Mankind has always had a fascination with space, and as Mars 2020 approaches, Polk County is playing an ever-increasing role in the high-tech aerospace industry. Some of the county’s involvement stems from Florida Polytechnic University, where a 14-member team is working with the Florida Space Institute on a capstone project to build a Mars rover. […]
Polk County Public School graduate, Riley McDanal, likes to figure out why people think and act the way they do, a trait that’s led her to follow in her mother’s footsteps and major in Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. McDanal is being profiled as part of a series on students who attended Polk […]
Seeing a need for more sports facilities in Polk County, Garrett Kenny, CEO of Feltrim Group, decided to get in the game. Now, he’s hitting it out of the park as the company gets ready to open the Feltrim Sports Village in Haines City. Kenny said work on the village was moving at a brisk […]
Polk County’s Fort Meade is working its way to a new vision, thanks to a $40,000 Competitive Florida Partnership Program Grant. Fort Meade is one of six small rural communities to receive the award based on their economic need and community support for their partnership with the state Department of Economic Opportunity. According to the […]
As more people turn to alternative forms of medicine to cure their aching back or recover from surgery, physical therapists are in more demand now than ever. Florida Southern College is helping train the physical therapists of the future through its new Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program, which started in the Fall 2019 semester. […]
Lakeland Regional Health, with support from the City of Lakeland, is planning to construct a three-building, 96-bed center to better serve the behavioral health inpatient and outpatient needs of the Polk County community. The $46 million Center for Behavioral Health & Wellness will be built near Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center and will treat adults […]
For Brittany Tillman, her path to math all started at Lincoln Avenue Academy and Lawton Chiles Middle Academy in Lakeland, both magnet schools that focus on science, technology, engineering and math. “They provided me with early exposure to STEM topics as well as continuing to foster my interest in the math and sciences as I […]
As the nation struggles to train enough cybersecurity experts and analysts to fill a shortage that has grown by 50% since 2015, four Polk County colleges are offering courses and degrees to help prepare students for this growing field. In the next two years, about half a million cybersecurity jobs will remain unfilled, according to […]
The Central Florida Development Council team was recently featured in the Faces of Orlando feature in Orlando Magazine: As Polk County continues to grow and diversify, the Central Florida Development Council is engaging stakeholders to join the ride into the future. Leading the way toward developing the high-tech Central Florida Innovation District, anchored by SunTrax […]
A researcher at Florida Polytechnic University is working on the cutting edge of Android technology as he and a group of peers try to stymie criminals before they create a new kind of malware. Karim Elish, an assistant professor of Computer Science, started working on Android security when attending Virginia Tech for his Doctorate, which […]