UCF in the News

Matt Winstel went from uninterested in going to college directly after high school, to serving in the Navy, and finding meaningful work ... at a university. Not sure what to do after high school, Winstel and a friend joined the U.S. Navy on the buddy program and "the rest was 26 years of Naval lore," Winstel said. A trip to visit family in Orlando turned out to be fortuitous when a friend brought him to the UCF campus in 2018. It just happened to be the day ESPN was set up on the Memory Mall for College Gameday during the school’s undefeated football season. “I walked around the campus and I got lost, and I fell in love with this place,” Winstel said. “I went back to California, was having a frustrating day and I simply did a search for UCF jobs and six months later I was on campus.” Winstel is now the Lead School Certifying Official at UCF, a job that lined up well with his experience as a pay and personnel specialist in the Navy. If a student wants to use their V.A. education benefits, they’ll come through the Military & Veteran Success Center where he has an office.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida are using new technology they developed to inspect our infrastructure. Officials said artificial intelligence and virtual reality could one day play a role in monitoring structures. Researchers said they are working to help ensure roads and structures are safe. Necati Catbas is an engineering professor at UCF and has worked with students and colleagues for years to develop new technologies to assess the health of aging structures. “We are not just doing this for the sake of exploring technology, but there’s a really national need for better managing our infrastructure,” Catbas said. Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers releases a report card for America’s infrastructure. The 2021 results were a “C.” “Not only bridges and buildings but everything energy systems, the ports, levees, roads, rail, all of those,” Catbas said. Catbas believes the new technologies will make a major impact. The first development involves stationing cameras and sensors on and around a structure to monitor the site and continuously collect data on wear and tear. They also developed a way to use virtual and augmented reality to analyze from afar in the case of a hurricane or other natural disaster.

The University of Central Florida received a $6 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday. The school was the only one in the state to receive the money aimed at, “full-service community schools.” The money can be used to expand access to health services on campus, and support engagement and community partnerships in the Orlando area. That could look like nutrition assistance, mental health services, early-childhood education, and access to after-school summer learning and enrichment programs. Studies have shown that students do better in school, have better attendance and are more emotionally present when their whole-body needs are met. In a statement U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said, “These new investments support what I’ve heard from parents and families across the country." "We know that comprehensive, wrap-around approaches—including nutrition assistance; mental health services; early childhood education; and access to high-quality afterschool summer learning, and enrichment programs—all are crucial for accelerating our students’ academic success and their recovery from the pandemic by helping them thrive both inside and outside of school,” said Cardona.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, only 27% of veterans can afford to get a bachelor's degree. Organizers at Soldiers to Scholars, a volunteer program at the University of Central Florida, say they have been fighting to change that by paying for veterans' degrees in full. Five days a week for 180 days a year, veterans participating in Soldiers to Scholars walk almost 4 miles a day to make sure the kids at Eagle's Nest Elementary in Orlando make it to and from school safely. Program participant Gabriella Isaza said that walking alone can be dangerous for the children — and with busy roads, they have to be extra cautious in making sure their 2-mile walk to school goes smoothly. Isaza, a Navy veteran, said Soldiers to Scholars has helped her and her fellow veterans not only attend college but make a difference in their community as well. “We want to make sure that (the students) get safely to their homes, safely to their school,” she said.

Well-made buildings are said to have "good bones." But if a building or a bridge had broken bones, how would an inspector know? Doctors use X-rays for patients, and soon local scientists are hoping to put similar monitoring technology in the hands of engineers. Researchers at the University of Central Florida are developing virtual reality and artificial intelligence tools to better monitor the health of buildings and bridges. In 2019, the U.S. ranked 13th on the World Economic Forum for its aging infrastructure. In 2021, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave America's infrastructure a C- and called out a need for more innovative technologies to better monitor and repair the country’s buildings, bridges, and roads.

In response to the escalating demand for adept cybersecurity professionals in the U.S., the Department of Energy (DOE) has tried to foster a well-equipped energy cybersecurity workforce through a hands-on operational technology cybersecurity competition with real-world challenges. On Nov. 4, the DOE hosted the ninth edition of its CyberForce Competition. For the second year in a row a team from the University of Central Florida (UCF) won first place in the competition. The group received a score of 8,538 out of 10,000. Amanda Theel, group leader for workforce development at ARgonne National Laboratory, said the scores do vary quite significantly from the top-performing teams to lower-ranked groups. “What we’ve found is obviously teams that have returned year after year already have that—I’ll use the word expectation—of already knowing what to expect in the competition,” explained Theel. “Once they come to year two, we’ve definitely seen massive improvements with teams.”

UCF quarterback John Rhys Plumlee knew precisely what was on the line in the final home game of his college career. A win against Houston on Saturday would make the Knights bowl-eligible in their first season in the Big 12. A loss would end the season in disappointment. The 5th-year senior scored two touchdowns as UCF (6-6, 3-6 Big 12) became bowl-eligible for the eighth consecutive season, winning three of its last four games, including a 27-13 victory over the Cougars.

A Nov. 8 Facebook post (direct link, archived link) shows two photos: one of the moon illuminating a body of water and another of an astronaut standing on the moon next to the American flag. Yan Fernandez, a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Central Florida, told USA TODAY that the light reflected off the moon’s surface works much like other objects.

As more businesses in the hospitality industry consider robots as a solution to a thinned frontline service workforce, owners and operators must recognize that their investment in a service robot extends beyond the hardware and software. It may require targeted training, small architectural and design improvements to the physical space, an assessment of organizational and managerial readiness, or all of the above. Service robots can help elevate customer service if their purpose is clear, if their physical environment is conducive, and if leadership actively supports staff during the adoption process.