UCF in the News

Face masks are touted as a key tool in preventing the spread of COVID-19, and a new study offers more proof that they work. "The research provides clear evidence and guidelines that three feet of distancing with face coverings is better than six feet of distancing without face coverings," said study co-author Kareem Ahmed. He's an associate professor in the University of Central Florida Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

A 2020 study from UCF found that N95 and KF94 masks were even better at containing droplets and aerosols than surgical masks. Wearing “anything is worth it,” says Kareem Ahmed, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Central Florida and co-author of the new study. “You’re limiting your transmission of aerosols and droplets to the person next to you.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected 10 defense and university research teams — including one from UCF — to develop lightweight, state-of-the-art night vision optics for American soldiers.

The University of Central Florida downtown business incubator and startup accelerator Starter Studio held the grand opening of their shared space in the historic Kress Building on Jan. 11. Not only does the opening fill long-empty storefronts on Orange Avenue, but it's also the first step toward the possible creation of "the hub of entrepreneurial activity downtown."

As the COVID pandemic took hold in March 2020, Valerie Contreras lost her jobs as a Disney hotel concierge and server at a Kissimmee restaurant, both within five days. Like her fellow students at UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, 25-year-old Contreras from Mesa, Ariz., worried about the future of the hospitality industry and her career prospects within it. But in October, she landed a year-long salaried internship with the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta through networking at Rosen. She starts it later this month. Despite hospitality jobs remaining below pre-pandemic levels, the 315 undergraduate students who graduated from Rosen in December reported around a 95% expected employment rate by their commencement. Alan Fyall, associate dean of academic affairs at Rosen, said the employment figures for fall 2021 graduates have been “excellent.” He said the college’s data shows recent graduates are working around 30 hours per week, on average. Additionally, 60% of them are working for companies they interned with while at Rosen, he said.

On Wednesday, the Journal of Infectious Diseases published a study from researchers at the University of Central Florida that found face masks could cut the distance that COVID-19 spreads by more than half the distance. UCF researchers found that standing three feet apart with a mask is safer than social distance six feet apart without one. “We’ve been finding that the CDC guidelines, the recommendation of six feet social distance could be further to three feet or even two or one feet on the condition that masks are being worn,” the study's co-author Bernhard Stiehl said. “It’s a very big deal because the CDC keeps revising guidelines.”

Mayor Buddy Dyer and UCF President Dr. Alexander Cartwright celebrated the opening of a new tech startup and innovation hub in downtown Orlando Tuesday. Located in the Kress Building on Orange Avenue, UCF’s Business Incubation Program and Starter Studio will work to help diversity the Central Florida economy through entrepreneurial partnerships. UCF’s Business Incubation Program provides companies in their early stages with the “tools, training and infrastructure to become financially stable, high-growth/impact enterprises.” StarterStudio is a locally based tech accelerator that works to raise the area’s profile in the eyes of investors.

As the space industry continues to soar, it’s being filled with homegrown talent. Thanks to a NASA Pathways Internship program, a recent UCF graduate is going straight from the classroom to managing Kennedy Space Center’s 3D-printing center for space missions. Since 2016, 47 UCF students have interned in the program and earned full-time employment at Kennedy Space Center.

For many Americans who witnessed the attack on the Capitol last Jan. 6, the idea of mobs of people storming a bedrock of democracy was unthinkable. For the data scientists who watched it unfold, the reaction was a little different: We’ve been thinking about this for a long time. The sentiment comes from a small group working in a cutting-edge field known as unrest prediction. The group takes a promising if fraught approach that applies the complex methods of machine-learning to the mysterious roots of political violence. Centered since its inception a number of years ago on the developing world, its systems since last Jan. 6 are slowly being retooled with a new goal: predicting the next Jan. 6. “We now have the data — and opportunity — to pursue a very different path than we did before,” said Clayton Besaw, who helps run CoupCast, a machine-learning-driven program based at the University of Central Florida that predicts the likelihood of coups and electoral violence for dozens of countries each month.