UCF 1st in Florida, 3rd Nationally for Coveted National Science Foundation CAREER Grants
Thu Feb 27
UCF leads the state and ranks third in the nation for the number of National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipients this year. UCF has nine confirmed awards as of this week and NSF has recommended two more for funding. In Florida a total of 21 awards have been given so far, including four to University…
New Program Teaches Autistic Students How To Eat Healthy
Thu Feb 27
Overweight and obesity are common conditions in the U.S. pediatric population, but children with autism spectrum disorder are 1.5 times more likely to have these health conditions than their same-aged peers. Researchers at UCF are developing a program to teach children with ASD how to make better food choices. Jeanette Garcia is the lead researcher and…
Five Year Grant Will Deepen Research Into âZombie Ants’
Wed Feb 26
A new $970,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will allow biologists to deepen their research into the biological makeup of parasitic fungi that hijack the behaviors of their hosts. The five-year CAREER grant also paves the way for Assistant Professor Charissa de Bekker, Ph.D., to develop an upper level insect behavior course and broaden…
Communication Science and Disorders Alumna Says After Losing Her Voice She Wants to Help Students Find Their Passion For Helping Others
Wed Feb 26
Angel-Marie Carson, a Lake Mary speech-language pathologist and UCF alumna, has established Angel’s Gift, a scholarship for students in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She established the scholarship to honor her profession and to elevate its students. It’s a scholarship she has wanted to establish long before a catastrophic illness impacted her plans.…
Students LEAD the Way Advocating for Change
Wed Feb 26
The annual Legislative Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) is a legislative event hosted by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) that brought 110 UCF Social Work students to the State Capitol on January 27 and 28. During LEAD, students have the opportunity to further their knowledge about policy issues in substantive areas of social work practice…
UCF Researcher Aims to Improve Lives of Foster Teens
Wed Feb 26
. The awards are piling up for UCF McKnight Fellow Karla Badillo-Urquiola ’14 ’15MS who in the past two months has been named a McKnight Award winner and an Order of Pegasus Award recipient. Badillo-Urquiola, a doctoral candidate in modeling and simulation, is committed to academic excellence, diversifying the STEM field and making an impact in her community. Badillo-Urquiola’s research…
UCF’s New Technique to Create Nanomaterials May Help Detect Cancer Earlier
Wed Feb 26
For the first time, a team of scientists at the University of Central Florida has created functional nanomaterials with hollow interiors that can be used to create highly sensitive biosensors for early cancer detection. Xiaohu Xia, an assistant professor of chemistry with a joint appointment in the NanoScience Technology Center, and his team developed the…
Peace Corps Ranks UCF in Top 25 Volunteer-Producing Universities
Wed Feb 26
UCF was ranked today by the Peace Corps at No. 24 among large U.S. schools on the agency’s 2020 list of top volunteer-producing universities and colleges, the first time UCF has ranked on the agency’s Top 25 volunteer list. Currently 39 Knights are volunteering around the world, up from 31 last year. Since the agency…
Athletic Training Student Wins Founders’ Award
Tue Feb 25
Danielle Scognamiglio, a senior athletic training student in the undergraduate program, has been selected as the 2020 College of Health Professions and Sciences Undergraduate Student Founders’ Award recipient. This award recognizes exceptional ability in a particular area of study within the college. Scognamiglio was nominated by Assistant Professor Colby Mangum, who called Scognamiglio a “highly motivated leader and…
Math Lecturer Finds Joy In Mentoring Middle School Students
Tue Feb 25
The College of Sciences recently sat down with Michelle Kwon, Ph.D., to talk about her work as a mathematics professor and leader of Math Circle. (Some answers edited for clarity and brevity.) COS: What’s the purpose of Math Circle, in your own words? Kwon: The purpose of Math Circle is to make middle school students…
Rebuilding Orlando One Homeowner at a Time
Tue Feb 25
Abby Lemay ’15MNM awakens each day at 7 a.m. in order to arrive to the Rebuilding Together Central Florida office by 8:45 a.m. From there, the nonprofit’s executive director will attend impromptu meetings with her staff about upcoming events and programs, participate in phone meetings with current and future partners, work on grant applications and the…
Sport Business Club Shapes National Champions
Tue Feb 25
When students are looking to expand their knowledge on the role that business plays in the sports world, they turn to UCF’s Sport Business Club. This collegiate organization is dedicated to enriching the student experience by providing learning and networking opportunities with professionals in the sports business industry. Learn more about how the Sport Business…
UCF Researcher’s Novel Nanoparticles Show Promise in Healing Diabetic Wounds
Tue Feb 25
A University of Central Florida researcher’s novel work in nanoscale antioxidants is continuing to show promise in the medical field, with a new study that shows their effectiveness in helping to heal diabetic wounds. The study, published recently in the journal Acta Biomaterialia, showed that gels containing cerium oxide nanoparticles, whose therapeutic properties were discovered by UCF,…
Help Say Goodbye to Stress
Tue Feb 25
Have you ever felt like life is moving too fast and you’re struggling to keep up? While stress may seem inescapable, there are steps you can take to help manage it: 1. Cut back on the coffee Caffeine can easily become the most important ingredient in a busy lifestyle. But too much caffeine can actually…
New Study Offers Clues to Origin of Laws
Mon Feb 24
Speculation about where laws come from ranges from crediting judges and legal scholars to God. However new research co-authored by a University of Central Florida researcher and appearing in the journal Nature Human Behaviour today offers evidence that criminal laws come from an intuitive and shared, universal sense of justice that humans possess. “We sometimes think of…
UCF Names 2020 Class of “30 Under 30” Alumni Achievers
Mon Feb 24
Bold. Innovative. Excellent. Each year, UCF Alumni honors the best of what the university has to offer with its 30 Under 30 awards. These Knights are beacons of the UCF creed in their professional workplaces and local communities, helping make the world a better place. The 2020 class of 30 Under 30 honorees includes leaders…
French Translation Certificate Results in Hospitality Internship
Mon Feb 24
French student Elizabeth McDonald will be the first student to partake in an overseas internship as part of the requirements for the new French Translation and Interpretation Certificate. The certificate program includes an internship course (FRT 4991) requiring students to work for a minimum of one month in a entity of their choice outside of the…
Director’s Therapy Dogs Provide Comfort in Trying Times
Fri Feb 21
Buddy and Nugget shed more love than hair — and if you’ve seen the back of their ride you know that’s saying something. The owner of these two rambunctious Golden Retrievers would be happy to keep all that love to himself. But Michael Sigman, Ph.D., director of the National Center for Forensic Science, has other…
Psychedelic Study Inspires Undergrad’s Future Research
Fri Feb 21
An independent study examining the role of psilocybin is opening new lines of thought and fulfilling a student’s interest into understanding the effects of naturally occurring psychedelic medicines. The study, funded through a grant from the Office of Undergraduate Research, was conducted by Maria Orozco, an undergraduate student completing a double degree program in Anthropology…
UCF Celebrates 1st Anniversary of Lockheed Martin Cyber Innovation Lab
Fri Feb 21
In the year since the Lockheed Martin Cyber Innovation Lab opened its doors on UCF’s main campus, hundreds of students from multiple majors and disciplines have benefitted from the space dedicated to strengthening the pipeline of cyber workforce talent, addressing a critical need locally and nationally. There are more than 13,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in…
