UCF in the News

Halloween events at Orlando’s theme parks are major contributors to theme park revenue and to Orlando tourism. Carissa Baker, assistant professor of theme park and attraction management at UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, said with many theme park companies just returning to profitability, Halloween events can give them an “extra boost” during a difficult year.

Hospitals dealing with staff shortages and an influx of COVID-19 patients are calling for the help of nursing students from UCF and other area nursing programs. Kate Dorminy, clinical coordinator at UCF’s College of Nursing, said, “Given the high demand and honestly desperation that our clinical teams are in in the Central Florida area, wherever you want to go, whatever length of shift you’re available to do, the need is there and bring it on.”

UCF’s programming team has advanced to the world finals of the 2021 International Collegiate Programming Contest. The team finished 19th in the North American competition earlier this month, and the world finals will be held in spring of next year. UCF has finished in the top 10 of the World Finals six times.

Owen Kirby, a fellow with the University of Central Florida's Global Perspectives and International Initiatives program, is keeping a close eye on in the situation in Afghanistan.

In 2006, astronomers gathered for a conference in Prague and determined that the solar system had eight planets, formally excluding Pluto as a planetary body. For Phil Metzger, a UCF planetary scientist, the decision was scientifically cowardly.

In a historic $26 billion settlement with four of the biggest pharmaceutical companies, billions of dollars will likely be heading toward various states to address what leaders call a worsening opioid crises. Barbara Andraka-Christou, an assistant professor with UCF’s School of Global Health and Informatics, says the claims were that these companies made opioids “too readily available, and on the side of Johnson & Johnson, its inappropriate marketing practices.”

Kyle Coon, a UCF alumnus and elite para triathlete, lost his sight at age 7 after he was diagnosed with retinoblastoma. Ranked seventh in the world among para triathletes, Coon will be one of the 290 members of Team USA in Tokyo for the Paralympic games.

UCF Knights returned to campus for the fall semester with many of those classes now back in person, and there are new security measures in place to prepare for potential threats on campus like an active shooter or hurricane. New lockdown buttons were installed on UCF’s main campus in the 2020-21 academic year that can lockdown all access-controlled doors on a particular campus, while first responders can still gain access to the building.

“Get Vacci-Knighted and Beat Covid,” that’s the message University of Central Florida leaders are strongly spreading throughout campus as thousands return for the fall semester.