UCF in the News

It’s a Saturday afternoon as Brian Burns and his dad get ready for Judo class but it’s not just any Judo class. “We developed a judo program for children with autism spectrum disorder. This particular program is actually working with the family so the families actually do judo together,” said Jeanette Garcia, an associate professor in health sciences at UCF. The program was created by researchers at UCF’s College of Health Professions and Sciences.

Since his childhood trips to Magic Kingdom, Jordan Zauha has loved live entertainment. And, he just scored a job with a major theme park company. Zauha is one of the first 10 graduates of a new and unique master’s degree program at UCF, filled with established architects, interior designers, writers and producers. “We all come in with skills that we mastered outside of here and are now bringing those skills in to do something new,” he said. “Every object, every prop, every part of that set conveys a narrative to the guest,” says program director Peter Weishar. “There’s just a tremendous amount of pride and satisfaction I have in seeing their accomplishments and what they can do.”

A new course at the University of Central Florida aims to inspire more students to enter one of Orlando's foundational high-tech industries: optics and photonics. Offered for the first time in the spring 2022 semester, the Introduction to Photonics Engineering Design course gives underclassmen a glimpse at what it would look like to major in photonics. The class may help address the need for technical workers in Central Florida’s optics and photonics cluster, Luminar Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: LAZR) Chief Technology Officer and UCF graduate Jason Eichenholz told Orlando Business Journal. “Early-stage career opportunities are so plentiful for technicians and engineers. You’re guaranteed a job.”

A team of UCF students has again proved that the university is the nation’s premier institution for cyber security talent, as they won the 2022 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition last weekend. This is the second consecutive year that UCF’s Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team has won the national title. The university has now claimed five national titles in the last 10 years, more than any other university in the nation. UCF has either won first place – in 2022, 2021, 2016, 2015, and 2014 – or first runner up – in 2020, 2019, and 2018 – eight times in the last decade.

University of Central Florida scientists are charging on with an experimental battery capable of reinventing how automobiles and spacecraft are made. By reworking the idea of energy sources, a UCF research group is creating a lightweight battery that would double as the outer shell of a vehicle in what the group is calling its “power suit” project.

Drone startup Hoverfly Technologies Inc. is nearly doubling in size. Hoverfly on April 25 cut the ribbon on its new 20,500-square-foot headquarters in Sanford after moving from its previous 11,000-square-foot building on March 1. The facility, which acts as Hoverfly's primary research and design/design space, means the company will add 50 workers to its staff of 60. Twelve-year-old Hoverfly makes tethered drones for the U.S. military, as well as security and public safety companies and agencies. A former University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program client, Hoverfly previously operated out of an 11,000-square-foot building near UCF.

It’s the way of the future. While some Central Florida communities consider launching driverless shuttles to move people about their community, the University of Central Florida (UCF) is also testing an autonomous shuttle for students to take on campus. Separately, some engineering students are taking matters into their own hands: Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Yaser Fallah, Ph.D., has students working to advance vehicle smart features and curb car crashes. Their work factors into vehicle production at Ford, Hyundai and Kia.

The U.S. Space Force wants to help when disasters like Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria strike. Its goal is to build a rocket filled with food, water and other aid and send it to areas in need within 60 minutes. With the help of three UCF researchers, the agency is seeking to accomplish this project within the next decade. Assistant professors in UCF’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Michael Kinzel and Tarek Elgohary, along with Luis Rabelo, a professor in UCF’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, have become the first UCF researchers to receive funding from the Space Force, after being awarded a $350,000 grant for the project.

A team from the University of Central Florida received an award from a national transportation advisory board for study on combating wrong-way driving. The research team analyzed and modeled wrong-way driving on Central Florida toll road exit ramps to identify factor that contributed to wrong-way driving. The team will be honored at the 2022 Mid-year Committee Meeting held in Vienna, Austria this summer and will receive the physical Best Young Professional Paper Award from the Transportation Research Board during the board’s annual meeting in January 2023 in Washington, D.C.