UCF in the News

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.

A 2020 study from UCF found that N95 and KF94 masks were even better at containing droplets and aerosols than surgical masks. Wearing “anything is worth it,” says Kareem Ahmed, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Central Florida and co-author of the new study. “You’re limiting your transmission of aerosols and droplets to the person next to you.”

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected 10 defense and university research teams — including one from UCF — to develop lightweight, state-of-the-art night vision optics for American soldiers.

The University of Central Florida downtown business incubator and startup accelerator Starter Studio held the grand opening of their shared space in the historic Kress Building on Jan. 11. Not only does the opening fill long-empty storefronts on Orange Avenue, but it's also the first step toward the possible creation of "the hub of entrepreneurial activity downtown."

As the COVID pandemic took hold in March 2020, Valerie Contreras lost her jobs as a Disney hotel concierge and server at a Kissimmee restaurant, both within five days. Like her fellow students at UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, 25-year-old Contreras from Mesa, Ariz., worried about the future of the hospitality industry and her career prospects within it. But in October, she landed a year-long salaried internship with the Four Seasons Hotel in Atlanta through networking at Rosen. She starts it later this month. Despite hospitality jobs remaining below pre-pandemic levels, the 315 undergraduate students who graduated from Rosen in December reported around a 95% expected employment rate by their commencement. Alan Fyall, associate dean of academic affairs at Rosen, said the employment figures for fall 2021 graduates have been “excellent.” He said the college’s data shows recent graduates are working around 30 hours per week, on average. Additionally, 60% of them are working for companies they interned with while at Rosen, he said.

On Wednesday, the Journal of Infectious Diseases published a study from researchers at the University of Central Florida that found face masks could cut the distance that COVID-19 spreads by more than half the distance. UCF researchers found that standing three feet apart with a mask is safer than social distance six feet apart without one. “We’ve been finding that the CDC guidelines, the recommendation of six feet social distance could be further to three feet or even two or one feet on the condition that masks are being worn,” the study's co-author Bernhard Stiehl said. “It’s a very big deal because the CDC keeps revising guidelines.”

As the space industry continues to soar, it’s being filled with homegrown talent. Thanks to a NASA Pathways Internship program, a recent UCF graduate is going straight from the classroom to managing Kennedy Space Center’s 3D-printing center for space missions. Since 2016, 47 UCF students have interned in the program and earned full-time employment at Kennedy Space Center.