UCF in the News

The country may be recovering from the economic impacts of the pandemic, but now new issues with backlogs of shipping containers at ports across the country, labor shortages and supply chain problems are causing higher prices. Families around the nation are having to modify their budgets due to increasing prices on goods ranging from gasoline to groceries to items needed for manufacturing. “The backlog of goods basically affects the time it takes for consumers to receive products for retailers first to receive products to put on the shelves,” Axel Stock, an associate UCF professor of marketing said. Stock said prices tend to go up when a product can’t be delivered.

A University of Central Florida study is hoping to better understand the long-term complications of COVID-19 respiratory failure or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) after hospitalization in the intensive care unit. “I find it very problematic that we save people’s lives only for them to ultimately have a terrible quality of life afterward,” said Brian Peach, an ICU nurse and UCF assistant professor, who is spearheading a year-long study that’ll compare complications for both COVID-19 patients and ICU survivors who were treated for respiratory failure.

Despite the lingering coronavirus pandemic that delayed or derailed some federal and private agencies’ spending plans, the University of Central Florida generated $212.9 million in research awards this year, up more than $8 million from 2020. UCF’s research awards total doesn’t include any CARES or Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds, which the federal government provided in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Research grants and contracts have been on an upward trajectory for UCF since 2016, increasing from $145.8 million in 2016 to this year's $212.9 million.

For the fifth straight season, UCF will wear space-themed uniforms, and this year the program will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Space Shuttle program’s first flight when the Knights take on Memphis this Friday night. “I think it’s cool,” Knights coach Gus Malzahn said. “I think it’s really good. I think recruits love it. I know our players love it. When the players love it and recruits love it, I love it.”

UCF is joining LaserNetUS, a consortium of the nation’s best large laser facilities started by the Department of Energy as a part of a broader strategy to boost the nation’s standing in intense laser science. The invitation to join LaserNetUS will expand UCF’s capabilities in the area of attosecond science, which aims to study and control the motion of electrons and will open UCF laser facilities to external users. Membership also allows the team to expand into the bourgeoning area of relativistic laser-plasma interactions, in which electrons and other particles are driven to speeds close to the speed of light.

UCF physicist and geologist Dan Britt is among the scientists ready to analyze data from the Lucy mission after its blast off from the Space Coast on Saturday. This will be the fourth NASA mission for Britt, who in 2012 invented a way for the Mars rover to beam back pictures in vibrant color. This time, he helps lead the science team to study what is collected from Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids on this first trip to this part of the solar system.

Could eye tracking and reading facial expressions be the future of virtual doctor appointments? Researcher and University of Central Florida professor Roger Azevedo thinks so. He is leading a new project at UCF, set to start in January, to better study how artificial intelligence (AI) can help with Telehealth, an industry that’s grown exponentially especially since the pandemic started.

University of Central Florida researchers have found a novel genetic marker to discriminate between strains of a common bacteria in coastal waters that can cause deadly disease to humans and strains that don’t make people sick. The findings, published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, focus on Vibrio vulnificus, a potentially deadly bacteria that can enter the bloodstream via scratches and other open wounds. The researchers say their findings can help to predict the conditions that set the stage for future outbreaks from other pathogens.

It's been a busy year for the University of Central Florida's business incubators. UCF's Business Incubation Program in the past 13 months lured at least six new-to-market companies through its soft-landing program, which is aimed at out-of-state and international firms. These firms bring Central Florida the possibility of new high-wage jobs and draw cutting-edge technology closer to potential local customers and partners. "It was like the floodgates opened," said Carol Ann Dykes Logue, UCF’s Innovation Districts and Incubation Program director of programs and operations. "As things began to open up, they were chomping at the bit to pull the trigger."