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You Voted, Now What?
While some argue voting in the presidential election is one of the most important civic duties, ensuring that a democracy serves the best interests of its citizens requires active participation all year, every year. “America is built on hope for the next opportunity. What happens in the next midterm election two years from now, and […]
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Oyster Reef Restoration Efforts Get Help from Potato Chip Byproduct
Longtime work to restore oyster reefs in the Indian River Lagoon has found a new, unusual ally: potato chips. The Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab at UCF has been experimenting with various products looking for an effective, biodegradable material for restoration that’s inexpensive. For the past 14 months the group has been testing a mesh […]
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What to Know About Election Night
As the United States inches closer to the 2020 presidential election Nov. 3, UCF Professor Aubrey Jewett explains the pros and cons of the Electoral College, Florida’s role as a swing state, and what major factor could delay knowing the outcome on election night. Jewett is an internationally recognized political scientist and co-author of the […]
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UCF Professor Briefs Planetary Sciences Community about NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission During Conference
UCF physics Professor Humberto Campins is today (Thursday, Oct. 29) giving the science community a look at the evolving OSIRIS-REx mission to collect an asteroid sample and return it to earth. Astronomers and other scientists from around the world are attending the 52nd annual Division of Planetary Sciences meeting to learn and discuss the latest […]
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Two COS Faculty Members Inducted Into the UCF Scroll and Quill Society
Each fall, the University of Central recognizes faculty who have made a national and international impact through their research, teaching and service, by inducting new members into the Scroll and Quill Society. “This society is a chance to celebrate imaginative creative works, scholarly research and the service our faculty provides to better our community,” says […]
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Sea Turtle Nesting Season Winds Down on a High
Florida’s sea turtle nesting surveying comes to a close on Halloween and like everything else in 2020, the season was a bit weird. The number of green sea turtle nests on central and southern Brevard County, Florida beaches monitored by University of Central biologists were way up during a year they should have been down […]
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UCF Downtown Maker Space Reconfigures Layout to Reopen for Projects
Soon after the Nicholson School of Communication and Media opened a new 3,500-square-foot Games and Interactive Media Maker Space last fall, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and forced the closure of the lab on the UCF Downtown campus. But after a redesign of the floor plan for the laser cutter, 3D printer, recording studio, AR/VR equipment […]
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How Fake News Affects U.S. Elections
The term “fake news” has become so ubiquitous in our society that it’s even become a punchline. But the threat is very real — with real consequences — which is why UCF Associate Lecturer of Psychology Chrysalis Wright dedicates her days to studying it. Wright is an expert on fake news and online disinformation who […]
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Chemistry Student Working to Develop Sustainable Technology to Clean Water Worldwide
Nearly 800 million people are without clean drinking water in the world, and for environmental chemist and second-year doctoral candidate Lorianne Shultz this is no small problem. In her area of study, materials chemistry for environmental applications, she looks to improve the methods used to purify water around the globe. Under the guidance of chemistry […]
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The True Story Behind Horror Movies
Gary Rhodes is an associate professor in UCF’s Nicholson School of Communication and Media and assistant director of the film and mass media program who is best known for his work on horror cinema. When he was 15, Rhodes says he started writing for a film magazine called Filmfax, and he’s been analyzing movies ever since. […]
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UCF Study Will Look at Transitional Housing Effectiveness for Survivors of Domestic Violence
Housing programs can serve as a lifeline for domestic violence survivors and their children – providing them with vital resources to leave abusive relationships and find safety. Various housing models are being implemented across the country; however, little is known about their long-term effectiveness. A team of researchers from the University of Central Florida, University […]
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OSIRIS REx Ready to for Touch-n-Go Maneuver on Tuesday, Oct. 20
Four years after it launched, NASA’s OSIRIS REx NASA mission is closing in on its big day. On Oct. 20, the spacecraft is scheduled to complete its touch-and-go move to collect a sample of asteroid Bennu. University of Central Florida Physics Professor and asteroid expert Humberto Campins is counting down the days. He is part […]
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3 UCF Researchers Part of Nature Astronomy Articles Chronicling Spitzer Space Telescope Legacy
To understand the significance of the Spitzer Space Telescope on the understanding of our solar system, think of what the steam engine meant for the industrial revolution. A national team of scientists today published in the journal Nature Astronomy two papers that provide an inventory of the major discoveries made possible thanks to Spitzer and […]
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UCF Announces 2020 Alumni Award Winners
UCF Alumni announced its slate of its Shining Knights award winners for 2020 — seven individuals recognized for their commitment to the university in the categories of Distinguished Alumni, Honorary Alumni, Young Alumni and Distinguished Student. They will be honored in a virtual ceremony on the evening Sunday, Oct. 18 to kick off UCF Homecoming […]
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Asteroid Bennu Continues to Surprise Scientists
If UCF physics Professor Humberto Campins was a betting man, he should run out and play the lottery. The planetary scientist, who is an international expert on asteroids, predicted a finding from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid Bennu — remnants of another asteroid scattered across its surface. The spacecraft took images and made observations of […]
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Animals’ Magnetic ‘Sixth’ Sense May Come from Bacteria, New Paper Suggests
A University of Central Florida researcher is co-author of a new paper that may help answer why some animals have a magnetic “sixth” sense, such as sea turtles’ ability to return to the beach where they were born. The question is one that has been unresolved despite 50 years of research. “The search for a […]
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New Study: Face-Covering Use Up, More People Are Taking COVID-19 Threats Seriously
A new National Science Foundation-funded survey of six states has found that during the past two months, more people are wearing masks, vaccine uncertainty is on the rise, and many people are overestimating their risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from COVID-19. The results are in a new report published this month by the […]
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UCF Researcher to Build a System that Identifies Habitable Planets Based on the Color They Emit
Only a handful of the roughly 4,000 identified planets outside our solar system can potentially support human life — what experts call “habitable exoplanets” — but astronomers are certain there are many more. The best candidates were found when they crossed in front of the star they orbit. A silhouette is hard to analyze for […]
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UCF Researcher Awarded NASA Grant to Study Little Understood trans-Neptunian Objects
Florida Space Institute Planetary Scientist Estela Fernández-Valenzuela has been awarded a $315,700 NASA grant to use modern day technology to analyze one of the oldest and least understood objects of our solar system. The first trans-Neptunian Object (TNO) — objects that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune — was discovered more than 25 years ago. Some […]
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Awards Presented to Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Projects for COVID-19 Research
Five research teams using Artificial Intelligence and Big Data have been awarded a total of $185,000 to conduct COVID-19-related research. Establishing the awards was the first act of UCF’s new Artificial Intelligence & Big Data Initiative announced this summer. The intent of the program is to seed the development of research projects that use these […]
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UCF Grad Impresses Magicians Penn & Teller
Of all the majors at UCF that a mentalist could choose, psychology seems like the best fit. Keith Kong ’17 certainly thought so. Kong recently celebrated one of his biggest achievements to date as a mentalist — or a “mind-reading” magician — with an appearance on the CW’s show “Fool Us,” which features legendary magician […]
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UCF Researchers Develop AI to Detect Fentanyl and Derivatives Remotely
To help keep first responders safe, University of Central Florida researchers have developed an artificial intelligence method that not only rapidly and remotely detects the powerful drug fentanyl, but also teaches itself to detect any previously unknown derivatives made in clandestine batches. The method, published recently in the journal Scientific Reports, uses infrared light spectroscopy […]
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UCF Offers Free Nature-themed VR and AR Applications to Help Students and Those Isolated Because of COVID-19
UCF is offering a free virtual reality environment and augmented reality app to help teachers supplement science lessons and provide some stress relief for those isolated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maria Harrington, an information scientist and artist, created the applications as a way to advance virtual reality technology, while engaging the public in informal […]
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Broken Cable Damages Arecibo Observatory
One of the auxiliary cables that helps support a metal platform in place above the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, broke on Monday (Aug. 10) causing a 100-foot-long gash on the telescope’s reflector dish. Operations at the UCF-managed observatory are stopped until repairs can be made. The break occurred about 2:45 a.m. When the three-inch […]
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National Program Opens Door for More Underrepresented Students in Physics
When Taylor Douglas fell in love with physics and began to pursue it in college, she started to feel like an outsider. Most of her classmates were men and white. After earning her bachelor’s degree at Rowan University in New Jersey, she applied to several institutions to pursue a master’s degree, something only 6 percent […]
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Arecibo Observatory Returns from Tropical Storm Isaias Lockdown to Track Asteroid for NASA
The Earth has one less asteroid to worry about thanks to the research of an international team of scientists at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Asteroid 2020 NK1 was spotted in early July by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey team at the University of Hawaii. Little was known about the asteroid, […]
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COVID-19 Cases to Decline Beginning Next Month, UCF Research Finds
COVID-19 infection rates may be peaking in Orange County later this month and trending down toward December, according to new projections by data scientists at the University of Central Florida. The researchers from the Departments of Statistics and Data Science and Computer Science caution, however, that their projections — built using the latest artificial intelligence […]
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UCF Experts Weigh in as Coronavirus Captures Headlines
As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to dominate daily news cycles, UCF experts in areas ranging from hospitality, tourism, economics and student health services are helping shape the conversation surrounding the effects of the virus on various industries and the community as a whole. Kenneth Adams, professor — Ph.D. in criminal justice from State University of […]
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Research Team turns to Nanotechnology for Chemical Reaction Promoters
Noble metals, such as platinum, palladium, and rhodium are among the most versatile and efficient industrial catalysts for a large number of reactions, ranging from the purification of poisonous pollutants emitted by vehicle engines to the generation of commodity chemicals or clean energy resource, which benefits the environment and our society. But there’s a limited supply of noble […]
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New Study Reveals How Frogs Use Bile and Bruise Color for Camouflage
Researchers have discovered, for the first time, how frogs use the chemical responsible for the color of bile and bruises for their own camouflage coloring. The mechanism the frogs use to turn what is essentially a waste product into a part of their protection is detailed in a new study published this month in the […]