{"id":129578,"date":"2022-07-14T14:19:35","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T18:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=129578"},"modified":"2022-07-14T14:19:35","modified_gmt":"2022-07-14T18:19:35","slug":"ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Isabella Pardo has been recognized as one of the first 20 Optica Women Scholars in the world. The award supports women majoring in optics, physics, chemistry, math, or engineering who are pursuing careers in optics and photonics.<\/p>\n<p>Launched this past January, the program received more than 160 applications from 36 countries from both undergraduate and master\u2019s students. Students underwent a rigorous application process to compete for the $10,000 scholarship, professional development aid, mentorship, and a global network as they enter their prospective fields. The ten-year scholarship fund of over $2 million was established with contributions from ten $100,000 donors and a $1 million match from the foundation. Some sponsors included Google, NeoPhotonics, Intel and many others.<\/p>\n<p>For Pardo, the award is an example of what happens when you persevere. As a daughter of two immigrant parents, she has overcome many obstacles. When she was younger, her family faced financial hurdles, resulting in a move back to Colombia, where Pardo grew up. After graduating high school at the age of 16, she returned to the U.S. without her parents to pursue higher education.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have overcome language, cultural and financial barriers due to the passionate and hardworking mindset my parents instilled in me,\u201d Pardo says. \u201cI owe my determination, passion, and character to my family, to whom I am forever grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s that grit that has propelled her to pursue a bachelor\u2019s in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/degree\/photonic-science-and-engineering-bspse\/\">photonic science and engineering<\/a> with a minor in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/degree\/physics-minor\/\">physics<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/degree\/astronomy-minor\/\">astronomy<\/a>. Pardo has been excited by space research ever since she began at UCF, which explains her current research focuses on working in ray tracing simulations at different fuel levels, initial velocities, and initial accelerations to study the behavior of fuel in a fuel tank.<\/p>\n<p>This research is important because without gravity, it is challenging to accurately measure the fuel left in a spacecraft, which is one of the determinant factors of a mission. Pardo\u2019s research hopes to solve this problem and make space missions more efficient. Her ultimate goal is to develop an imaging-based fluid gauging system to improve fuel management in space.<\/p>\n<p>Although Pardo entered the application process on her own, it was the encouragement from Assistant Professor at <a href=\"https:\/\/creol.ucf.edu\/\">College of Optics and Photonics<\/a> and Director of <a href=\"https:\/\/creol.ucf.edu\/research\/research-groups\/oisl-lab\/\">Optical Imaging System Lab<\/a> Shuo \u201cSean\u201d Pang and current UCF doctoral student Andrew Klein who propelled her to finish the application process strong. She also thanks the multitudes of programs she\u2019s been a part of, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/mcnair.ucf.edu\/\">McNair Scholars<\/a> at UCF, VECTOR at Valencia College, the research groups at CREOL, the UCF <a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/physics\/\">Department of Physics<\/a> and the companies where she has interned. This achievement is a combination of the entirety of her experiences and wonderful people she has met along the way, she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel honored to receive this award,\u201d Pardo says. \u201cI am tremendously thankful for the overwhelming support from professors and students at CREOL that made this possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Optica Women Scholars scholarship will go toward reducing any financial barriers that may arise, allowing Pardo to focus on her academics and research during the remainder of her undergraduate journey at UCF. She plans to graduate in Spring 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STEM student Isabella Pardo is one of 20 recipients across the globe selected for the highly competitive optics and photonics award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":129581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,23,24],"tags":[364,982,1112,10899],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-129578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-research","category-science-technology","tag-astronomy","tag-college-of-sciences","tag-creol","tag-department-of-physics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"STEM student Isabella Pardo is one of 20 recipients across the globe selected for the highly competitive optics and photonics award.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"STEM student Isabella Pardo is one of 20 recipients across the globe selected for the highly competitive optics and photonics award.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-14T18:19:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Wells\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robert Wells\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Robert Wells\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/9512118dceafb8df4e29be3674361895\"},\"headline\":\"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-14T18:19:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/\"},\"wordCount\":528,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"astronomy\",\"College of Sciences\",\"CREOL\",\"Department of Physics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Colleges &amp; Campus\",\"Research\",\"Science &amp; Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2022\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/\",\"name\":\"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award | University of Central Florida News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-14T18:19:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/9512118dceafb8df4e29be3674361895\"},\"description\":\"STEM student Isabella Pardo is one of 20 recipients across the globe selected for the highly competitive optics and photonics award.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Isabella Pardo is pursuing a bachelor\u2019s in photonic science and engineering with a minor in physics and astronomy.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\",\"description\":\"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/9512118dceafb8df4e29be3674361895\",\"name\":\"Robert Wells\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/da6c5f5dad08c8318c0d4b3a62b8300d0b8a4eb7bc9674684eb34f58a4a8b1d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/da6c5f5dad08c8318c0d4b3a62b8300d0b8a4eb7bc9674684eb34f58a4a8b1d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Robert Wells\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/ro438467\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#local-main-organization-logo\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"University of Central Florida\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award | University of Central Florida News","description":"STEM student Isabella Pardo is one of 20 recipients across the globe selected for the highly competitive optics and photonics award.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award","og_description":"STEM student Isabella Pardo is one of 20 recipients across the globe selected for the highly competitive optics and photonics award.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/","og_site_name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF","article_published_time":"2022-07-14T18:19:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":800,"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Robert Wells","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UCF","twitter_site":"@UCF","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Robert Wells","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/"},"author":{"name":"Robert Wells","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/9512118dceafb8df4e29be3674361895"},"headline":"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award","datePublished":"2022-07-14T18:19:35+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/"},"wordCount":528,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg","keywords":["astronomy","College of Sciences","CREOL","Department of Physics"],"articleSection":["Colleges &amp; Campus","Research","Science &amp; Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2022","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/","name":"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award | University of Central Florida News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg","datePublished":"2022-07-14T18:19:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/9512118dceafb8df4e29be3674361895"},"description":"STEM student Isabella Pardo is one of 20 recipients across the globe selected for the highly competitive optics and photonics award.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web.jpg","width":1200,"height":800,"caption":"Isabella Pardo is pursuing a bachelor\u2019s in photonic science and engineering with a minor in physics and astronomy."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UCF Student Selected for International Optica Women Scholars Award"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","description":"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/9512118dceafb8df4e29be3674361895","name":"Robert Wells","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/da6c5f5dad08c8318c0d4b3a62b8300d0b8a4eb7bc9674684eb34f58a4a8b1d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/da6c5f5dad08c8318c0d4b3a62b8300d0b8a4eb7bc9674684eb34f58a4a8b1d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Robert Wells"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/ro438467\/"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-student-selected-for-international-optica-women-scholars-award\/#local-main-organization-logo","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"University of Central Florida"}]}},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2022\/07\/Pardo-lab-picture_for_web-300x200.jpg","primary_category":24,"primary_tag":1112,"author_byline":"Kissimmee Crum","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129578"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129583,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129578\/revisions\/129583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129578"},{"taxonomy":"tu_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tu_author?post=129578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}