UCF in the News

Two robot dogs walked across the Walt Disney Theater stage during Theatre UCF's production of Legally Blonde - operated live, in real time, by theater students trained in the university's engineering labs. The moment came during "What You Want," a nine-minute number in which Elle Woods turns her Harvard application into a full-blown performance piece. The idea started at a football game. During last year's UCF Space Game, director Michael D. Jablonski watched the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering's robot dogs cross the field and saw storytelling potential. When Legally Blonde - a show built on defying expectations - became this year's UCF Celebrates the Arts marquee musical, the pairing made sense. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering houses 15 robot dogs, nine of which are in Rakhshan's Laboratory for Interaction of Machine and Brain, where they're used for coursework and research on navigating real-world environments.

A University of Central Florida graduate and investment firm president who credits the school for his financial success will donate $50 million to the institution, the largest philanthropic gift in UCF’s history, the university announced Wednesday. Barry Miller’s donation will grow UCF’s business college, allowing it to hire new faculty with expertise in fields such as artificial intelligence strategy and financial strategy, the university said. “My success was only made possible by the village of people here,” Miller said at the announcement at the business school. “UCF needs the support of a village to achieve our lofty goals. UCF isn’t going to wait for the future. We’re going to build it,” he said. Miller is a 1995 finance graduate and president and co-founder of the Jupiter-based Voloridge investment firm.

After 10 days in space, the Artemis II crew is headed back to Earth. The four astronauts are expected to splash down off the coast of San Diego on Friday evening. Dr. Addie Dove, a planetary scientist and professor of physics at the University of Central Florida, joins Good Day Orlando to talk about the reentry process.

During the Artemis II lunar flyby on Monday, the astronauts onboard took thousands of photos and made geological observations of around 35 targets on the far side of the moon. The astronauts were the first to see the far side of the moon from that perspective, and the data they collected will help planetary scientists here on Earth. At the University of Central Florida, planetary scientist Addie Dove is preparing to send an instrument to the lunar surface as early as 2028. Lunar-VISE aims to understand Gruithuisen Domes – a puzzling geological structure on the moon and a structure that the mission observed. Scientists have no idea how it was formed. Lunar-VISE could unlock that mystery. Dove and her team plan to use images from the Artemis II flyby to maximize the data they can collect.

Artie Moffa has been an active Redditor for 12 years, writing more than 1,000 posts and comments on the platform. None, he says, are as popular as a post he made about — of all things — spreadsheets. A spreadsheet isn’t just for organization. It can also give candidates a sense of control in a job market offering them little of it, says Mindy Shoss, an organizational psychology professor at the University of Central Florida. Spreadsheets can help applicants “better manage uncertainty and maintain a sense of control and structure as they navigate a difficult job search process,” Shoss says. “People have a basic psychological need to feel a sense of certainty and predictability in their lives,” she adds. “When the future becomes opaque and difficult to predict, it’s only natural to try to control what we can.”

There’s a big spotlight, if you will, on space this week in Central Florida, with NASA’s Artemis II launch making history as the first mission around the moon in 50 years. It’s a perfect time, then, to talk about Spaceman of Bohemia, a sci-fi novel written by 2011 University of Central Florida alum Jaroslav Kalfař. He’ll be at UCF discussing the book – which was the basis for the 2024 film Spaceman starring Adam Sandler – as part of “UCF Celebrates the Arts.” That’s an annual event highlighting the artistic endeavors and successes of UCF’s students, faculty, and grads. The titular Spaceman of Bohemia is, like Kalfař himself, from the Czech Republic. He’s an astronaut on that country’s first space mission. But as Kalfař explains, the mission journeys through deep emotion, as well as deep space.

Moon bases and Mars missions: Artemis II explained NASA is preparing for Artemis II, which will send four astronauts around the Moon. The mission will test Orion’s life-support, navigation, and communication systems in preparation for future lunar landings. FOX 13's Craig Patrick reports. NASA is preparing for Artemis II, which will send four astronauts around the Moon. The mission will test Orion’s life-support, navigation, and communication systems in preparation for future lunar landings. Dr. Phil Metzger elaborated on why that's important. "The Moon has no atmosphere. And because it has no atmosphere, it catches the solar wind in the soil. The solar wind coming out of the Sun — which is like a nuclear reactor — produces helium," he explained. "For billions of years, the Moon has been collecting that helium. So the best place in the inner solar system to get helium, which we need for quantum computing and fusion, is right there next to Earth." Dr. Alain Berinstain, director of UCF’s Florida Space Institute, stressed the unpredictable scientific payoff of returning to the Moon. "What excites me the most is the kind of stuff we haven’t even thought of — the discoveries we don’t yet realize we’ll be able to make," Berinstain said. "We’ve hardly scratched the surface of the Moon. When we’re there full-time for an extended period, we have no idea yet what great things we’ll discover — and what that will spur on."

orbit, the Moon, or Mars-present unique challenges, especially when it comes to radiation exposure. Astronauts aboard the upcoming Artemis II mission will travel beyond Earth's protective magnetic field, exposing them to what experts call galactic cosmic radiation, according to aerospace physician Emmanuel Urquieta with UCF. Further explaining, this type of radiation poses significant health risks because it’s “outside of the magnetic protection of the Earth.” As the department Vice Chair, Urquieta’s knowledge in this field is expansive, having also served as the Chief Medical Officer at the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health. He explained that for long-duration missions to the Moon, this exposure could increase the risk of cancer, cognitive decline, and even severe DNA mutations. However, Artemis II is expected to last only about 10 days, limiting those risks.