Grants and Writing Resources for Florida Institute of Technology

In July 2026 the National Association of Collegiate Esports named a Florida Tech behavior analysis doctoral student its Scholar of the Year. The award recognized thesis research on precision teaching, a method built on timed practice, feedback and goal setting. Esports athletes trained with it made tactical decisions faster and more accurately, and the gains lasted.

Undergraduate Research Funding

Through the Guided Undergraduate Research Unit (GURU), undergraduates in the sciences, engineering, the humanities, the social sciences, media and aeronautics take on original research or creative work with a faculty mentor. Applicants must be full-time during the academic year the project runs. Each student commits at least 10 hours a week and files weekly progress reports, verified by the mentor, that log hours and tasks.

The Dr. Richard Lincoln Turner Endowed Research Fund in Biological Sciences supports undergraduate research in organismal, cell or molecular biology. Applicants send a proposal with an abstract, an introduction, project aims and a budget, and a committee picks the projects to fund. In October 2026 Florida Tech reported that two students had each received $1,658. One extracted DNA from dried shark jaw cartilage to identify the species. The other is studying how natural genetic variation affects a roundworm's resistance to an insecticide.

The Senior Design Showcase

Graduating seniors in science and engineering present their capstone projects at the Northrop Grumman Engineering & Science Student Design Showcase, the centerpiece of the Senior Design course. Teams answer questions from peers, faculty, industry professionals and local leaders. The Northrop Grumman Student Design Endowment pays for project materials and for the fees teams need to compete nationally.

The 2026 showcase produced 18 awards for 15 projects. Two President's Cups went out, one in science and one in engineering; the engineering cup went to a low-cost robotic arm that feeds people with motor impairments. Eleven disciplines had a Best in Show award apiece. In psychological sciences, the Honors College Award went to a study of how students with and without training recognize and report suspected child maltreatment.

Graduate Assistantships

Full-time, degree-seeking graduate students on the Melbourne campus can hold Graduate Student Assistantships with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better. Teaching assistants help faculty with lectures and labs, grading, office hours and tutoring. Research assistants work on sponsored faculty projects, often the ones tied to their theses or dissertations. Pay is hourly and tops out at $25.64 for master's students and $32.05 for doctoral students.

Doctoral research assistants can also receive a full tuition scholarship through the Doctoral Graduate Research Assistant Tuition Scholarship (DGRATS) program. They need a 3.2 GPA and a qualifying grant that includes tuition remission.

Academic departments also select exceptionally qualified graduate students for named scholarships and fellowships. The university's graduate funding page lists 20 of them as a representative sample. Some carry a field in the name, such as the Dr. James M. and Sara M. Ortega Fellowship in Astronomy or the Gertrude E. Skelly Fellowship in Marine and Environmental Systems.

Publishing Student Work

Kaleidoscope, Florida Tech's literary magazine, publishes short stories, poetry, photography and artwork. Undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff can all submit, and the magazine comes out at the end of the spring semester. Students on its staff work as editors, graphic artists and layout designers. Kaleidoscope is one of four student-run outlets governed by the Media Board, which also oversees The Crimson, the student newspaper.

The Evans Library no longer pays open access publishing fees. Its open access funding page sends requests for support to the department head first, then possibly to the college dean and the Office of Sponsored Programs, and warns that funds are limited and may run out. Agreements with some publishers waive the fees. Under the library's agreements for open access authors, Florida Tech affiliates publish open access in Cambridge University Press journals at no cost, and ACM waives its open access charges for Florida Tech corresponding authors.

Writing Help and Thesis Format

The Writers' Den meets undergraduates and graduate students online or in person, and its tutors help graduate and doctoral students with theses and dissertations. A session can deal with organization, sources, sentence structure or formatting. Each fall and spring the Den runs workshops, among them sessions on thesis construction and on APA and MLA style.

Before the defense, students email a draft to the Office of Graduate Programs for a format check. Later the office looks over the printed format in a 15- to 20-minute visit that needs no appointment. Quality control of the text rests with the student. The Evans Library's thesis formatting guide has Word and LaTeX templates, and librarians take appointments for help in either one. The archival copy goes into the Scholarship Repository, where it becomes the official record and is published open access.

Florida Tech's graduate office checks a thesis for format and leaves the quality of the text to its author, so a final edit for grammar and consistency belongs in the schedule before submission. See our Florida Institute of Technology thesis and dissertation editing and Florida Institute of Technology essay editing pages, or write to editors@editorsforstudents.com.

From Our Writing Guides

• The Results Chapter: Presenting Data with Forensic Clarity
• Writing the Abstract and Title: First Impressions Matter
• ESL Academic Writing: Overcoming Common Grammar Habits