$1.75 million gift to support USF student entrepreneurs<\/p>\n
TAMPA \u2013 The University of South Florida has received a gift of $1.75 million that will go toward the Nault Center for Entrepreneurship to benefit students pursuing innovative business ventures.<\/p>\n
The estate gift, from USF alums Andy and Eileen Hafer, will establish the Hafer Targeted Help for Rising Innovators and Venture Expansion (THRIVE) Entrepreneurship Program. The gift includes an endowed fund of $1 million to provide seed funding, coaching and educational resources. The balance will fund additional initiatives that strengthen the USF community.<\/p>\n
\u201cTHRIVE is about removing barriers and opening doors,\u201d USF President Moez Limayem said. \u201cAndy and Eileen have always had a heart for people \u2014 and for entrepreneurship. This gift bridges both. They also have a heart for USF, and we are grateful for their support.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Hafers both earned their bachelor\u2019s degrees from USF, with Andy also earning an MBA and a Doctor of Business Administration. A successful serial entrepreneur, he is a former executive director of the Nault Center, housed in the Muma College of Business, and has chaired its board since 2013.<\/p>\n
USF dementia brain training trial gets $2.8 million funding<\/p>\n
ST. PETERSBURG \u2014 An expansive clinical trial led by USF researchers and aimed at delaying the onset of dementia continues to receive major federal support for addressing a public health crisis.<\/p>\n
The Preventing Alzheimer\u2019s with Cognitive Training (PACT) study has received an additional $2.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to continue researching whether computerized brain training exercises can reduce the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease. The PACT study has now received more than $50 million in federal grant funding.<\/p>\n
The study began in 2020 at the University of South Florida and has now expanded to include 10 sites across the southeast U.S., including at Duke University, Clemson University and the University of Florida. It is the largest clinical trial of its kind, with 7,600 older adults enrolled from all key demographic groups to participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeveloping solutions to slow down and reduce dementia is a scientific priority for the federal government and within our society,\u201d said Jennifer O\u2019Brien, USF St. Petersburg associate professor of psychology and principal investigator of PACT. \u201cWith the Baby Boomer generation aging, we are seeing drastic increases in cognitive decline and dementia, further highlighting this critical public health problem that we need to address.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Alzheimer\u2019s Association, more than 55 million people worldwide are living with some form of dementia. More than 7 million Americans have Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n
Study participants are 65 or older with no signs of cognitive impairment or dementia. Participants began by taking part in two in-person visits to learn various brain training activities from researchers and staff. Then over the course of three years, they completed around 45 hours of computerized exercises in their own home. Participants are now returning for a third in-person study visit as a final assessment.<\/p>\n
The study is expected to conclude in January 2028, with initial results published by fall of that year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"$1.75 million gift to support USF student entrepreneurs TAMPA \u2013 The University of South Florida has received a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[276,199,135,137,136,3650],"class_list":["post-215569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-st-petersburg","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-university-of-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}