UCF in the News

The Rosen College of Hospitality within the University of Central Florida has been recognized once again. The school was ranked top five worldwide in the ShanghaiRankings’ 2022 list, which includes 500 top universities. This is the third time Rosen College’s hospitality program was ranked No. 1 in the nation and among the top five in the world.

“Everyone deserves the chance to play" was much more than just a motto on a T-shirt for the participants at the University of Central Florida’s inaugural Adaptive Tennis Day this spring. Hosted at no cost by the UCF Recreation & Wellness Center on May 31, participants of all ages and abilities joined volunteers to share in the joys of tennis. Dr. Jill Fjelstul, an associate professor at the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management and founder of the non-profit Champions at Play, Inc., organized the event with the goal of providing a fun and memorable experience for all involved—having seen first-hand in her own family the positive impact that sports can have on individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Climbing boulders and rolling through quicksand-like conditions, NASA’s latest lunar rover is getting ready to take on the alien terrain of the moon. For now, it’s passing tests in Cleveland, Ohio at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. Recently, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) prototype passed its test of conquering a lunar obstacle course, NASA said Tuesday. And while the rover tests from afar, VIPER is getting some assistance in preparation thanks to the University of Central Florida, which sold NASA lunar simulated rocks from its Exolith Lab. UCF’s lab, which is managed a mile north of its main campus, produces alien-simulated soil imitating properties found on the moon, Mars and other celestial bodies.

Could sight be a sense soon to be unlocked by artificial intelligence? This is the basis of a project led by researchers at the University of Central Florida. Thanks to a device capable of reproducing the retina of a human eye, their creation could lead to new, more powerful AI systems with new capabilities. In practical terms, the technology could allow AI to instantly understand what it's actually looking at. The most obvious applications for such technology are autonomous cars and robotics.

Just weeks ahead of the start of the new academic school year, Florida State University and the University of Central Florida announced new hires for administrative positions. Rodney Grabowski is UCF’s new Senior Vice President of Advancement and Partnerships.“[Grabowski] has an incredible track record of success in fundraising, university advancement, and in fostering the connections and relationships necessary to fuel the success of a 21st-century university,” UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright says.

Like most cities where tourism fuels the economy, Orlando was hit hard by the pandemic. The theme parks shut down for months in 2020. The restaurants and hotels which once served millions of tourists a year were quiet. The smaller businesses were hurt too. The airport slowed down to a grind. Thousands of employees were temporarily out of work. Now, the University of Central Florida is starting a $4.5 million research project that educators believe will help the next time a pandemic strikes.

When asteroid 2019 OK suddenly appeared barreling toward Earth on July 25, 2019, Luisa Fernanda Zambrano-Marin and the team of astronomers at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico quickly sprang into action. After receiving an alert, the radar scientists zoned in on the asteroid, which was approaching from Earth’s blind spot — solar opposition. Zambrano-Marin and the team had just 30 minutes to collect as many radar readings as they could. The asteroid was traveling so fast, that’s all the time she’d have it in Arecibo’s sights. University of Central Florida manages the Arecibo Observatory for the U.S. National Science Foundation under a cooperative agreement. Because the asteroid appeared to come out of nowhere and was traveling so fast, it made headline news.

In the future, patients may have more treatment options thanks to the new method of tracking metastatic cancer cells that have been developed by researchers at the University of Central Florida. Dr Annette Khaled's research lab reported in the most recent issue of PLOS ONE that they used a protein complex called chaperonin as a new marker for cancer cells in the blood, which provides a clearer indication of cancer spread.

The future of astronomy arrived with a window to the ancient past as NASA released the first images of the James Webb Space Telescope. The $10 billion looking glass delivered on a stellar promise 30 years in the making with out of this world images that left University of Central Florida researchers gawking. Noemi Pinilla-Alonso, a UCF planetary scientist, was with her team at the Florida Space Institute when the images dropped. Pinilla-Alonso is among the eight UCF researchers and one alumna who will be using the solar system’s mightiest space telescope to answer long-held questions, or (more probably) discover questions scientists haven’t thought to ask yet.