33 minute read
College Awards
Faculty and Students Recognized at Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Virtual Awards Ceremony
Two faculty members and two students at the Department of Chemical Engineering received annual awards of the highest honor at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering virtual awards ceremony on Thursday, May 14, 2020.
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentor Award
Peng Jiang,
Ph.D., professor, was selected as a 2020 Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/ Mentoring Awardee.
“I am honored to be recognized by this award which I believe is one of the highest awards for a Ph.D. advisor,” Dr. Jiang said. “I deeply care about and do my best to help all my students, not only their academic development, but also many other aspects of their lives.”
Jiang noted that one of his most important mentoring goals for his Ph.D. students is to train them how to independently conduct innovative research.
The Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/ Mentoring Award recognizes excellence, innovation and effectiveness in doctoral student advising and mentoring.
University of Florida Provost’s Excellence Award for Assistant Professors
David Hibbitts,
Ph.D., assistant professor, has received the University of Florida Provost’s Excellence Award for Assistant Professors for 2020. The awards are focused on junior faculty and recognize excellence in research.
Dr. Hibbitts’ research interests include the exploration of reaction mechanisms and structure-function relationships for the conversion of biomass- and fossil-derived feedstocks into fuels and chemicals through heterogeneous catalysts.
Over the past few years, he has received over $1 million in research funds supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Attributes of a Gator Engineer Award
Considered the greatest distinction of any student award given by the college, the Gator Engineering Attribute Awards are intended to provide an ideal guide for all members of the Gator Engineering community. They honor five undergraduate and five Ph.D. students who strongly model one of the five Gator Engineering Attributes: Creativity, Leadership, Integrity, Professional Excellence, and Service to the Global Community.
Julie F. Jameson, a Ph.D. candidate, was awarded the Attributes of a Gator Engineer Award for Leadership. Jameson is a member of the Stoppel Lab, which is directed by Whitney Stoppel, Ph.D., an assistant professor.
“Julie has demonstrated that she is an exceptional graduate student,” Dr. Stoppel said. “Her positive attitude, resiliency, and willingness to try new, difficult things speaks to her current and future successes as a leader in STEM.”
Jameson served as the 2019-2020 Chair of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Graduate Student Council (EGSC), where she helped organize and execute the college’s graduate student programing. She was voted by her peers to address prospective Ph.D. students during the spring 2020 Ph.D. recruiting weekend, where the best and the brightest students are encouraged to attend UF engineering Ph.D. programs in the fall. Jameson has also served in many mentoring roles through leadership in Tau Beta Pi’s GatorTrax program, the NSF MRET K-12 teacher training program, the college’s Summer Undergraduate Research at Florida (SURF) program, and many EGSC events. Through many avenues, she continues to contribute to advancing STEM diversity and inclusion efforts within the College, UF, and across the Gainesville community.
Calen Leverant, a Ph.D. candidate, was awarded the Attributes of a Gator Engineer Award for Integrity. Leverant is advised by professor Peng Jiang, Ph.D.
“Calen is honest, ethical, intellectually curious, hardworking, persistent, wellmannered, and has been an exceptional student and a role model in my research group,” Dr. Jiang said.
Dr. Jiang credits Leverant for his contributions to innovative scientific research, including having coauthored many peer-reviewed papers and U.S. patent applications.
Leverant has several professional honors including the best presentation award in Photonics at the NanoFlorida Conference. He has trained many junior graduate and undergraduate students in Dr. Jiang’s research group and has served as both the chair of the department’s student safety council, and as the research group’s safety manager.
Victor Rivera-Llabres, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Rivera-Llabres’ research uses magnetic nanoparticles and magnetic fields to introduce anisotropic microstructures and microporosity to hydrogel scaffolds to enhance nerve regeneration.
“The fellowship is renowned among the scientific community, and I am extremely grateful of being chosen as a recipient,” Rivera-Llabres said. “Just the process of applying and completing the application is a growing experience, so I am extremely happy about this recognition and proactively working to fulfill my goals at hand.”
Rivera-Llabres obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, and joined the lab of Carlos Rinaldi, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Dean’s Leadership Professor, in the fall of 2019. Samuel J. Berens, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has been named a finalist in the highly competitive U.S. Presidential Management Fellows Program (PMF). The Presidential Management Fellows Program is administered by the U.S.
Office of Personnel Management and has existed for more than 30 years for the purpose of developing potential leaders in the U.S. government. This year, over 4,900 applications were received and 402 applicants were selected as finalists.
The 2020 finalists’ pool represents approximately 61 different disciplines, 125 academic institutions, and 13% are veterans.
“Samuel is a hardworking and a very talented student,” said his faculty advisor, Sergey Vasenkov, Ph.D.
Beren’s research achievements have been recognized with awards and honors including two publications as first author, being the lead Ph.D. student on a project selected as “Science
Highlight” in 2019 by the National High Magnetic Field
Laboratory, and receiving the Best Poster Award at the 48th “The fellowship brings many resources to my current research and places me in a position in which I can more meaningfully address questions in the scientific community and my field,” Rivera-Llabres said. “I am confident that this fellowship will give me the opportunity to contribute to the academic advancement of science, engineering and humanity. I am very excited about what the future holds.”
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited institutions nationwide.
Rivera-Llabres was also selected to attend the 2019 Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB) Institute on Teaching and Mentoring in Atlanta on Oct. 24-27, 2019.
The Institute has become the largest gathering of minority doctoral scholars in the country. It gives the issue of faculty diversity a national focus, provides minority scholars with the strategies necessary to survive the rigors of graduate school, earn the doctoral degree, and succeed as members of the
Berens Named U.S. Presidential Management Fellow Finalist
professoriate. Southeast Magnetic Resonance Conference.
“I’ve had the opportunity in Dr. Sergey Vasenkov’s lab to work on many different projects related to separations. By working on several collaborative projects with outside researchers, I’ve become knowledgeable about a breadth of materials and processes. I think that this combination of scientific knowledge alongside collaboration and organization experience has given me the tools to succeed as a PMF,” Berens said.
As a finalist, Berens, is eligible for a fast-track appointment to government occupations and has access to a job portal for the full 2020 year where he can apply to positions that interest him. The program is reserved for individuals across the nation with advanced degrees who have gone through a rigorous selection process to become finalists.
“I am excited to be selected, especially since I think engineers and scientists are underrepresented in the program. I am most enthusiastic by roles which are relevant to my background such as those within the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, or Department of Defense,” Berens said.
Carey Wins Competitive CS MANTECH 2019 Best Student Paper Award
Patrick H. Carey, IV, a Ph.D. candidate, received the 2019 Best Student Paper Award for his paper and presentation “Extreme Temperature Operation of Ultra-Wide Bandgap AlGaN High Electron Mobility Transistors” at the 2019 International Conference on Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (CS MANTECH) in Minneapolis, MN.
Carey and coauthors, Drs. Fan Ren and Stephen Pearton of UF, and Drs. Albert Baca, Brianna Klein, Andrew Allerman, Andrew Armstrong, Erica Douglas, Robert Kaplar, and Paul Kotula of Sandia National Laboratories detailed the forward push for high quality transistors which can operate at high environmental temperatures (500°C).
Their collaboration continues for further advancements within the field of ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors with additional projects looking at other device architectures and materials.
Students Present to Peers at 21st Annual GRACE Research Symposium
The 21st Annual Graduate Association of Chemical Engineers (GRACE) Symposium was held at the Reitz Union on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019.
The symposium is a one-day research showcase where chemical engineering Ph.D., M.S., and undergraduate students have the opportunity to present their research in a conference style format (presentation or poster) to their peers and a panel of judges.
Thomas Angelini, Ph.D., an Associate Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Ayseul Gunduz, Ph.D., an Associate Professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, delivered the keynote presentations.
GRACE appreciates the efforts and dedication of all the participants and extends congratulations to the winners.
Session 1: Chaker Fares (Dr. Fan Ren Lab) and Patrick Carey (Dr. Fan Ren Lab)
Session 2: Mykela Deluca (Dr. David Hibbitts Lab) and Nevin Brosius (Dr. Ranga Narayanan Lab)
Poster session: Aditya Katiyar (Dr. Tanmay Lele Lab) and Carter Boelke (Dr. Long Qi Lab)
GRACE is a graduate student group that fosters relationships between the student body and department. They host several events throughout the school year, such as a trip to the springs, research socials, tailgates, and celebrations.
Students Engage with Industry Partners at ChemE Day
Students participated in a round-table career discussion, networked with industry partners, and refined their resumes at ChemE Day on Jan. 21, 2020. The department’s annual career and resume workshop connected 90 students with four industry partners.
“We had an enthusiastic group of students attend this year,” advisor.
Student interest encouraged industry partners to continue mentoring well past the event’s end.
“It is really a pleasure to work with chemical engineering students and help them with their resumes,” said Myron Barnett, human resources manager at WestRock.
This is the second year that Barnett has attended ChemE Day. He said he looks forward to this event because it is well organized, and he gets to meet students who will participate said Cynthia Sain, Chemical Engineering undergraduate
in internships at his company’s paper mill.
Thank you to our industry partners who attended, CDM Smith, Coca Cola, ExxonMobil, and Westrock; to our Chemical Engineering Peer Advisors (ChEPAs) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) volunteers; and to all of the students who made it to this year’s event. Your participation helped to make ChemE Day a success!
ChemE Day photos taken on Jan. 21, 2020
Aniruddha Kulkarni, a Ph.D. student, was one of 60 students selected to attend the National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering (NX School) hosted jointly by Argonne National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on June 15-26, 2020.
“I am thrilled to have this opportunity to learn from the experts in the field from some of the leading facilities in the world,” Kulkarni said. “I hope to learn how to utilize these incredibly complex experimental techniques in my research projects.”
Kulkarni’s research focuses on the understanding and modification of nanoscale interfaces for biomedical applications. He is supervised by Kirk Ziegler, Ph.D., a ChE professor.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NX School has converted to a virtual format.
“This training involves a combined lecture and experimental approach which will educate me to effectively carry out experiments in the future and to collaborate with scientists at these facilities,” Kulkarni said.
Undergraduate Student Achievements
Undergraduate student, Lauren Kilburn, was admitted to a highly selective SURF/REU program at Work on the original measurement model began in 1989 and culminated in a graphical user interface written
Purdue University, and recently submitted her first publication, in which she is the lead author. She is a member of Hibbitts Catalysis Lab.
William Watson (BSChE 2020), under the supervision of Mark E. Orazem, Ph.D., wrote a program for error structure analysis and regression of impedance data titled, A Pythonbased Measurement Model Toolbox Python programmer at the Southwest Research Institute
for Impedance Spectroscopy.
“This is a big deal for our research group and for the electrochemical research community at large,” Dr. Orazem said. “William’s program allows identification of error structure and regression of processspecific models.”
The program is newly released under the open source license GNU GPL Version 3, which limits commercial use.
The new program is based on a program and guide developed in the Orazem Research group in the 1990s. primarily in Matlab that interfaced with Fortran executables. The original measurement model program was not made generally available because each new version of Matlab broke a part of the program. The new code was written from the ground up in Python.
Watson graduated in May 2020. In July, he started as a application of our measurement model ideas for
in San Antonio, Texas. Watson writes programs that use artificial intelligence to automatically interpret chemical spectroscopies.
Students Honored with End of Year Department Awards
In response to the precautionary measures taken by the University of Florida to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the department postponed the annual Spring Banquet. Students were recognized for their achievements in June.
Undergraduate Awards
John C. Biery Scholarship
Samantha Angelina
Boyington/Chapnerkar Legacy Scholarship in Chemical Engineering Karen Stauffer and Jenna Stephany
Cirioli/Exxon Mobil Friends Scholarship Kayla Buch and Nicolas Roberto
Marzolini
Proctor and Gamble Chemical Engineering Scholarship Lauren Kilburn, Cole Korsog, and
Dustin McDougald
Schroff Family Endowed Scholarship in Chemical Engineering Jose Chang, Sotonye Eretoru, Nathan P. Garcia, Luis Perez Gonzalez, Yongyin Huang, Akira Kuroiwa, Aaron Lacambra, Chengbo Liang, Nhi Nguyen, and Joshua L. Pinto Professional Achievement
Christian Ore
Leadership and Service to the Profession Emerick Gilliams, Cole Korsog, and
Jonathan Medina
Service to the Community Mary Lopez, Dustin McDougald, and
Shivani Shrivastava
Fahien Endowed Teaching Scholarship Caroline Hamric and Emerick Gilliams
Kydonieus Fellowship/Scholarship John Carter Boelke and
Tipton Lichtenstein
John P. O’Connell Scholarship Fund Jonathan Medina, Christian Ore, and
Shivani Shrivastava
Howard W. and Norma J. Smoyer Scholarship/Fellowship in Chemical Engineering Samuel Keiffer and Jisung Seo
Excellence Awards
Research Achievement Caroline Hamrick, Lauren Kilburn, and
Whitney Schramm
Graduate Awards
Arnold J. “Red” Morway Memorial Graduate Fellowships Aayush Mittal, Tilakapriya Ganesh, and
Mohammed Shariff
ChE Hosts Outstanding Invited Seminar Speakers
Lynden Archer
Distinguished Professor Cornell University Fall 2019
Steven R. Little
Department Chair and Professor University of Pittsburgh Fall 2019
Matthew Cooper
Associate Professor North Carolina State University Fall 2019
A.J. Medford
Assistant Professor Georgia Institute of Technology Fall 2019
Susan Daniels
Professor Cornell University Fall 2019
William S. Epling
Professor University of Virginia Fall 2019
Ashlee N. Ford Versypt
Assistant Professor Oklahoma State University Fall 2019
Gary Koenig
Associate Professor University of Virginia Fall 2019
Lilo D. Pozzo
Weyerhaeuser Endowed Professor of Chemical Engineering University of Washington Spring 2020
William F. Schneider
Dorini Family Chair of Energy Studies and Department Chair University of Notre Dame Fall 2019
Daniel Shantz
Professor and The Entergy Chair in Clean Energy Engineering Tulane University Fall 2019
John Wilson
Assistant Professor Carnegie Mellon University Fall 2019
Brian A. Korgel
Professor University of Texas, Austin Fall 2019
With increasing concerns about the spread of coronavirus, the department postponed visits with several invited speakers scheduled in the spring. The department’s own professors stepped up to share their expertise in virtual seminars. Tanmay Lele
Charles A. Stokes Professor “The SIR model for spread of communicable disease”
Carlos Rinaldi
Department Chair and Dean’s Leadership Professor “Diffusion of Nanoparticles in Polymer Solutions and Biological Fluids”
Ranga Narayanan
Distinguished Professor and William P. and Tracy Cirioli Term Professor “Instability at the Interface – Patterns by Competition and Patterns by Resonance”
Fan Ren
Distinguished Professor “Device Processing and Junction Formation Needs for Ultra-High Power Ga2O3 Electronics”
Sergey Vasenkov
Professor “The Role of Structural Flexibility of Zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF) Crystals in Intracrystalline Diffusion by High Field NMR”
Jason Weaver
ExxonMobil Gator Alumni Faculty Endowed Professor “Alkane activation on late transition-metal oxides”
Dizon and Orazem Publish Invited Perspective on Electrokinetic Dewatering
The recipients represent a comprehensive cross section of in Pullman.
Arthur Dizon, (Ph.D., 2018), and Mark
E. Orazem, Ph.D., published an invited perspective on electrokinetic dewatering on
March 13, 2020. Their paper titled, Advances and challenges of electrokinetic dewatering of clays and soils, reviews the origins, important contributions, and recent work on the topic.
Levy Selected as an AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellow
Max G. Levy, Ph.D., (BSChE 2009) was one of 28 scientists selected by The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for its 2020 Mass Media Science & Engineering
Fellowship. The program places scientists in newsrooms around the country for ten weeks of hands-on science reporting. Levy worked at the Los Angeles times.
Levy graduated from UF ChE with honors. His research focused on renewable biodiesel production, and designing anti-reflective coatings for solar panels.
Levy recently obtained his Ph.D. in chemical & biological engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder. He worked on designing nanoparticles to kill drug resistant bacteria.
Currently based in California, Levy is a freelance journalist writing stories about science.
Fielding Receives Special Recognition from
in June 2014. As program director in EPSCoR he managed
Society of Manufacturing Engineers
Jennifer Fielding, Ph.D. (BSChE 1998),
Section Chief of Composite Performance and Applications at the Air Force Research Laboratory, was one of 20 women who received special recognition from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) for making their mark in aerospace and defense smart manufacturing. Smart manufacturing uses computer experts in digital manufacturing, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, the Internet of Things, predictive analytics and cybersecurity.
Fielding, a member of SME since 2014, believes that men as well as women have an important role in furthering the careers of women in aerospace and defense smart manufacturing.
“The struggles that women may face throughout their careers should not be theirs alone to try to solve,” she said. “Everyone has a role in creating a more diverse and inclusive aerospace and defense industry.”
VanReken Appointed Acting Deputy Division Director for the Division of Human Resources Development at the National Science Foundation
Timothy M. VanReken, Ph.D. (BSChE 1997), was named as Acting Deputy Division Director for Human Resources Development (HRD) in the Directorate for Education and Human
Resources (EHR) at the National Science
Foundation (NSF) on June 24, 2019.
VanReken served as program director in the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), Office of Integrative Activities (OIA) since June 2016. Prior to joining NSF he was an associate professor in the Laboratory for Atmospheric Research within the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Washington State University
Dr. VanReken started his NSF career as an IPA appointee technology to assist in most if not all aspects of manufacturing,
a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary awards within NSF’s jurisdiction-based research-capacity development program. He currently serves as program lead for two of EPSCoR’s Research Infrastructure Improvement (RII) activities, and he also oversees several of its major projects across the country.
Share your news with us! Email updates and a photo to communications@che.ufl.edu
The Department Welcomes Three New Staff Members
Dana Harpe
Research Administrator II
Emily Lopez
Chair’s Administrative Support Assistant
David Sante
Engineering Technician II
Gifts to the Department
We are thankful to all of our donors in 2019-20. Every gift, large or small, makes a difference and helps advance and improve student experiences at ChE. Your gifts to the Chemical Engineering Excellence Fund support scholarships, fellowships, faculty, and unrestricted support for the department.
We would especially like to recognize our major donors (gifts at $500+) this year:
James H. Allen, Jr. and Susan D. Johnson Gary Louis and Janet Schultz Allen Douglas Alan Asbury Jody Alan and Pamela S. Beasley Ram Nath Bhatia and Charleen Ann White Bremen University Robert J. and Elizabeth Ayer Brugman Arthur A. and Martha E. Camero Chevron Corp. William Walter and Linda D. Collins Chand and Malini K. Deepak Kristina Marie Denoncourt L. Dianne and Robert J. Dlouhy Eli Lilly & Co. Foundation ExxonMobil Foundation Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Foundation and Jatinder Jolly Robert L. and Michele M. Goodmark Thomas L. and Beth O. Harrell George J. and Celeste C. Hayden Robert Joseph Heinle David William Henn Jatinder and Shakun Jolly Nick S. and Helen Paulopolos Katzaras Kydonieus Family Samos Foundation, Dorothy Campbell, and Agis Kydonieus Nathan Christopher and Jennifer Harrigan Lee Pearl Leung William David Loehle, Jr. and Jennifer Carbary Loehle Morgan Christine McGrath Thomas Michael and A. Yvonne Miller Thomas Wiggins and Sally P. Moore Albert M. and Dianne D. Moppert William Clark and Meredith Hope Morgan Becky Holloway and Robert Fred Mortlock William Pratt Mounfield, III Michelle Navar John P. and Verna H. O’Connell Daniel Gerard O’Neil Byron Joseph and Lori Catherine Palla PepsiCo Brent Michael and Kathleen Ann Peyton Charles R. Revette James John Sandy, III and Bobette B. Sandy Shell Oil Co. Foundation M. R. Shelton Yogini and Jayant R. Shroff Harry Z Silsby, II and Carol Carter Silsby The Dow Chemical Co. United Technologies Corp. and Craig James Yates Whittington Polk and Nancy B. Vara David H. Vicrey and Gary R. Ensana Kenneth Michael and Martha D. Wasko Douglas George and Edith Claire Wene WestRock Douglas C. and Carolynne M. White Craig James and Thea Marie Yates
Randall L. Ledkins, Director of Development
Family. What does this word mean to you? To me it’s those people and individuals, some blood related and some chosen, who are/were impactful in shaping our very being. As I take an introspective look at my life, I am keenly aware of the people who have made me the person I am today. This journey starts with my mother, father, brother and other relatives. Complimenting these are those people and friends who have been a part of my life who have also made a difference. My education, instructors, and institution played pivotal roles in my development and created a life changing opportunity for which I will ever be grateful. Therefore, they are family as well.
As we all have had the opportunity to become closer with our spouses/ partners, children, and parents during this era of COVID-19, I hope you too have had the chance to look in retrospect as to the individuals, institutions, and opportunities which have evolved you into the person you are today.
Let us start a conversation today on how you can make an impact in Chemical Engineering. In addition to a direct contribution either outright or through your estate, there are also options available, which could provide income benefits to you and your family and some, which could provide income and estate tax savings.
I hope you all are safe and well and look forward to seeing you back in Gainesville!
UF’s $70 Million Artificial Intelligence Partnership with NVIDIA
The University of Florida announced a public-private partnership with NVIDIA that will catapult UF’s research strength to address some of the world’s most formidable challenges, create unprecedented access to AI training and tools for underrepresented communities, and build momentum for transforming the future of the workforce.
The initiative is anchored by a $50 million gift -- $25 million from UF alumnus Chris Malachowsky and $25 million in hardware, software, training and services from NVIDIA, the Silicon Valleybased technology company he cofounded and a world leader in AI and accelerated computing.
Along with an additional $20 million investment from UF, the initiative will create an AI-centric data center that houses the world’s fastest AI supercomputer in higher education. Working closely with NVIDIA, UF will boost the capabilities of its existing supercomputer, HiPerGator, with the recently announced NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD™ architecture. This will give faculty and students within and beyond UF the tools to apply AI across a multitude of areas to improve lives, bolster industry, and create economic growth across the state.
“This incredible gift from Chris and NVIDIA will propel the state of Florida to new heights as it strives to be an economic powerhouse, an unrivaled leader in job creation and an international model of 21st-century know-how,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “Over the coming years, tens of thousands of University of Florida graduates with this unique AI-oriented background will create their futures and ours, transforming our workforce and virtually every field and every industry here in Florida and around the world.”
UF’s National AI Leadership
The partnership will be central to UF’s vision to be a national leader in the application of AI, including an expansive plan to elevate its reach and impact in research, teaching, and economic development. It provides a replicable framework for future publicprivate cooperation, and a model for addressing society’s grand challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration. By deploying AI across the curriculum, this powerful resource will address major challenges such as rising seas, aging populations, data security, personalized medicine, urban transportation and food insecurity.
“UF’s leadership has a bold vision for making artificial intelligence accessible across its campus,” said Malachowsky, who serves as an NVIDIA Fellow. “What really got NVIDIA and me excited was partnering with UF to go broader still, and make AI available to K-12 students, state and community colleges, and businesses. This will help address underrepresented communities and sectors across the region where the technology will have a profound positive effect.”
Extensive Collaboration with NVIDIA
NVIDIA’s technology powers two-thirds of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers, including eight of the top 10. The third-generation HiPerGator will have access to NVIDIA’s most advanced AI software and integrate 140 NVIDIA DGX™ A100 systems with 1,120 NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs and high-performance NVIDIA Mellanox HDR 200Gb/s InfiniBand networking to deliver 700 petaflops of AI performance.
“Artificial intelligence is the most powerful technology force of our time,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Fueled by data and machine learning, AI is advancing at an exponential pace,
Artist’s rendering of University of Florida’s new AI supercomputer based on NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD architecture.
impacting every industry from healthcare to transportation to the sciences. Through their generosity and vision, Chris and UF are providing a mighty foundation for students and faculty to harness this technology and drive discovery.”
UF is the first institution of higher learning in the U.S. to receive DGX A100 systems, which are designed to accelerate diverse workloads, including AI training, inference, and data analytics.
NVIDIA will also contribute its AI expertise to UF through ongoing support and collaboration across the following initiatives:
The NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute will collaborate with UF on developing new curriculum and coursework for both students and the community, including programing tuned to address the needs of young adults and teens to encourage their interest in STEM and AI, better preparing them for future educational and employment opportunities.
UF will become the site of the latest NVIDIA AI Technology Center, where UF Graduate Fellows and NVIDIA employees will work together to advance AI.
NVIDIA solution architects and product engineers will partner with UF on the installation, operation and optimization of the NVIDIA-based supercomputing resources on campus, including the latest AI software applications.
Establishing UF’s Equitable AI program, led by Dr. Juan Gilbert, Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering. The effort is convening faculty members across the university to create standards and certifications in developing tools and solutions that are cognizant of bias, unethical practice and legal and moral issues.
Integrated AI Curriculum, Intelligent-Decision Support, Equitable Access
As a comprehensive institution, UF has a goal of bringing together students and faculty from across campus—and across the state. It will be among the nation’s first to integrate AI across all disciplines and make it a ubiquitous part of its academic enterprise. It will offer certificates and degree programs in AI and data science, with curriculum modules for specific technical and industry-focused domains. The initiative includes a commitment from UF to hire 100 more faculty members focused on AI. They will join 500 new faculty recently added across disciplines -- many of whom will weave AI into their teaching and research.
“More than ever before in my lifetime, people around the country and the globe are looking to universities to expand access to higher education and technology and to level the field of opportunity for all,” UF President Kent Fuchs said. “UF intends to meet that challenge, and this partnership will help us do it.”
Within UF Health, UF’s robust academic health center, AI systems are being deployed to monitor patient conditions in real time, making it the first health system to use deep-learning technology to generate patient viability data. Through a novel system known as DeepSOFA, Dr. Azra Bihorac and her team use AI systems to collect and organize a patient’s medical data so that doctors can make better-informed decisions. DeepSOFA is but one example of how AI technology will be put to use to bolster research and improve patient care at UF Health.
To ensure no community is left behind, UF plans to promote wide accessibility to these computing capabilities and work with other institutions to develop a talent pipeline able to harness the power of AI through several initiatives. These include:
Creating partnerships with industry and other academic groups, such as the Inclusive Engineering Consortium, whose students will work with members to conduct research and recruitment to UF graduate programs. The effort is led by Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering faculty member Dr. Damon Woodard. UF will also partner with these institutions to provide training in AI.
“This initiative will allow us to recruit and equip a diverse, talented cadre of faculty and students across multiple disciplines and bring them together with colleagues from government and the private sector to find solutions to our most important problems,” said Dr. Cammy Abernathy, dean of UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering.
University officials expect this announcement will spark additional excitement among others who have significant resources and abilities related to AI, and reaffirmed their commitment to serve as a catalyst for those who wish to step up and join in this amazing adventure.
Finding That Perfect Blend
The chairman of Tropical Smoothie Café believes in balance – work, family, service, social life – and the power of free frappé to lift spirits.
All photos courtesy of Scott Pressly Scott with daughters Carden and KJ at a Gator football game.
This spring as the coronavirus tormented nations and stretched hospitals to their snapping points, Scott Pressly made smoothies. Dozens became hundreds. Each, to the health workers he gave them to, a moment of calm in the chaos. An act of thoughtfulness. A respite.
The free Bahama Mamas, Beach Bums and Mango Magics were gestures of gratitude to the women and men on the virus’ frontlines — and Pressly’s small way to pitch in during the pandemic.
“All of us need to do our part,” the chairman of Tropical Smoothie Café insists. “It’s unbelievable the environment that doctors and nurses work in every day. We like to make their day a little better by bringing them a smoothie.”
Simple as that.
And so he did. Over and over and over again. By April’s end, he and his family had personally churned and hand delivered some 700 smoothies to hospitals in Atlanta, where the Presslys live when not in Gainesville. care workers are ecstatic,” says Pressly (BSCHE ’90), whose sister is a nurse. “That’s the greatest thing.”
But he didn’t stop there.
Pressly and Tropical Smoothie Café CEO Charles Watson asked the franchise’s 840 stores to donate smoothies to first responders and hospital workers in communities across the country. Their plan was to give away 100,000. Within weeks — despite social distancing’s economic toll on their profit sheets — stores shot past that number and a new unofficial goal was set: 200,000.
“It gives us an opportunity to see what the health care workers are going through and to see smiles on their faces when we bring them smoothies,” Pressly says.
Which, really, sums up what Pressly himself is all about: compassion and empowerment — his response to COVID-19 the latest example.
“So many people are focused on their careers and think they’ll get to the other things that matter later in life,” Pressly explains. “It’s not all about one thing. You
Scott and Barbie Pressly and their children, Palmer, Carden and KJ.
Pressly and his best friends from college — Scott Blews (BA ’90, JD ’93), Brad Saviello (BSME ’90), Chris Winiewicz (BSISE ’91) and Mark Montgomery (BSAC ’89) — are still close, often vacationing together. The four are pictured here with Scott and his father, Herb.
don’t have to have all the answers. You just have to work hard.”
Life in the Balance
Happiness, Pressly believes, is learning to juggle: career in one palm … family in the other … community service and relationships and spirituality and health all cycling through
“Anybody can take anything to an extreme, whether it’s fitness or work or even family,” he reasons. “I like the idea of juggling all the pieces, making sure none of them gets too low or drops because that will put it all out of whack.”
Those might not be words up-andcoming entrepreneurs expect from a man who’s made a livelihood investing in new companies. But Pressly lives those sentiments.
“What I am most proud of in my life are not my business achievements,” he says, “but rather that I was able to coach 21 different sports seasons for my kids, travel with my family to more than 25 countries, be actively involved in ministries in Poland, central Europe and Atlanta, and, most importantly, to spend 27 incredible years with my wife.”
That groundedness is a gift from his parents. Herbert Pressly (BCE ’58), his dad, worked for Florida’s Department of Transportation in Tallahassee from his college graduation to retirement. Mom Joyce Pressly was committed to social programs, especially for underprivileged children. On fall football weekends, it was all about cheering on the orange and blue.
That balance — job, service, fun, each other — stuck with Pressly. The “juggling” came naturally:
Academics: no sweat. (Pressly graduated magna cum laude from UF with a chemical engineering degree and went on to earn an MBA from Harvard.)
Goodwill: nailed it. (A year in Poland as a volunteer with a $300-a-month stipend followed Harvard graduate school, and he’s still doing what he can to improve communities: now, among other things, lending his business expertise to the new Danny Wuerffel Foundation.)
Career: brilliant. (Engineer, executive, investor, entrepreneur — it’s one success after another.)
Friends: unbreakable. (Pressly vacations with old college buddies and hangs out with them at virtual happy hours each Thursday.) Marriage and children: picture-perfect. (It was Basia, his wife, who suggested their move to Gainesville so he could be more involved with UF, and his children are partners in this spring’s COVID-19 smoothierelief project.)
While those things taken together make life whole, the most rewarding, for him, is coaching, Pressly says — whether it’s middle schoolers or aspiring business owners or people who need a caring hand.
“That’s fulfillment, when you can help somebody achieve their dreams or be better off,” he says. “Seeing someone reach their potential is what it’s all about.”
The Gator Inside
Pressly always knew he’d go to UF. Even growing up in Tallahassee — with Florida State University shading his childhood — he knew. The ache to be a Gator was too strong to ignore. So when time came to pick a college he didn’t bother applying anywhere else.
“There is a great sense of pride in belonging to the Gator Nation and I love being part of it,” he explains. “I can’t resist giving a ‘Go Gators’ nod to anyone wearing the orange and blue.
“It makes my family sort of nuts,” he adds, “but that greeting is always met with a welcome, knowing smile. The collective achievements of the university — its students, athletic teams and alumni — are somehow summed up in that simple, universal greeting.”
Chemical engineering, on the other hand, was less certain. Pressly majored in it out of high school because, frankly, he didn’t know what else to do.
“The reality is I didn’t even really know what a chemical engineer does,” he admits. “We put so much pressure on kids when they’re 18 to decide what they’ll do for the rest of their lives. I didn’t have any kind of a plan.”
That didn’t stop him from being good at it, however. Really good.
So much so that classmates voted him their Society of Chemical Engineers chapter president. That same year, UF ended up Some of Pressly’s fondest memories are tied to the hours spent with friends in the engineering college. Years later, as his interests turned toward business, lessons learned with those friends and his engineering professors served him well, Pressly says.
“The skillset required for both [business and engineering] are amazingly similar,” he promises. “How do you break down large, complex problems into their fundamental components to assess trends and create hypotheses for a future state?”
Or, put another way: “There’s just something about building things that I enjoy.”
Now, with all the most important pieces of Pressly’s life circling in a smooth arc, he’s adding more: leadership at his alma mater. He’s vice chair on UF’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Science’s board of trustees and also a member of the engineering dean’s advisory board.
And he hopes to do more for the university. For that, he credits his undergraduate mentor, professor Spyros Svoronos.
“Dr. Svoronos was fantastic,” Pressly says. “He was an unbelievable inspiration. He spent an incredible amount of time patiently teaching, mentoring and encouraging me. It is a privilege and, quite honestly a pleasure, to continue in his footsteps to assist the next generation of the Gator Nation.”
The question now, though, is where to focus. But, Pressly says, that’s a good problem to have.
“There are so many exciting initiatives at the University of Florida it has been difficult to choose where best to offer my support,” he says. “Helping the next generation of students motivates me to give back.”
by David Finnerty
Pressly was honored with the S. Clark Butler Pinnacle Award at the Gator100 awards ceremony on Feb. 28, 2020. The S. Clark Butler Pinnacle Award recognizes an established business leader who has demonstrated sustained excellence and leadership.
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