Monday, September 30, 2013

Physics Colloquium, Fri., Oct. 4, PSB 161

PREDICTIVE MODELING OF COMPLEX FERROICS

 Prof. Inna Ponomareva

    Department of Physics, University of South Florida


          Complex ferroics such as ferroelectrics, ferroelastics, magnetoelectrics, antiferroelectrics, and others are associated with rich physics and a variety of technological   applications.  In the recent years such materials attracted even more attention, thanks to the discoveries of ferroelectricity at the nanoscale, magnetoelectric coupling in multiferroics and  giant caloric effects in some ferroics.  Interestingly, theoretical and computational research played an important,  and sometimes even leading, role in the recent progress in fundamental understanding of such novel phenomena associated with complex ferroics. I will highlight some of our most recent advances in the area of predictive modeling of such materials. In particular, I will briefly review some of our recent methodological developments and then focus on the computational discoveries of giant electrocaloric, piezocaloric and multicaloric effects in ferroelectrics.  I will also present some of our recent findings on the unusual dynamics associated with ferroelectric nanostructures and its potential applications for THz sensing.


Inna Ponomareva received M.S. Degree from Volgograd State University, Russia in 2001, and the Ph.D. degree in physics from Institute of Biochemical Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences in 2004. In 2004 she joined University of Arkansas as a postdoctoral fellow. She joined the department of Physics at the University of South Florida in 2009 as an assistant professor. She is a NSF CAREER awardee. Her research is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy,  National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office of the Department of Defense.  She has co-authored over 50 journal publications. 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

LightPath Technologies to Present at 8th Annual Singular Research "Best of the Uncovereds" Conference on October 3, 2013

LightPath Technologies to Present at Eighth Annual Singular Research "Best of the Uncovereds" Conference
on October 3, 2013


ORLANDO, FL -- September 26, 2013 --  LightPath Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPTH) (“LightPath”, the “Company” or “we”), a global manufacturer, distributor and integrator of patented optical components and high-level assemblies, today announced that it has been selected to present at the Singular Research “Best of the Uncovereds” investor conference on October 3, 2013. The conference will be held at the Luxe Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
The presentation for LightPath, to be given by Chief Executive Officer Jim Gaynor, is scheduled for 11:30 am pacific time (2:30 pm eastern time).  At that time, the slideshow will be posted on the investor relations section of the Company’s website at www.lightpath.com.  Investors interested in conducting a one-on-one meeting with LightPath should contact its investor relations representative Jordan Darrow of Darrow Associates at 631-367-1866 or via email at jdarrow@darrowir.com.
About Singular Research
Singular Research provides unbiased, performance-based research on small- and micro-cap companies to fund managers and other institutional investors. Its goal is to provide initiation reports and quarterly updates on approximately 60 companies. In most cases, Singular's analysts provide research on companies that are not covered by any other firms.
Singular expects the 8th Annual Best of the Uncovereds Conference to be attended by many of the nation's top institutional and hedge fund managers, family offices and wealth managers with a specific interest in small- and micro-cap companies. Singular clients include prominent five star-rated small- and micro-cap portfolio managers representing over $70 billion in assets.
About LightPath Technologies
LightPath provides optics and photonics solutions for the industrial, defense, telecommunications, testing and measurement, and medical industries. LightPath designs, manufactures, and distributes optical and infrared components including molded glass aspheric lenses and assemblies, infrared lenses, fused fiber collimators, and gradient index GRADIUM® lenses. LightPath also offers custom optical assemblies, including full engineering design support.  For more information, visit www.lightpath.com.
This news release includes statements that constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our ability to expand our presence in certain markets, future sales growth, continuing reductions in cash usage and implementation of new distribution channels. This information may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, factors detailed by LightPath Technologies, Inc. in its public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required under the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, we do not have any intention or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Monday, September 23, 2013

Physics Colloquium - Fri., Sept. 27, 4:30 PM, PSB 161

Dr. Glenn Macpherson
Smithsonian

Cosmochemical Evidence for Astrophysical Processes in the Early Solar System

            Isotopic and other studies of primitive material left over from the birth of the Solar system, such as chondrite meteorites and captured comet dust, provide evidence for the conditions, processes, and even timing of processes that occurred during the first ~ 1 m.y. of the solar system’s existence. The Sun likely was born in a giant molecular cloud similar to Orion and Carina, and its birth may have been immediately preceded by a nearby supernova. There also is good evidence that our Sun experienced bi-polar outflow during its infancy, a process that resulted in innermost-solar-system solid materials being ejected out to at least the asteroid belt and possibly as far as the comet accretion regions.



Tuesday, September 17, 2013

CAOS Fall Picnic

The time has come again for the CAOS Fall Picnic! Invite your friends and family and come enjoy the good food and weather. We'll be having a volleyball tournament, dessert contest, cornhole (bean bag toss), and of course Lake Claire. Any suggestions or if you have something you wish to contribute, feel free to email me at asincore @ knights . ucf .
edu.

When: Saturday, October 19 from 12 - 5 pm
Where: Lake Claire at UCF (map attached)
Who: CREOL and family and friends
What: Food, volleyball, cornhole, dessert contest, and straight up relaxing

Hope to see you there!

Alex Sincore - CAOS President

Monday, September 16, 2013

Florida Space Institute Seminar September 18

Florida Space Institute Seminar Announcement

Speaker:  John Wise
Affiliation: Air Force Research Lab, Space Weather Center of Excellence Branch of the Battlespace Environment Lab of the Space Vehicles Directorate
Day and Date: Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Time: 11:00 - 12:00

Location: Research Park
12354 Research Parkway
Partnership 1 Bldg. Suite 209
Orlando, FL 32826

Title:          Empirical Modeling Of The Thermosphere
The thermosphere is the part of our atmosphere extending from 80 km to around 600 km.  It is the region in which low earth orbit (LEO) satellites operate.  Neutral density variations from the thermosphere create drag on these satellites and affect their orbits.  In order to understand how the thermosphere affects satellite orbits we need  to model its neutral density and composition.  We discuss some measurements from  the Atmospheric Density Mass Spectrometer (ADMS), which flew onboard the TacSat-2 satellite during the last solar minimum in 2007, which collected  in-situ ratios of total oxygen/N2  in the thermosphere between 415-425 km, at various local times and latitudes equatorward of +/- 40 degrees.   The number densities for oxygen and nitrogen were compared to the NRLMSISE-00 model and to the mass spectrometer measurements of the OSS and NATE from Atmospheric Explorer (AE) during the solar minimum of 1976.  The ADMS atomic oxygen was determined to be more than 50% lower than the atomic oxygen measured by AE at 400 km.  During 2007 the atomic oxygen was about 50% lower than MSIS, but the ADMS N2 densities were in reasonable agreement with the model.  ADMS did not collect data for helium so we are only able to infer its mixing ratio based on corrected model results.  We adjusted  the MSIS total density and O/N2 profiles for several local times when ADMS, CHAMP and GRACE were co-located.  The MSIS exospheric temperature  and atomic oxygen were adjusted to reduce data/model errors between the three experiments in a least squares sense.  Reasonable fits were obtained for late afternoon in the northern hemisphere as well as midnight local times, but the dawn and noontime cases were more difficult to model.
.For further information please the click below:

                          

Physics Colloquium, Fri. Sept. 20, 4:30. PSB 161

Dr. Roy Choudhury
UCF Dept. of Mathematics

In this talk, we shall consider generalizations of the work of Bender and co-workers to derive new partially-integrable hierarchies of various PT -symmetric, nonlinear partial differential equations. The possible integrable members are identified employing the Painleve Test, a necessary but not sufficient integrability condition, and are indexed by the integer n, corresponding to the negative of the order of the dominant pole in the singular part of the Painleve expansion for the solution. For the PT -symmetric Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) family, as with some other hierarchies, the first or n = 1 equation fails the test, the n = 2 member corresponds to the regular KdV equation, while the remainder form an entirely new, possibly integrable, hierarchy. Typical integrability properties of the n = 3 and n = 4 members, including Backlund Transformations, a 'near-Lax Pair', and analytic solutions are derived. The solutions prove to be algebraic in form, and the extended homogeneous balance technique appears to be the most efficient in exposing the near-Lax Pair. If time permits, analogous results will be discussed for the PT symmetric (2+1) Burgers' and Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equations.



Contact:  Pat Korosec  407-823-2325

Thursday, September 12, 2013

EMPLOYER HOSTS NEEDED FOR UCF EXTERNSHIP/JOB SHADOW PROGRAM

HOSTS NEEDED FOR UCF EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM
The UCF Externship program has grown and is now offered during all three academic semesters (Summer, Winter, Spring). The online registration form (see link below) allows you the option to register for multiple programs at once, or register for one now and another later.
The purpose of the Externship Program is to give students an opportunity to explore specific career fields and industries while networking with local employers. We are currently in the process of recruiting companies within and outside of the Central Florida community to serve as host employers.  Companies participating in the externship program are able to brand their organization at the second largest university in the country while identifying top talent for possible internship or professional positions.
This free program is open to all majors and class levels and is a one day to five day (8 hours to 40 hours) job shadowing experience. Because you know your business, industry and organization best, you determine what types of experiences UCF student externs matched with your company will have, from hands-on activities to strictly observational options, and how long they will last. Also, you can choose to host multiple externs in various career focus areas.
For employers who are visiting the UCF Career Expo, participation in the Externship program is an avenue which allows employers to screen candidates and further interact with students who have made a positive impression at the Expo. There is a pre-select benefit available to visiting employers who would like to request a particular student(s) to host as an extern. To take advantage of this option, please fill out and return the pre-select form given to you by the Externship team.
The online registration form to participate in the Externship program will be active throughout the year. You can register now for both the Winter 2013 and Spring 2014 program or register for Winter 2013 now and Spring 2014 at a later date.
The established dates for each semester's externship programs are:
Winter 2013: December 16 - 20                                  Deadline to register: October 11, 2013
Spring 2014: March 3 - 7                                                                Deadline to register: January 30, 2014
Remember, there are no costs to participate in this program and the only paperwork required is the completion of a quick online registration form, found at:
 https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/EmployerExternshipRegistration13-14 .
Thank you in advance for your consideration. Career Services looks forward to working with you on this exciting and beneficial program. 
If your organization has already registered to host UCF externs for the above programs, an email confirming your participation has been sent to the listed point of contact.
If you have further questions regarding the Job Shadowing/Externship Program please contact myself or my assistant, Victoria De Stefano at 407-823-6689 or Victoria . DeStefano @ ucf . edu .
Sincerely,

Heather Engelking, Assistant Director                     

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Research Finds Florida SBDCs Continue to Have Substantial Impact on State's Economy


Media Release

Release Date: September 10, 2013


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Research Finds Florida SBDCs Continue to Have
Substantial Impact on State's Economy
47,845 jobs created, retained & saved at a cost of $112 per job
FSBDCN State Office: Fostering entrepreneurship and growing small businesses are the foundation for job creation and our state's economic vitality. As one of Florida's most important economic contributors, small businesses employ over 42 percent of the Florida's workforce and represent 98 percent of the state's firms. New research on small businesses in Florida validates this claim.

According to an independent study conducted by the Haas Center, Economic Impact of the Florida SBDC Business Development Activities on the Florida Economy 2013, the Florida SBDC Network program helped entrepreneurs create, retain and save a total of 47,845 direct and indirect jobs across the state at a significantly low cost of $112 per job to the Florida taxpayer.

"The SBDC's minimal per-job cost to the Florida taxpayer represents a significant departure from norm in an era when states and regions typically compete through their economic development organizations for jobs that cost the taxpayers several thousand dollars each," said Dr. Rod Lewis, Director of the Haas Center. "The Florida SBDC Network provides invaluable services to small businesses across the state of Florida."

These growing businesses increased sales by $6.3 billion, generated $215 million in state tax revenue, and contributed $3.9 billion to the state's economy as a result of the work of the Florida SBDC Network.

"The return on investment in the FSBDC program is substantial. For every $1 invested in the program, $40 is returned to the state in tax revenue," said Michael Myhre, State Director (Interim) of the Florida SBDC Network. "These results point to the importance of small businesses having access to the management and technical assistance they need to make sound business decisions."

The research also found that small businesses assisted by the FSBDCs are growing at a much faster rate than the average Florida firm, and that the FSBDC helps create high-skill, high-wage jobs in the state. Established manufacturing firms, for example, that received business consulting from the FSBDC saw a job growth of 9.2% compared to 1.7% growth for the average Florida manufacturing firm.

As the state-designated principal provider of small business assistance, the Florida SBDC Network serves the complex and diverse needs of entrepreneurs and businesses through no-cost professional consulting, value-added business training, and access to business data and information. Since its inception, the FSBDCs have served over 1.1 million entrepreneurs and small business owners and is the only statewide organization capable of providing business assistance through all stages of their business growth.
About the FSBDC Network

For over 35 years, the FSBDC Network has nourished a statewide partnership between higher education and economic development organizations, dedicated to providing emerging and established business owners with management and technical assistance, enabling overall growth and increased profitability for the businesses and economic prosperity for the state. A statewide service network of 41 centers with 60 outreach locations, the FSBDC Network is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration, hosted by the University of West Florida and accredited through the national Association of SBDCs. To learn more about the FSBDC Network or to find a SBDC near you, visit www.FloridaSBDC.org or call 1.866.737.7232.

In 2012, the Florida SBDCs served approximately 38,000 entrepreneurs and small business owners through consulting and training, resulting in 47,845 jobs created, retained and saved; $6.3 billion in sales growth; $235.2 million in capital accessed; $588.4 million in government contract awards; and 744 new businesses started.
State Office l UWF Office of Economic Development & Engagement
11000 University Pkwy, Bldg 38 l Pensacola, FL 32514
866.737.7232 or 850.473.7800 l www.FloridaSBDC.org

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

FSI seminar cancelled for the day

The scheduled seminar for the day is canceled. Next Wednesday September 11, 11:00-12:00 will be our next one. 

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Physics Colloquium - Dr. Michael Sigman, UCF, Fri., Sept. 6, 4:30, PSB 161

Tracking the Terrorists: Forensic Analysis of Explosives
Michael Sigman
Professor, Chemistry
Director, National Center for Forensic Science

Forensic analysis of post blast debris is complicated by the destructive nature of explosives.  The isomeric composition and presence of synthetic by-products can be important keys in identifying the possible origin of the material. Industrial and military explosives are often easier to identify than homemade explosives, and the homemade peroxide explosives are more difficult to study since they are not commercially available. This presentation will focus on research at the National Center for Forensic Science in the analysis of commercial explosives and peroxide explosives triacetone triperoxide (TATP), methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) and hexamethylene triperoxide diamine.  These peroxide explosive are popular with terrorists.