UCF in the News

Theatre students at the University of Central Florida are looking to shine a spotlight on a group of people whose story doesn’t get told very often. Rehearsals, set and costume design are underway for Theatre UCF’s performance of “Home of the Brave.” “Home of the Brave” highlights the real experiences of children whose parents serve in a different branch of the military. “It comes from a Hawaiian native playwright,” said Julia Listengarten, Theatre UCF artistic director and professor. “The process of developing this play is somewhat unique. She interviewed the children and their families and that was part of the development process.” UCF graduate student and “Home of the Brave” tour manager Bethany Post said as the child of an Air Force service member, this project is personal for her. Post said being a part of the production has been a reflection of her own childhood.

University of Central Florida student Ashley Cariño placed fifth overall at the 71st Miss Universe pageant this weekend. Cariño competed in multiple rounds at the pageant Saturday, making it to the top five finalist spot. Miss USA, Miss Venezuela, Miss Dominican Republic, and Miss Curacao joined her as finalists, according to the Associated Press. Cariño won the Miss Florida title in July 2021, her first pageant competition. She also placed third in the Miss USA competition in Nov. 2021. Last year, Cariño won the Miss Puerto Rico title and represented her heritage in Miss Universe. According to the university, Cariño was born in Puerto Rico but moved to Kissimmee when she was young. UCF said Cariño is also an aerospace engineering major. She said she hopes to finish her degree even with her duties as a Miss Florida. Cariño told UCF that she was always interested in science and astronomy.

Orange County has teamed up with UCF Global and Rosen Hotels & Resorts to offer English as a Second Language instruction to hotel workers on I-Drive. The pilot program provides twice weekly English instruction to about 65 Rosen Hotels & Resorts employees. Rosen provides the space for classes and pays employees to participate. Orange County’s Renuka Sastri said the program is a win-win for employers and employees. Employers guarantee workers can easily communicate with guests. And workers gain a new skillset and possibly a promotion. “The majority of them have said they want access to better work opportunities to have access to interact better within the community, to participate in what their children are learning," said Sastri. "There's a whole range, but really the number one reason was access to better work opportunities.”

Hurricane Ian caused billions of dollars in damage when it hit Florida in the fall of 2022. Along with $112 billion in damages, 152 fatalities, and countless uprooted lives, the fallout included at least 12 electric vehicle fires caused from lithium-ion batteries coming into contact with saltwater flooding in from the ocean. It’s an unfortunate downside to EVs’ lithium-ion power sources, especially as coastal flooding increasingly becomes the norm, but a promising new alternative could one day be available to carmakers. Thanks to novel breakthroughs at the University of Central Florida electric cars could one day embrace saltwater instead of avoiding it entirely. The result, says research lead Yang Yang, an associate professor at UCF, is a potentially revolutionary battery to “remain safe even if they are used improperly or are flooded in saltwater.” While it is still likely a while until we start seeing Ford F-150 Lightning trucks barreling down flooded roads thanks to aqueous saltwater batteries, the new innovations could soon address one of lithium-ion batteries’ most concerning hazards, thus encouraging the rapidly-approaching EV transition.

Characters like The Mad Hatter and Alice from "Alice in Wonderland" are taking patients at Nemours Children's Health on an interactive scavenger hunt as part of a traveling theatre program through the University of Central Florida. The program, dubbed The Jeanette M. Gould Traveling Theatre Fund, was made possible by Bruce and Jeffery Gould. The program is named after their mother, who had a love for theatre and was a longtime supporter of the nursing profession. UCF Associate Professor Elizabeth Horn said she is grateful for the opportunity to bring the magic of theatre to children in the hospital. “They don’t get the chance to go and see theatre,” Horn said. “For many of them, they’re having extended stays at the hospital, and we really know what the power of theatre can do to bring joy, to bring laughter, to bring a sense of acceptance and a sense of familiarity. Even just that distraction aspect, a bit of escapism, spending time in their imaginations making believe, that really has a healing power. We believe in that.” The traveling theatre program is a partnership between the College of Arts and Humanities and the College of Nursing. Department Chair for the College of Nursing Azizeh Sowan said bringing the arts to kids in the hospital will have a positive impact on their care. “It’s going to provide them a patient-centered care, it’s going to decrease that stress level, and it’s going to give them a chance to do something fun, which is extremely important for their mental health,” Sowan said.

Alex Martins, chair, UCF Board of Trustees; CEO, Orlando Magic writes: "Researchers from the Florida High Tech Corridor’s three universities enter the new year driving discoveries and inventions for the people of Florida. In the latest National Academy of Inventors report, the universities of Central Florida, Florida and South Florida’s combined annual patent total (272) would rank No. 3 in the world, behind only the University of California system and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Patents are critical to bringing to the marketplace new technologies in engineering, science, medicine and other fields that make our society safer and healthier and advance our quality of life."

In addition to the catwalks, our Miss Puerto Rico, Ashley Cariño, has a passion for science. In fact, she is currently studying aerospace engineering at the University of Central Florida, where she is looking to specialize in rocket propulsion. Precisely, her love for space sciences motivated her typical costume, inspired by the Arecibo Radio Telescope. For this reason, she told NotiCentro that she wanted, "A representation of an aspect that had not been touched in a typical costume." “People think that typical costumes have to be very colorful or have to be about the Yunque or flowers, but the reality is that Puerto Rico is much more than that. In Puerto Rico we are also professionals, we are brilliant, intelligent people who have contributed so much to the sciences…. And that's something I wanted to represent," Ashley said. The dress was designed and built by Puerto Rican artist and mechanical engineer DJ King Arthur. It has 42 pieces of biodegradable plastic designed and printed in 3D format, which form the main reflector and the Gregorian dome of the Arecibo Radio Telescope. NOTE: This article is in Spanish.

The phrase “the markets” has typically become a shorthand for the major indexes: the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, the Nasdaq composite. Because markets are aggregating reactions from all participants, if there’s a positive jobs report, it becomes easier to just say “markets are pleased with the report” as opposed to “investors in the markets are happy,” noted Honghui Chen, a finance professor at the University of Central Florida.

Concerns are building that we’re possibly headed toward a recession. WESH 2 spoke with some people in Central Florida on how they are planning and asked some experts for advice. “Some people are ready and some people aren’t. And if you aren’t, you got to get with it because it’s coming,” resident Jacob Hungerford said. Many economists agree with Hungerford that a recession is on its way this year. Inflation has slowed a bit and now prices are not as bad as last year. When it does arrive, it should not be as bad as previous recessions. “The upside here in Central Florida is that this is not going to look anything like the 2020 recession or the 2008/2009 recessions, both of which hit particularly hard here,” said Sean Snaith of UCF’s Institute for Economic Forecasting.