University Scholars Program
The University Scholars Program introduces undergraduate students at the University of Florida to the exciting world of academic research. In this program, students work one-on-one with UF faculty on selected research projects. The program will consist of undertaking a full research project primarily during the fall and spring semesters of the academic year, under the guidance of a faculty member.
Read about COTA undergraduate students and their work under the University Scholars Program (USP).
2023-2024
| Name | Faculty Advisor | Project Title & Description |
|---|---|---|
| Mariana Garcia | Melissa Hyde (School of Art + Art History) | How the female form is used as allegory in paintings about the French Revolution This research seeks to understand the connections between images of allegories and the female figure during the revolutionary period and how that relates to gender politics of the time. |
| Chrislian Daza | Hyo Kang (Digital Worlds Institute) | How visual complexity in user interface design impacts attention allocation in individuals with ADHD This research explores strategies to design user interfaces that might increase productivity, correct usage as well as provide a better user experience for individuals with ADHD. |
| Cec Wood-Barron | Xan Burley (School of Theater + Dance) | Overlaps between choreographic and literary creative processes This research explores and highlights the parallels of the creative process between different artistic mediums including choreography and poetry writing. |
| Serene Cheon | Hyo Kang (Digital Worlds Institute) | Design a user interface for the VR simulation program This research investigates violations of musical expectations to later inform future compositions and uses of music in different mediums to build more emotionally affective experiences for listeners. |
| Ashley Wu | Laura Dallman (School of Music) | Emotional effects of violations of musical expectations This research will make VR technology more accessible by reducing technical barriers and creating a user-friendly interface targeted at social scientists. The project will also contribute to public safety enhancement by assisting criminologists and law enforcement agencies with the analysis of violent crimes. |
2022-2023
| Name | Faculty Advisor | Project Title & Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Aaron D’Zurilla | Paul Richards (School of Music) | Popular Music and Modal Music Theory This research facilitates analysis of American popular music songs with modal theory, with the intention of using statistical analysis to better understand how the two relate and differ from one another. |
| Emily Lobosco | Heidi J. Boisvert (School of Theater + Dance) | Biological and Emotional Responses to Partnership in Dance This research explores the neurobiological effects of dance on gestural behavioral patterns, yielding new choreography, which was used to understand biophysical and arousal data. |
| Giuliana Gamero-Faggiano | Xan Burley (School of Theater + Dance) | The More I Think About It This research incorporates dance and movement into an investigation of how overthinking affects both mental and physical health. |
| Jonathan Kahn | Amelia Winger-Bearskin (Digital Worlds Institute) | AI in Artistic Settings This research investigates applications of the VQGAN-CLIP process to leverage text keywords as an input in the creation of images, additionally using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) in analysis. |
| Juan Florez | Janna Lower (School of Music) | Music for Social Change: How the El Sistema-Inspired Miami Music Project and Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles Directly Impact the Underserved Youth in Their Communities This case study research examines the functions, goals, and community impact of the Miami Music Project (MMP) and Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA), non-profit organizations with multiple branches throughout Miami and Los Angeles. |
| Olivia D’Agati | Jonathan Helton (School of Music) | Correlation Between Preference and Emotional Experience in Musical Aesthetics This research explores the influence of musical preference on an individual’s emotional response to different genres of music, using the responses of high school students as they listened to various musical genres (classical, rock, pop, Latin, EDM, etc.). |