UCF in the News

Thomas Wahl, a UCF assistant professor and civil engineer, heads the Coastal Risks and Engineering (CoRE) Lab, which studies things like coastal engineering design concepts, sustainability for humans in coastal zones and climate adaptation. Last month, he joined a team of researchers backed by a $20 million award from the U.S. National Science Foundation to develop a Megalopoitan Coastal Transformation Hub, which is designed to “create climate-resilient decision-making frameworks to equitably support coastal communities.”

When athletics director Terry Mohajir and president Alexander Cartwright stood in front of a podium posing for photos with a Big 12 Conference logo behind them celebrating the move to a Power Five conference, someone monumental in helping UCF reach this point was missing from the festivities. Sitting in his Wisconsin home more than 1,000 miles away from Orlando, former UCF president John Hitt, 80, felt proud of his university on a historic day. The Knights had finally done it.

Few universities have more experience with the hybrid approach than the University of Central Florida, which began experimenting with blended and online classes in the 1990s, and where 90% of the university’s 59,000 undergraduates take such classes today. UCF’s Center for Distributed Learning has played a vital role in this transformation, serving as a clearinghouse for online learning strategies and practices and as a hub of training for professors.

In 2020, 58-year-old Lake Wales resident Brenda Brogdon was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her doctors removed both her breasts, potentially saving her life. Months later, Brogdon opted to get implants. But the recovery process wasn’t complete until tattoo artist Stacie Becker crafted realistic-looking areolas onto her restored breasts, transforming her implants from “a piece of skin” into something that finally helped her move beyond breast cancer. As a painting major and psychology minor at the University of Central Florida, Becker has teamed up with Clinical Psychology professor Jeffrey Cassisi, who directs UCF’s Health Psychology Lab.

The University of Central Florida hosted their Athletics Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony Friday night at The Celeste hotel on campus. Which is where five former UCF athletes got to celebrate all of their accomplishments and culminate their journey in Orlando. Blake Bortles, Football (2010-2014), Afia Charles, Track & Field (2011-2014), Natalie Land, Softball (2009-2012), Josh Sitton, Football (2004-2007), and Jermaine Taylor, Basketball (2005-2009) made up the extremely talented class that stretched through ten years of UCF athletics.

It is estimated that thousands of COVID-19 patients who recover after a stay in intensive care still experience significant complications for months. A new study by University of Central Florida researchers hopes to change that. Over the past two years, critical care nurse Dr. Brian Peach noticed that once a ventilator was removed from many patients, including COVID-19 survivors, other problems began.

UCF will develop and create innovative technology to support NASA’s Artemis program. The university was one of seven awarded a $500,000 grant by NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) Space Technology Artemis Research, or M-STAR initiative because it’s a Hispanic Serving Institution, meaning a quarter of its student population are Hispanic. UCF faculty and students who are experts in engineering, physics and medicine will work together to develop scientific and educational efforts in robotics; materials for extreme environments; and entry, descent and landing technologies.

Finding a job can be difficult if a person lacks the right clothes, and organizations in Central Florida are trying to address that problem. Rubuta Morency is a senior at UCF and Assistant manager of the “Knights Helping Knights” Pantry, an on-campus resource for students needing assistance.

The University of Central Florida has moved more tenants into the UCF Lake Nona Cancer Center, with another one nearly done with buildout construction. The university has a committee made up of leaders from UCF and the center's tenants, with plans to eventually name someone to lead the entire center following the completion of all construction there. UCF's goal for the UCF Lake Nona Cancer Center is to bring together cancer research and treatment organizations in one site to collaborate and provide patient services for the 64-bed UCF Lake Nona Medical Center, which opened in March in partnership with Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: HCA).