UWF PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

Students in the News

The UWF Forensics Team placed second in the Novice National Championship hosted by Laramie Community College in Cheyenne, Wyo. UWF celebrated eight national finalists at the tournament, including, rhetorical, criticism, impromptu, persuasion, poetry and prose.

The UWF Logistics team placed second at a Denver case competition in March. The competition included a case pertaining to Shell Oil Company. The team also placed second at a competition in February.

UWF violin student, Samuel Park, placed second at the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition in Toronto, Canada March 24.

Faculty/Staff in the News

Barry Arnold, Center for Health Care Ethics, spoke and participated on a community forum panel regarding "Medical Ethics and End of Life Issues" March 25 at Northminster in Pensacola.

James Bezdek, computer science, was the recipient of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Frank Rosenblatt Award. The award is sponsored by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society and is presented for the development of the theory and applications of the fuzzy c-means and related pattern recognition methods.

Philip Darby, biology, received $9,996 from St. John's River Water Management District to conduct a research project titled "Baseline Monitoring of Apple Snails as Indicators of Restoration Success." This project will provide a baseline monitoring network and protocol for sampling Apple Snails in the Blue Cypress Water Management Area (BCWMA) as part of a "Conservation Recommendation" for the district. The project will establish eight permanent fixed Apple Snail monitoring sites in wet prairie habitats in the BCWMA and provide baseline density estimates of adult Apple Snails for each site for one year.

Rick Harper, Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development, was awarded $24,000 from the Economic Development Council of Okaloosa County for his study entitled "Okaloosa 2007 BRAC Study." The project is designed to analyze changes in local economic activity arising from increased military-related spending in Okaloosa County due to proposed BRAC 2005 changes. The analysis describes the magnitude of the economic impact in Okaloosa County that is attributable to the increased number of military and civilian employees occurring to missions being relocated to Eglin Air Force Base and clarifies the impact that military activities have on the other industry sectors in the region.

Ed Rodgers, computer science, received $2,068 from Mikkeli Polytechnic School of Business to teach an online course, "Data Security in eBusiness." Mikkeli Polytechnic is an important part of Finland's higher education system. Polytechnics are institutes of high-level post-secondary education based on the needs of working life. Mikkeli Polytechnic's mission is to provide the highest professional expertise as well as applied research and development work for the needs of the working life. Mikkeli Polytechnic has also been active in developing opportunities for student exchange, international projects and research.

Joshua Woods, Center for Health Care Ethics, received a scholarship to Vanderbilt University for graduate work in ethics and theology. His studies will begin in August 2007.

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