UCF in the News

Proebe Ybañez was the cool chemistry high school teacher leading interactive lessons with her students. Sayid Yasin made his living working as an IT consultant. On paper, perhaps the pair seemed unlikely to become part of the next generation of nurses in Central Florida. But Ybañez and Yasin both made radical shifts to change their careers. UCF administrator Jessica Simmons called the expedited degree “a great way for individuals who were not initially drawn to nursing to quickly begin a career in the field.” “We’re seeing the pandemic has inspired many to take an interest in health care professions,” said Simmons, assistant dean of students at the UCF College of Nursing. “It is incredibly important to offer as many entry points to a degree in nursing as possible to be able to graduate new nurses who are prepared to enter the workforce and help address the nursing shortage.”

A SpaceX Starship lander, as part of the Artemis 3 mission, will touchdown with the first people to walk on the moon since 1972 within one of 13 sites on the lunar South Pole, NASA announced Friday. After seeing the list of locations, planetary and lunar geologist Kerri Donaldson Hanna, with the University of Central Florida, said the regions are well-known within the lunar science community because they are areas where water ice will likely be. "The reason why these permanently shadowed regions are so tantalizing is that when we look at where we think water and water ice might be on the South Pole, it's in these permanently shadowed regions," Donaldson Hanna said. "They're some of the coldest places in the entire solar system."

Summer 2022 will officially be over for college students in Central Florida as UCF begins its fall semester on Monday morning. Many students are ready to get back to their studies. Others are ready to start their college experience. As the new academic year gets started, thousands are returning to the region, and school officials said by July, roughly 7,200 student housing beds on the main campus were already full.

As the sun rises on sea turtle nests across the Space Coast, biologists see new rays of hope. Many feared for the future of Florida's three most prominent types of endangered sea turtles — greens, loggers and leatherbacks — but this year evidence suggests they are rebounding. That's especially true along Brevard County's Space Coast, where astronauts launched to the moon and these prehistoric leviathans lay countless eggs. "Yes, generally, we have had a good season for leatherbacks (a new record, though the numbers are still low given we are at the northern range of where leatherbacks nest along our coastline)," wrote Kate Mansfield, associate professor at University of Central Florida.

Two experimental payloads built by college students were incorporated into a Rocketstar suborbital test flight the following month. Students at Brigham Young University and the University of Central Florida provided an experimental payload developed by TriSept Corp. Built into a 10-meter-tall cowbell rocket by RocketStar, based in New York. The UCF payload is intended to simulate asteroid particle activity during suborbital flight. Students who have flown similar payloads on the International Space Station are using their device to study particle collisions. Students at the BYU College of Engineering provided a suite of sensors for measuring motion, acceleration, and vibration onboard the rocket.

Orlando has the most sophisticated wrong-way detection system of its kind in the U.S. Professor Haitham al-Deek at UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science was an expert in transportation research. Together with his engineering students, they proposed a comprehensive system.

The Rosen College of Hospitality within the University of Central Florida has been recognized once again. The school was ranked top five worldwide in the ShanghaiRankings’ 2022 list, which includes 500 top universities. This is the third time Rosen College’s hospitality program was ranked No. 1 in the nation and among the top five in the world.

“Everyone deserves the chance to play" was much more than just a motto on a T-shirt for the participants at the University of Central Florida’s inaugural Adaptive Tennis Day this spring. Hosted at no cost by the UCF Recreation & Wellness Center on May 31, participants of all ages and abilities joined volunteers to share in the joys of tennis. Dr. Jill Fjelstul, an associate professor at the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management and founder of the non-profit Champions at Play, Inc., organized the event with the goal of providing a fun and memorable experience for all involved—having seen first-hand in her own family the positive impact that sports can have on individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Climbing boulders and rolling through quicksand-like conditions, NASA’s latest lunar rover is getting ready to take on the alien terrain of the moon. For now, it’s passing tests in Cleveland, Ohio at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Recently, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) prototype passed its test of conquering a lunar obstacle course, NASA said Tuesday. And while the rover tests from afar, VIPER is getting some assistance in preparation thanks to the University of Central Florida, which sold NASA lunar simulated rocks from its Exolith Lab. UCF’s lab, which is managed a mile north of its main campus, produces alien-simulated soil imitating properties found on the moon, Mars and other celestial bodies.