FAU

A small group of researchers at Florida Atlantic University is developing a small device that could help detect the Zika virus within just a few minutes and at a very low cost that could be available for use as early as next summer. 

Florida has the highest number of Zika-related cases--with Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County being among the most affected. The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention listed 5,040 virus cases in the United States in the last two years and 1,069 were in Florida. The majority of the cases reported were travel-related.

Florida Atlantic University just got the biggest grant in the school's history to build a new athletics facility to help its football team grow.

The new building, which will be called The Complex, will have a sports medicine center, a history and tradition hall, an academic center nearby and an indoor practice field.

The Schmidt Family Foundation is giving an initial $16 million to build The Complex.

Florida Atlantic University has started a collaborative project to bring South Florida tech entrepreneurs' businesses to life.

Few people walk down Sistrunk Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, and cars simply drive through the nearly deserted corridor.

Among old warehouses, an “unsafe building” sign marks a foreclosed plumbing store between a church and a convenience store.

But that abandoned building will soon become a living lab. Florida Atlantic University and Fort Lauderdale are partnering to create a studio for urban agriculture, structural investigations and art installations.  

To keep up with the demand for STEM-related jobs, South Florida's universities are coming up with programs to help prepare their future graduates.

One of them is Discovery Though Distinction, a new effort at Florida Atlantic University to incorporate research in undergraduate programs.

The school is also planning to offer an accelerated master's degree that would take just five years.

"Our goal is to help train a very prepared workforce," says vice president of academic affairs Gary Perry. "As a university, we are part of the economic development of Florida."

Florida Atlantic University has struggled recently with low graduation rates. To improve these numbers, the school is starting the JumpStart program, a college boot camp for students who might look like risky bets for graduating.

JumpStart grants students a conditional acceptance. They take two or three regular courses, and those who do well are officially accepted into the school.

Those who don’t make the grade get the experience, and their less-than-stellar GPA doesn’t follow them or FAU around.