To complete the Biomedical Neuroscience concentration, students must complete, submit, and successfully defend their capstone project. This project is divided into six sections (chapters), each focusing on a featured study article that is pre-selected based on course content completed by the student.
Students will create the first and second capstone chapters within the structured environment of the capstone course (GMS 6910) and are expected to generate the materials for their remaining 4 project chapters independently throughout their tenure in the program.
Projects should be posted to a single, VoiceThread project shell created by the student and shared with all members of their graduate committee. The Program Director, Dr. Sue Semple-Rowland, and Co-Director, Dr. Jeremy Flint, will serve on the student’s supervisory committee, along with a teaching faculty member selected by the student. Supervisory committees will monitor student progress towards completion of the capstone project.
Prior to the start of the semester in which students intend to graduate, the student will notify their committee members that all six project chapters are completed and are ready to undergo editorial review. During the editorial review period, committee members will review the student’s project materials to judge whether each chapter adheres to the formatting, organizational, and content requirements of the capstone project. Provided that it does, students will receive written review notes on the changes that must be incorporated to their project prior to the submission of the capstone project for scientific review.
At the start of the semester in which students intend to graduate, they will complete Department paperwork of the intention to graduate and submit a degree application on one.uf. Failure to do so will delay your graduation until the following semester and result in the need to register and pay for additional coursework to meet enrolment requirements. While revising the capstone project, students should select a scientific defense date based on the availability of their full committee and reserve this specific date and time with the assistance of our Academic Coordinator. The UF Graduate School refers to this defense as the ‘Final Exam’.
All revisions based on the content of the editorial review must be completed no later than TWO WEEKS (14 days) prior to the student’s scheduled defense date. This 14-day span represents the duration of the scientific review period. During the first week of scientific review, committee members will post scientific questions on the student’s VoiceThread chapters as text-box uploads. During the second week of scientific review, the students will post answers to these scientific questions as text uploads on the same slides. These questions and the answers provided will be the primary content discussed during the live defense meeting that will be held over Zoom. Additionally, during the second week, students will be able to add slides to the end of the project (i.e., after the materials pertaining to chapter 6) containing any illustrative content needed to help explain concepts that are relevant to answering the scientific questions. These slides may include diagrams, data figures, complex formulas, or any other material required to address a specific scientific question. If students have any questions about the content of their scientific project reviews, they should email the instructor whose comments require clarification directly and as soon as possible to prevent delays in project or program completion.
During the defense, students will be evaluated on the content of their project and their ability to answer questions about the materials that they present. Following the student’s project defense, committee members will convene and decide whether or not the student successfully defended their project content and will issue a punch-card document via email detailing any remaining changes that must be completed by the student.
Required project edits indicated on the punch-card document must be reviewed for completion prior to receiving instructor approval and final sign-off of your graduation paperwork, so it is imperative that you complete these edits and notify your committee as soon as possible following your defense. After these final changes are made, the committee will sign the necessary paperwork indicating that the student has successfully passed the Final Exam Capstone Defense.