UCF in the News

An asteroid that tore through the atmosphere over Germany in January was spinning faster than any other near-Earth object ever recorded, new research suggests. The space rock, dubbed 2024 BX1, turned into a fireball and exploded over Berlin in the early hours of Jan. 21. Although small asteroids on collision courses with Earth are typically detected only when they crash into the atmosphere, scientists spotted this one roughly three hours before impact. That's not the only way 2024 BX1 was unusual, according to a paper published to the preprint database arXiv on April 5. Researchers think the asteroid, which was traveling 31,000 mph (50,000 km/h), was rotating once every 2.6 seconds — the fastest spin ever seen for an asteroid. Previously, the record for the fastest-spinning asteroid belonged to a flying rock called 2020 HS7, which showed a rotation period of 2.99 seconds. That asteroid measured between 13 and 24 feet (4 to 8 meters) in diameter, which is slightly bigger than 2024 BX1 and may explain why the latter spun faster. Asteroids spin for several reasons, such as being propelled back into space after a collision. Because they are more compact, smaller asteroids tend to spin faster than larger ones. "They have internal strength, so they can rotate faster," lead author Maxime Devogèle, a physicist at the University of Central Florida who works with the European Space Agency, told New Scientist. Devogèle and his colleagues studied the rotational speeds of three asteroids, including 2024 BX1, using images they took as the objects approached Earth. The other two asteroids, 2023 CX1 and 2024 EF, were described based on close calls with our planet recorded on Feb. 13, 2023, and March 4, 2024, respectively.

Mara Skadden knew something was wrong when the leaves suddenly turned yellow. Hundreds of young mangrove trees at a Brevard County plant nursery that had looked healthy days earlier were droopy and weak. Within days, Skadden said, nearly 400 died. She contacted researchers at the University of Central Florida, who took samples in February. The culprit, their analysis found, was a cocktail of disease-causing fungi that scientists have identified in several countries across the globe, from Vietnam to Colombia. In 2019, researchers found the pathogen in Miami mangrove trees, the first known report in the United States. Now, scientists are finding trees infected with the fungi along the Indian River Lagoon on Florida’s east coast, according to Melissa Deinys, a University of Central Florida research assistant who specializes in mangrove infections. The pathogen may be more widespread than what current data shows because it can lie dormant in healthy trees. Deinys and her team have tested wild populations for the fungus species, and Florida’s wildlife agency said the university’s research team has found it in 80% of leaves tested in Southeast Florida. Deinys said she also has received pictures of plants from Venice and the Panhandle that look infected, and reports from Sarasota make her think it’s likely in the Tampa Bay area, too.

Orlando hospitals have seen the demand for travel nurses drop dramatically in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, during the height of the pandemic that first hit the region in 2020, Altamonte Springs-based AdventHealth hired more than 1,200 travel nurses in Osceola, Orange and Seminole counties. The University of Central Florida already has started construction on a new 90,000-square-foot Dr. Phillips Nursing Pavilion in Lake Nona which would allow it to expand the number of nursing students it graduates per year. The school would be able to graduate 150 more nurses annually than the roughly 260 it averages now. The Florida Legislature's budget for fiscal 2024-2025 increased funding for the Linking Industry to Nursing Education (LINE) program by $5 million, to total $30 million. The program provides funding to organizations like colleges that directly work with health systems. About $30 million was allocated for Florida’s Reimbursement Assistance for Medical Education (FRAME) Program, which provides student loan reimbursement and aims to direct medical professionals to underserved parts of the state. As of May 7, DeSantis has yet to sign the state's budget, so program funds may be subject to change.

John Madden‘s presence can be felt in almost every corner of the Electronic Arts building in Orlando’s Creative Village. From various posters papering the walls to a monolithic mural of the late NFL coach and legendary broadcaster in the central stairwell, Madden is as much a part of the 175,940-square-foot facility that houses EA Sports as it is in the DNA of his namesake video game, Madden NFL. While most gamers associate Madden NFL with EA SPORTS after it first debuted in 1996, it’s not the only video game the company produces. Major titles such as NBA Live, EA SPORTS PGA Tour, Madden NFL Mobile and NBA Live Mobile also are created and produced in Central Florida. However, one of the most anticipated returns to the market is that of the EA SPORTS College Football video game franchise. The latest game, College Football 25, is expected to debut this summer. The game means so much more for some of the 1,000 personnel at the EA Orlando studios. Many are UCF graduates of the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. Some people would be surprised by the school’s partnership with the athletic department as a living lab for the game. It’s about a 10-minute walk from the EA SPORTS offices in downtown Orlando to UCF’s Communication and Media building that houses the FIEA program. There, you can find the next generation of workers in the interactive entertainment industry.

As we stand at the threshold of a new era for Orlando, acknowledging the critical importance of transformational economic development is essential in shaping the trajectory of our region’s future. Our role at the Orlando Economic Partnership (OEP) is to serve as a convener and catalyst to advance the benefits of our region’s growth to everyone who lives, works, learns, and plays in the Orlando region. Orlando’s Creative Village fosters innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship, anchored by the University of Central Florida (UCF) Downtown campus and the Valencia College Downtown campus. This mixed-use development provides a collaborative space for students, researchers, startups, and established businesses, such as Electronic Arts, to coexist and thrive, creating a vibrant live-work-play environment in the heart of downtown Orlando. In Orange County, a recently announced partnership with Plug and Play Tech Center, a big player from Silicon Valley, is fostering collaboration, innovation, and opportunity with the creation of a startup accelerator program dedicated to advancing smart cities. Working with partners including UCF, Orange County government, Duke Energy and Tavistock, the opening of Plug and Play’s Orlando region office is a testament to our community’s commitment to building on the tech and innovation foundation in the Orlando region.

Partly because of semiconductors, electronic devices and systems become more advanced and sophisticated every day. That's why for decades researchers have studied ways to improve semiconductor compounds to influence how they carry electrical current. One approach is to use isotopes to change the physical, chemical and technological properties of materials. ORNL scientist Kai Xiao and the team, working with theorists Volodymyr Turkowski and Talat Rahman at the University of Central Florida, knew that the phonons, or crystal vibrations, must be scattering the excitons, or optical excitations, in unexpected ways in the confined dimensions of these ultrathin crystals. They discovered how this scattering shifts the optical bandgap to the red end of the light spectrum for heavier isotopes. "Optical bandgap" refers to the minimum amount of energy needed to make a material absorb or emit light. By adjusting the bandgap, researchers can make semiconductors absorb or emit different colors of light, and such tunability is essential for designing new devices.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson challenged the University of Central Florida’s class of 2024 to chase after lofty, ambitious goals and find their “moonshots.” “You know how to aim for the moon because this is America’s Space University. There’s no moonshot beyond your reach,” Nelson said at Addition Financial Arena. Nelson, a former Democratic U.S. Senator, gave the keynote speech during UCF commencement ceremonies Saturday. His speech went off smoothly at a time when many universities have pro-Palestine protests disrupting campus activities. UCF is expected to award about 9,800 degrees during the weekend graduation festivities, including nearly 3,000 in STEM fields. Nelson urged the graduating seniors to have the confidence and trust to pursue their big dreams and keep going when it’s hard as they pursue something “larger than any one person.” He compared the students’ quest to NASA’s work. “Space is challenging. Space is humbling. Space is hard. It requires us to dare to fail,” said Nelson who orbited the Earth in the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1986. “Your moonshot will be made of setbacks and small steps.”

For the simulation of the Fowl River flood, the Washington Post compiled data and reports to examine trends in reported flood events along the Gulf and Southeast Atlantic Coasts of the United States, The Post relied on the Storm Events Database compiled by the National Weather Service and maintained by the National Centers for Environmental Information. The Post also worked with Bret Webb, a coastal engineer at the University of South Alabama, to closely study the 2023 flood in the Fowl River region. A sophisticated river simulation Webb produced showed how higher seas would have turbocharged the flood, making it worse — with deeper waters covering a larger area for a longer time — than if the same event had occurred in an era of lower seas. The Post showed Webb’s work to sea level rise experts who backed the analysis and findings. Reviewers included Thomas Wahl, an expert on compound events at the University of Central Florida.

Nearly 400 Central Florida teen girls gathered at UCF Thursday for a tech summit meant to encourage them to pursue STEM careers.