UCF in the News

Billowing flames and clouds of smoke are typical for rocket launches. Destroyed launchpads and wreckage strewn far and wide across surrounding wetlands, however, are most definitely not. Then again, the April 20 test flight of SpaceX’s gigantic Starship—the largest vehicle ever flown—was no typical rocket launch. Expectations for Starship are sky-high because SpaceX intends the system’s unprecedented power and planned routine reusability to revolutionize spaceflight itself while also landing NASA astronauts on the moon as early as 2025. But the bar was much lower for this test flight, which sought to send Starship on a near loop of Earth: SpaceX officials stated simply clearing the launchpad would be a success. Starship exceeded that goal in more ways than one. Mounted atop its massive, 33-engine Super Heavy booster, Starship cleared the pad with such force that it left behind little more than a smoldering crater and far-reaching showers of pulverized debris. Observers were stunned by the sheer size of the dust cloud raised by the launch. “At first, I didn’t realize it was an anomaly of the launchpad—I thought it was just the nature of this rocket,” says Philip Metzger, a physicist at the University of Central Florida, who used to work on launchpad technology at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. “The amount of dust and smoke that came up from the launchpad was wild. I had never seen something that voluminous.”

Winter Park's streets and crosswalks could get major upgrades over the next two decades to make them safer for pedestrians and more efficient for drivers. The technology is called CAV infrastructure, which stands for "connected and autonomous vehicle." Basically, it means that all the traffic lights, crossing signals, road sensors, cameras, and even smart vehicles on the road can communicate with each other electronically. Basically, it means that all the traffic lights, crossing signals, road sensors, cameras, and even smart vehicles on the road can communicate with each other electronically. They send signals on when to stop or go, even letting vehicles know when there's something in the way that they can't see. Professor Yaser Fallah, who teaches computer engineering at UCF says the technology is closer than we think. "If this becomes reality it's going to have a big impact," he said. The technology can recognize cars and objects on the road, and switch signals or even prompt smart vehicles to stop. This will make crosswalks and intersections less risky for people and traffic. "What we envision is that all of these are connected together and talking to each other," Fallah said.

Do you like to offer your partner kind words and compliments? Or do you prefer to express your affection with gifts, or by taking care of the daily chores? A few years ago, in a bestselling book, Gary Chapman identified five different "languages of love" that we all unconsciously use: words of affirmation, physical touch, receiving gifts, acts of service, and quality time. But are some of the five particularly compatible with others or especially ill-suited? And how can you learn them? Helping out with daily tasks, to make your partner's life bit easier, is a powerful symbol of affection for some. Sejal Mehta Barden, executive director of the Marriage and Family Research Institute at the University of Central Florida, told Newsweek that these tasks could be as simple as filling the gas tank in your partner's car, doing the dishes or taking out the trash. "Acts that make us feel loved," she said. Barden recommends that couples discuss their love languages so they can work out how to spend time together in a way that makes both feel loved. "A classic example might be one of the partners has quality time as a love language and another partner has physical touch," she says. "You can easily put both of those together of having quality time, watching a movie, and making sure that you're not sitting on separate chairs, but you're choosing to sit on a sofa where you can also have physical touch associated together."

he University of Central Florida’s Ph.D. in Nursing program takes the top spot in the country, according to a ranking by RegisteredNursing.org. The nursing advocacy organization said the programs were judged on factors like how well a program supports students during school, towards licensure, and beyond.

Gloria Palacio with UCF Global was teaching a class full of Rosen Hotels and Resorts employees how to greet visitors in English. The class is part of a free program that helps workers better communicate while on the job. Mery Judith Sarmiento from Colombia told News 6 the class is helping her boost her confidence when it comes to speaking English. The program was funded through an Orange County grant after officials realized some companies were having trouble finding and retaining employees, adding that the language barrier was part of the issue. “

Mars is a frigid world today, and all of its surface water is frozen solid. However, there’s ample evidence that liquid water once coursed over the Red Planet. That paradox has sparked an ongoing debate: What warmed up Mars’s climate billions of years ago? A team now has proposed that giant asteroid impacts—the kinds that carve out basins exceeding 1,200 kilometers in diameter—might have played an important role. In a process known as oxidation, iron-bearing minerals reacted with water present in Mars’s subsurface to produce iron oxides and hydrogen gas. That hydrogen then went on to collide with the carbon dioxide already present in Mars’s atmosphere. All of that bumping together of molecules changes their electronic structure and allows them to absorb radiation at a wider range of wavelengths, an experimentally verified phenomenon known as collision-induced absorption. “These molecules become even better greenhouse gases,” said Ramses Ramirez, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida in Orlando not involved in the research. Recent research has suggested that an atmosphere composed of both carbon dioxide and hydrogen can reach temperatures above freezing. On the other hand, a carbon dioxide–dominated atmosphere void of hydrogen or other greenhouse gases can attain a top temperature of only about −40°C, Ramirez said. “That’s over 40° too cold.”

There are a handful of athletes whose extraordinary abilities transcend sports, dazzling other professionals and the casual onlooker alike with feats exceeding what anyone thought possible. ChatGPT is Michael Jordan. Except that when ChatGPT fabricates what looks as if it’s authentic information, it’s more like “Air” Jordan missing a dunk while simultaneously being able to change the official scoreboard to show that he actually put up points. Yet despite so much that’s still unknown, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the chatbot’s solo brilliance will need the right “supporting cast” – as Jordan famously referred to teammates – to achieve its transformational potential in medicine. A 2021 article in AI Magazine broached the idea of a Hippocratic Oath for AI scientists. But David Metcalf, director of a technology integration lab at the University of Central Florida’s Institution for Simulation and Training, suggested a simpler approach perhaps more suited to the fast-paced team sport of AI development and deployment. Noting the increasing use of AI-driven voice analytics via chatbots like Siri and Alexa or through smartphone applications, Metcalfe said he tells his students, “Think of each prompt and how it might be used for profiling you in the future.”

As UCF gets set to join the Big 12 on July 1, UCF Athletics has announced that transformational updates to the tune of $12 million are on the way for the basketball and volleyball facilities. The updates are coming to Addition Financial Arena, the Venue, Knights Plaza and adjacent residence halls. According to the release, the upgrades touch areas within the basketball and volleyball programs and the Athletics Village, including more than 40 separate projects. “The start of UCF’s competition in the Big 12 Conference will be a series of landmark moments for our athletics teams, alumni and fans,” says UCF vice president and director of athletics Terry Mohajir. “This long and comprehensive list of upgrades will enhance not only the gameday experiences but also day-to-day environments for our student-athletes, coaches and staff. All these projects give us an opportunity to enhance our success as we enter a new age for our institution as part of the Big 12.”

Elon Musk's SpaceX will use for its next rocket launch a water-cooled steel plate that can withstand the world's most powerful liftoff after the debut attempt of its Starship rocket to reach space caused extensive launchpad damage. On the ground at SpaceX's launchsite in Texas, the rocket's engines - there are over 30 - fired with more force than any other rocket in the world, violently pummeling its launchpad floor as it slowly took flight. That blasted a crater several feet deep and sent large chunks of reinforced concrete flying thousands of feet, photos of the aftermath showed. "Launch & landing pads are touchy. Any little thing that goes wrong can cause a zipper effect that creates a giant problem," Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida who has studied the ground effects of rocket launches and landings, said on Twitter. "That's because you're trying to safely dispose of enough super high energy gas to shoot a rocket into the sky."