Awards and Recognition

Faculty and staff

USA Gymnastics selected U’s Becky Ferraro as its 2020 Assistant Coach of the year.

UB was named one of the Best Online Bachelor’s in Dental Hygiene per onlineschoolsreport.com. (2020)

Students

Three UB student teams participated in the AIS Analytics Challenge in which two student submissions were accepted into the finals, and one won third place. Student participants included Trang Nguyen, Max Gbormittah, Krina Sanjay Shah, Sanjana Marasandra Rangaraj, Tahseen Ahmad, Peipei Wu, Anand Mahant, and Darshan Sheth (2020)

Three UB interior design students participated in the International Art & Design Competition and won scholarships towards master’s degree study at the prestigious Academia Riaci in Florence, Italy. Participants included seniors Ashley O’Donnell and Camilo Hernandez, and junior Hugo Faustin. (2020)

Faculty and staff

Michael Lohle, Ph.D., senior lecturer in the School of Business, received an award at the 59th International Association of Computer Information Systems (IACIS) Conference for Best Paper, Honorable Mention in the Pedagogy Category for an article published in their journal Issues in Information Systems. The article is titled “On Solid Ground: Testing a Theoretical Model For Student Team Project Delivery and Using it to Assess Student Team Crisis Management and Trust.”

Tarek Sobh, Ph.D., P.E., executive vice president for the University and dean of the College of Engineering, Business, and Education was awarded the prestigious 2019 IEEE Region 1 Technological Innovation (Academic) Award.

Chunjuan Nancy Wei, Ph.D. was invited by the UN to give a talk about U.S.-China relations (October 2019).

Omar Abuzaghleh, assistant professor of engineering and technology, received the third place prize award for his paper “Noninvasive Real-Time Automated Skin Lesion Analysis System for Melanoma Early Detection and Prevention” from the 2019 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Prize Paper Award selection committee.

Mark Pitcher, Ph.D., director of Health Sciences Inter-Professional Research, was the PI on the April 2019 paper, “Prevalence and profile of high-impact chronic pain in the United States,” that was recognized as one of the top 10 news stories of the year on the Pain Research Forum.

Students

Milkeera Brown (MS CPSC student), Michael Joseph (Ph.D. CPSE), Shawnoah Pollock (MS CPSC student), and Khaled Elleithy, Ph.D., associate vice president for Graduate Studies Research and associate dean of the College of Engineering, Business, and Education, won the best paper award for their paper, “Vulnerability Analysis and Modeling,” at the 10th IEEE UEMCON 2019 held at Columbia University. (October 2019)

Matheus Lima, a master’s student in electrical engineering, was one of six recipients of the Tri-State AAAEA 2019 Scholarship Awards. Since 2009, the Tri-State AAAEA has awarded over 60 scholarships to aspiring engineers and architects in recognition of academic excellence.

Melinda Delisle, fourth semester nutrition student, presented her poster and essay titled “Environmental Impact on Pre-Eclampsia and Potential Nutritional Interventions” at the American College of Nutrition annual conference in San Diego, CA. Her essay won a conference scholarship. (November 2019)

Alumni

Lindsay Christensen ’19 presented a research brief titled “The Applications of Personalized Nutrition in Lyme Disease Recovery” at the American College of Nutrition annual conference in San Diego, CA. (November 2019)

Faculty and staff

Elena Cahill, J.D., director of the Ernest C. Trefz School of Business, received the Entrepreneurial Innovation & Leadership Award at the Annual Women of Innovation event sponsored by The Connecticut Technology Council. Here is an excerpt from her nominator’s submission: “As an entrepreneur, attorney, and educator, Elena Cahill has helped hundreds of individuals create new businesses. She founded and is a past director of the Student Entrepreneur Center at University of Bridgeport and has been instrumental in the design and implementation of UB’s new Bauer Hall Innovation Center.”

The University took home three of four prestigious awards from the recent American Council on Education CT Women’s Network (CTAWN). See student awards for the third winner: Gladys Njeri Muturi.

Tarek Sobh, Ph.D., P.E., executive vice president for the University and dean of the College of Engineering, Business, and Education received the CTAWN 2019 Friend of Women in Higher Education Award. This award honors individuals who have distinguished themselves by creating opportunities for women to complete their higher education and/or pursue careers in higher education in the state of Connecticut.

Linda Paslov, Ed.D., director of administrative operations in School of Education, was the recipient of the CTAWN 2019 Emerging Leader Award. This award recognizes and honors a woman with at least five years of professional experience in higher education who has been a leader in the development and/or operation of an office, program, or service that has significantly advanced women’s learning and development in the state of Connecticut.

Mark Pitcher, Ph.D.., Director, Health Sciences Inter-Professional Research, was selected for a fellowship to join the 2019-20 Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship: Communicating Science & Improving Care Program.

University of Bridgeport is being recognized for Academy Curriculum Excellence in CCNA due to its contributions to the Cisco Networking Academy. The annual award is presented to one academy in each region for achieving excellence in teaching its curriculum. The Cisco Networking Academy program uses a rigorous process to select academies for this award based on student feedback scores and student performance.

Patricia Mulcahy-Ernt, Ph.D., was selected as a Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations (CLADEA) Fellow. Selection into the Fellowship represents the highest honor conferred upon professionals in learning assistance and developmental education.

Flo McPherson, ND, was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Institute of Homeopathy, the oldest medical association in the U.S. established in 1844.

Carol Papp, DNP, MS, RN-BC, Dean of the College of Health Sciences, is the recipient of the St. Anselm College (SAC) 2019 Health Service Alumni Award, which recognizes alumni or friends of the College for exceptional achievement in health care, research, practice, and/or health education.

Kelli Meyer, director of campus activities and civic engagement, was recognized by the Fairfield County Business Journal as a 2019 Fairfield 40 Under Forty winner.

Ruba Deeb, Ph.D., director of Biomedical Research Development and associate professor of Biomedical Engineering & Technology Management, was awarded a certificate from the Stratford Partnership for Youth and Families in recognition of Making Extraordinary Differences And Leading Stratford (MEDALS).

Students

Gladys Njeri Muturi, a UB graduate student, is one of two recipients of the CTAWN 2019 Graduate Student Scholarship. She received a $2,000 scholarship which supports a graduate student who has been accepted to or is currently enrolled in a graduate program in the state of Connecticut and whose academic interests are in the area of social justice or gender equality.

The American Council on Education also presented Gladys with a Woman Leader in Higher Education Award.

Diane Doodnauth, a first-year graduate student in the master’s program in Global Development & Peace, and Amy Siranaula, an International Business major, have been awarded Critical Language Scholarships (CLS) to study Korean in South Korea (the 10th and 11th CLS awards for UB). The CLS program, an intensive overseas language and cultural immersion program for American students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities, is sponsored by the U.S. Government. The CLS scholarship Program is highly competitive with only 10 percent of applicants becoming award recipients.

UB industrial design students Hong Fan (Nissan), Zhenyu Yang (Volvo), and Haocong Ye (AAA) in UB’s Shintaro Akatsu School of Design placed first, third, and fifth in the Design for Traffic Safety Competition at the New York International Auto Show in NYC, one of the biggest auto shows in the world with more than one million attendees. The students were awarded a total of $6,000 in prize money at the auto show’s World Traffic Safety Symposium. Richard Yelle, director of Shintaro Akatsu School of Design, served as the faculty advisor.

UB Biomedical Engineering students Pegi Haliti and Qi Wu, along with a high school student, placed third among undergraduate and graduate students from institutions in the Northeast at an American Society for Engineering Education competition. The competition included 60 research projects. Their project was titled “A Computational Approach for Cancer Invasion Manipulation through ECM Arrangement.” Bhushan Dharmadhikari, Ph.D., a post-doctoral teaching fellow, served as the advisor and Prabir Patra, Ph.D., chair of biomedical engineering, as co-advisor. Navarun Gupta, Ph.D., associate professor of electrical engineering, won the outstanding campus representative award for both section and zone.

UB’s Model UN delegation (12 students) won Outstanding Delegation, the highest award at the National Model United Nations conference in New York. The UB delegation was recognized at the conference’s closing ceremonies at the United Nations Headquarters. Approximately 300 schools competed from all over the world. This is the second time that UB has been recognized with this honor. Nancy Wei, Ph.D. and Miguel Arroyo serve as club advisors.

Newly minted Ed.D. graduate, Thomas Nobili, received the third place award for the best dissertation in the country, which was presented to him at the annual AERA (American Educational Research Association) convention in Toronto in April.

Three graphic design students swept the top three prizes in the “Branding Portfolio” contest at the Connecticut Business Competition and Entrepreneur Conference, held at Gateway Community College, New Haven. The student winners are Estefanic Medina, Weiyu Zhu, and Qiangying Niu. They were presented with a trophy and cash prizes.

Luanelly Iglesias, a 2002 graduate of the School of Education with a degree in Elementary Education, is the recipient of the George I. Sanchez Memorial Award. The award is given annually to an educator who promotes education for Hispanic children.