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UCF Office of Research

UCF Researcher Leads $3.3 Million Project to Develop Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Simulators

University of Central Florida engineering professor is leading a $3.3 million project funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to research floating offshore wind turbines. “My goal is to model floating offshore wind turbines and use the model to explore design improvements while concurrently investigating new ideas for control and sensing, a concept that…

UCF Sea Turtle Research Highlighted for 50th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act

UCF sea turtle research was recently highlighted for the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with a visit from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) leadership. The visit showcased the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge and its successful sea turtle conservation efforts. Since the refuge’s establishment as…

Research in 60 Seconds: WWI’s Psychological Impact on Nurses

Whether it’s solving the world’s biggest problems or investigating the potential of novel discoveries, researchers at UCF are on the edge scientific breakthroughs that aim to make an impact. Through the Research in 60 Seconds series, student and faculty researchers condense their complex studies into bite-sized summaries so you can know how and why Knights plan…

UCF Professor Honored as Fellow of Gerontological Society of America

UCF Professor Su-I Hou, who has dedicated her career to healthy aging, has been selected as a fellow of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the world’s oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, patient care and education in the field. Fellow is the highest level of membership the society gives, and acknowledges continued…

3 Faculty Named UCF Trustee Chairs for 2023-28

new professor has been named and two others reappointed to prestigious UCF trustee chair professorships that recognize faculty with national and international reputations for excellence and with extraordinary accomplishments in teaching, research and service. New trustee chair Ayman Abouraddy and reappointees Aristide Dogariu and Jayanta Kapat are among a handful of faculty members to have…

UCF Aging Expert Named 2023 American Academy of Nursing Fellow

Ladda Thiamwong, associate professor in UCF’s College of Nursing, is one of 253 distinguished nurse leaders — and among four in Florida — who have been named to the 2023 class of fellows by the American Academy of Nursing. The prestigious honor recognizes substantial, sustained and outstanding impact on health and healthcare. This year’s inductees,…

UCF Researcher Part of Team That Discovered First Compelling Evidence for Low-frequency Gravitational Waves in the Cosmos

Ateam of astrophysicists, including a UCF researcher, have discovered the first compelling evidence for low-frequency gravitational waves permeating the universe. The breakthrough was made by a collaboration of researchers, known as the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav), who used large radio telescopes, like the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, to observe the…

UCF Researchers Pave the Way to Better Understand and Treat PTSD

June is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Month, which aims to raise the public’s understanding of the oftentimes debilitating condition. It’s estimated that about one in three people who experience severe trauma develop PTSD. Veterans, first responders, and survivors of abuse or serious accidents are more prone to PTSD than others, according to the National…

UCF Celebrates International Women in Engineering Day, Featuring the BRaIN Lab

In the BRaIN Lab at UCF, researchers are working to understand how the brain and body work together to control how humans move their bodies. Called the Biomechanics, Rehabilitation, and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience (BRaIN) Lab, students and faculty use electroencephalography (EEG) technology to measure the electrical activity of the brain during movement. But something even more is…

Cancer Drugs Show Potential in Fight Against Malaria

With malaria becoming increasingly drug-resistant, a team of UCF researchers is looking to use cancer drugs to accelerate the discovery of new life-saving therapies for the disease. In a study funded by a 5-year $3.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, UCF molecular parasitologist Debopam Chakrabarti and cancer molecular biologist Ratna Chakrabarti are…

Human Migration Timeline Redrawn by Fresh Fossil Analysis

New research recasts the narrative on the earliest presence of Homo sapiens in Southeast Asia, pushing back the presence of humans in that part of the world by at least 20,000 years and a human presence in the region for at least 56,000 years. The findings are based on analysis of bones excavated from deep…

UCF Researcher’s Innovative Approach Could Redefine Allergy Treatment

For those suffering from allergies, especially allergic asthma, springtime can be dreadful. Fortunately, UCF researcher Justine Tigno-Aranjuez is making breakthroughs that could one day make many common allergies a thing of the past. For years, research and therapies for allergic asthma have been focused largely on targeting the inflammatory cytokines in the body that react…

UCF is Trustee Chair Professor, Inventor Shin-Tson Wu’s Mountaintop

Shin-Tson Wu remains quiet whenever someone pulls out a smartphone or turns on a tablet. He’s too humble to mention that he helped invent the screens they’re viewing. The technology used for the LCD screen is among an astonishing number of patents issued for Wu’s inventions — 96 at last count. In 2014, he was one…

Researchers Create Engineered Human Tissue to Study Mosquito Bites, Disease

UCF research team has engineered tissue with human cells that mosquitoes love to bite and feed upon — with the goal of helping fight deadly diseases transmitted by the biting insects. A multidisciplinary team led by College of Medicine biomedical researcher Bradley Jay Willenberg with Mollie Jewett (UCF Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences) and Andrew…

Partnering Worldwide for Medical Discovery

UCF is one of two American colleges participating in a European scientific exchange designed to bridge the gap between academic research and the development of tomorrow’s medical therapies. The Orbis (Open Research Biopharmaceutical Internships Support) project was created to address the scientific and economic challenges of bringing new drugs to market and was implemented under…

UCF Researchers Are Contributing to World Oceans Day

One of Florida’s most precious resources is its water from the aquifer to the 8,436 miles of coastline, boarded by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida, and the Atlantic Ocean. Water is also a major player in the state’s economy, contributing $56 billion to the economy and generating 900,000 jobs according to a…

UCF Alumna, Student Selected for NASA Graduate Research Award

Marley Albright ’23 will take her college career to new heights this fall through the NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Opportunities (NSTGRO) award. She is one of approximately 60 U.S. college students who have been selected for this honor, which covers the tuition and fees for a graduate-level program and includes a fellowship at a NASA…