UCF in the News

On the eve of the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico was hit again by Fiona, a category one storm. Sadly, many Puerto Ricans find themselves again without water, electricity and other basic services. Some may ask, how is this possible? Didn’t Puerto Rico receive millions in federal aid after Maria for its dilapidated infrastructure? Those are simple questions with complicated answers. Hurricane Fiona is the latest episode in a series of events that unfolded in the last five years, including the removal of then-Gov. Ricardo Rossello in the summer of 2019 after the crude content of a private group chat that he was in was leaked. Also in the mix, allegations of public corruption, seismic activity and the COVID-19 pandemic. Then Fiona hit, exposing to the world —again — the fragility of an island home to 3.2 million American citizens.

Hurricane Fiona struck the U.S. territory Monday, killing four, triggering mudslides and crushing bridges while displacing more than a thousand and leaving more than a million residents without power. Some wonder whether the storm will prompt the kind of exodus seen after Hurricane Maria. Fernando Rivera, a sociology professor at the University of Central Florida, agreed. “As days without electricity and water are prolonged along with rising temperatures and the potential of other rain events, there is a high likelihood that those with family and friends in New York or Florida will come stateside to seek some relief, particularly those dealing with health issues,” he said.

Alexander Cartwright President, University of Central Florida As president of the University of Central Florida, Alexander Cartwright is a living example of the role education can play in a person’s success. He came to UCF in April 2020 from his chancellor position at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Even more significant was that Cartwright was the first in his family to receive a college education. He has a passion for opening pathways to success for anybody willing to put in the work. “Universities continue to find new ways to broaden our ability to serve our communities, expanding beyond education to fuel economic prosperity through innovations, partnerships, and discoveries that impact society,” he explains.

Developing life-saving medicines can take billions of dollars and decades of time, but University of Central Florida researchers are aiming to speed up this process with a new artificial intelligence-based drug screening process they've developed. Using a method that models drug and target protein interactions using natural language processing techniques, the researchers achieved up to 97% accuracy in identifying promising drug candidates. “With AI becoming more available, this has become something that AI can tackle,” says study co-author Ozlem Garibay, an assistant professor in UCF’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems. “You can try out so many variations of proteins and drug interactions and find out which are more likely to bind or not.”

Lately, all eyes are turned towards the moon. “You can talk to anyone in the [space] community,” says Adrienne Dove, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida. “You can talk to the folks who have been around for 50 years, or the new folks, but it just feels real this time.” Dove’s optimism doesn’t just come from the Artemis 1 rocket poised for liftoff at Kennedy Space Center. She sees myriad differentiating factors this time, including the collaboration between private companies and NASA, the growing international support for the space governance framework, the Artemis Accords, and the competition from rival nations like China and Russia to stake out a lunar presence. Perhaps one of the biggest arguments from moon base supporters is the need for a stepping stone to send humans even deeper into space. “We want to learn how to live on the moon so we can go to Mars,” Dove says.

Parents see their quality of life suffer when caring for an autistic child, says a new study. And the more severe the autism the greater the impact on the parents’ quality of life. Parents see their quality of life suffer when caring for an autistic child, says a new study Dr Dawn Turnage said families coping with severe autism need “tailored resources” Dr Dawn Turnage, of the University of Central Florida, conducted the review study. She found the quality of life was lower in parents of autistic children in physical, psychological and social health. It was also lower in spirituality. Turnage is a lecturer in the university’s college of nursing. She also serves on the leadership council of the US National Council on Severe Autism. Better educated parents saw their quality of life suffer less, Turnage found.

Traditional forms of community supervision that focus on control and punishment have failed to improve client outcomes. In response, training programs for probation officers have been developed to better incorporate more rehabilitation-focused strategies into community corrections practices. In a new meta-analysis, researchers assessed the impact of these programs on various outcomes for probation officers and their clients. They found that these programs provide advantages for both groups, supporting their continued use. Conducted by researchers at the University of Central Florida (UCF), the study appears in Justice Quarterly. "Given the considerable amount of time and resources required to implement and sustain these training programs, a better understanding of their impact on probation officers and clients is critical for justifying their use," explains Ryan Labrecque, associate professor of criminal justice at UCF, who led the study.

Perla Latorre-Suárez fights back tears as she thinks about the sacrifices her parents made, sending her to the mainland from Puerto Rico so she could live her dreams of working in the aerospace industry. "You know they've given it all for me and my brother - I'm sorry," Latorre-Suárez said as she wiped her eyes. Her dream is similar to that of Isabella Pardo, a UCF undergraduate student working to earn her degree in photonic science and engineering. “My goal is to work for an aerospace company in photonics or optics,” Pardo said.

The UCF Police Department will host an event to offer free forensic marking for catalytic converters on vehicles belonging to students at the university, the school announced in a partnership with ProTechDNA and State Farm. The department announced it will provide high-tech labels that can be placed on the catalytic converters and other items like bicycles, computers, phones and tablets. According to a statement released by UCF police, the labels have “microscopic dots embedded into adhesive, and each dot is etched with a PIN number unique to the property owner.” If the label is removed, the adhesive remains on the item, allowing law enforcement the ability to return the item to its owner if it is recovered after being lost or stolen, the police department said.