UCF in the News

UCF was one of nine Florida universities and colleges that has partnered up with Amazon to provide free tuition through its Career Choice program. All hourly, full- and part-time workers pursuing a bachelor’s, certification, English language proficiency, or high school completion program are eligible to apply. Dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies Theodorea Regina Berry says the program is just another way the university can support its working students and help foster economic growth. “And for many of the students who work for Amazon who might be first in their family to go to college, this would in fact have the opportunity to increase the social mobility of those students. And so we’re extremely excited about our ability to continue to provide that opportunity to those students.” Berry says it’s a win-win for both UCF and Amazon. “And professionally, I’m sure that is a benefit for Amazon and academically it certainly is a benefit to those prospective students. UCF intends to continue to collaborate with corporate and civic partners to prepare students to become workforce innovators, to become future leaders and to continue to be contributors to the community.”

Research into Florida sea turtles got a boost this week, thanks to the donation of a specially outfitted boat. Officials said a trio of donors donated the boat to the University of Central Florida’s Marine Turtle Research Group. The new boat will help the group continue its studies on the biology, ecology, behavior and conservation of sea turtles across all life stages, from eggs to adults. The boat replaces a 1976 craft reaching the end of its lifespan. Officials said the new boat is designed to enhance the team’s research and conservation capabilities, providing additional balancing and buoyancy along with features that will aid in interacting with sea turtles on the water. “The new boat is an essential tool for undergraduate and graduate research,” said Associate Professor Kate Mansfield, the director of the MTRG. “And we’re grateful to have a safe, sturdy and balanced boat that can handle our team, our heavy net, and the sea turtles we catch and release.”

A team of therapists at the University of Central Florida has been developing a new way to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder using virtual reality. UCF Psychology Professor Deborah Beidel is also the Executive Director of UCF Restores, a therapy center dedicated to changing the ways we diagnose and treat PTSD. Now, they’re using technology to develop a whole new method of treatment. “There’s no therapy that is going to erase that memory from them,” Beidel said. “What we can do is help them put that memory in a place in their long-term memory, like a filing cabinet, where it doesn’t dominate them every day.” Dr. Beidel and her team have been using virtual reality to treat PTSD since 2011, responding to tragedies like the shooting at Pulse Nightclub, and the collapse of a condominium building in Surfside. They’ve received multiple honors for their work, inspiring them to develop a new clinical trial, testing a system that allows Beidel’s team to build complex scenarios to focus their treatments for a variety of traumas, including assault victims and first responders. “We have developed a bar. We have developed a car fire…we have developed something that looks like a school. And then what we can do is just go back into the system and change the details,” Beidel explained.

This year, the Knights clinched the program’s first regular-season championship as members of the American Athletic Conference in dominant fashion , 74-39, over Cincinnati. It is the program’s first regular-season conference title in 17 years since UCF was part of the ASUN in 2005.

Americans have been feeling the pain of higher prices with the most recent inflation numbers at 7.5%. Though the crisis in Ukraine may feel a world away, economists project ramifications in the U.S., especially when it comes to gas. Dr. Axel Stock is a professor at the University of Central Florida and expert in supply chain management. Stock says 54% of what the U.S. imports from Russia is refined and crude oil. He says when that supply is decreased, the price on the world markets goes up.

In a galaxy not so far away (Florida, in fact), Disney will soon open its long-awaited, much-anticipated Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, the two-night cruise-like hotel experience that promises to gives uber fans a chance to live out their own Star Wars adventure. "I believe if this turns out to be something as successful or popular as Disney hopes, we're going to see this kind of experience translated into multiple different kinds of IP [intellectual property]," said Peter Weishar, professor and director of themed experience at the University of Central Florida. "This kind of thing has been done to some level with LARP or live-action role-playing, where you take a weekend or better part of a week and become a character, but never to this kind of extent or detail," he said.

Lack of hospital residencies is cited as a big reason for today’s doctor shortage. A Tallahassee hospital will soon offer residencies to medical students in the hope many of them will settle down in the Capital City, thus helping alleviate the local shortage. The initiative is being done in conjunction with the University of Central Florida, although hospital officials emphasize the program is open to students from other schools. Capital Regional Medical Center CEO Alan Keesee said the residencies, in the fields of psychiatry and dermatology, will get underway this summer.

As the world lessens its dependence on fossil fuels, industries and manufacturers are turning to lithium-ion batteries to power the machines that make modern life possible. These batteries power electric vehicles, mobile phones, drones, vacuum cleaning robots and other machines, and will be an essential component to the energy transition. But there's a problem with lithium-ion batteries: As they age and are charged, they develop dendrites. A research team from the University of Houston is trying to solve the dendrite problem by investigating how these structures grow on batteries. Authors on the paper include Huajun Tian, Zho Li and Yang Yang with the University of Central Florida.

Capital Regional Medical Center in Tallahassee has launched their first-ever Graduate Medical Residency Program in partnership with the University of Central Florida College of Medicine. The new program will train residents in dermatology and psychiatric medicine and is accredited by the Council of Graduate Medical Education. The psychiatric residency is the first and only program of its kind in the Big Bend region, according to CRMC.