the historic raceway shuttered its gates in 2022. When an opportunity to purchase the Sebring International Raceway appeared in front of him, Jones decided to take action.

Jones, who had extensive hospitality management experience, returned to his longtime interest when he founded the Sebring Driving Club, creating memorable experiences in the form of a private driving community. The club gives members access to Sebring International Raceway and a place to connect through a shared interest in motorsports.

By turning the traditional track experience into a year-round membership community, Jones found a new business model.

Jones challenges aspiring entrepreneurs to take the leap and dare to chart their own paths forward.

“Don’t be afraid to fail,” says Jones. “Start your company and keep on going. Go at it with passion.”

No. 1: Coastal Investment Company

For Coastal Investment Company founders Keith Ahrens ’08, Travis Barr ’09, Tyler Bloechinger ’09 and Carey Sobel ’09, entrepreneurship was shaped by friendships that began at UCF.

The partners built a diversified investment company that acquires and grows businesses across multiple industries. Their model combines complementary expertise with a hands-on approach to identifying opportunities, supporting leadership teams and helping companies reach their next stage of growth.

They credit UCF with providing the mentors, networks and entrepreneurial environment that gave them the confidence to take risks and ultimately launch Coastal together. Those connections remain central to the company’s culture, from hiring fellow Knights and drawing talent from their UCF networks to mentoring students and young alumni.

“We met at UCF, continued on, kept in touch and pushed each other,” says Bloechinger. “Relationships are so important. People are what will lead to your success.”

Coastal’s approach shows how different perspectives and complementary strengths can create a more collaborative model for growth.

Celebrating the Top 25

Interested in Ever Upward? Details about the next application period, including eligibility for 2027 honorees, will be announced at .

See the final rankings below.

1. Coastal Investment Company

• Tyler Bloechinger ’09 

• Keith Ahrens ’08 

• Travis Barr ’09 

• Carey Sobel ’09 

2. Sebring Driving Club

• W. Paul Jones ’94 

3. Reception 24/7

• Ryan Rapolti ’11MBA

4. Orange Tree Staffing

• Mardly Smith ’95 

• Craig Smith ’94 

5. Quadrant Engineering, P.C.

• Rafiqul Chowdhury ’09 ’11MS 

6. Island Direct Primary Care

• John Rothwell III ’13 ’15MS ’18DNP

7. Martin Aquatic Design and Engineering

• Josh Martin ’07 

8. Maymont Senior Care

• Nichole Blake-Little ’15 

9. Boys Electrical Contractors

• Kyle Nylander ’02 ’09 

10. Brewlando

• Shara Sooknarine Pathak ’04

11. Qu5 Services, Inc.

• Zachary Quandt ’84 

12. I’m All Ears

• Shelby Roemer ’08

13. Strategos Group

• Adam Giery ’08 ’11MA 

14. CJS Communications

• Christopher Slaven ’13 

• Alexander Fackler Sr. ’11 

15. Space Coast Pool School

• Lauren Broom ’00 

16. Buckalew Hospitality

• David “Skee” Buckalew ’05

17. Knight Federal Solutions

• Chris Baeten ’03 

18. Boston Data Pro, LLC

• Rajeev Verma ’04MS

19. McGinniss Himmel Insurance Agency

• Allen McGinniss ’05

20. Threaded Marketing Group

• Kelly Jo Jefferis ’04 

21. Garney Construction

• Matthew Reaves ’05 

22. aVenue Event Group

• Sean Hughes Jr. ’10 

23. S Cook Productions, LLC

• Stacey Cook ’99 

24. Global Ktech

• Kannan Srinivasan ’96MS 

25. Kavaliro

• Mark Moore ’99 

• John Mahony ’96

• Diane Mahony ’96 ’01MEd 

• Bill Peppler ’96 

“To lead this amazing team and help change the lives of people with disabilities,” Marino says, summarizing the impact of his work before emphasizing the impact it’s made on him, “I feel like I’m living a dream every single day.”

A number of factors, personal and professional, feed Marino’s enthusiasm.

He was once given only a slim chance to walk again. He knows how it feels to vanquish doubt and has witnessed dramatic changes in others because someone believed in them, perhaps for the first time.

He funnels all of this — passion, teamwork and life experiences — into his why: Discover better strategies to help more people read, learn and find meaningful employment.

“People with learning disabilities are all around us,” says Marino, a professor of special education in the College of Community Innovation and Education. “There isn’t a moment that goes by when I’m not thinking about how I can make a difference for them.”

His resolve has led to $75.5 million in funding for 18 research projects since 2011. The most recent months, however, have been stunning, with technology unlocking so many doors that Marino can hardly believe what’s happening.

“We’re in a spot with AI that I never thought I’d see in my lifetime,” he says. “It means our opportunities to give people hope are growing.”

Using Tech to Better Serve People

The field of special education is complicated. Disorders, spectrums, challenges that change with age, processing delays, they’re all part of a giant melting pot.

Marino boils his work down to the largest group: those who have specific learning disabilities — about 2.4 million students in the United States.

“Most of them face a constant battle to identify letters and translate them into sounds and words,” he says. “The same is true with math symbols and numbers. It takes a ton of persistence to do basic classwork.”

Unfortunately, frustration often leads capable, intelligent people to give up.

“But our work with AI is changing everything,” Marino says. He puts us in the shoes of a student to illustrate. “You’re studying the complexities of cells, trying to read cumbersome texts about mitochondria and osmosis. Now we can show you how to use AI to code words, phrases or symbols and translate them into understandable text.”

The material can be converted to slide decks, podcasts and videos. A process that used to take five days to complete can be done in one minute.

“What matters most is that students can learn,” Marino says. “It’s a gamechanger for teachers, too. Instead of spending an hour presenting information, they can focus on the reason they love teaching: to give students a better future.”

This far exceeds the futuristic vision Marino brought to UCF in 2011.

He didn’t even intend to accept a position when he came from Washington State ����ֱ�� for an interview.

“I’m an early adopter of technology,” he says. “On that trip, I was introduced to UCF’s work in VR, AR and . I told my wife, ‘I think we need to come here.’”

He immediately dove in, earning research grants and contracts from agencies like the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Office of Special Education Programs, and Institute of Educational Sciences. He’s layered the newest advancements into each project.

The progress made, according to Marino, has mostly come from a force more powerful than technology alone: the team of experts at TJEEI.

“They have siblings who never thrived because of dyslexia or they’ve cared for a family member with memory loss,” he says. “When a student comes in with a story, at least one of us can relate to it.”

Turning Obstacles into Impact

As for Marino’s own story, he recites the date as easily as his birthday: Sept. 23, 1990. Marino, 19, was playing rugby for Keene State College in New Hampshire.

During a breakaway, two opponents hit him so hard his head snapped back and he landed on his neck. In the hospital, he was told a spinal cord injury would prevent him from walking and his life expectancy will shorten.

“I laid in that hospital bed for a long time,” Marino says, “and had a moment with God where I made a promise: ‘If I get up and walk out of here, I’ll change my life and give back to others.’ ”

“I laid in that hospital bed for a long time. … I made a promise: ‘If I get up and walk out of here, I’ll change my life and give back to others.’ ”

That’s exactly what he did, walking out the door and leaving plans for an architecture career in the past.

For his first job, he mentored students with extreme behavior challenges. Marino’s dad, an educator, opened his son’s eyes to an unfortunate truth: They hired you because no one else wants to work with those kids.

“He was right,” Marino says. “That experience made me realize how much it means to a kid when someone takes the time to help, without judging. I also knew the field of special education is where I’m needed most.”

There are too many stories for Marino to recount. Each carries its own weightiness, so he shares a recent one: “We heard from a graduate who was named employee of the month at Amazon. When we first met, he was living in a poor area of Orlando, riding a bus two hours to UCF. But he committed to learning and improving his life. We gave him the same commitment. And now look how he’s doing.”

The daily inspiration Marino finds in people he helps at UCF is part of why he doesn’t dwell on the near-tragic accident or the limitations it still causes at times. Instead, he focuses on the benefits that continue to grow from it.

“I walked when doctors said I wouldn’t,” he says. “I made it to 30 years old, to 40 and to 50. I’m still going, still keeping my promise, and I have no intention to stop.”

The more Jake Rose’s colleagues at UCF and his neighbors around Chuluota, Florida, get to know him, the more he surprises them. The California native surfs and gardens. He is as comfortable building barns as he is building frameworks for AI-driven interfaces. He studied premed, minored in information systems and at heart admits to being “a closet psychologist.” He and his wife, who is now a visiting lecturer in the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at UCF, raised their two children in New Zealand and recently purchased seven acres of workable land in the Orlando area.

The man with the callused hands is one of only a handful of professors in the world merging artificial intelligence (AI) and neuroscience to shape the future of the field he’s best known for at UCF — accounting.

Welcome to the dawn of neuro-accounting.

“When my master’s students hear about these new ways to view and practice accounting and the tremendous difference technology can make, it heightens their interest,” says Rose, UCF’s Kenneth G. Dixon Eminent Scholar. He adds with a smile, “I’m also more relatable when they find out how I spend my weekends.”

“Accounting provides the information needed for [business] decision-making, and that’s why neuro-accounting will eventually impact the entire global economy.”

On his most recent Saturdays, he’s been using his hands to dig postholes for 2,000 linear feet of fencing while letting his mind do what comes naturally to him: envisioning the future. In this one, he sees Paso Fino horses and an orchard.

Then, fully refreshed on Monday, he’s Professor Rose again with his thoughts laser-focused on what he calls “this unusual combination” of behavioral science, technology and accounting.

“I’ve never viewed accounting as just credits and debits,” he says. “When you take a step back, you see business is about decision-making. Accounting provides the information needed for this decision-making, and that’s why neuro-accounting will eventually impact the entire global economy.”

Trailblazing with Technology

Rose joined UCF in August 2025 after directing accountancy programs at universities from the South Pacific to America’s heartland. He made the move because he recognized a unique culture in , which recently received a $50 million gift from entrepreneur and alum Barry Miller ’95 to strengthen tech-driven business education — including Rose’s work.

“This is one of the very few business schools that want to pursue experimental work with technology,” Rose says. “I saw it as a unique place to make progress in neuro-accounting, which, other than UCF, only exists in a colleague’s lab in Australia.”

He’s made rapid progress. Within weeks of arriving at UCF, Rose was named the university’s Kenneth G. Dixon Eminent Scholar for excellence in accounting research. At the award ceremony, Rose emphasized the larger mission driving his work: “We can literally improve the world.”

When he says “we” in this context, he refers to a collaboration between people and advanced tech.

“When we design systems and interfaces that allow people and AI to make important decisions together, then every business and government can benefit.”

“The basic mechanics of accounting are already being automated,” he says. “The future will be about how people perceive risks within financial data and how technology can improve professional judgment. The consequences of good judgment are massive and affect businesses and lives worldwide. The truth is, we’re bad at dealing with large amounts of data because our brains are limited. But AI and other new technologies are expanding our limits. When we design systems and interfaces that allow people and AI to make important decisions together, then every business and government can benefit. The implications are massive.”

Those improvements, the way Rose sees them, will have their origins at UCF’s Dixon School of Accounting, in the first neuro-accounting lab of its kind in the U.S.

Fun and Fresh: The Future of Accounting

Rose already knows what the future lab could look like because he’s worked in the Business Behavioural Laboratory at Monash ����ֱ�� in Australia. The Dixon School’s director, Jay Thibodeau, is currently seeking funding to bring the concept to UCF.

Once complete, the lab would allow researchers to measure how new technology and financial information influence crucial judgment factors like stress and attention.

“Ultimately, we’ll be able to help firms make better decisions,” Rose says.

However, he doesn’t want to be one of the only people in the world who understands neuro-accounting.

“This is why I love teaching,” Rose says. “I get to spread the word with students and let them experiment. It’s fun. They’re enthusiastic about taking accounting where no one has taken it.”

The nationwide initiative encourages interdisciplinary teams to develop new AI models and research workflows capable of addressing national challenges across fields such as advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, critical materials, energy and quantum information.

“The Genesis Mission harnesses the collective strengths of the nation’s leading institutions across academia, industry, and government to accelerate the pace of discovery,” says Winston Schoenfeld, UCF vice president for research and innovation. “UCF’s participation reflects the expertise of our researchers and talented students, whose contributions will help shape AI-enabled scientific workflows and transform technological advances into real-world solutions that fuel American competitiveness.”

A New Approach to Creating Fuels and Chemicals

As interdisciplinary scientific challenges become increasingly data-intensive, applying human ingenuity to advanced technologies creates possibilities to solve long-standing industry issues.

Ling’s contribution to the Genesis Mission will aim to address problems with biomanufacturing by developing an AI digital twin (virtual replication). This digital twin predicts and optimizes bioprocess performance, enabling improved process monitoring, decision-making, and scale-up.

The project will also provide opportunities for UCF researchers at different stages of their careers to contribute to the work. Pinzhen Lin, who will begin a doctoral degree at UCF’s College of Optics and Photonics in Fall 2026, will join Ling’s research group and lead development of the project’s real-time sensor, including its characterization and performance benchmarking. Jirui Fu ’24PhD, a UCF mechanical engineering doctoral graduate and postdoctoral scholar in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, will also assist with the project.

“The challenge is that conventionally scaling up biomanufacturing is slow and prone to failure, creating a need for smarter tools to accelerate development,” Ling says. “If successful, this project could significantly accelerate the development and deployment of sustainable biomanufacturing for fuels and chemicals, making the process faster, cheaper and less risky.”

With industry-academic collaboration at the core of the Genesis Mission, Ling is working on the project with Kansas State ����ֱ�� Assistant Professor Yian Chen, as well as the National Laboratory of the Rockies researchers Ajinkya Pal, Jason DesVeaux and Evan Komp.

A Mission With Many Benefits

Although the Genesis Mission is focused on accelerating scientific discovery, Ling believes the work has the potential to create benefits that extend beyond the research community.

“The AI digital twin framework developed here has strong potential as a commercial platform that can be adopted across a wide range of industries, from energy to materials,” Ling says. “More broadly, it could lower the barriers for industrial partners to adopt bio-based processes, helping drive the transition toward a more sustainable economy.”

For Ling, the research also represents an opportunity to see emerging technologies applied to real-world challenges.

“As an early-career researcher, I feel very fortunate to lead and participate in a mission of this scale,” Ling says. “What excites me most is the opportunity to apply this technology to solve real-world problems, and to see how it can be integrated with the rapidly advancing field of AI.”

This project will be supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science through the Genesis Mission, a Transforming Science and Energy with AI initiative.

At 16, he opened his first brokerage account in 2008, with his grandmother’s help, during the Great Recession because he saw a market that had no place to go but up.

When cloud accounting platforms were just starting to become viable in the early 2010s, he was an early adopter, eventually building a firm that served clients remotely.

Now as artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the business landscape, Hubenthal decided to embrace this latest inflection point by enrolling in UCF’s .

“UCF is ready for every Knight who dares to lean in.”

“UCF doesn’t just educate you. It finds you. It amplifies who you are and prepares you to make a difference,” says Hubenthal, who is from Elon, North Carolina. “Sometimes I’m amazed that this small-town kid has ended up consulting with business leaders in boardrooms across the globe. Somewhere out there, another teenager is watching the world shift and feeling that pull. UCF is ready for every Knight who dares to lean in.”

Leading With a Spirit of Innovation

It’s Knights like Hubenthal who inspired Barry S. Miller ’95 to invest a transformational $50 million gift into the College of Business to further strengthen UCF’s reputation as a global leader in fintech, AI and business innovation.

A graduate of UCF’s  program in the , Hubenthal initially came to UCF to study �����Ի���engineering. But after witnessing the impact of the Great Recession on families, including his own, he switched to business and finance.

“I made it my mission to understand what happened, why it happened and how to help prevent it,” Hubenthal says.

Early in his career, Hubenthal worked in corporate finance, gaining hands-on experience�����Ի���learning how established organizations manage their financial infrastructure.

In 2015, just two years after earning his bachelor’s degree, he co-founded a data analytics firm with fellow UCF graduates, bringing enterprise-grade big data and analytics services to local businesses at an accessible price point. That venture earned Hubenthal recognition as part of Business North Carolina magazine’s cover story on innovation in 2016.

Building on Success

He has since founded firms rooted in data analytics, accounting and finance — including his firm Bookscaping — started a financial literacy podcast to share his expertise with small businesses, and published a book, The Simple Fiscal Method: 17 Financial Lessons for Every Small Business Owner to Succeed in Life.

In 2022, he signed on as vice president of finance for ryco.io, an educational startup where he built and still leads the company’s financial strategy and operations.

He is currently beta testing an automated system for the company, which almost fully manages its payable function with safeguards, audit trails and authorizations built in. He envisions this empowering ryco.io to scale its financial operations.

Hubenthal wanted to fully immerse himself in this new era of business and tech, so he is turning to UCF’s fintech program to prepare him for what’s ahead.

“For me, the real world is the lab. And thanks to UCF, I’m just getting started.”

“The program put me in a room with nearly 30 students from four continents who felt like family within the first month,” Hubenthal says. “Just weeks ago, I built a portfolio optimization tool for my own retirement account — 1 million simulated market days�����Ի���almost 4,000 years of data, solved by a supercomputer in under three seconds — using what I learned in this program.

“For me, the real world is the lab,” he continues. “And thanks to UCF, I’m just getting started.”