Faculty Mentor 15-Year-Old to International Paper Presentation
– Florida Tech faculty have long been proud of giving undergraduates the opportunity to do research. Now that pride swells further with the coaching of a
tenth grader to produce a research paper that he was invited to present at an international conference.
Fifteen-year old Jason D’Cruz, a tenth grader in the International Baccalaureate program at the Cocoa Beach Junior/Senior High School in Cocoa Beach, will
present his paper based on his stock-forecasting research project, at the Indian International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Pune, India, Dec
20-22, 2005.
Jason has conducted stock market-related science research for the past three years, with assistance from Florida Tech faculty advisors. One of these
mentors, Dr. Muzaffar Shaikh, professor and head of the Department of Engineering Systems, co-authored the
paper and guided him in design of experiments methodology.
The paper, “Using Chaos and Complexity Theory and the Design of Experiments to Forecast Stock Prices – Tools of Artificial Intelligence,” was selected for
presentation for two reasons, said Shaikh. “It was chosen because of its radically different approach to forecasting next-day stock prices and the high
level of accuracy resulting from the method.”
Shaikh, Dr. John Hadgilogiou and Dr. “Mani” Subramanian, College of Engineering faculty; and Dr. Ralph Turingan and Dr.
Charles Polson, biological sciences faculty, are among several instructors who support an informal science and engineering outreach with Brevard Schools.
They coach student science projects and judge the project competitions. They also invite award-winning students to exhibit alongside university
upperclassmen in the annual student project exhibit in the Clemente Center.
Kyla Horne, of Cocoa Beach Junior/Senior High, worked with Polson and qualified for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (IISEF) in 2005.
Shiv Gaglani, a senior at West Shore High School, is currently enrolled in Florida Tech’s Systems Engineering Entrepreneurship course, taught by Dr. Carmo
D’Cruz. He is a two-time IISEF finalist and winner of the prestigious National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Award.
Jason is the son of Dr. Carmo D’Cruz and Sandra D’Cruz, CPA, of Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.
