UCF Student Creating Safer World Through Science
By Jen Cramer
As a vision scientist and triple Knight, Enilda Velazquez ’20 ’24MA is in her doctoral program, researching the complexity of human behavior and developing technologies that lead to better products, happier users and a safer world.
A Burnett Honors College graduate and a current student in the College of Sciences, she is studying human factors and cognitive psychology, a field focused on the interaction between people and technology or systems. Human Factors touches every area of modern life and has vast implications in fields like healthcare, aviation, workplace safety and the defense industry, which is Velazquez’s area of focus.
Here at UCF, she’s researching how people visually search for what they need in a complicated scene. For example, think about a battlefield, which is a highly complex environment. Imagine a soldier on a reconnaissance mission who is out in the field with a pair of binoculars, looking for someone, while that someone is also looking for him.
Human factors considers how to give the soldier the best chance of success, whether that means making the binoculars lighter, considering how that change may impact the sharpness of the image, or otherwise evaluating options and optimizing equipment to achieve a successful outcome.
Human Factors and the Defense Industry
In her work, Velazquez uses applied vision science, cognitive psychology, computational metrics and more.
“I’m absolutely fascinated by this work — but I didn’t even know this field existed until I found a human factors lab here at UCF,” Velazquez says. “Once I started there as an undergrad, I knew I’d found my passion, and my life’s work.”
And that’s partly because of its implications in the defense industry. Velazquez comes from a military family. Her father served as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, and her husband’s father was a Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force. Both of their mothers worked in the civilian side of the service.
When Velazquez was 10 years old, her father died in active duty. After that, her mother raised her on her own.
“Being able to protect the people who have protected me — who put their lives on the line for our country — that means everything to me,” Velazquez says. “It’s my way of continuing the work my father did, not by putting on a uniform, but by building what keeps people safe.”
Creating Her Own Legacy
During her undergraduate studies, in addition to earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and publishing her Honors Undergraduate Thesis, she added two minors: one in cognitive sciences and the other in intelligence and national security.
As a graduate student, Velazquez was accepted to the Department of Defense SMART Scholarship-for-Service Program. It includes summer internships for STEM students, plus civilian employment with the DOD after graduation.
During the application process, she was at a local simulation and training conference called I/ITSEC, where she met representatives from a DOD lab that was focused on human visual perception and optics, matching her area of doctoral research.
“I knew I’d found my dream lab. It was like the heavens opened up, and I knew these were my people,” Velazquez says.
She applied and was accepted to that Army lab in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Last summer, she did her first internship there. Once she graduates, she’ll start her career as a civilian research psychologist in that same lab.
“The SMART program has been life-changing. It has given me a path to the career I’ve always wanted,” Velazquez says. “My mom is very proud, and I know my dad would be too.”
UCF: Her Dream School
Velazquez, who grew up in Oviedo, says that UCF was always her dream school.
Today, she is a graduate researcher in the UCF Minds in Technology / Machines in Thought lab and has been a leader in UCF’s chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society industry organization.
“Looking back, UCF was the absolute best choice for me as an undergrad who was seeking to make her way,” she says. “And my graduate program here has been a transformative experience that has helped me find my mission in life.”
Velazquez was a featured speaker at UCF’s Go For Launch campaign liftoff, where she shared her inspirational story, demonstrating how education, support and opportunities to pursue her purpose have helped prepare her to lead research that makes a real impact.
Her story highlights why Go For Launch is so important: Investments in UCF fuel breakthroughs, support students and create world-changing impact. Students like Velazquez are not just imagining the future — they’re building it.
