Florida International University (FIU) will hold its fall commencement ceremonies from December 15 to 18, recognizing around 5,000 graduates. The ceremonies will take place at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center on FIU’s Modesto Maidique Campus in Miami.
This year’s graduates include individuals who have contributed to fields such as engineering, marine science, and digital storytelling. Among them is Olbin Gil, a mechanical engineering student who led the revival of a sustainable engineering club at FIU. He guided a team of 50 students to build an electric vehicle for the Shell Eco-marathon and collaborated with professional race teams and Cadillac engineers to improve race car aerodynamics. Gil also won a $25,000 prize from the Ford Tech for Social Impact Accelerator for his venture MangoClub, which connects local farms with restaurants. He has been recognized by the South Florida Business Journal as a Young Innovator and was invited to present at eMerge Americas. After graduation, he plans to focus on growing his businesses.
Frank Martinez, another graduate, is completing his degree in digital arts. He has developed three original video games with custom soundtracks and unique narrative structures for vintage consoles like NES and Gameboy. His latest project involves two interconnected games played on separate consoles, exploring innovative approaches to interactive storytelling. Martinez intends to continue creating retro-style games distributed through digital platforms.
Gabriel Hubner Lucchesi is graduating summa cum laude with a degree in computer science from the Honors College. He maintained a perfect GPA and completed internships at Google and NVIDIA. At Google, he improved YouTube’s spam detection systems by more than half, while at NVIDIA he worked on robotics systems managing thousands of GPUs. Lucchesi co-founded the FIU AI Society and mentored peers in ethical artificial intelligence research. He will join Google as a machine learning engineer after graduation.
Candace Fields is earning her PhD in biology with research focused on shark conservation. Her work has linked illegally fished oceanic whitetip sharks to the Hong Kong fin trade and informed global conservation efforts. Fields regularly appears as an expert on documentaries produced by National Geographic and other media outlets. She plans to return to The Bahamas after graduation to support marine policy and conservation efforts there.
FIU President Jeanette M. Nuñez stated: “This class of graduates reminds us that innovation takes many forms – whether it’s designing for the racetrack, protecting marine life, or rewriting the rules of digital storytelling,” adding: “Our FIU graduates are innovators, leaders, and problem-solvers who carry the spirit of FIU into every field – science, technology, the arts, and beyond. Their education has prepared them to think boldly, act with integrity, and create meaningful change. We are incredibly proud of their accomplishments and confident they will make a lasting impact on our world.”
All commencement ceremonies are scheduled at FIU’s main campus location.
