{"id":92818,"date":"2018-12-05T12:07:38","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T17:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=92818"},"modified":"2025-06-25T16:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T20:13:12","slug":"ucf-top-10-research-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/ucf-top-10-research-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF\u2019s Top 10 Research Findings of 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Central Florida\u2019s football players are not the only Knights dominating their field in 2018. This year was also a spectacular one for research at UCF.<\/p>\n

Not only did UCF hit a record $183 million in research funding, it also made positive impacts on the world. Space was the winner this year with multiple stories in the top 25 appearing on UCF Today, including UCF taking on the Arecibo Observatory<\/a>. The Arecibo story was one of the most popular research-related stories on the website. Other notables included stories about research in history, life sciences, optics and engineering, such as a piece about the mechanics of squirting citrus skins featured in the New York Times<\/a>. Here\u2019s our Top 10 research list based on web traffic and media success:<\/p>\n

1. There are several topics that can split families \u2013 politics, religion and the status of Pluto. After 12 years of being on the out, UCF research shows that Pluto should regain its status as a planet<\/a>. UCF\u2019s story resulted in media outlets picking it up. The internet loved the research generating more than 85 million views across multiple media outlets including Teen Vogue, Yahoo News and Geek.com in addition to more scholarly sites.<\/p>\n