UCF in the News

Amid the backdrop of newly announced Artemis moon-mission postponements, analysts expect potential NASA administrator Jared Isaacman to shake up the agency from a private-businessman and private-astronaut perspective — "NASA needs to be prepared for dramatic changes."Isaacman is the 41-year-old billionaire founder and CEO of Shift4 who partnered with Elon Musk's SpaceX to command and finance the groundbreaking Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn commercial astronaut spaceflights. Greg Autry, associate provost for space commercialization and strategy at the University of Central Florida, said "NASA needs to be prepared for dramatic changes." "When you look at Artemis, basically every vendor has problems with every system in that program. And the whole thing is kind of coming off the tracks," Autry said during a Wednesday FLORIDA TODAY interview — the day before NASA announced the latest Artemis II and Artemis III delays.

UCF coach Gus Malzahn has resigned after four seasons with the school. ESPN’s Pete Thamel was the first to report the move, with Malzahn leaving to take the offensive coordinator job at Florida State. Malzahn previously worked with FSU coach Mike Norvell during their time at Tulsa under then-coach Todd Graham from 2007-08. The Seminoles fired offensive coordinator Alex Atkins on Nov. 10 in a coaching purge following a disastrous 2-win season. UCF Athletics released a statement: “We would like to thank Coach Malzahn for his contributions to our football program over the past four seasons, including our transition into the Big 12 Conference. We appreciate his professionalism and dedication to our student-athletes throughout his tenure at UCF and wish he and his wife, Kristi, the very best in their future endeavors.”

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Central Florida is already an important and growing hub for humanity's efforts to thrive in outer space. The University of Central Florida now wants to bolster that by developing one-of-a-kind "space medicine" programs for students at the College of Medicine. Emmanuel Urquieta will lead the charge. In his office at the college, it's easy to see his love for space and medicine. The walls are adorned by flight patches, some decorative and some showing the projects he's worked on.

Dr. Leland Nordin and his team at the University of Central Florida are using high-intensity lasers of UVC light to kill viruses and bacteria on surfaces. With the help of a $1 million U.S. Army grant, the researchers hope this laser technology can one day help the world stay clean. "This is a way to really flood a whole room and laser them down, essentially," Nordin said. UCF graduate research assistant Biridiana Rodriguez demonstrated a tiny pinpoint of light, no bigger than the tip of a needle, on a crystal wafer. Under a microscope, the light shone brightly, just one of thousands of diodes on the thin wafer. "It essentially deactivates them or kills them in the same way it would hurt our skin. Like UVA or UVB rips them apart from intense energy. So why doesn't it hurt our skin in the same way? It's because our skin is thick enough," Nordin said. Looking at that same light under a microscope shows how strong a single laser diode can shine. Dr. Nordin is working to make similar laser wafers that emit the invisible UVC light. Researchers use their equipment to actually grow their lasers, and they do it by creating wafers. When the wafer is attached to a power source, it can create a laser light.

Did you know there have been five U.S. Presidential Elections in which the winner lost the popular vote? The Electoral College has voted to elect John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Benjamin Harrison in the distant past, and George W. Bush and Donald Trump in modern times. Despite proposals to change or abolish the Electoral College (the University of Central Florida reports there have been over 1,000), there are many reasons why these attempts failed. Firstly, as UCF History Professor John Sacher explains, the Electoral College is part of the U.S. Constitution — and amending the Constitution is complicated and difficult. Additionally, Sacher argues that the Electoral College is useful in instances like the 2000 Presidential Election. Despite Gore winning a plurality of the popular vote, he didn’t win a majority. Neither Bush nor Gore won the majority and it fell upon the electors to decide. Sacher explains: “We are the only nation that still uses an Electoral College… Given that this discussion has already lasted well over 100 years, we may be in for 100 more.”

The two people killed early Friday in a mass shooting in downtown Orlando have been identified as Timothy Schmidt Jr., 19, and Tyrek Hill, 25, according to the Orlando Police Department. OPD on Saturday afternoon provided the names and ages of the two men. No additional details were available about Hill. Schmidt, of Weston, was a freshman at the University of Central Florida, according to a GoFundMe page set up for his family. “Please join the Alpha Epsilon Pi Nu Delta Chapter of Central Florida in raising money for Timothy Schmidt Jr’s family as Tim was tragically and innocently murdered in a shooting in Downtown Orlando in the hours following Halloween, on November 1st, 2024,” the page said. “He was an extraordinary person, loving son, caring friend, talented soccer player, astounding teammate, kind soul, hardworking student and individual with an extremely warm heart and a witty sense of humor.”

Food Insecurity on Campus: The UCF Knights football team will host undefeated Brigham Young University on Saturday. BYU Cougars fans are putting a twist on their game day tailgating. They’re bringing clothes, canned goods, and other critical supplies to their tailgate area at Carillon Elementary School in Oviedo. BYU Alumni Chapter Chair for Orlando Christian Rasband joins Engage to tell us how the Cougs Care program will support UCF students and the Knights Helping Knights Pantry this weekend. The Knights Helping Knights Pantry was created by UCF students who wanted to help their classmates struggling to access or afford essential items like food, clothes, or personal hygiene products. UCF senior Chloe Milliron started volunteering with the Knights Helping Knights Pantry as a freshman and is now the manager of the student-run organization. She joins Engage to discuss the resource to combat food insecurity on campus.

With hypersonic travel, people can fly from New York to London in less than 15 minutes or explore space — and the University of Central Florida wants a piece of the action. The school launched a new center to study the technology for hypersonic travel — which is up to 17 times the speed of sound or 13,000 mph. UCF President Alexander Cartwright celebrated this week’s opening of the Center of Excellence in Hypersonic and Space Propulsion — or the HyperSpace Center — in the Central Florida Research Park by the main campus. “What we create here and across UCF will define the aerospace and defense industries for generations,” Cartwright said in front of U.S. Reps. Darren Soto and Daniel Webster and State Rep. Susan Plasencia as well as other officials. At the new center, UCF faculty, graduate students and undergraduates will be working to develop the technology fueling hypersonic travel. The school has received millions of dollars in U.S. Department of Defense grants.