The University of Central Florida brings innovation and solutions to some of society’s most pressing problems through research and the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge and avenues for progress.
Thu Mar 18
Athermal infrared camera aboard a lunar lander scheduled to head to the moon as early as 2022 could help determine which regions on the lunar surface have water trapped in them. Assistant Professor of Physics Kerri Donaldson Hanna is working with University of Colorado Boulder Professor Paul Hayne on NASA’s Lunar Compact InfraRed Imaging System (L-CIRiS). Hayne…
Wed Mar 17
Language difficulties and cultural barriers keep an “alarming” number of Chinese Americans from asking for cancer screenings that may protect their health, according to a new UCF study. Dr. Su-I Hou, professor and interim chair of UCF’s Health Management & Informatics Department, said her results show that physicians and members of the Chinese community need to…
Tue Mar 16
Assistant Professor Kenicia Wright, Ph.D, is challenging perspectives through her research focusing on the interplay of race and gender. The School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs faculty member’s most recent accolade is winning the American Political Science Association’s 2021 “Best Paper on Race and Intersectionality Award.” The award comes from APSA’s Women, Gender, and…
Mon Mar 15
Are N95 masks better than surgical masks in preventing COVID-19 infection? Can 3D printing provide solutions for babies born with skull deformities? These were some of the questions explored at the UCF College of Medicine’s 12th annual FIRE (Focused Inquiry and Research Experience) conference March 5. The event, which showcases the discoveries of medical students during a…
Thu Mar 11
Three UCF researchers working on different projects have been awarded a total of about $1.3 million from the Department of Defense. The grants were part of the DOD awarding of $50 million to 85 institutions across the nation in the Fiscal Year 2021 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program. The recipients and their projects are: Ayman…
Thu Mar 11
Using the same principles that make polarized sunglasses possible, a team of researchers at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico have developed a technique that will help better defend against asteroids on a collision course with Earth. A new study recently published in The Planetary Science Journal found a better way to interpret radar signals bounced off…
Thu Mar 11
Nuisance flooding has increased on U.S. coasts in recent decades due to sea level rise, and new research co-authored by the University of Central Florida uncovered an additional reason for its added frequency. In a study appearing today in the journal Science Advances, researchers show that higher local tide ranges, most likely from human alterations to…
Thu Mar 11
Two College of Medicine faculty members have been awarded for their outstanding research contributions. Infectious disease researcher Dr. Mollie Jewett and research chemist Dr. Otto Phanstiel are this year’s recipients of UCF’s Research Incentive Award. The award recognizes faculty who have an outstanding research, scholarly, or creative record that advances the body of knowledge in their field. Recipients…
Wed Mar 10
The genetic expertise of University of Central Florida researchers is extending all the way to the land down under in a new study of a unique animal of Australia’s waters – the weedy seadragon. In the study, which appeared recently in the journal PLOS One, UCF researchers helped discover that the weedy seadragon found off the…
Wed Mar 10
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft that collected a sample from an asteroid 200 million miles from Earth in October, is going to take one final look at the collection site before heading home. In April, the spacecraft will focus its cameras on the site it disturbed when it removed a sample of asteroid Bennu’s soil. The images…
Wed Mar 10
Thirty-seven UCF teams will split $1 million in UCF SEED funding to conduct preliminary research the university hopes will lead to bigger individual grants from other agencies and breakthroughs in a variety of fields. The Office of Research and the Provost Office began the pilot SEED program with $1 million last year. Those recipients will…
Wed Mar 10
An estimated 30,000 people in the United States suffer from cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that makes patients prone to persistent lung infections. One of the most debilitating and difficult to treat pathogens is Mycobacterium abscessus (MAB), which causes tuberculosis-like infections. Dr. Kyle Rohde, an infectious disease researcher at the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, is working to develop more…
Mon Mar 8
The American Cancer Society estimates that about 1 in 21 men and 1 in 23 women in the United States will develop colorectal cancer during their lifetime. Michael Rohr, the College of Medicine’s first joint M.D./Ph.D. student, is hoping to significantly reduce these numbers through his research. Rohr recently received a competitive grant from by the National Cancer Institute…
Mon Mar 1
Making sure spacecraft don’t crash into each other or into space junk is at the center of Assistant Professor Tarek A. Elgohary’s research at UCF’s Astrodynamics and Space Robotics Laboratory. Using analytical and computational methods in addition to machine learning techniques, Elgohary and his team of students calculate the probability of collision between Resident space objects…
Sun Feb 28
The boundaries of basic physics continue to be tested in the laboratory of Professor Ayman Abouraddy, Ph.D., with newly published research demonstrating the feasibility of accelerating light packets. The experimental realizations of accelerating optical pulses conducted by graduate student Murat Yessenov build on previous experiments that tuned the speed of light packets in free space…
Thu Feb 25
The glass-and-shiny-steel flagship building that is home to UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science has been renamed the L3Harris Engineering Center, announced Michael Georgiopoulos, dean of the college. The announcement celebrates the rebranding of one of the most prominent buildings on UCF’s main campus and showcases the longstanding partnership between UCF and L3Harris Technologies, an $18…
Thu Feb 25
Twenty years ago, landing people on Mars seemed like sci-fi, but with commercial spacecraft launching into space almost every month and NASA’s Mars Perseverance landing on the Red Planet last week, sending astronauts to Mars and beyond is actualizing into reality. “When the idea of astronauts actually getting to Mars became realistic, there was a…
Wed Feb 24
The helicopter that arrived on the Red Planet on Feb. 18 as part of the Mars 2020/Perseverance mission is not the only rotorcraft NASA is sending into space. A team of scientists, including a University of Central Florida researcher, is working to help NASA design a rotorcraft to explore Saturn’s moon, Titan. The mission and…
Wed Feb 24
A new report by the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management shows the economic impact of Florida’s vacation home rental industry exceeds $27 billion. “Our research confirms that Florida’s lodging industry for vacations, beyond traditional hotels and resorts, which include rentals like houses, apartments and condos, boosts the economy significantly. Renters remain in the…
Mon Feb 22
Sometimes big things come in small packages, and the new thin but strong materials the University of Central Florida is helping NASA develop are no exception. These materials, known as thin-ply composites, are as thin as carpenter’s measuring tape but strong enough to support satellite payloads, such as solar sails for solar-powered space travel, or…