The Florida Tech Crimson Spring 2019 Issue 6

Featuring new comic artists on pages 4 & 6 Issue 6

Professor iterates research integrity amidst anti-vaccination controversy

RIMSON The Florida Tech

The Official Student-Run Newspaper•since

1967

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019

Local robotics team to compete in Houston

@FTCrimson @FTCrimson crimson@fit.edu

SPRING

Students work for a "more inclusive" campus Copy Editor

staff writer

journals on page 5

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Campus Life . . . . . . . . . . .5-6 News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Emily Walker \\

Khemari howard \\ The controversy surrounding the anti-vaccination movement on social media has some students expressing the importance of peer-reviewed journals.

An Ohio teen, using Reddit— an American news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website—and scientific journals, went against the views of his mother and got himself vaccinated.

The teen testified against his mother before at a Senate hearing alongside experts, according to the Washington Post, which has caused an increase in the discussion of the topic.

Dzmitry Yuran, assistant professor in the school of arts and communication, believes that the popularization of peer-reviewed journals does more harm than good in the spread of misinformation in media. “[Peer-reviewed journals] are crucial,” Yuran said. “But they’re not all powerful.”

Yuran said one such problematic journal was the anti-vaccination research.

He said the anti-vaccination movement was popularized with a scientific journal that has since been retracted because the co-authors revealed the data collection was unethical.

Yuran said peer-reviewed journals never give a 100 percent course of action; it’s the second level of interpretation that does that, which is usually in the realm of the media.

He said new research gets into places like a morning talk show or in the pages of the BBC. The discussion usually surrounds understanding research that’s been done on a small animal, usually a mouse, but is interpreted as a course of action for human beings.

“Once it’s out of the journals, there is no control over it,” Yuran said. “It goes into the realm of misinterpretation, speculation and everything else.”

Yuran said this misinterpretation is caused by the simplification of information based on what people want to get out of them.

He said they’re often read by people who don’t necessarily

INDEX

Voltage team during a repair in the middle of an event.

Photo // Will Davies

Seamus Burns \\ Staff Writer

For the second time in three years, local Melbourne robotics team “Voltage” will be attending the FIRST Championship Houston competition in Texas.

The robotics season officially began in January and after their six-week building period, the robots competed with other Florida teams at the UCF stadium to start the year.

The teams are hosted at high schools around the area, and the closest one to campus is the Voltage team.

Florida Tech has its own Vex robotics team, which differs from FCH in size and other aspects.

Ripley Smith, a current Florida Tech student, and Will Davies, a Florida Tech alumni, both mentor the

local high school team and have been in robotics for a long time.

“There are a literally thousands of schools across America that participate in FCH and Vex, but I prefer FCH because there is more you can do and bigger scale parts that use industry systems in the real world,” Davies said.

The robotics high school program allows mentors from any background that have helpful engineering knowledge and have no age restrictions.

Davies has been doing robotics since 2006 and he mentored the Voltage team during his entire time enrolled at Florida Tech

robotics on page 7

Distress in the Air: Florida Tech’s take on the Boeing 737

A student raised the possibility of creating a LGBTQ+ center at Florida Tech during the student leader luncheon on March 13.

Rodney Bowers, the dean of students, reportedly responded that the campus is small and is already inclusive.

Jacob Chesslo, a junior in physics and the president of Spectrum, Florida Tech’s LGBTQ+ student organization, submitted the question about an LGBTQ+ center for consideration at the student leader luncheon.

Chesslo said other universities have LGBTQ+ centers that offer resources such as safe sex information, hormone therapy information and clothing swaps.

“Basically, an LGBTQ+ center— it’s not only a resource for students who don’t know what they necessarily want or who they are, but it also provides a safe space for students facing challenges, whether they’re transitioning or just getting out of a relationship,” Chesslo said.

While Bowers said there are no current plans for an LGBTQ+ center for Florida Tech, he said the creation of one could be a possibility for the future, depending on funding.

For now, a group of faculty, staff and students meets every two weeks to discuss LGBTQ+ issues, according to Bowers.

“It’s called the gender identity group, and we’re trying to look at things to be a little bit more inclusive,”

Olivia Mckelvey \\ staff writer

Within the past five months, Boeing has had two 737 Air Max 8’s crash.

Most recently, the Ethiopian airline crash that killed all 157 members on board caused a worldwide grounding of the Boeing model.

Carlos Obregon, a junior majoring in aeronautical science with flight, has been discussing the components of flight failure in the classroom and relating them to the crashes of the Boeing 737’s and how they are relevant to his field of study.

“In my advanced aircraft systems class we talked about how flight systems and controls can cause malfunctions and enroute flight problems,” Obregon said. “We debated on how the software stalling function and overriding features on the model and learned that this could have been the potential reasoning for the planes to crash.”

Pat Spangler, a junior in aeronautical science with an associates degree in air traffic

boeing on page 7

Look out for The Grimson on April 1

Emily Walker // Crimson Florida Tech is looking into creating more gender neutral bathroom.

lgbtq+ on page 6

Our Mission: Live, discover and report the truth.

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The Panther Sees Its Reflection Ryan Daniels \\

CAPS Outreach Columnist Who are you? How do you define yourself?

These questions are often asked of us as part of a “meet and greet” for class or other activities.

When we are asked questions like this, we might be caught by surprise at how difficult these questions are to answer.

While we sometimes get lost in the lives of others and readily offer advice in times of need, it seems more difficult to look inward at ourselves.

We may offer the common advice of, “You cannot expect others to love you without loving yourself first,” while not taking time to carefully consider what this phrase really means to us.

How do we love ourselves?

Perhaps part of this is taking time to determine the aspects that influence who we are and matter the most to us.

Here is a quick, 3-step exercise to explore what we value in life and, in turn, what influences who we are and who we want to become:

Values Exploration Exercise 1. Review the list of sample value words and phrases below.

As you look at them, identify the ones that are most important to you and those you connect with the most.

If you know of additional words or phrases that also fit you, be sure to add them to the list!

Consider not selecting values because they are socially acceptable or desirable, but instead listen to your intuition and gut instinct to identify those that truly apply to you.

After your initial review, revisit your choices and narrow them down to the 8 – 10 that are most important to you.

2. Once you have finalized your value choices, list them in order, with 1 being most important and 10 being least important.

Save this list to refer to in the future.

1. ________________ 2. ________________ 3. ________________ 4. ________________ 5. ________________ 6. ________________ 7. ________________ 8. ________________ 9. ________________ 10. ________________

3. Get specific about what your top values mean and how you will honor them in your life.

For example, a value of creativity might mean spending time painting or making music regularly.

What would your top three values look like if they were present in your world?

How would you know if you were living in accordance to them?

What steps could you take to honor them more?

Consider the statements/questions below to further guide you in exploring this.

1. I value __________.

2. This means I _______, _________, and _________ 3. Do I perceive there is a gap in how I am honoring this value?

If so, how do I plan to close the gap?

Looking inward and exploring our identity is often a challenging journey.

There are entire philosophies dedicated to the questions of “Who am I?” and “What is my purpose?”

These are lifelong quandaries, and the journey of discovering them may be just as important as the answers you come to.

Please join us at our “How to Explore Like a Panther” event taking place on Wednesday, April 3rd from 7:00-8:30pm in Evans Hall, Room 202 to discuss the exploration of your identity with other inquisitive students like yourselves, and begin your own personal journey of self-discovery.

Sample Value Words & Phrases: Accomplishment; Accuracy; Achievement; Acknowledgment; Action; Adventure; Aesthetics; Affluence; Authenticity; Authority; Balance; Beauty; Collaboration; Community; Connectedness; Contribution; Courage; Creativity; Curiosity; Elegance; Empowerment; Excellence; Fame; Fitness; Focus; Forward the Action; Free Spirit; Freedom to Choose; Full Self-Expression; Fun; Growth; Harmony; Honesty; Humor; Independence; Innovation; Integrity; Intimacy; Joy; Lack of Pretense; Leadership; Learning; Loyalty; Nature; Nurturing; Orderliness; Participation; Partnership; Peace; Performance; Personal Power; Play; Precision; Productivity; Recognition; Risk Taking; Romance; Self Reliance; Service; Spirituality; Success; To Be Known; Tradition; Trust; Unique; Vitality; Zest

Corrections At The Florida Tech Crimson, it is our policy to promptly correct errors within our publications. If you find any factual errors, please contact Editor-in-Chief, Eleanor Mathers, at lmathers2014@my.fit.edu

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REVIEW

A Casual Review Xiao Liang

Hellblade is a beautiful and harrowing experience Hellblade is a game that’s not very well-known to many but highly recommended by people who have played it.

Developed and published

by Ninja Theory, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is an actionadventure game that was released back in 2017, the game has surprisingly high production value considering that it was made by a very small team of developers.

In Hellblade, the player sees the world through the eyes of Senua, a Pict warrior who has embarked on a journey to Helheim hoping to save the soul of her dead lover from the Norse goddess of death, Hela.

Before I proceed to evaluate the game, it is worth mentioning that Hellblade is really not what it claims to be on the surface, and I personally think the game is more of an experience than a simple game: The player’s eyes will be deceived, and the mind will be challenged.

On a technical standpoint, Hellblade has met almost all the requirements to be a good AAA title.

The graphics are stunning, the sound designs are incredible and the gameplay is fun and immersive.

The game is relatively short compared to most modern games and is also very linear.

On average the game should only take around 6-8 hours to finish, but I have to say that it was the most memorable six hours I’ve ever

stephen pickrom \\ "STudying"

experienced.

In general, Hellblade is an exploration game rather than an action game.

The player will spend most of their time walking around and solving puzzles instead of hacking down monsters or demons.

However, when there is combat, it is very fun and engaging; the actions are smooth and the controls are easy to master.

It is hard to explain what the game really is about without spoiling major plots of the story, but it is worth noting that the game has many metaphorical meanings behind almost everything.

Like mentioned earlier, the player’s eyes will be deceived, and the mind will be challenged.

The starting screen of the game advises the player to put on headphones, which is very important if the player wishes to better understand the story of the game.

There is also a short documentary that the player can choose to watch in the main menu of the game.

On top of showing how the game was made, the documentary will also help the player to understand the game better.

Overall, I think Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is a game really worth playing if anyone is looking for an atmospheric or interesting game to play.

Turn off the lights, put on headphones and just let the game tell its story.

"The Hidden World" keeps up the momentum stephen pickrom \\

staff writer

They always say, the sky's the limit - unless you’re a professional dragon rider, of course.

The grand finale of Dreamworks Animation Studios’ “How to Train Your Dragon” trilogy landed in theaters Friday, Feb. 22.

It received a score of 92% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and earned more than $466.50 million in box office sales in less than a month.

In the final chapter of this story, Berk village chief Hiccup is intent on building a peaceful dragon utopia with his girlfriend Astrid and beloved Night Fury dragon, Toothless.

However, a mysterious female dragon draws Toothless away and is soon dubbed a “Light Fury.”

At the same time, a ruthless dragon hunter named Grimmel has his sights set on killing Toothless, the last living Night Fury.

With Grimmel on his tail and his civilization at stake, Hiccup must save his people and all of dragonkind and make a choice that will change the course of his life.

Once again, Dreamworks has put together a fantastic film that is sure to win hearts everywhere.

The “How to Train Your Dragon” franchise has been the most well-received that the company has ever produced.

The first and second films scored 98% and 92% Fresh and grossed $495.8 million and $621.5 million, respectively, averaging to 94% Fresh and totalling over $1.5 billion.

The story is phenomenal;

it gave me everything that I expected out of it and so much more.

This film flawlessly depicts important lessons about love and coming to terms with loss.

Its comedy was also spoton: not too much, not too little.

Every joke landed and the typical potty humor overload in Dreamworks films was entirely absent, as with the first two films.

The ending of the film was perfect as well, and it connects the films to the real world in a way that I wasn’t expecting.

And of course, I can’t write a review on a “How to Train Your Dragon” movie without talking about Toothless.

Toothless continues to be one of the most loveable characters in animation, with his personality and mannerisms further exemplifying just how adorable he is.

Speaking of the animation, the quality of the graphics is astounding; the fact that you can see every little freckle on the characters’ faces and every individual hair and the roughness of each dragon scale.

Combined with the almost photorealistic water, you’d have to wonder if Dreamworks managed to borrow Pixar’s water guy.

My only complaint? That we most likely won’t get to see another fully-fledged film.

“How to Train Your Dragon” is, and always will be, one of the best animation franchises.

With three movies, multiple television shows, and tons of merchandise, it’s hard to see its popularity fading anytime soon.

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CAMPUS LIFE

New Director of Security hired

5

david thompson \\ managing editor

Frank Iannone was hired as the newest director of security on Feb. 28, but will not begin working until April 1.

Iannone was the director of college safety and security at Ocean Community College in Toms River, New Jersey.

The former director of security, Kevin Graham, retired on March 1 of this year.

Due to Iannone accepting the offer the day before Graham officially retired, Iannone gave his current employer a 30-day notice before coming to Florida Tech.

During the month of March, Security Lieutenant Barry Cobb has taken over most of the director responsibilities.

Cobb said he has accepted the responsibility of running the security department until the new chief comes in.

He said the biggest difference between his new responsibilities and those of his normal position is “the day-to-day decision making.”

“Before, I was kind of the behind-the-scenes guy,” Cobb said. “I would help Kevin [Graham] make decisions on what we should or shouldn't do, where now it falls solely on me.”

Cobb said he had no input in who would be hired as the next director but said he wouldn’t have wanted any and is excited for the new director.

“New blood's always good,” Cobb said. “Come in with some new ideas and hopefully they'll all be positive for everybody in the university.”

After Graham announced his retirement earlier this year, Chad Shoultz, vice president for facilities

journals continued “understand [the journals] fully, crawls down to [the] conclusion section and fishes for that one useful tidbit of information that they can turn into [a] course of action.”[sic] Zachary Eckert, a graduate physics student, also shares the same beliefs as Yuran Eckert said science can easily be used to prove personal bias.

“With nearly any set of data you can get pretty much any outcome you want,” Eckert said, “depending on how you look at the data.”

Eckert said there are multiple ways of looking at numbers.

He said it’s imperative to try and find the most true results from any set of numbers.

“The simple solution to every ailment in life is what we’re after,” Yuran said. “We want a simple shortcut and hope that science will give it to us.”

Yuran said that there’s no one solution to the spread of misinterpreted research, but education plays a big role Many scientific journals are published by people who have a very specific educational background and are difficult to read.

He also said they’re costly for the general consumer who may not understand the technical writing.

These factors lead to an overreliance on someone to interpret the information for the general public.

However, Eckert believes

social media platforms play a big role in the spread of misinformation.

He said that most things that are shared are those which have polarizing opinions in the titles and is typically not based on either the content of the article or whether the article has evidence for it.

Most people decide whether they agree or disagree with shared articles from the title and share it without properly reading.

“If it supports your worldview, you’re going to share it with everybody else,” Eckert said. “And then your social media circle becomes an echo chamber of everybody who agrees with you.”

Eckert said memes-humorous images, videos or pieces of text that are copied and spread rapidly by internet users--may be helpful in dispelling misinformation He believes the simplicity and relatable nature of memes can easily be shared than an article explaining complicated science.

“They’re more likely to be able to permeate certain circles,” Eckert said. “And it can get some of the more centrist people to rethink their ideas.”

Yuran believes that society has a very long way to go in it’s relationship with science, but personal research and cognitive understanding on an individual level is a huge step in the right direction.

operations, headed the search for finding his replacement.

After Human Resources filtered through all of the applicants, a list of about 60 prospective replacements was given to Shoultz.

This initial process by HR was intended to eliminate all applicants that didn’t reach their minimum requirements, according to Shoultz.

From there, Shoultz created a panel that included himself, the dean of students and associate vice president for student affairs, Robert Bowers, and assistant vice president of business and retail operations, Greg Graham, to help narrow down the candidates.

Shoultz said the reason he chose Bowers and Graham was because they have both had a lot of experience with the security department and

it was important for both of them to be represented on the panel.

Bowers said in hiring processes like this “they usually select a panel based on people's involvement directly with that particular position.”

The panel was able to narrow the list down to 10 candidates that stood out based on their resumes and how they fit the open position’s job description.

According to Shoultz, the panel was able to narrow the candidates down to five that separated themselves through their work history and experience.

After interviews with the five candidates, the panel decided on three finalists that would each have a full-day interview at Florida Tech that Shoultz called more thorough and in-depth.

After the in-person interviews, on Feb. 28, Iannone was hired as the newest director of security.

According to Schoultz, the thing that separated Iannone from the other finalists, who Shoultz said all “could have done the job and done the job well,” was his excitement for the position.

Shoultz said the job opening was posted on Dec. 1, 2018, but it took longer than expected for the hiring process to be finalized.

“My timeline was a bit of an aggressive timeline,” Schoultz said. “When you're factoring in the holidays and coordinating the panels.”

Iannone is set to begin at Florida Tech at the beginning of next month. Graham had been the director of security for the past 15 years.

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LGBTQ+ continued Bowers said. “For instance, allowing faculty, staff and students to use a preferred name in any internal communication. We’re looking at gender-neutral bathrooms, gender-neutral housing and the use of pronouns and how we can get that going like some schools have. Anything that has been brought up to our attention that doesn’t appear to be inclusive, we try to change.”

Currently, Bowers said they are looking into the possibility of installing a gender-neutral bathroom in Harris Commons.

Gender-neutral bathrooms are an area Evangeline Archer, a senior in aerospace engineering, believes Florida Tech needs to improve on.

“I keep getting told there are a bunch of gender-neutral bathrooms on campus, but I’ve only seen two,” Archer, who goes by Evie, said. “The dean said it’s a small campus.

Sonja Michaels \\ "Sunny"

end, where my signature was automatically put in by Gmail, I crossed it out and put in ‘Evangeline’ instead.”

Chesslo said while he doesn’t know of any hate crimes committed on campus recently, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been discrimination and that those on campus are trying to actively include LGBTQ+ students, staff and faculty.

“There are definitely some areas in which faculty and students could improve,” Chesslo said. “I know that, especially for those who are transgender on campus, there’s no clear, set way to get your given name off of documents and your preferred name onto them. I know that a lot of faculty and staff sometimes don’t know how to approach certain students with that.”

According to Bowers, this is something administrators are currently working on with IT.

"None of us are experts in this field, and we're trying to address issues as we become aware of the issues."

If it’s so small, start working.

It would benefit everyone if they just demolished the wall in between [two bathrooms] and they became unisex bathrooms.”

Archer has experienced a mix of support and discrimination on campus.

In 2017, her roommates at the time sent an email to the entire school outing her as transgender.

“Overnight, I was just outed,” Archer said. “I had calls from friends that next morning that said, ‘Hey, did you check fitforum? There was a nasty email about you.’”

According to Archer, she read the email and took a day to think about what she wanted to say.

When she wrote a response that night, she said she was surprised with students’ reactions.

“That’s when I started seeing actually that a lot of people—even people that I don’t know—were just really supportive,” Archer said.

Archer said students sent her texts and emails in support, some using the hashtag #SupportEvie.

“I thought it was cute and a thing that kind of empowered me to be more myself,” Archer said. “I basically just answered the email, and at the very

Their goal is to allow PAWS users to select a preferred name, which will affect their email addresses, usernames and class rosters.

Caroline-Willow Mctigue, a freshman in electrical engineering, said not having her chosen name used in her email is a source of discomfort for her.

“The email is quite annoying,” Mctigue said.

“Every time I type my email in, it kind of has a small blow to have to type in the first letter of my first name.”

Mctigue said if there was an option for students and faculty to put their prefered name in PAWS, it would help a lot.

The gender identity group and its goals are a “work in progress,” according to Bowers.

“None of us are experts in this field, and we’re trying to address issues as we become aware of the issues,” Bowers said. “It’s all based on what we can get done in a reasonable timeframe.”

Students with concerns related to how LGBTQ+ issues are handled on campus can contact Bowers at rbowers@ fit.edu. According to Bowers, he will bring up students’ concerns to the gender identity group.

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NEWS

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robotics continued and afterward staying in Melbourne.

“Robotics has programs such as FTC, First Tech Challenge, and FLL, First Lego League, that potentially could have somebody doing robotics from grade school past college,” Davies said.

Smith discovered Voltage while still living in Georgia competing for robotics during high school, and she has been involved since 2005.

Smith said, “Robotics is definitely a big part of my life since I’ve been doing it so long, and finding Voltage persuaded me to come to Florida Tech.”

Smith is currently president of the First Robotics Club here at Florida Tech.

While the club currently consists of only a couple members, Smith said emails are being exchanged with more students that are interested.

Florida Tech also has a FIRST scholarship for inspiring and recognition in science and technology, which Smith won through her robotics team in Atlanta.

Smith is working to bring FCH robotics to Florida Tech.

“It is also a great opportunity for collaboration and integrating communities,” Smith said. “There were some schools in Orlando that needed help finishing their robot in time, which we gladly provided.”

Davies said, “I’m excited.

This year we upgraded with brushless motors that are faster and stronger and lidar sensors for better visual processing.”

The first 15 seconds of competition are automated.

Then, the remaining two minutes are spent controlling the robot on the course to collect as many points as

possible by completing tasks.

Kevben Belastegui, a junior in mechanical engineering, competes on a team called Moose 1065.

“I could have went and joined Voltage, but in my opinion, I think Moose is handled and driven more by their mentors rather than helping the students and letting them run the team,” Belastegui said. “So it is more fun for me on Moose.”

FCH has programs available for mentors and students in schools’ extracurricular programs globally.

The season goes until May when they have their finals in Houston and about 5,000 students of teams from all over the world will be displaying their robots for the final point tally.

At each region, there are around 60 teams, which is

boeing continued control, was concerned about the safety dilemma that these crashes have drawn attention to and how aviation management is handling it.

In Spangler’s opinion, the Federal Aviation Administration and President Trump could have handled the situation better, but the aviation industry is still the safest mode of transportation and he stands by it.

“Safety is obviously one of the top priorities in the aviation industry, as it should be,” Spangler said. “One protocol put into place by the FAA that I think is essential to the job is a computer test every air traffic controller is required to take on a recurring two-month basis to remain updated on safety and eligible for the job.”

The FAA is responsible for regulating aviation and promoting safety.

However, in recent light of the situation the administration has been criticized by many as the United States was one of the last nations to decide not to fly the 737’s.

Aviation safety regulators in the European Union, China, Australia and the U.K. made the call to not fly the planes ahead of the U.S. According to prior reports from The New York Times, the delay in the call for Trump to ground the Boeing models was deemed as “a bit too late” by many passengers and pilots.

It’s not just current aviation students that are especially affected by the grounding of the 737’s but also alumni that have entered the industry.

Jared Goodlaw graduated

from Florida Tech in 2017 with a degree in aviation management with flight.

He has worked for a regional airliner in the past but is currently flying private jetliners.

Goodlaw stated that the FAA has released no private statements or reports to any licensed pilots in regards to how the situation is being handled nor any other investigative details.

Goodlaw had expectations of announcements directly to all private and commercial licensed pilots from Boeing or the FAA in wake of both incidents.

However, both organizations have failed to communicate if there are any plans underway requiring pilots to complete more training and/or simulations before anymore 737’s are cleared to take off again.

The consensus amongst Spangler, Obregon and Goodlaw is that they all feel their training and studies regarding flight emergencies and preparation is well documented in the Florida Tech aviation curriculum.

All three stated that they still feel safe to work in the industry as it is a very reactive field.

Incidents like this are thoroughly investigated, responsibility is held accountable for and updates and corrections are made as soon as possible.

Pilots are not the only people concerned about the Boeing 737’s.

CBS News reported that approximately 8,600 flights use the Boeing 737 Max 8 in a typical week of travel.

Furthermore, Boeing released an announcement saying that models will be grounded for at least three months.

Travelers may experience more travel and flight difficulties than they expected.

Charles Bryant, a business professor and the manager in charge of Florida Tech’s study abroad program to Spain, is one example of these worried travelers.

“With the Boeing 737’s being grounded, myself and those participating in the Spain study abroad program are having to look at different airport destinations within Spain,” Bryant said. “For example, instead of flying out of a smaller airport in the country like Malaga as we had originally planned, we are looking at other options that have more flight availability in bigger airports like Barcelona.

Yet, this adds more planning and financial stress as the travel date in early June arrives closer and closer.”

Bryant draws attention to another issue: If he is having troubles finding flights for a group of roughly 20 or so people, it will likely be hard for the immense number of international students on campus to find flights home at the end of the semester in early May. The Boeing 737 investigations are still underway and officials have stated they are doing their best to remain honest with the general public as they are well aware of the pressing matters and concerns at hand.

about the number of teams that were at UCF. Florida is a regional state as opposed to a district state such as Georgia and countries like Australia.

For district states, winning a district will earn a ticket to Championship Houston but for regional states, it is a bit more difficult as they typically have fewer number teams attending and have other contests to win to make it to Championship Houston, more than just point total.

According to Smith, the Chairman’s award is the most prestigious. “The award goes to the team that impacts robotics the most outside of the competition, so one year the team that won it hosted a drone competition that was set up for their community”.

Smith hopes to integrate the robotics community with Florida Tech further in the

future and Alumni such as Will Davies and Daniel Kemp successfully represent the Florida Tech with their help mentoring the team, and mentoring a team is as easy as being passionate for robotics.

“People such as Lonnie Johnson, who owns the patents for nerf guns and super soakers, and Dean Kamen, who owns patent for the segway, attend worlds consistently and appear at competitions all the time,” said Smith.

“Our success is well celebrated and we’re all happy to go to [Championship Houton], but there was a lot of success in our whole area which we work with, so there is a lot to be glad about,” said Davis.

Staff member exploring motorcycle leasing possibility Tyler Jones \\ staff writer

Faculty members at Florida Tech have recently looked into motorcycle dealerships around town that offer leases for students in need of transportation.

The main vehicles they looked into were electronic and gas-powered scooters, as well as motorcycles.

The discussion occurred about a month back according to David Beavers, an electronic lab manager.

Beavers wanted to find an affordable solution for students without personal transportation on campus.

“There are at least five companies in town that offer gas and electric scooters and bikes at relatively low cost to students,” Beavers said. “This is something the sustainability folks would be interested in, especially the electronic motorcycles.”

However, since this would not be a program run by the school, students would still be responsible for getting their own motorcycle’s license and corresponding insurance.

Students around campus such as Diego Gonzalez, a junior in mechanical engineering, agrees on this idea being brought to light.

“If I knew about this when I was a freshman, I could’ve saved a lot of money by not having to buy a car,” Gonzalez said. “I definitely recommend

any incoming freshman or student without a vehicle to make the investment if they have the money to do so.”

Gonzalez also mentioned how motorcycles are much better on gas, as the insurance is usually lower.

Additionally, it is easier to find parking spots around campus.

However, students such as Jake Gaier, a senior in business, said this could potentially turn into a bad idea for an inexperienced motorist.

“I’ve been riding dirt bikes and motorcycles for most of my life, and in my experience, I’ve met unlicensed motorist who ride better than people with motorcycle licenses,” Gaier said. “I think if students who have little to no experience on these bikes start leasing them to use, it could result in a lot of accidents around campus if they’re not careful.”

Gaier suggests that students who don’t have the experience of riding motorcycles should first start out on scooters, due to them being cheaper, having less power and being a little safer.

If you’re interested in leasing a motorcycle or scooter, places such as Space Coast Harley Davidson, Suzuki Motors and Honda of Melbourne are a few places to start.

8 SPORTS ISSUE 6

MARCH 26

Men’s lacrosse overcomes hot start by Rollins david thompson \\ managing editor

In the largest comeback in program history, Florida Tech men's lacrosse fought back from an 8-0 deficit to hand the Rollins College Tars a 17-16 defeat.

This was the Panthers’ first game of the season against a fellow Sunshine State Conference opponent.

They improved to a 5-1 score on the season and 1-0 in the conference play.

Midfielder Reid Chaconas led the way for Florida Tech with four goals and an assist.

Three other midfielders, Brett Pohlmeyer, Logan Sweeney and Justin Williams, each added two goals and an assist.

Midfielder Tommy Bowser added a goal and two assists of his own, as Attacker Brad Schillinger tacked on another two goals.

Rollins started the scoring early, giving the Tars a 1-0 lead just 49 seconds into the game.

They continued their scoring barrage with seven more unanswered goals, giving them an eight-goal cushion with 9:35 to go in the

second quarter.

The Panthers finally responded with 8:52 left in the second quarter, as Schillinger scored his ninth goal of the season.

The Tars reacted quickly, though, making the score 9-1 and pushing the lead back to eight.

After back-to-back goals

by Chaconas, the Panthers narrowed the Tars lead to six.

Before halftime, the Panthers scored three straight goals by Pohlmeyer, midfielder Bryce Johnson and defensive midfielder Tyler Oblong.

Rollins responded with a goal, making the score 10-7 heading into halftime.

Schillinger started the scoring in the second half, followed by another goal by Pohlmeyer, making the score 10-9.

After the Tars and Panthers traded goals for most of the second half, Florida Tech was able to build a three-point lead.

This was soon reduced to just a one-point difference after the Tars scored consecutive goals.

The score now stood at

16-15 in the Panthers’ favor with 5:42 to go.

Chaconas then scored his fourth goal of the game, but a little over two minutes later, Rollins was able to counter attack.

It ultimately proved to be too little too late for the Tars, as Florida Tech retained their lead for the last 1:32 of the game, securing their fifth victory of the season.

The Panthers take on

another SSC opponent Wednesday, March 27, against the University of Tampa Spartans.

Start time is set for 8 p.m. at the Naimoli Family Athletic Complex in Tampa, Florida.