From pioneering new approaches to health and artificial intelligence to supporting entrepreneurs, showcasing student research and exploring the connections between physics and art, Florida State University’s fourth annual Discovery Days celebrated the breadth and promise of the university’s research and creative enterprise.
Held Oct. 17-24, the celebration drew more than 4,000 attendees to over 40 free events, inviting students, faculty, staff and community members to engage with research, creativity and innovation across campus.
“Discovery Days brings the energy of the work happening in our laboratories, studios and classrooms to the wider community,” said Vice President for Research Stacey S. Patterson. “Thank you to everyone who joined us to see firsthand how FSU research and creativity are changing lives and shaping a brighter future.”
Promoting health through research and outreach
The celebration opened in Gadsden County with the FSU Health Expo, where more than 90 vendors and exhibitors connected residents with health screenings, educational resources, research opportunities and other services.
Participants represented Florida State University, Florida A&M University, healthcare organizations, nonprofit agencies, local businesses and community partners from across the region, creating a welcoming event with resources for people of all ages.
That focus continued during “Blurry Lines: When Does Nutrition Become Medicine?” Marking the first anniversary of FSU’s Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health, or ICON-Health. The event explored connections among diet, chronic disease, lifestyle medicine and GLP-1 medications. The Arts-Humanities-Health Symposium further demonstrated the potential for research to create impact across disciplines.
ReliaQuest Day: Advancing cybersecurity through collaboration
One of Discovery Days’ largest collaborations unfolded when Tampa-based cybersecurity company ReliaQuest joined FSU for a daylong series of activities connecting students, researchers and industry professionals.
Events across campus during the “ReliaQuest takeover” gave students opportunities to meet employees, explore careers in cybersecurity and technology, and see demonstrations of the company’s security operations platform and its use of artificial intelligence to detect and respond to cyber threats.
Mike McPherson, senior vice president of security operations at ReliaQuest, also delivered a keynote address, discussing cybersecurity, industry partnerships and the importance of collaboration in responding to emerging cyber threats.
“Cybersecurity extends beyond technology. It’s people. It’s partnership,” McPherson said. “By doing this event, we are deepening our partnership with FSU.”
The partnership also fueled new ideas during “The Quest for What’s Next!,” where six teams competed for $100,000 in funding from ReliaQuest. FSU Department of Computer Science Assistant Professor Xian Mallory won the grand prize for Sage, a cybersecurity startup designed to protect personal data.
Boosting tech startups
The spirit of entrepreneurship continued at IGNITE Tallahassee on Oct. 21, where an open house and innovation expo introduced visitors to the region’s growing startup ecosystem and created opportunities to meet founders, innovation leaders and student entrepreneurs.
The open house brought university leaders, community partners, regional investors and student innovators together to show how the business incubator helps transform university research into commercial products and supports emerging technology companies across Florida’s Capital Region.
Later that day, the Herbert Wertheim College of Business hosted Discovery Challenge, a business pitch competition in which five FSU-affiliated startup founders presented their technologies to a panel of judges and a packed audience. Three companies shared $85,000 in funding, with Cryton Biosciences taking the $50,000 first-place prize, Radical Solutions Corp. receiving $25,000 for second place and Esperance Biotech earning the $10,000 Audience Choice Award.
“We’re hoping one day that our drug we’re developing will end up being a medicine that people can take,” said Cryton Biosciences co-founder Anosh Gomes. “Now, this $50,000 will allow us to do a number of key experiments that we need to do, so we can start working our way into taking our drug into human clinical trials.”
His presentation highlighted how mitochondrial dysfunction is often the root cause of many diseases. Cryton Biosciences is addressing this by stabilizing and restoring mitochondrial function, specifically focused on treatment for refractory metastatic colorectal cancer.
Student success and research support
Discovery Days also gave students and their research a prominent stage. The President’s Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence welcomed more than 800 attendees to explore summer research and creative projects by grant-supported students from multiple FSU research programs.
Students shared projects spanning a range of academic disciplines, from public health and international affairs to music and studio art. They examined everything from coral reefs and reptiles to the human brain and heart.
Across campus, the week offered researchers practical ways to build skills, expand collaborations and strengthen their work beyond individual disciplines. Programming included sessions on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, research compliance and research communication.
Amazon Web Services hosted workshops on AI agents and automation, unified data science and AI platforms, and coding tools designed to accelerate research workflows. Collaborative Collision: The Future of Intelligence brought researchers from across FSU together to explore how AI and emerging technologies could advance fields ranging from human health and smart cities to robotics.
Other programs examined how AI is changing human language, introduced students to quantum research at FSU and treated visitors to an up-close look at lab-grown crystals used in engineering research.
Discovery Days concluded Oct. 24 with a special Physics + Art edition of FSU’s Saturday Morning Physics program. At “Bubbles!” students and community members explored the physics behind an everyday phenomenon through demonstrations and hands-on creative activities — an energetic finale that united scientific inquiry, imagination and discovery.
To see the full list of this year’s events, visit discoverydays.fsu.edu.