UCF in the News

Central Florida is coming together five years later to honor the memory of the victims of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting. On a corner of the University of Central Florida Student Union, facing Aquarius Agora Drive, a mural by artist Michael Pilato depicts UCF student Juan Ramon Guerrero and alumnus Christopher Andrew “Drew” Leinonen. The two were among the 49 killed at Pulse. Students and visitors can pause to reflect on the lives lost, specifically the couple depicted in the mural.

At the University of Central Florida, the RESTORES team has been building trauma therapies using virtual reality that allows clinicians to control the level of detail in a simulation, down to the color of a bedspread or a TV that can be clicked on or off, in order to more easily trigger traumatic memories. The program offers free trauma therapy, often using V.R., to Florida residents and focuses on treating PTSD. Dr. Deborah Beidel, psychology professor and executive director of RESTORES, has broadened the treatments beyond visuals, customizing sounds and even smells to create an augmented reality for patients.

For the second year in a row, the ShanghaiRanking Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2021 ranked Rosen College No. 1 in the nation and No. 2 in the world. College leadership credit the ranking to its collaborative, international research initiatives and its curriculum that spans the entire hospitality spectrum, from foodservice and restaurant management to travel technology and analytics.

Jobs supported by UCF research have ramped up with investment by the school over the last few years. As of fiscal-year 2019, there were more than 2,544 jobs supported by research, up 85 percent from 1,375 jobs in fiscal 2012, according to data from UCF’s Institute of Economic Forecasting Director Sean Snaith.

A new master’s degree program at UCF that will help students learn to protect vulnerable computer systems and provide the resources to fill thousands of vacant cybersecurity jobs.

VSS Unity carried research experiments for NASA on its flight, including an experiment called the Collisions Into Dust Experiment from the University of Central Florida that seeks to study the behavior of dust and fine particles in response to human and robotic activities in space.

Nestled in UCF's Business Incubator is FlairrLabs, a company hard at work creating a different kind of virtual currency. "With our cryptocurrency we are building, you can go out and buy small items and you don't have to pay anything. You don’t have to get approved by any third party. It's fast," UCF Professor and FlairrLabs CEO Ray Aria said.

LeRoy Langston has overcome a checkered past, including drug addiction and several run-ins with the justice system. Despite these setbacks he worked hard and earned his bachelor’s degree in general studies from the University of Central Florida earlier this month.

DARPA’s Information Innovation Office has collaborated with researchers from the University of Central Florida to develop a deep learning AI capable of understanding written sarcasm with a startling degree of accuracy.