Faculty & Staff Resources
Faculty Student Stories
Caitlyn is majoring in Microbiology with a minor in Infection Control. She works on
research in bioinformatics and plans to pursue a doctorate and a future career in
science. She is a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship.
Caitlyn found a mentor in Richard Pollenz, professor of cell and molecular biology
at USF, when she was selected to USF’s HHMI SEA PHAGES program, which Pollenz led.
SEA PHAGES is an undergraduate research program for beginning STEM majors where students
isolate, characterize, amplify, and visualize a novel bacteriophage (viruses which
infect bacteria). Each student who successfully isolates a phage also gets to name
it. Pollenz opened more than the world of bioinformatics. He introduced her to the
use of computers and codes to find patterns in genomes. It was his style of engaged
and hands-on teaching that inspired Caitlyn to commit herself to teaching and mentorship
in the future.
Caitlyn has also been engaged in a bioarcheology study with Andrea Vianello who has
been at USF since 2020 as a research fellow in the Department of Anthropology. In
this work, Caitlyn contributed first to literature review on proteomics and metabolomics
and genomics in bioarcheology as a grounding to explore the drivers of the medieval
pandemic otherwise known as the Black Death from bone samples curated from the Old
Lazaret in Venice. Vianello has taught at the Judy Genshaft Honors College, and he
too has welcomed Caitlyn to teach the sessions on proteomics in his course on ancient
pandemics.
Willie McClinton majored in Computer Science and Engineering. While at USF, he focused
on research in brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and artificial intelligence. Willie
was awarded the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Summer Undergraduate
Research Fellowship (SURF) and the Goldwater Scholarship. He is now in the Computer
Science Ph.D. Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After returning from NIST-SURF, ONS Director Dr. Sayan Basu introduced Willie to Dr.
Marvin Andujar. Willie obtained an undergraduate research position in Dr. Andujar’s
Neuro-Machine Interaction Lab. He began his work there by leading development of a
program that would allow users to paint in virtual reality (VR) using just their thoughts
sent through a BCI.
The project was one part of a year-long collaboration between the computer science department, engineering professors, and Basu to help McClinton succeed in winning the Goldwater Scholarship.
Kayla Rykiel majored in Biomedical Sciences and Dance.Kayla wanted to change what
it meant to be a ‘pre-med’ student by focusing not just on her grades, resume and
medical school applications, but on making an impact on communities in need. After
graduating, she worked in rural Alabama as part of a community health fellowship.
The competitive program, offered by Project Horseshoe Farm, gives students the chance
to help shape community health and contribute to a model for communities across the
country.
Kayla was connected to Dr. David Himmelgreen through ONS because of their similar
interests in alleviating food insecurity in Tampa Bay. They worked on community-based
research projects together, including an anthropogical photo-voice project. Participants
were given disposable cameras to take photos showing what it meant to be food insecure
in Tampa.