Research at Florida Tech

Dr. Carstens received her B.S. in business administration and her Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Central Florida and her MBA from Florida Tech. Dr. Carstens focuses her research on the optimization of human and system performance in terms of usability, safety and efficiency. She also has a background in information security research. Dr. Carstens was a NASA Kennedy Space Center employee for over ten years, working both in the field of project management and human factors research. As an engineer, her focus was to apply human factor principles to improve processes and systems affiliated with several KSC programs such as the shuttle, payloads, and future spaceport operations. 

Dr. Geoffrey Swain, who received his Ph.D. from Southampton University, UK, is a professor of oceanography and ocean engineering. With a background in oceanography and marine biology materials engineering, he teaches courses on marine corrosion, the protection of marine materials, engineering materials, introduction to ocean engineering and application of marine materials. Dr. Swain frequently consults fundamentals of offshore engineering with industry, state and federal agencies in the fields of corrosion and biofouling control. Prior to joining Florida Tech, he worked in the North Sea oil industry conducting corrosion and biofouling surveys on offshore structures. He also has extensive experience with designing and implementing hydrographic and marine resources studies. He truly brings a creative viewpoint to Florida Tech's oceanography program.

Dr. Jignya Patel earned her Ph.D. from the University of Memphis, and is now an Assistant Professor in the Information System program at the college of business here at Florida Tech. In the class you can find her keeping students engaged and active by giving dynamic presentations with tons of real world examples, occasionally using a flipped class room strategy, and by putting the students in “What would you do if you were the CIO of the company?” scenarios. Her research interests include both technical topics such as Software Testing and non-technical topics with managerial implications such as effective ways to integrate Information Technology into the workplace. She loves to keep herself updated on the industry’s most contemporary softwares and teach them to students to gain a competitive edge in the market upon graduation. Dr. Patel is currently actively involved in fully integrating SAP software in various courses of the information systems curriculum. Recently, she is investigating into using SAP to learn data analytics and other concepts related to analyzing big data.

Dr. Steven Lazarus is highly involved in the study of atmospheric sciences and is a member of the American Meteorological Society, the Florida Academy of Sciences and the Global Geophysical Union. Before coming to Florida Tech, Dr. Lazarus worked with Dr. Theodore Fujita, the creator of the Fujita Scale of tornado strength.  While pursuing his post-doctorate research at the University of Utah, he performed real-time weather analysis for the 2002 Winter Olympics that were held in nearby Salt Lake City. Dr. Lazarus is both an active reviewer and writer of research-based journal articles; to date, he has reviewed more than 20 articles and proposals to and published a dozen of his own in multiple journals. Some of his other areas of interest include climate change and hurricanes, coastal meteorology and terrestrial gamma ray flashes/thunderstorms. Dr. Lazarus is a adventurous professor with great insight about the field of meteorology. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Jessica L. Wildman (Wildones) earned her PhD from the University of Central Florida, and is now an Assistant Professor in the Industrial Organizational Psychology program and the Research Director of the Institute for Cross Cultural Management at Florida Tech. She is also the Vice President-Conference Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Network for Group Research. Her research and teaching interests include interpersonal trust dynamics, multicultural/global work issues, and teams in the workplace. Her awesome student research team, the Relationship and Interaction Optimization in Teams (RIOT) lab, has recently been studying how and why individuals in teams share leadership. Dr. Wildman has conducted organizational research for clients including the Office of Naval Research, NASA, and large multinational companies, and uses these experiences as engaging examples in her interactive, discussion-based classes. Dr. Wildman was also recently awarded an early career grant from the Army Research Institute to examine the development, violation, and repair of interpersonal trust across cultures. The RIOT lab regularly showcases their research via conferences, book chapters, and journal articles.