UCF in the News

Out with the old and in with the new. That’s the theme when the year turns over. For 2024, people are taking their lists of what’s “in” and what’s “out” to social media — maybe you’ve seen them floating around your feed. Today we’re making a list of our own: what’s “in” and “out” when it comes to the economy. Sean Snaith has his personal list of what’s in and out this year. At the top of what’s in? A goal we all know well: He wants to exercise more. “This is a form of shaming on a national scale. Perhaps that will make me go to the gym,” he said. That’s one of his promises to himself for 2024. But Snaith, who directs the Institute for Economic Forecasting at the University of Central Florida, said his economic in and out list is more about predictions. And he thinks this year looks a little clearer. “The widespread belief that the U.S. economy is heading into a recession seems to be out,” he said. That out depends on some other ins and outs. For example, Snaith said high levels of consumer spending? Out. What’s also out? “Workers having the strong upper hand over employers,” he said.

Acknowledging what you're grateful for is about more than just appreciating life; it's about maintaining your mental and physical health and being a better human to yourself and others. But being grateful isn’t always easy (especially when you’re having a rough go of it). One easy way to keep our inner naysayer at bay: gratitude journaling. Beyond the personal benefits, says Wong, “people who engage in gratitude journaling were, to put it bluntly, less likely to be jerks,” citing a workplace study done by the University of Central Florida published in 2021. “People who are grateful tend to be more altruistic, more friendly, connect better with other people.”

The University of Central Florida's research spending has continued to grow. The Orlando-based university spent $221.49 million on research and development during fiscal 2022, which ranked at No. 122 in the country. The college has grown its spending from $117.99 million in fiscal-year 2010 to a peak of $225.09 million in fiscal 2019, before a slight drop during the Covid-19 pandemic. UCF ranked No. 1 in the state for computer and information sciences spending and No. 2 for engineering. President Alexander Cartwright previously stated his vision for UCF to become a top 50 research university in the nation.

“Do your own research” is a popular tagline among fringe groups and ideological extremists. Noted conspiracy theorist Milton William Cooper first ushered this rallying cry into the mainstream in the 1990s through his radio show, where he discussed schemes involving things such as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, an Illuminati cabal and alien life. Cooper died in 2001, but his legacy lives on. For one experiment, the study authors also tracked participants’ search terms and the links provided on the first page of the results of a Google query. They found that more than a third of respondents were exposed to misinformation when they searched for more detail on misleading or false articles. And often respondents’ search terms contributed to those troubling results: Participants used the headline or URL of a misleading article in about one in 10 verification attempts. In those cases, misinformation beyond the original article showed up in results more than half the time. “I was surprised by how many people were using this kind of naive search strategy,” says the study’s lead author Kevin Aslett, an assistant professor of computational social science at the University of Central Florida. “It’s really concerning to me.”

Since the 1960s engineers around the world have been fiddling with a novel type of jet called a rotating detonation engine (RDE), but it has never got beyond the experimental stage. That could be about to change. GE Aerospace, one of the world’s biggest producers of jet engines, recently announced it was developing a working version. Earlier this year America’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded a $29m contract to Raytheon, part of RTX, another big aerospace group, to develop an RDE called Gambit. Both engines would be used to propel missiles, overcoming the range and speed limitations of current propulsion systems, including rockets and existing types of jet engines. However, if the companies are successful in getting them to work, RDEs might have a much broader role in aviation—including the possibility of helping revive supersonic air travel. In a nutshell, an RDE “replaces fire with a controlled explosion”, explains Kareem Ahmed, an expert in advanced aerospace engines at the University of Central Florida. In technical terms, this is because a jet engine relies on the combustion of oxygen and fuel, which is a subsonic reaction that scientists call deflagration. Detonation, by comparison, is a high-energy explosion that takes place at supersonic speeds. As a result it is a more powerful and potentially a more efficient way of producing thrust, the force that drives an aircraft forward.

Universal Studios said they are looking into the possibility of building a theme park in the United Kingdom after purchasing a 480-acre parcel of land near Bedford, England. The land was purchased by Universal’s parent company, Comcast Corporation, in August for $271 million, a company spokesperson confirmed. It will take several months before a decision on further plans for the land, the company said. Peter Weishar, director of themed experience programs at the University of Central Florida, said the Bedford location is ideal for a theme park because of its proximity to London and to a large base of theme park-goers. “If they were to create a theme park there, it would be an amazing spot right in a travel hub next to a large population center that’s already a huge fan of their product,” he said. Theme-park enthusiasts ready to book a flight to the U.K. for the new Universal resort will need to be patient; building a theme park takes years. Weishar said a rush job would take three years. Universal announced in 2019 that it would be opening its Epic Universe park in Orlando in 2023, but it’s now delayed until 2025. “It’s going to be many years before we see what they’re planning on doing come to fruition,” he said. “They’re using newer technologies and new ways of entertainment. So everything becomes custom, and that takes awhile to design and build.”

Rashe Malcolm loves her son Wayne and his girlfriend, but she’d also love it if they could move out of the three-bedroom home in Athens, Ga., that she shares with the couple, both 23, as well as her husband and two of her three other children. But the rent is too high for anyone to go anywhere, at least locally. “If you go to these newer units, I mean if you can get one for $1,800, that’s considered cheap,” said Ms. Malcolm, 48. “For a one-bedroom — a one-bedroom. It’s like $2,100 on average.” Life in Athens, a city of about 127,000 residents, is centered around its largest employer: the flagship campus of the University of Georgia, which enrolls more than 40,000 students and employs about 10,000 people. Like many U.S. cities, it has seen rents rise over the past few years, even as developers have added new units to the market. “College athletics, in particular college football, have become so enormous in this country, particularly in the Southeast, that it has caused this phenomenon of short-term rentals,” said Adrien Bouchet, director of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at the University of Central Florida. “On one hand it creates value, but on the other hand, it definitely hurts people that have lived in and around the university for a long time.” Mr. Bouchet pointed to similar market trends in Southern college towns like Auburn, Ala., Tuscaloosa, Ala., Gainesville, Fla., and Oxford, Miss., where football rules the economy during the fall. "They have very wealthy alumni that have no problems buying second houses, whether that's for their kids to go there or whether that's just for them to have a good time seven or eight weekends a year," Mr. Bouchet said. "And that's caused the prices of these houses to go through the roof and push people out of these neighborhoods."

Playing roles from an evil king to a steadfast stage manager, here are the 2023 Orlando Sentinel honorees for best featured actor in a comedy, as selected by theater critic Matthew J. Palm. In “Chicken & Biscuits,” Dominique Marshall had the showiest role as flask-sipping, cigarette-sneaking Beverly, and she more than rose to the occasion, with a devilish glint in her eye. But under Beverly’s bold exterior, Marshall showed us the character’s heart, too.