UCF in the News

In a corner of his laboratory, Professor Abel Méndez, director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico, keeps one of his most cherished mementos related to the Arecibo radio telescope. Simple sheets of paper hanging on the wall show the schedule where astronomers and scientists from all over the world were assigned blocks of two to four hours to use the telescope and listen to the universe. Méndez’s initials are still there: AM. For more than 50 years, Arecibo was the world’s largest single-dish telescope. And starting in 2017, Méndez made frequent visits to the Arecibo Observatory, about a 30-minute drive from the university, to focus on the stars. His goal? To explore the habitability of exoplanets. “There are stars that are very active, such as red dwarfs, and others like the sun, which you could say are rather quiet,” he says. “I used the radio telescope to observe which stars were the most stable because those are the ones that planets with a more habitable atmosphere are likely to be around,” he adds. In part, Arecibo helped him understand what to prioritize in his research. Until December 1, 2020, when the telescope collapsed. Luisa Fernanda Zambrano, a Colombian planetary scientist who had observed and classified asteroids with the Arecibo radio telescope since 2013, remembers that painful day: “I cried, my team cried, we were all crying,” she says from her office in the United States, where she works with the Florida Space Institute at the University of Central Florida.

Virtually all state higher education institutions have programs specifically tailored to generate talent for area employers. The following are examples of those efforts from across the state. UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA, Orlando UCF’s founding in 1963 was rooted in preparing a workforce for the space race, with the school dubbing itself “Space U.” Now, nearly 30% of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center employees are UCF alumni, and more than 30 are working on the Artemis 1 mission to return astronauts to the moon. UCF also partners with aerospace contractor Lockheed Martin on a work experience program. Students don’t receive credits but do get paid for two consecutive semesters of work — ranging from 15 to 25 hours per week — inside one of two Orlando Lockheed locations. The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students, with nearly 60% of the 650 students who participate each year landing job offers upon graduation. For students who prefer more of a fantasy world, UCF’s highly regarded game design programs help 85% of graduates land jobs in the industry with a mean starting salary of $81,300. Gaming giant Electronic Arts moved to Orlando’s Creative Village in 2022 and partners with UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy.

This year's Sally's Night celebration of Sally Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, is coming to the Orange County Regional History Center. The annual, nationwide event meant to celebrate women's contribution to STEM, is on Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. at the museum located at 65 East Central Blvd. This year’s Sally’s Night will feature a presentation by astronaut scholar Samantha Stoltz called “Paving Our Path: A Journey Through Life and Space for Women in STEM” at 7 p.m. A graduate from the University of Central Florida and a recipient of the Order of the Pegasus award, Stoltz will share her experiences studying and working in fields that support the aerospace industry. There will additionally be a wide variety of space-themed events for families and students, including a pop-up planetarium, exhibits about NASA, artifacts related to space travel and freeze-dried candies.

College graduations are in full swing, and many students are gearing up to enter the workforce. But with fierce competition and changing job market dynamics, the search for that first job can be daunting. It takes three to six months for the average college grad to secure employment right after graduation and about 53% of college grads are either unemployed or working a job that doesn’t require a degree. Now, it’s time to put that degree to work. Here are some things to keep in mind to prepare you for the job market. “Internships, internships, internships, internships, internships, undergraduate research – whatever it might be to get these richer experiences while they’re here so that they’ll have so much more to share when it comes time for interviews,” explained Lynn Hansen, Director of Career Services at the University of Central Florida. But if you didn’t get any experience before graduation, spend this summer doing an internship to beef up your resume. Second, networking is key. Attend career fairs, alumni events, and professional networking mixers to connect with potential employers. Also, have a good social media presence. “We encourage students to have a very strong LinkedIn profile,” said Hansen.

K9 Partners for Patriots, an organization created for veteran suicide prevention, sees it every day, for each veteran and K9 partner together regaining their purpose. But, don’t take our word for it. Recent findings from UCF’s School of Social Work indicate that the use of Service Dogs has gained scientific evidence of working well in many situations and for many veterans. More evaluation from both the service dog industry as well as independent scientists is now underway to further determine the helpfulness of service dogs for veterans.

We are well into leisure and hospitality season with summer travel increasing and more folks going out to restaurants and bars. That fun-seeking, plus the rising wages nationwide that were also highlighted in Friday’s numbers, translate into more jobs. Prices at restaurants and entertainment venues may be higher than in the past, but we Americans do like to treat ourselves. Per Sean Snaith, director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting: “The owners of the restaurants and hotels and these other leisure and hospitality-related industries need to hire additional workers.”

The clearest view of America’s economic conundrum is from the sunny beaches of Miami. The city has been growing quickly and jobs are plentiful. But prices, especially the cost of housing, have risen so fast that workers can’t keep up. The 2.7% unemployment rate in the Miami metro area is among the lowest in the country. But inflation was higher than in any other major metro area in April, and housing costs have doubled in just six years. Wages have been rising—but not enough to keep up with prices. Sean Snaith, the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting, described the Miami region as the poster child for the challenges the Fed faces. Typically, higher rates cool demand and lead to higher unemployment and weaker inflation. “The usual trade-off between unemployment and inflation is just not happening in this tightening cycle,” Snaith said. The experience of cities such as Miami would be a reason for the Fed to hold off on cutting rates this year, Snaith said.

As the space around Earth becomes increasingly cluttered with human-made junk, scientists are ramping up their efforts to safeguard satellites in real time. The latest in that effort are new algorithms being developed at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to automatically monitor and protect spacecraft from bumping into satellites and asteroids in cislunar space — the realm between Earth and the moon, which is under the gravitational influence of both celestial bodies. Because cislunar space is so vast, tracking and predicting the orbits of satellites, spent rocket stages and asteroids is a challenging task, scientists say. The existing infrastructure "is not equipped to provide the needed coverage in cislunar space," Tarek Elgohary, an associate professor of aerospace engineering, said in a UCF statement. "There is a need for fast and accurate solutions to quantify uncertainties to improve predictions and provide [space domain awareness] information in the absence of continuous coverage." The new algorithms are being designed to autonomously track objects and predict collisions in low Earth orbit (LEO), which is expected to become increasingly crowded in the coming decade. Elgohary said the same tools, whose development is largely being funded by the Virginia-based Air Force Office of Scientific Research, could also be used to monitor ships at sea, predict their paths and "spot suspicious behavior in real time."

You’ve read the headlines:“Explosive Atlantic hurricane season predicted for 2024.”“Hurricane forecasts for 2024 predicts the highest number of storms ever.”And, “Long-range forecasts suggest 2024 hurricane season from hell.”What are these headlines really doing? Scaring you, your family, your friends. Don’t be scared, just be prepared is our motto at Spectrum News 13, and it’s a great way to prepare for any storm that may impact us. Dr. Deborah Beidel, a Professor of Psychology and the Executive Director of UCF Restores, has some advice on how to mentally prepare when handling the extreme hype of the upcoming season. “What we find is that when people are worrying about uncertainty, because that’s what this is, the best thing to do is try and plan and prepare,” Beidel says. “I think the best thing to do to parse through the information is to remember that although all these storms might happen, the probability of any one storm hitting us directly is always pretty low. It’s not impossible, but it’s low. So, we shouldn’t think that we are going to be hit by 21 storms or whatever it may be.”