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By Joy Batteh-Freiha
Starting this fall, the University of North Florida will offer both graduate and undergraduate programs in fintech, strengthening the talent pipeline that fuels Jacksonville as a booming financial services and tech hub.
In his current role for six months, Colin McKinney, director of alumni engagement, is no stranger to the University. He says the best part of his job is working with alumni, hearing about their successes and celebrating their achievements. Read on for more info about Colin McKinney. 
Elysa Adams, a spring 2024 University of North Florida graduate and MOCA Jacksonville’s 2024 University of North Florida Student Artist-in-Residence, shares her work with the Jacksonville community through the opening of her exhibition titled "Elyse Adams: Voices of Moncrief" today, Friday, May 10.
Coggin College of Business
Dr. Chung-Ping (Albert) Loh has been named interim dean of the Coggin College of Business. Dr. Loh is currently a professor of economics, director of the Local Economic Indicators Project (LEIP), and associate dean of the college. He is an award-winning teacher and researcher with specialties in economic modeling of health behavior and outcomes, cost-benefit analyses and other interdisciplinary topics.
Dr. Loh replaces Dean Richard Buttimer who has been named Dean of the UNC Charlotte Belk College of Business and steps down as Coggin’s dean on May 15. Prior to joining UNF, Dr. Buttimer was senior associate dean at the Belk College, where he was also director of the Childress Klein Center for Real Estate and the John Crosland, Sr. Distinguished Professor in the Department of Finance. During his time at UNF, he has helped build strong relationships with the business community, which has led to elevated experiences and offerings for students.
Hicks Honors College
Dr. Peter Scott Brown, professor of art history, has been named the interim dean of the Hicks Honors College. Dr. Brown holds a Ph.D. in the history of art from Yale University, is fluent or has reading competency in eight languages, and is a prolific published author and speaker. He is also the vice chair of the Board of Trustees for MOCA Jacksonville.
Dr. Brown replaces Dr. Jeffrey Chamberlain, inaugural dean of Hicks Honors College, who will be stepping down from the role on June 21. Dean Chamberlain has been beloved and admired by colleagues and students alike. He grew the college from 187 first-time-in-college students in the fall of 2017 to 324 FTIC students this coming fall, and has been a champion of the program and students success at UNF.
Dr. Aaron Creller, associate professor of philosophy at the University of North Florida, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award for the 2024-2025 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. 
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) announced on Wednesday the relocation of its headquarters this fall from Atlanta, Georgia to Jacksonville. ASUN is the Division I athletic conference for 12 schools including UNF.
Working under pressure is no problem for three University of North Florida seniors who just graduated this spring. In fact, the students who double majored in computer science and mathematics, say the thrill of the challenge gives them added motivation.
The trio were classmates, teammates and friends during their years at UNF. Jake Sutton, Furio Gerwitz and Troy Kidd, who are all from Jacksonville, have perfected the art of winning programming competitions.
Throughout their educational journey at UNF, they have competed both individually or as a team and either won or placed in the top three in programming competitions at UNF and around the Southeast.
They are quick to say the experience gave them a chance to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to real-world problems – not to mention the bonus of winning cash prizes.
In February, the three teamed up to compete in the International Collegiate Programming Competition (ICPC) at Florida State University, securing the top prize in Division 2 for solving eight out of 13 programming problems within the allotted time. As a team, they are ranked third in the Southeast Region out of 45 teams and sixth in the South Division out of 100-plus teams.
Known as Resources Ltd., the three were a force to be reckoned with. They are 2023 and 2024 repeat winners of UNF’s NestForAWhile, a 3-hour, in-person programming competition that challenges students to put forth their best coding and problem-solving capabilities under the constraints of time.
Last October, Resources Ltd. participated in the 2023 IEEEXtreme Programming Competition 17.0, a global, 24-hour programming challenge. They were the top team from Florida, ranked 8 out of 117 teams from the U.S., and finished in the top 12% of more than 4,200 teams worldwide.
Armed with their own unique skills, Sutton, Gerwitz and Kidd strategized the best way to utilize their expertise prior to each competition, then each works through a series of programming challenges within the given time limit — a proven winning formula.
“We divvyed up the problems between us to determine who could best solve the most and according to what we each like to do best,” said Sutton. “It seems to work.”
Dr. Anirban Ghosh, associate professor in the School of Computing and the faculty advisor of the Osprey Competitive Programming Club (OCP), of which the three served as officers, said the recent graduates had the competitions down to a science, each drawing upon their individual skills to accomplish their winning streak.
“These students have extensive knowledge of coding along with algorithmic thinking,” said Ghosh. "Their computing and math courses set them up for success. They worked as a team to solve and master several complicated coding problems.”
UNF faculty guide students
While their successes with coding and programming competitions outside the classroom is notable, they attribute their achievements to having a solid educational foundation in both computer science and mathematics from their UNF courses and instructors.
All three have taken several math courses from Dr. Daniela Genova, professor of mathematics, and credit her educational leadership, encouragement and guidance for their success. She was also instrumental in encouraging them to earn a double major.
“About 15 years ago, the Mathematics and Statistics Department along with the School of Computing developed a joint concentration under the math major which requires courses from both departments,” Genova said. “The concentration is based on discrete math-type courses because they provide the theoretical foundation of computer science. It’s very natural for computer science students interested in theory to take these math courses. On the other hand, math students who are interested in discrete math courses are also often interested in computer science.”
Gerwitz, Sutton and Kidd agreed and said looking at the bigger picture, double majoring made sense to them.
“Having good math and computer science skills and qualifications can be very helpful in solving real-world problems and are highly valued in the workplace,” said Kidd, who took several junior level math classes with Genova through dual enrollment.
Genova said all three are highly motivated students who want to learn as much as possible to succeed.
All three students say the main reason they scored high and won so many programming competitions is that they are good mathematicians, and especially credit graph theory and combinatorics for their success in solving the hard programming problems.
“Most of the moderate to difficult problems at these competitions were math problems in disguise,” said Genova. “They took each problem, abstract it to a math problem, solved it, then designed the algorithm and program it.”
UNF was the right fit
Since January 2023, Kidd has worked as a data science intern at NLP Logix and was offered a full-time position after graduation. In addition, to interning full-time, he served as treasurer of the OCP club, president of the Artificial Intelligence Research Organization (AIRO) student club and vice president of the UNF Game Appreciation and Development Club (UGAD).
Familiar with UNF since he was a child, having attended both Eco Camp and iD Tech camp at UNF, and whose grandfather taught at UNF years ago, Kidd said UNF felt like the right fit for him.
The same is true for Sutton, who was awarded UNF’s Presidential Silver scholarship. He also tutored his peers during his freshman year at UNF and completed an internship last year with a small tech management firm in St. Augustine. He plans to attend graduate school down the road.
Proof that he enjoyed attending classes, Sutton decided to register for an extra math class this past semester “just for the fun of it” and because he couldn’t decide between the two — Abstract Algebra 2 or Advanced Calculus 2 and enrolled in both. In addition to managing a full course load, he served as president of the OCP and maintained his No. 1 ranking on UNF’s KATTIS leaderboard for solving the most difficult problems — a designation he held since summer 2021.
“I liked staying busy with classes and participating in competitions,” explained Sutton. “It puts things into perspective like what to expect from some job interviews. The programming problems are math and computer science rolled into one and mastering them is like putting together a puzzle.”
Gerwitz, who served as vice president of OCP, completed an internship with CSX last December and was offered a full-time position with the company after graduation. He attributes his success to having a good understanding of both math and coding processes.
“Dr. Genova is a great advocate for her students,” said Gerwitz. “She wants you to succeed and shows you the benefit of how math and computer science are both deeply intertwined. It has been a good pairing for me professionally.”
Choosing to attend UNF was also a good pairing for him. “I liked the fact that I could stay in town and get a degree in a field that I loved, virtually debt-free,” said Gerwitz, who was a recipient of the Presidential Gold scholarship and a peer tutor for Student Academic Success Services (SASS).
“Competing in programming competitions helped to reinforce my skills,” Gerwitz explained. “Working as a team to strategize how to solve the math problems and algorithms, proved to me that what I was learning in my algorithms classes — theory and math — is beneficial.”
Gerwitz also enrolls in math competitions occasionally and brought home third place from the Problem-Solving Contest at the Florida Section of the Mathematical Association of America conference in February 2023, and third place from the Problem-Solving Competition at the First Ospreys Mathematics Conference at UNF in April 2023.
Genova said Gerwitz, Sutton and Kidd are highly motivated students.
“I am so proud of Troy, Jake and Furio and I’m confident they can handle whatever comes their way in their professional lives,” Genova said. “Such success cannot be achieved through one course. It’s a product of a lot of passion, talent, and a great deal of effort through multiple semesters to acquire the knowledge and skills set they have.”
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Exhibit on view now through Aug. 18, MOCA Jacksonville
Renowned artist Frank Stella, who recently passed away, returned to MOCA Jacksonville with his latest installation, Jacksonville Stacked Stars for Project Atrium, a site-specific commission to celebrate the museum's 100th anniversary. In addition, Frank Stella Unbound, is also on exhibit. Learn more about MOCA's latest exciting exhibition.
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