{"id":145893,"date":"2025-04-01T13:00:51","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=145893"},"modified":"2025-04-23T10:38:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T14:38:46","slug":"meet-ucfs-2025-pegasus-professors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/meet-ucfs-2025-pegasus-professors\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet UCF\u2019s 2025 Pegasus Professors"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, three faculty members will join an exclusive group in earning UCF\u2019s highest honor \u2014 the Pegasus Professor award \u2014 during Founders\u2019 Day. UCF\u2019s president and provost select the annual honorees based on their global excellence in teaching, research and service.<\/p>\n

Roger Azevedo is converting psychology theories into life-like models. Fevzi Okumus personifies the meaning of hospitality. Yan Solihin continues to build a force in cybersecurity education and training.<\/p>\n

The uncommon drive of these three professors comes from childhoods spent in war-torn Angola, in a small village in Turkey and in one of the poorest areas of Indonesia. Each will receive $5,000 and have his picture displayed in front of the John C. Hitt Library. The UCF community is invited to celebrate these professors and additional honorees during the Founder\u2019s Day Faculty Honors Celebration on Wednesday, April 2, in the Student Union Pegasus Ballroom.<\/p>\n

For now, meet the UCF Pegasus Professors for 2025:<\/p>\n

Roger Azevedo<\/h2>\n

Professor, School of Modeling Simulation and Training
\nLead scientist and co-cluster lead, Learning Sciences faculty cluster initiative
\nDirector, SMART Lab
\nFew people know:<\/strong> His dream as a kid was to move to Japan and become a ninja. It didn\u2019t happen, but he did earn a black belt in Shaolin white crane kung fu. \u201cThe determination I use in physical training is the same determination I use as a scientist,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be a good April for Roger Azevedo. Three weeks after accepting his honor as a Pegasus Professor, he\u2019ll fly to Denver to be recognized as a fellow with American Educational Research Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s humbling,\u201d Azevedo says.<\/p>\n

Those two words are not a copy and paste acceptance phrase, even for the man who\u2019s already received prestigious awards from the American Psychological Association and U.S. National Science Foundation for his progress in developing artificial agents that embody psychological principles of learning, reasoning and problem solving to augment human knowledge and skills in K-12, healthcare and workforce development. Azevedo\u2019s students sense a deep personal meaning every time he uses variations of the word \u201chumbling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lead with humility. Stay humble. <\/em>They fuel his work every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never forget where I came from,\u201d Azevedo says, \u201cbecause I\u2019ve learned everything can be taken from you in the blink of an eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Azevedo spent the first eight years of his life in the middle of a civil war in the African nation of Angola. Any remembrances of hobbies were blotted out by memories of the all-day, all-night sounds of mortal shells and bullets. To avoid sniper fire, his family would eat dinner on the floor of their small home with the lights turned off. Uncles, aunts and cousins vanished. Azevedo went to elementary school with the help of armed escorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were more concerned about survival than education,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He vividly remembers his family being ushered to an airport in the middle of the night and landing the next day in Montreal, with just the clothes on their backs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe left everything behind,\u201d he says, \u201cbut wow, even at that age I was thankful to have a second chance. Being an immigrant was not easy for us. The memory motivates me to be the role model that I didn\u2019t have for most of my academic life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Azevedo\u2019s mother only completed fourth grade before she had to start working. His father made it through high school. Once in Canada, they eventually scrabbled enough money together to buy World Book Encyclopedias<\/em>. That\u2019s when Azevedo discovered his insatiable appetite for learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could have thought, \u2018Well, I\u2019m just glad to be alive,\u2019 and taken a job in labor. But I wanted to go against the grain. I\u2019m still like that. While other kids were watching TV, I was reading. My parents said if I wanted to go to college, I\u2019d have to figure it out, which was fine. I gladly worked three jobs to pay my own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along that way, Azevedo  took an Introduction to Psychology<\/em> class and fell in love with the study of human behavior. He had an urge, however, to the theories into realms where they\u2019d never been taken. Through modeling and simulation, he could help students become better learners, clinicians become more accurate diagnosticians, teachers and faculty understand their students\u2019 learning needs in real-time, and professionals working in high-stress environments perform to the best of the capabilities. Azevedo\u2019s curiosity opened doors to universities and conferences around the world until he entered into a conversation while visiting and presenting at UCF before the Learning Sciences faculty cluster initiative officially announced openings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people here weren\u2019t just talking about using psychology in interdisciplinary research, they embodied the spirit of interdisciplinary research,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, I accepted a position and started working with learning sciences and psychology students alongside computer scientists and engineers and various stakeholders to create intelligent systems to augment and support human capabilities and test their effectiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are now designing generative artificial intelligence-driven pedagogical agents to support learners\u2019 thinking about thinking processes (such as metacognitive),  building empathetic digital twins to be empathetic, so practitioners will be better equipped to help children and adults coping with end-of-life situations and other health challenges. Azevedo considers every aspect of his work a privilege, which rubs off on his students and postdoctoral scholars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they share my excitement, I feel like a blacksmith with pieces of metal. I inject oxygen, fan the flames, delicately and progressively shape the metal, and turn them into swords,\u201d  Azevedo says.<\/p>\n

He pauses to briefly remind anyone listening, including himself, why he will move mountains for his students.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven my background, this is all a pipedream \u2014 earning a Ph.D. at an Ivy League school such as McGill [University], pursuing postdoctoral studies in cognitive psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, teaching across North America and other places in the world, and turning psychological theories into impactful, intelligent technological systems to benefit humans and society. I\u2019m still just an immigrant kid who was lucky to survive. That\u2019s why I\u2019ll do anything in my power to make sure all of my students have whatever they need to be successful, including the love of learning, spirit of innovation, intellectual curiosity, and the desire to use technology to benefit humans and society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fevzi Okumus<\/h2>\n

Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association Preeminent Chair Professor
\nFounding chair of the hospitality services department at the Rosen College of Hospitality Management
\nEditor-in-chief of the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
\n<\/em>Few People Know<\/strong>: He\u2019s traveled to more than 60 countries and has a goal of visiting at least 100. His favorite spots? The Maldives for location. The Azores for experiences. The Taj Mahal for human-made wonder. \u201cBut Turkey will always be a special place to visit and let my daughters see my humble beginnings,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Fevzi Okumus is passionate about teaching, research and working with industry partners. He teaches and works on research in the areas of strategic management, leadership and hospitality management. Okumus was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2021; 2022; 2023 and 2024 by Clarivate. But he calls himself an \u201cacademic entrepreneur\u201d more than a teacher and researcher as he loves working on new initiatives. He can\u2019t separate the academic whose influence has helped catapult UCF\u2019s Rosen College of Hospitality Management to No. 1 in the world for five straight years from the entrepreneur who dreams of opening his own hotel someday.<\/p>\n

He personifies hospitality from classrooms to hospitality settings, with a perpetual smile and an innate desire to serve others.<\/p>\n

\u201cHospitality is about making people happy and offering positive memorable experiences,\u201d Okumus says. \u201cIt\u2019s a good fit for me as a teacher, too. I want my students to know the joy of reaching the highest standards of excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the founding chair of hospitality services at the Rosen College, Okumus has mentored and worked with more than half of the faculty members. He is very proud that Rosen College has an unheard-of job placement rate of over 90%. Graduates are raising the hospitality bar around the world, with many of them securing management positions within a few years of being hired. Alumni of the Rosen College are also taking research skills to universities around the country and adding to the home-grown faculty talent at UCF. As if all of this isn\u2019t enough to fill Okumus\u2019s calendar, he\u2019s also the editor-in-chief of three well-known hospitality and tourism journals. He is the founding editor of two of them. In summers, Okumus co-lead hospitality camps to train high school students with disabilities for employment.<\/p>\n

His smile never fades. Neither does his purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is more important to me than serving and making a positive impact. It\u2019s why I enjoy my work so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okumus first learned hospitality from growing up in a small village near Bolu, Turkey, where yesterday\u2019s strangers became today\u2019s friends over home-cooked meals. As a teenager one summer, he visited Lake Abant and saw something he\u2019d never seen: tourists. They looked different and were speaking different languages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to know more about where these people came from, the hotels where they stayed, and what made them happy,\u201d Okumus says.<\/p>\n

He enrolled in a vocational high school to learn hospitality concepts and he worked different hotel jobs possible to apply his skills: cooking, bartending, cleaning, running front desks and managing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found out in every role that you excelled by solving problems and making the guest experience better,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Okumus thought he would use his growing knowledge that spanned all the way to a doctoral degree. He lived and worked around Europe and Asia working on research projects and teaching future managers at colleges. When he was invited to the Rosen College for a job interview in early 2005, he saw the state-of-the-art campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had just opened,\u201d he says, \u201cI called my wife in Hong Kong and said, \u2018This is where we need to be.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

One year after coming to the Rosen College, Okumus was promoted to associate professor and chosen to be the founding chair of the hospitality services department. Today, the college is known worldwide as the template of hospitality training with more than 2,000 undergraduates and 300 graduate students. Okumus becomes the first Rosen College faculty member to earn the Pegasus Professor distinction, in part because he exemplifies his own objective in hospitality.<\/p>\n

\u201cLove and excel what you do and offer memorable experiences through serving,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Graduates often reconnect with Okumus to thank him for impacting their lives. One, now the manager of a restaurant, told Okumus how his mentorship at UCF helped him overcome homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know what types of challenges each student might be facing,\u201d Okumus says. \u201cIt\u2019s another reason to have a servant leadership mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yan Solihin<\/h2>\n

Professor and director of the cyber security and privacy program
\nCharles N. Millican Chair Professor of Computer Science
\nFew People Know: <\/strong>His past hobbies have ranged from collecting insects around his home to learning how to play guitar. \u201cMy favorite is listening to Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits play his guitar in Sultans of Swing<\/em>,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

To this day, Yan Solihin doesn\u2019t know how his parents were able to buy a computer when he was growing up in Indonesia. He has no doubt, however, that the first time he turned on a PC it began to radically change his future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being astonished at what could be done on that single device,\u201d Solihin says.<\/p>\n

With the unexpected introduction to technology, Solihin wrote his first program at the age of 10 \u2014 a game where the computer generated random numbers for players to guess. The game piqued his curiosity about how a computer could possibly generate random numbers and if they really were random at all. Those questions pulled him into cryptography, an area where computer science and math converge, and computer security. After nearly two decades of teaching and researching (including time with the U.S. National Science Foundation), Solihin came to UCF in 2018, where he\u2019s launched two labs while guiding the university\u2019s growth into a prominent hub of cyber security and privacy research and education.<\/p>\n

The latest recipient of the Pegasus Professor honor has never stopped marveling at the power of computing. It\u2019s just that the stakes are higher today than when he was typing words and creating games as a curious boy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a long way to go to meet the need for more cybersecurity professionals,\u201d he says. \u201cWitness the frequency of cyberattacks. Many organizations are short staffed to handle them. That\u2019s why I came to UCF with its young spirit and open attitude to new ideas. Our goal since I arrived is to be one of the best places in the world for cybersecurity and privacy research and education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solihin has overseen a quadrupling in the number of faculty members specializing in cyber security, with more than 150 students now enrolled in the master\u2019s in cyber security and privacy and 100 enrolled in the master\u2019s in digital forensics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most exciting aspect of my job is mentoring and teaching. I feel like I\u2019m taking students through a journey of exploration and discovery. It\u2019s deeply fulfilling to instill a sense of awe,\u201d Solihin says.<\/p>\n

Their awe connects him back to Indonesia, to his childhood home reachable only by foot or bicycle, where water had to be drawn from a well with a bucket and the walls were made of thin bamboo weaves. Solihin will never forget where his future began or the wisdom of his father, who sacrificed so much for that first computer: \u201cEducation is the only means out of poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took time for those words to sink in,\u201d Solihin says, \u201cbut they have guided everything I\u2019ve done in my professional life.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this backdrop, you can understand why Solihin believes students with the same kind of drive can provide the energy to grow \u201ca national powerhouse\u201d in cyber security and privacy education at UCF. You also realize why he says three factors motivate him whenever he wakes up.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor one, I believe in stewardship \u2014 leaving whomever or whatever I am entrusted in a better place. I also consider it a blessing that I\u2019m paid to do what I really like because not everyone can say that. And finally, the adventure of identifying problems and thinking of solutions makes every day exciting. To come from my childhood to where I am now, it still gives me a sense of amazement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recipients of UCF\u2019s most prestigious faculty honor use their inspiring backgrounds to make impacts in the fields of psychology, hospitality and 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