UCF in the News

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.

Filling industry needs and partnering with local companies on training programs are top of mind for Orlando colleges and universities. University of Central Florida Provost Michael Johnson has seen more companies sponsor educational programs. For instance, UCF teamed with Amazon.com Inc.’s Career Choice program in March, which allows the e-commerce giant to pay employees' tuition at the school. Also launching this summer is the UCF Downtown Scholars Initiative, an effort to sponsor education for students in historically underserved communities, via a $3.25 million partnership with the Helios Education Foundation.

Nearly three years ago, Orange County’s biggest employer and its biggest university started working together to make education more accessible. Disney announced it was paying tuition upfront for hourly employees who enrolled at the University of Central Florida as part of its Disney Aspire program. UCF disclosed the latest results: More than 250 Disney World workers have already earned degrees as Knights and another 800 are currently taking classes this spring semester. “We’re over 1,000 students in a short period of time… and we know that this is only the beginning,” said UCF Vice Provost Theodorea Regina Berry.

At 21 years old, Ashley Ortiz Rosario was a year away from graduating from the University of Puerto Rico’s Rio Piedras campus, but in September 2017, Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc in Puerto Rico. Ortiz Rosario enrolled and eventually graduated from Valencia College, then the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management.

A local educational nonprofit has donated $2 million dollars to support the college dreams of Jones high school seniors and eventually, Evans and Oak Ridge High School students. The $2 million dollar grant from the Helios Education Foundation along with funds from the University of Central Florida will be used to set up the UCF Downtown Scholars Initiative or DSI. Its goal is to increase enrollment among first-generation and other underrepresented college students on campus.

Major League Baseball recently teamed up with the the University of Central Florida Research Hub to provide students with a unique opportunity to learn more than just a game. Together, they hosted a baseball day for families in Central Florida last month.“Any activity that recognizes the Puerto Rican community, I think it brings up all that validity to the community of the good contributions that we’re making here in Central Florida and in Florida,” said Fernando Rivera, a professor of sociology and director of the Puerto Rico Research Hub at the University of Central Florida.

Jeanette-Marie Reynoso stepped onto her first college campus in fall 2006, with a garbage bag full of clothes and her personal documents. While Reynoso settled into Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, she watched as parents showered their children with hugs, kisses and brand-new everythings. Her imposter syndrome birthed a sea of insecurities – she was a foster kid who aged out of the system with no guidance in life, let alone about college. In her first year, Reynoso was failing. She withdrew from classes, joined AmeriCorps to teach for a year and life soon followed. The New Jersey resident became a wife and mother to three. Reynoso, who is 35, returned to school four years ago. She transferred to the University of Central Florida in January 2020. Three weeks into her first semester, the global pandemic hit. She remained involved. She became a Ronald McNair Scholar, joined summer research programs at Vanderbilt University, accepted a full-time internship at an elementary school and received a job offer as a teacher. Her greatest achievement is breaking the generational cycle, she said. As she accepted the top honors from her college at UCF, her own children, wearing Knight merch, fantasized about going to college. “I realized in that moment, ‘Oh my gosh, I broke the cycle for them’,” she said. “When they come to UCF, they’re not going to be first-gen students.”