UCF in the News

John Madden‘s presence can be felt in almost every corner of the Electronic Arts building in Orlando’s Creative Village. From various posters papering the walls to a monolithic mural of the late NFL coach and legendary broadcaster in the central stairwell, Madden is as much a part of the 175,940-square-foot facility that houses EA Sports as it is in the DNA of his namesake video game, Madden NFL. While most gamers associate Madden NFL with EA SPORTS after it first debuted in 1996, it’s not the only video game the company produces. Major titles such as NBA Live, EA SPORTS PGA Tour, Madden NFL Mobile and NBA Live Mobile also are created and produced in Central Florida. However, one of the most anticipated returns to the market is that of the EA SPORTS College Football video game franchise. The latest game, College Football 25, is expected to debut this summer. The game means so much more for some of the 1,000 personnel at the EA Orlando studios. Many are UCF graduates of the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. Some people would be surprised by the school’s partnership with the athletic department as a living lab for the game. It’s about a 10-minute walk from the EA SPORTS offices in downtown Orlando to UCF’s Communication and Media building that houses the FIEA program. There, you can find the next generation of workers in the interactive entertainment industry.

Partly because of semiconductors, electronic devices and systems become more advanced and sophisticated every day. That's why for decades researchers have studied ways to improve semiconductor compounds to influence how they carry electrical current. One approach is to use isotopes to change the physical, chemical and technological properties of materials. ORNL scientist Kai Xiao and the team, working with theorists Volodymyr Turkowski and Talat Rahman at the University of Central Florida, knew that the phonons, or crystal vibrations, must be scattering the excitons, or optical excitations, in unexpected ways in the confined dimensions of these ultrathin crystals. They discovered how this scattering shifts the optical bandgap to the red end of the light spectrum for heavier isotopes. "Optical bandgap" refers to the minimum amount of energy needed to make a material absorb or emit light. By adjusting the bandgap, researchers can make semiconductors absorb or emit different colors of light, and such tunability is essential for designing new devices.

Nearly 400 Central Florida teen girls gathered at UCF Thursday for a tech summit meant to encourage them to pursue STEM careers.

Just over half (55 percent) of college students receive advising on courses and course sequences and less than that (52 percent) have been advised on degree progress, according to a 2023 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse. Advising plays a key role in helping students persist and graduate—and a lack of quality advising can increase time to degree, wasted credits and frustrated learners. In 2023, the University of Central Florida modified its advising and coaching model into a singular role, centralizing staff under one umbrella and modifying job descriptions for staff. Starting this fall, all students will be assigned an academic success coach who will provide assistance with course registration and degree mapping and also assist with personal challenges students face in their academics. he new initiative is designed to improve retention and graduation rates across the college as well as raise morale and energy among the advising team.

A solitary voice counts off, the only sound is sneakers squeaking on the gymnasium floor at The Venue on UCF‘s campus. More than 50 students, ranging from high school seniors to graduate students, pair up to work on dance moves they’ve just been taught by two instructors. The only other noise is music from a nearby speaker paired with a smartphone. Michael Callahan wanders between the groups, intently watching the footwork and occasionally scribbling notes onto a clipboard. He stops to check a name on a nametag one of the participants wears and notes it before moving on. It’s just after 9:30 on a Saturday and the start of what could be a long day. When it’s all said and done, the future of UCF’s Knightro mascot program is somewhere among this group of students, many of whom won’t make the cut.

Wielding a handheld optical scanner, Jorge González meticulously maneuvered across an archaeological grid of white string and metal pins, creating a 3D digital map of a newly excavated steel-mat corridor that led into the long-demolished Bumper blockhouse. Now, a team of University of Central Florida Department of Anthropology students is wrapping up its second spring season surveying, excavating and documenting artifacts at the Bumper blockhouse site — with an eye on the launch's upcoming 75th anniversary. The Cape's second-ever launch, Bumper 7, occurred at the same site five days after Bumper 8.

The University of Central Florida (UCF) and Nemours Children’s Hospital jointly announced a significant partnership on Wednesday to train future pediatric doctors. The partnership will address a projected shortage of physicians across Florida by 2035. Since UCF’s College of Medicine was established in 2007, medical students have gained invaluable hands-on experience at Nemours Children’s Health, progressing from students to residents and pediatricians on the hospital floor.