UCF in the News

Staci M. Zavattaro is professor of public administration at UCF. She studies the public management of death. When I moved to Orlando 12 years ago, the hottest ticket in town wasn’t to one of our local theme parks or the latest restaurant. Instead, it was to hear Don Price tell stories under the moonlight at Greenwood Cemetery. As soon as the tickets for his free walking tours were released, people snapped them up just as quickly. When I finally got a chance to take my parents, I understood why.

The computers of the future may rely on more than the electrical charge carried by electrons. Researchers are increasingly interested in another fundamental electron property called spin, which could provide a new way to move and process information inside electronic devices. Conventional computers use the movement of electrical charge to handle data. If scientists can reliably control electron spin as well, they may be able to develop entirely new approaches to computing that operate faster and consume less energy. A research team led by UCF Professor of Physics Madhab Neupane has now identified a material that could help make that possible. Neupane and his collaborators found experimental evidence of altermagnetism, a recently recognized form of magnetism that combines useful features associated with two better known magnetic states: ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism.

A group of speech pathology graduate students are standing in front of a “patient." They listen as she tells them about the difficulties she’s encountered since returning to work after getting treatment for cancer. The “patient” is an interactive AI hologram speaking from within a lifelike holographic display, a device about the size of a refrigerator that creates the illusion of a 3D and life-size person. It’s all part of a pilot program at the University of Central Florida designed to utilize holographic AI avatars to help give students the experience of interacting with actual patients. Bari Hoffman, Associate Dean, Clinical Affairs and Healthcare Innovation, is leading this effort and is a proponent of hologram use in education. In 2024, she spoke with Tech & Learning about how holograms can provide lifelike lessons in STEM and other fields. The tools allow educators to “beam” in experts to speak in class, display intricate machinery, and provide more immersive examples of various kinds.

Dr. Alexander Cartwright is strengthening UCF’s role as a place where education, research and public-private partnerships produce practical results for Florida. In 2026, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement relocated its Orlando toxicology laboratory to UCF’s Academic Health Sciences Campus in Lake Nona. The laboratory processes approximately 10,000 cases annually and will give students greater access to internships, forensic experts and career opportunities while connecting FDLE with university researchers developing new drug-detection methods and analytical tools. “This partnership reflects what UCF was built to do — bring talent, technology and applied research together in service to Florida,” Cartwright said.

The University of Central Florida is expanding its space medicine program to train students in providing healthcare for astronauts during missions. "Space medicine is a relatively new field in the realm of things when you think about the history of medicine, which really started in the 1960s with the first humans flown into space," said Dr. Manny Urquieta, founder of the division of aerospace medicine at UCF.

The journey from a groundbreaking laboratory discovery to a commercially viable enterprise is fraught with complexity, often leaving promising innovations stranded in the gap between scientific validation and market reality. Researchers frequently find themselves ill-equipped to navigate the intricate landscape of customer validation, business model development, and capital acquisition. The University of Central Florida is addressing this critical bottleneck by leading a new $20 million National Science Foundation initiative designed to bridge this divide on a national scale. This effort represents a significant expansion of UCF’s decades-long commitment to transforming academic research into tangible economic impact for small businesses across the United States. The National Commercialization and Translation Institute, or NCTI, is a two-year pilot program specifically tailored to support late-stage federally funded technology companies.

Data centers have existed for decades. Every text message you send, credit card you swipe, show you stream, and prescription you pick up involves a data center. However, it’s the hyperscale data centers, more recently being developed to support AI, that are making headlines. In Florida, a large data center is defined as a facility with a peak load of 50 megawatts. For reference, the Nuclear Regulatory Division says one megawatt can power up to 1,000 homes. Data center neighbors worry about the burden on the electric grid. Professor Issa Batarseh teaches electrical and computer engineering at UCF and spent years working on power supplies for data centers. “When people demand, or submit requests, that galvanizes every tool available to AI to answer your questions, that’s a huge power pulse that could affect the grid,” he said. However, Batarseh is confident other fixes are coming. “They are pushing for that technology and you will see the press releases coming in,” he said of big tech companies.

A University of Central Florida researcher is advocating for federal recognition of a little-known condition that can follow patients home from the intensive care unit. Brian Peach, a researcher with the UCF College of Nursing, is among the group that formally proposed creating a specific diagnosis code for post-intensive care syndrome, or PICS. The proposal was presented to the federal ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee in March. The committee, co-chaired by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, reviews proposed changes to the nation’s medical coding system.

Univ of Central Florida has significantly expanded its premium inventory at Acrisure Bounce House, using a rebuilt Roth Tower to add more club seating, larger suites and outdoor options designed to generate revenue on game days and throughout the year. The project increased club space by 256%, from 4,400 square feet to 15,650 square feet, while adding 42% more club seating, 28 larger luxury suites and 34 outdoor Sky Suites. AECOM lead designer Brandon Liebst said generating revenue has become increasingly important for athletic departments as the economics of college sports shift, particularly with the growth of NIL. The existing Roth Tower offered limited premium space and variety, and Liebst said the goal of the project was to create a wider range of offerings at multiple price points. The expansion created larger suites, while the Sky Suites added private outdoor seating with food and beverage service.