UCF's SMST Day aims to connect students with M&S professionals

Originally published on the University of Central Florida (UCF) Institute for Simulation and Training website by writer Catherine Delgado and editor Jessica Compton.

April 10, 2019, marked the UCF School of Modeling, Simulation and Training's (SMST) first annual “SMST Day,” in what will be the first of many day-long events aimed to help students connect with industry professionals. The event was a success, welcoming a variety of Modeling & Simulation (M&S) partners and recruiters, as well as faculty and previous alumni.

SMST Director, Randall Shumaker, delivered the keynotespeech, introducing SMST as a new school under the College of Graduate Studies,which offers an interdisciplinary Masters and Ph.D. Graduate program inModeling and Simulation. SMST is also home to the Institute for Simulation andTraining (IST), an internationally recognized research institute that focuseson advancing human-centered modeling and simulation technology and increasing itsunderstanding of simulation's role in training and education. This welcome wasfollowed by a student poster session, networking and lunch with industrypartners, IST lab tours, and a poster awards ceremony.

A total of 17 students participated in SMST Day by being apart of the poster session. The student posters consisted of current research,some of which were part of a class project within their M&S coursework.From plants that can send users a text message reminding them to water them, tomeasuring wind speed with ultrasound, and promoting online safety foradolescents in foster care, these research topics varied vastly due to the factthat M&S can be applied to virtually any field, given its many uses in thetesting of theories. However, one thing each project had in common was theattempt to address current, real-world problems. The participating students arecurrently enrolled in the Modeling and Simulation Graduate Program and stoodproudly by their hard work, excited to share their posters with other students,faculty, and industry partners. Of the attending alumni, Mary Ann Hrynko servedas one of the judges during the poster session. She previously graduated fromthe M&S Master’s Program in 2017, and is currently working as a SimulationDatabase Engineer for Leidos.

Among the booths that participated during the networking andlunch portion was Florida Hospital’s Nicholson Center showcasing their currentmission, “Fundamentals of Robotic Surgery,” part of a $6-million grant receivedfrom the Department of Defense to create and develop a competency-basedcurriculum for surgeons in robotic-assisted surgery. SoarTech also attended forthe purpose of recruiting research interns. The Applied Research AssociatesInc. (ARA) was looking particularly for interns and graduates with skills inengineering, software development, python and energetics. A registered studentorganization of UCF, the Modeling and Simulation Knights (MaSK) were alsopresent. Karla Badillo-Urquiola, the current MaSK president, sharedopportunities offered by the organization, such as open forums, professionaldevelopment, advisory and assistantships, and opportunities to become part ofthe board. Students had an opportunity to speak with these organizations afterpresenting their work and learned how to take their careers and education tothe next level.

After lunch, attendees were invited to take a tour of a fewof the labs that make up IST. Participating labs included the “Engage toInnovate” E2i Creative Studio, SREAL Lab, The Interactive Realities Laboratory(IRL), and Prodigy Lab. E2i demonstrated several of their simulators on a widerange of topics, including hurricane prep, biology, and firefighter training.SREAL shared its Physical-Virtual Avatars as part of their current AugmentedReality efforts. IRL displayed to attendees its lab space and spoke about theirresearch in game-based learning. The Prodigy Lab, which focuses onunderstanding, predicting and improving human performance, showed their latestwork regarding Human Factors Technology Interactions.

The event drew to a close with an awards ceremony where the twobest poster winners were chosen by expert judges, each winning a framedcertificate and a $150 gift card donated by Advent Health and the NationalCenter for Simulation (NCS). These students were Joseph Del Rocco with his researchproject titled “Predicting Clear Sky Energy with Machine Learning” and ArashZarmehr with his study on the “Simulation Analysis of a Ventilated BuildingIntegrated-Photovoltaics Air-Gap Duct System for Natural Ventilation.”

Del Rocco’s study, part of his dissertation, focuses on therelationship between energy and the sky. Using data taken from aspectro-radiometer camera, he used machine learning to measure sky radiance.Del Rocco plans to eventually build a cyber-physical system using this data,developing the ability to improve building performance.

Zarmehr’s published study focuses on a 4,000 year oldstructure located in Persia. The building maintains refrigerator-like coldtemperature in a desert region, so much so that local residents use it to storewater. Zarmehr studied the architecture and designed six additional modelssimilar to the original, attempting to imitate and even improve the system andimplement the concept to a modern structure. Both students are advised by Dr.Joseph Kider, an assistant professor and director of the SENSEable Design Labat IST.

This event was organized by the Interim GraduateProgram Director, Dr. Paul Wiegand, and Graduate Program Coordinator, KierstenSeitz.