UCF in the News

The University of Central Florida ranked No. 7 overall. UF and UCF also garnered high rankings for several online majors. UCF ranked No. 6 for online bachelor’s degrees in psychology and No. 8 for the online bachelor’s in business. It also ranked No. 8 for online bachelor’s programs for veterans and No. 9 for online master’s in criminal justice programs for veterans. Tom Cavanaugh, UCF vice provost of digital learning, also credited faculty for the high ratings. “They take the time and effort to create a positive, engaging learning environment for all of our online students and have helped distinguish UCF as a leader in digital learning,” he said in a statement.

Key players in Central Florida’s startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem spoke at Orlando Inno’s 2022 Startup Outlook panel on Jan. 20.Michael Weiss, associate director of research programs and services, University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program, said: “I work with a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of early-stage technology startups. What I've seen as a challenge is a well-rounded team. They either have a very talented technologist who is afraid of sales, or they have a business development person who can't develop their product. It is a real struggle. They turn to investors, but it's too early for them to invest. So it's a real chicken-and-egg scenario.”

When it comes to pandemic trends, the proof is in the numbers. Florida’s latest COVID status report shows improvement with the number of new cases plummeting last week compared to the week before. “We’re heading in the right direction,” said UCF epidemiologist Elena Cyrus. Cyrus said she is seeing the same pattern. She starts off every week with a COVID update call with the National Institutes of Health and said she is taking note of Florida’s improving new case positivity rate.

A UCF head coach is getting a chance to help the U.S. women’s national team in January. Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak, the head coach of the UCF women’s soccer team, will serve as an assistant coach in the annual January training camp, according to a tweet from UCF. Roberts Sahaydak has been the head coach for the Knights since May 2013, according to ucfknights.com. Since then, the Knights have won four American Athletic Conference championships and earned four NCAA Tournament bids. Roberts Sahaydak has also been named the American Athletic Conference coach of the year three times.

The UCF women’s basketball team has been on a tear and is beginning to receive national recognition for its effort on the court. Following back-to-back home wins over Houston and then-No. 24 South Florida, the Knights (12-2, 4-0 AAC) were named the NCAA.com women’s basketball Team of the Week on Tuesday. Sitting atop the American Athletic Conference, UCF received 25 votes in the latest USA TODAY Sports women’s basketball coaches poll and nine votes in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Schools are expanding app communication processes so students can access information anywhere, anytime, through text, portal messaging, and chatbots for the entire campus or targeted groups—with options to opt-in or out of specific features, improving student control over the communication they receive. Ryan Seilhamer, assistant director of mobile strategy and innovation at the University of Central Florida states, “Creating better access to data, making it easier to discover relevant campus experiences, and offering open and transparent communication is something we have to continue to grow in 2022.”

Seminole High School went on lockdown shortly after noon Wednesday following a shooting on campus, according to district officials. Deborah Beidel, professor of psychology at the University of Central Florida, said students will react differently to Wednesday’s school shooting. Beidel said some students may feel anxious returning to campus Thursday. “I wouldn’t be surprised if going back to school tomorrow, some kids felt a little bit of nervousness or they might be thinking or they may even have a startled reaction if they hear a car backfire because that sounds like a gunshot,” Beidel said.

Stuck in traffic, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero was listening to a radio interview about a 3-D printed mechanical hand. Manero was deeply involved in aerospace research, but “it so captured me — this idea that you could use design work to help children so directly. So I rallied friends and peers and said ‘let’s do this and do it well.’ ” Shortly afterward, a family reached out and asked if the group could build their son a bionic arm. “I said, I don’t know how to do that, but we’re going to figure out how to do that.” Eight weeks later, Limbitless’ first customer, 6-year-old Alex, received a bionic arm.“ That started the snowball that is now Limbitless and anchored here at UCF,” says CEO Manero, who co-founded the company with fellow engineers John Sparkman and Dominique Courbin. “The team around me is what pushed the technology further than I ever thought possible.”

Face masks are touted as a key tool in preventing the spread of COVID-19, and a new study offers more proof that they work. "The research provides clear evidence and guidelines that three feet of distancing with face coverings is better than six feet of distancing without face coverings," said study co-author Kareem Ahmed. He's an associate professor in the University of Central Florida Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.