Florida’s wildlife is closely connected to the environments it has inhabited for generations. But as temperatures rise and rainfall patterns shift, those conditions are changing, creating new challenges for species across the state.

For white-tailed deer and Florida panthers, those challenges may look very different. Southern deer populations could face greater pressure as rising temperatures and shifting water conditions alter their habitat, while Florida panthers’ limited genetic variety may restrict their ability to respond to future environmental change.

Research conducted by UCF College of Sciences postdoctoral scholar George Zaragoza ’26PhD combines genomic data with habitat suitability models to examine how suitable habitats may change and whether individual populations have the genetic variety and adaptive potential needed to respond.

“The main goal is putting this research on … the radar for wildlife managers so they can use it to implement conservation measures … ” — George Zaragoza ’26PhD, postdoctoral scholar.

The research revealed a latitudinal pattern among Florida’s white-tailed deer, with southeastern populations more vulnerable than those farther north. For Florida panthers, the concern is their low genetic variety and limited adaptive potential despite a genetic rescue program in the 1990s.

“The main goal is putting this research on these interconnected species on the radar for wildlife managers so they can use it to implement conservation measures that will help these species thrive in the future,” says Zaragoza, who earned a doctorate in integrative conservation biology at UCF.

South Florida Deer Face a Hotter, Drier Future

The greatest concerns for white-tailed deer are concentrated in South Florida and the greater Everglades, where projections indicate increasingly dry conditions over the next 50 to 100 years.

“The ecology of the South Everglades relies a lot on water dynamics and how populations respond to higher or lower water levels,” Zaragoza says.

For deer, those changes can affect the plants they rely on for food.

“If water levels are lower than historically expected, those nutrient-rich food sources may become less available,” he says. “Too much water can create a different challenge by making low-lying areas unreachable to deer.”

Central and northern Florida deer populations are projected to face similar conditions, though the shift is expected to be less pronounced than in South Florida.

Genetics Reveal How Deer Are Adapted to Their Environment

Zaragoza’s research also examined genetic characteristics that may help explain how Florida deer have adapted to their environments.

Two genes of particular interest related to circadian rhythm are THADA, associated with metabolism and thermoregulation, and PROK2, associated with the timing of nocturnal activity.

Zaragoza says the findings may point to a role in regulating seasonal metabolic energy use and reproduction-related physiological processes.

“There are consistently these sort of genes that are involved in the timing of these physiological processes that have to do with how deer are storing energy,” Zaragoza says.

Zaragoza also identified genes associated with immune processes more often than expected by chance. This may be particularly important in Florida, where deer are exposed to a wide range of viruses, including those transmitted by arthropod vectors such as ticks, mosquitoes and biting flies.

The research may also help explain why Florida deer have a different reproductive timeline than populations farther north. Differences in sunlight, temperature and other environmental conditions may have contributed to adaptations in these cycles.

Florida Panthers Face a Different Challenge

For Florida panthers, the primary concern is whether the species has enough genetic variety to respond to future environmental conditions.

The population experienced a severe genetic bottleneck, leading to a genetic rescue program in the 1990s that introduced Texas pumas into the Florida population.

While subsequent research has shown that Florida panthers remain a distinct population, Zaragoza’s research indicates that genetic variation remains low.

“With limited genetic variation, Florida panthers have limited adaptive potential, especially as their habitat is also threatened,” he says. “It highlights the importance of suitable habitat and ensuring that it remains for the future.”

The research identified genetic variants involved in regulatory processes, including how and when genes are expressed. While this does not provide direct evidence of epigenetic mechanisms, it raises questions about whether epigenetic mechanisms could contribute to the panthers’ ability to respond to environmental changes despite their limited genetic variety.

“If a population with low genetic variation is able to use these epigenetic mechanisms to respond to future change, then that gives that population another potential way to adapt to future change that we’d like to better understand,” Zaragoza says.

For now, habitat protection remains particularly important for the species. Some South Florida habitats remain at risk of development or conversion, including in protected areas and wildlife refuges.

Connecting Genetics and Habitat

A central part of Zaragoza’s research brings together two types of information often studied separately: genetics and ecology.

By comparing projected changes in suitable habitat with genetics and adaptive potential, researchers can begin to prioritize populations based on vulnerability.

A population experiencing a substantial shift in suitable habitat may be better positioned to respond if it has high genetic variation and adaptive potential. Conversely, a population facing a similar environmental shift but lacking genetic variation could be at greater risk.

Zaragoza says this approach could give wildlife managers another tool for making decisions about Florida’s wildlife.

“There has been some work before, but especially in terms of environmental change, there really haven’t been these vulnerability assessments done with white-tailed deer and Florida panthers in the past,” Zaragoza says.

Making this information accessible could help managers identify populations that may need additional support, minimize habitat loss and consider strategies to protect vulnerable species.

An Integrative Approach to Conservation

For Zaragoza, the work also demonstrates the value of combining disciplines to answer complex conservation questions.

“There are so many tools and technologies available that really help us merge ecology and genetics into more of an integrative perspective,” Zaragoza says.

For him, understanding wildlife is ultimately about using science and technology to improve humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

“It comes down to realizing that we’re part of this greater ecosystem and we have a responsibility to steward it,” Zaragoza says.

Landing humans on the moon was just a dream when UCF was founded in 1963. But we dared to believe — developing the talent and inventing the technologies to make it reality. That same spirit still drives us today.

We are America’s Space University. And we celebrate UCF Space Week to honor our origin as we dare to build what’s next.

Where Global Leaders Unite to Forge the Future of Space

A space capsule is becoming the UCF College of Medicine’s newest classroom and research lab.

Sierra Space, a Colorado-based private aerospace and defense technologies company, donated the 22-foot-long life-sized model of their Shooting Star cargo module, which is capable of delivering supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.

The gift recognizes UCF’s reputation as America’s Space University and the medical school’s emerging aerospace medicine program, which is exploring how space flight impacts the human body and how that knowledge can drive innovation into diagnostics, treatment and disease prevention for patients on Earth.

The model was housed at Kennedy Space Center — located roughly 30 miles from UCF’s campus — where it was used as a design reference for engineers and a training tool for in-space cargo transfer. The module attaches to a Sierra Space Dream Chaser spaceplane and in the future could potentially to deliver up to 12,000 pounds of cargo, including science experiments, research equipment and medical supplies to space stations.

The mockup is almost identical to a real module with a hatch that docks with the spacecraft and a section of storage lockers that hold resupply materials.

“There’s only a handful of ships that can take payloads to low Earth orbit,” says Emmanuel Urquieta, the College of Medicine’s vice chair for aerospace medicine and director ɫ����’s new Center for Aerospace and Extreme Environments Medicine (). “This module is a true-to-size mock-up that is fully aligned with what will actually fly into space.”

Dedicated to Keeping Space Travelers Healthy

CASEEM is a multidisciplinary center that includes UCF faculty experts in medicine, engineering, computer science, psychology, arts and educational leadership who will work together to research and develop new technologies for keeping space travelers healthy as well as soldiers on military missions, deep sea explorers and mountain climbers.

UCF will use the module to give students and faculty precise training to address medical events in the confines of a spacecraft.

The model also will help researchers create technologies for improving payloads and establishing protocols to send materials into the tight spaces of intergalactic travel. Such technologies and strategies also could be used in combat zones, on submarines and in remote and isolated areas of Earth, Urquieta says.

“It is a rare piece of technology that the UCF Aerospace Medicine program is privileged to use for research.” — Ed Powers, CASEEM’s medical director

“This module brings human spaceflight to life for students and researchers at UCF,” says William (Ed) Powers, CASEEM’s medical director, who worked as director of flight medicine for Axiom Space and chief of NASA’s Medical Operations Branch before joining UCF. “It is a rare piece of technology that the UCF Aerospace Medicine program is privileged to use for research.”

The university is working to create a location for the module.

The donated module grew out of a longstanding professional relationship between aerospace medicine faculty members with Tom Marshburn, chief astronaut and vice president of programs at Sierra Space. Marshburn spent 28 years at NASA, where he was on three space flights and served as medical operations lead for the International Space Station.

“Sierra Space is proud to support the UCF’s College of Medicine and its aerospace medicine program by providing our life-size mockup of our Dream Chaser cargo module,” Marshburn says. “Humans will interface with the actual Dream Chaser spaceplane and its cargo module when it arrives at the ISS or a commercial LEO destination, and we look forward to working with UCF medical students, physicians and faculty on the insights the mockup vehicle can provide for human factors studies, in aerospace and mechanical engineering, and in potential space medical capabilities.”

Landing humans on the moon was just a dream when UCF was founded in 1963. But we dared to believe — developing the talent and inventing the technologies to make it reality. That same spirit still drives us today.

We are America’s Space University. And we celebrate UCF Space Week to honor our origin as we dare to build what’s next.

Where Global Leaders Unite to Forge the Future of Space

Seconds after NASA’s Orion capsule splashed into the Pacific Ocean, white spray rose around the scorched spacecraft. Telemetry streamed from Houston to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Inside the Test Launch Control Center thousands of miles from the splashdown, Joseph Hoayun ’22 ’26MSEM watched his monitor intently. His heart pounded as he tracked live data from the crew module uprighting system, a critical safety mechanism he had spent months testing and analyzing.

As five vibrant orange balloons inflated and lifted the capsule upright in the rolling sea, Hoayun’s shoulders finally dropped. Months of work gave way to pride. Orion was home. Mission accomplished.

“That capsule was my baby,” says Hoayun, a spacecraft propulsion test engineer at Lockheed Martin, NASA’s prime contractor for the Orion spacecraft used in the crewed Artemis II mission. “We were just freaking out — everything felt like it was moving in slow motion. It felt like hours from the time Orion entered our atmosphere until the astronauts safely emerged from the spacecraft.”

While the world celebrated the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century, Hoayun’s attention soon turned to the next mission. As NASA prepares to accelerate its launch schedule from one Artemis mission every two years to an aggressive eight-month cycle, the pressure on test engineering is mounting. To keep pace, his division is expanding from 70 to more than 100 personnel.

High-Pressure Stakes

Hoayun supports the night shift in an operation that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week at Kennedy Space Center. On any given evening, he might run a proof and leak test on an Orion service module, pressurizing flight propellant tanks to hundreds of pounds per square inch to verify structural integrity under extreme stress.

“People think you build one rocket at a time, but right now we have Artemis III, IV and V all in our building being tested in parallel by different teams,” Hoayun says.

As leader of his division’s Operational Excellence Team, he applies Six Sigma methods to improve tracking, refine testing workflows and eliminate waste. He estimates his team has saved Lockheed Martin hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We do hundreds of distinct tests for each spacecraft cycle to ensure that all engines, electrical components, mechanical units and control systems work cleanly before they leave Earth,” he says.

Ensuring spacecraft reliability requires precision and strict safety protocols, including a 70-foot evacuation radius during high-threshold testing to protect personnel from lethal hazards. A single miscalculation could destroy a $2 billion spacecraft or trigger a catastrophic explosion.

Hoayun credits his UCF bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and master’s degree in engineering management through the university’s College of Engineering and Computer Science with giving him the tools to thrive in these high-pressure environments. For his senior design project, he fondly recalls building and successfully flying a distributed electric propulsion aircraft. The complex engineering challenge required the same collaborative problem-solving he now relies on at Lockheed Martin.

But long before stepping onto UCF’s campus, Hoayun discovered his passion for solving problems. As a child, he watched Apollo 13 and was captivated by the scene in which engineers race against the clock to build a makeshift carbon dioxide filter.

“Watching them solve a life-or-death engineering problem in real time made me say, ‘I want to be the guy in the control room doing rapid problem-solving,’ ” he says.

Read Him Like a Book

Hoayun’s dad, a science teacher at Orlando’s Corner Lake Middle School, recognized his son’s fascination with space early. Instead of traditional bedtime stories like Goodnight Moon, his father read him school textbooks or set up kitchen experiments to explain thermodynamics and chemistry. When Hoayun reached middle school, he landed right in his dad’s honors class.

“Getting to touch a spacecraft and see your work blast into orbit every day is a full-circle blessing.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily recommend having your dad as your teacher,” Hoayun says with a chuckle. “He loved using me as the class guinea pig for demonstrations, but I couldn’t complain — he was my ride home!”

After submitting about 400 job applications, Hoayun landed his dream job. In a few years, he says he may return to UCF to pursue a doctorate. But for now, at just 26, he’s focused on preparing the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis III mission.

His work supports preparations for the precise maneuvers needed to bring Orion and commercial lunar landers together in orbit, helping pave the way for astronauts to return to the moon’s surface.

“Each mission is progressively more complex and difficult,” Hoayun says. “But that means you never get bored. Getting to touch a spacecraft and see your work blast into orbit every day is a full-circle blessing.”

The next national defense breakthrough could begin in a combustion lab, a line of code or a digital investigation. Seven UCF students are preparing to help make it happen.

Through the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)’s Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship-for-Service Program, they’ll use their technical talents to serve their country as civilians. The prestigious scholarship provides full tuition, summer internships and civilian employment upon graduation — connecting their education to challenges with national impact.

As the department’s largest STEM education and workforce development initiative, the SMART Scholarship prepares future leaders through hands-on experience at more than 150 DOD facilities advancing artificial intelligence, biotechnology, autonomy, space, 5G and other technology areas.

The recipients are aerospace engineering majors Bright Katey and Annie Driskell; computer science doctoral student Nathan Couch ’25; electrical engineering major Hunter Glass; industrial engineering doctoral student Johanna Matias ’12; computer engineering master’s student Jonathan Meyers ’26; and digital forensics master’s student Jean Bernard Pierre.

For the four scholars featured below, the award opens a path to advance their education, launch their careers and empower them to shape the future.

Annie Driskell: Taking Flight Beyond Earth

For Driskell, a fascination with flight began at home.

“Since childhood, aviation has been part of my everyday life,” Driskell says. “I grew up in a military family with my dad serving as a Navy pilot, and being surrounded by aircraft naturally sparked a lasting curiosity about how things fly and how the universe works.”

She chose UCF for its strong aerospace engineering program, proximity to Florida’s Space Coast and connections to the space industry. Her military upbringing also gave her an early appreciation for the dedication, sacrifice and sense of purpose of those who serve.

“As new advancements emerge in the aerospace industry, from major space discoveries to revolutionary technologies, I believe increased global competition can also create new national security challenges,” Driskell says. “I want to be part of advancing aerospace technology while helping ensure the United States is prepared to address those challenges.”

As a SMART Scholar, Driskell will work for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center, taking a step toward her ambition of developing technologies that expand humanity’s reach beyond Earth.

“Whether I am one member on a large engineering team or helping refine a single component, the chance to support revolutionary technology that expands our understanding of space is exactly the kind of work I hope to do.”

Bright Katey: Fueling a Future in Propulsion

Katey wants to push propulsion research forward while serving his country. The SMART Scholarship brings those ambitions together.

“My background in aerospace and mechanical engineering, with a focus on combustion, propulsion, shock tube experiments, laser diagnostics and chemical kinetic modeling, closely aligns with the program’s mission,” Katey says. “This alignment positions me to contribute meaningfully to defense-related research and technology development.”

In the , directed by UCF Trustee Chair Professor , Katey studies combustion conditions for energetics and propellants. The opportunity to work on real-world engineering problems drew him to UCF and provided valuable preparation for the SMART Scholarship.

“My time in the lab has provided valuable hands-on experience with shock tube experiments, kinetic modeling, data analysis and scientific communication, Katey says.”

He views the program as a launchpad toward a dream career as a research engineer in defense and propulsion.

“This opportunity inspires me to continue advancing combustion and propulsion research while contributing to cleaner, more efficient and more reliable energy and defense technologies,” Katey says.

Jonathan Meyers ’26: Engineering Smarter Solutions

After earning his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, Meyers returned to UCF to pursue his master’s and become a two-time Knight. Through SMART, he’ll continue his work with the Naval Enterprise Research Data Science Lab at the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD).

Coworkers who became SMART Scholars early in their careers encouraged him to apply. Their experiences showed him how the program could help expand his skills and opportunities.

Meyers will work with Nelson Lerma, a senior data science/ product manager at NAWCTSD, whose mentorship has helped him grow.

“Dr. Nelson Lerma … constantly pushes me to grow my technical skills and diversify my experience while also staying grounded and making the right decisions,” Meyers says.

Meyers values computer engineering’s range of applications and wants to use that versatility to address emerging challenges through machine learning.

“My goal is to continue research into machine learning topics and develop cutting-edge solutions to new and emerging problems,” Meyers says. “By furthering my knowledge and building connections to both professors and my fellow students, I believe I have a better chance of achieving this goal while also making great friends along the way.”

Jean Bernard Pierre: Returning to Service, Equipped for Digital Threats

For Pierre, the SMART Scholarship connects his next chapter to the mission that started his career.

Before pursuing his master’s in digital forensics, Pierre served as a U.S. Navy information systems specialist and worked at the FBI Computer Forensics Laboratory.

“My interest in computing grew from a desire to see how intelligent systems can automate complex tasks while remaining secure,” Pierre says. “During my time in the Navy and supporting the forensics lab, I saw firsthand how essential digital evidence and secure networks are to both public safety and national defense.”

Pierre sees the scholarship as a bridge between that operational background and his future in digital forensics and threat mitigation.

“It allows me to transition back seamlessly into the Department of Defense workforce, where I can apply digital forensics and threat mitigation to safeguard critical national security systems.”

He chose UCF for its strong cybersecurity programs and integration with the National Center for Forensic Science.

“UCF integrates high-level technical rigor with practical, real-world application,” Pierre says. “It gives me access to advanced forensic tools and testing platforms that both challenge and prepare me for the complex demands of the defense sector.”

After earning his master’s degree, Pierre hopes to help detect, analyze and neutralize digital threats, building on his military service with new expertise.

“The SMART Scholarship is far more than funding; it is a truly transformational career engine, a direct pipeline back to the mission [that] began years ago in the U.S. Navy — back to where it all started.”

A UCF-led research team will receive a $19.2 million, five-year award from the U.S. Army Research Office to investigate how light travels through complex, changing environments — and how researchers can control it.

Led by Guifang Li, a professor in UCF’s College of Optics and Photonics (CREOL), the program brings together researchers from CREOL and UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, the University of Dayton and the University of California, Berkeley, alongside industry partners.

The award will also support a new chapter for CREOL’s Townes Laser Institute under Li’s leadership. Established at CREOL in 2007 and named for Nobel laureate and laser pioneer Charles Townes, the institute advances laser technologies and their potential applications. Li plans to expand its focus on multidisciplinary projects that apply advances in lasers and photonics to practical challenges.

“Townes Laser Institute will translate multidisciplinary scientific advances into solutions that aspire to benefit society as profoundly as the laser itself, to honor the legacy of Charles Townes,” Li says.

Understanding Light in the Real World

Light traveling through the real world rarely behaves as it does in an ideal laboratory.

Atmospheric turbulence, scattering materials, biological tissue and other complex media can scramble an optical wave, degrade an image or prevent light from being precisely delivered to a desired location. The new program seeks to develop ways to measure these distortions remotely and correct them rapidly, particularly when a sensor, beacon or other measurement device cannot be placed at the far end of the optical path.

Although partly motivated by challenges involving directed-energy systems, the research could also inform imaging through biological tissue, laser-based medicine, remote sensing and free-space optical communications.

“We are interested in a very fundamental problem: How do you understand and control light when the environment between you and where you want the light to go is unknown, changing and inaccessible?” Li says. “That question appears in many different forms — from atmospheric propagation to looking through scattering tissue. If we can develop new ways to measure the optical environment and adapt to it in real time, the underlying science could have an impact across many fields.”

Learning About an Environment from the Light Itself

One of the program’s central questions is whether researchers can determine what happened to light during its journey without directly accessing the other end of its path.

One group of techniques will examine the extremely small amount of light naturally scattered back as an optical wave travels through a medium. By combining coherent optical measurements with advanced computational methods, the team will study whether these weak returning signals can reveal how conditions vary along the optical path.

Other approaches will use carefully designed patterns of light and mathematical inverse methods to simultaneously learn about an unknown object and the medium obscuring it.

The team will also explore using artificial intelligence to analyze optical measurements and gain a better understanding of complex environments.

Correcting Distortions in Complex Media

Understanding how light has been distorted creates a second challenge: How can the distortion be undone?

The team will investigate multi-plane light conversion, which manipulates an optical wave across a series of controllable planes rather than relying on a single optical element to correct complex distortions.

In principle, the approach could give researchers greater control over both the amplitude and phase of an optical field, allowing a system to address distortions that conventional single-plane methods cannot easily correct.

For light traveling through the atmosphere, the technique could provide new ways to compensate for rapidly changing turbulence. Related principles could help researchers recover images obscured by biological tissue or improve the precision with which lasers deliver light through complex biological environments.

Bringing Optics and Computation Together

The program combines traditionally separate fields, including coherent optical sensing, computational imaging, inverse methods, artificial intelligence, adaptive optics and programmable photonics, to investigate systems capable of characterizing and adapting to a complex optical environment.

The multidisciplinary approach also reflects Li’s vision for the Townes Laser Institute: bringing researchers together to develop solutions for specific applications.

Preparing the Next Generation of Optical Scientists

The program will also train students from UCF, the University of Dayton and UC Berkeley to work across optical physics, photonics, computation and engineering. Students will gain experience in optical sensing, wavefront control, computational imaging, artificial intelligence and advanced photonic systems.

“An award of this scale gives us an unusual opportunity not only to pursue ambitious scientific questions, but also to train students across institutions and disciplines,” Li says. “The students will learn to think about optics as a complete system — combining physics, devices, computation and experiments. That workforce development is an important part of the program.”

Moving Discoveries Beyond the Laboratory

Industry partners will explore potential applications for discoveries emerging from the research.

Meadowlark Optics Inc., Caelight Inc. and Holodyne LLC will help commercialize technologies emerging from the research. Texas Instruments will support the program by providing the research team with prototypes of microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, before they become publicly available.

“This award reflects UCF’s growing leadership in optics and photonics and demonstrates the impact that fundamental university research can have on technologies of national importance,” CREOL Dean says. “Just as importantly, the program will educate the next generation of scientists and engineers needed to advance these technologies.”

This research is supported by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory through the Army Research Office under award number W911NF262A129.

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, Haigh and an international team of researchers found that coastal flooding tends to occur at certain times of day, reflecting the timing of the tides. While previous research has largely focused on the seasonal timing of river and coastal flooding, this is the first study to show that impact-causing floods have predictable daily timing across regions.

“Floods have traditionally been viewed as primarily weather-driven and therefore relatively unpredictable in their exact timing,” Haigh says. “But surprisingly little attention has been paid to what hour of the day flooding occurs. Another reason is the way we measure flooding. We commonly talk about the number of ‘flood days’ per year. Once an event is reduced to a flood day, the information about whether the flooding happened at 3 a.m., 8 a.m. or 3 p.m. disappears.”

Tides Create Predictable Patterns

Using tide gauge data and flood event records from the U.S. and the U.K., the researchers found clear patterns in when floods occur.

In Boston, for example, floods occur predominantly around noon and midnight, while in Southern California they are more common in the morning. In Florida, timing varies along the coastline because tides differ by location. Along the Atlantic Coast and toward the Florida Keys, coastal flooding is moderately predictable, while flooding along the Gulf Coast is less predictable.

Haigh says tides largely drive that predictability.

“In many locations, tides determine whether storm surge is sufficient to push water levels above flood thresholds,” Haigh says. “As a result, even storm-driven flooding often inherits the timing of the tides.”

The researchers found that the phenomenon isn’t limited to locations that experience semidiurnal tides, which consist of two high tides and two low tides each day. It also occurs in places with diurnal tidal systems — with one high tide and one low tide per day — because of the way different tidal signals interact.

Why Flood Timing Matters

As sea levels rise, coastal flooding is increasingly occurring even without storms, making an understanding of when floods are likely to occur increasingly important.

“This matters because timing influences impacts,” Haigh says. “The same flood can have very different consequences if it occurs during the morning commute, business hours or in the middle of the night. Understanding these temporal patterns could improve flood forecasting, emergency planning, infrastructure operations and long-term coastal adaptation

Knowing when coastal flooding is most likely to occur could help people, businesses and emergency managers better anticipate disruption and plan accordingly. That information could become even more useful as rising sea levels make it easier for tides and relatively small weather events to push water above flood thresholds.

“Higher mean sea levels signify that it will take only a relatively small weather contribution or sometimes simply a very high astronomical tide to cross a flood threshold,” Haigh says. “Understanding exactly when those critical tidal windows occur could therefore become an increasingly important component of coastal flood forecasting and preparedness.”

About the Researcher

Professor Ivan Haigh is a professor and eminent coastal and physical oceanographer. A coastal and physical oceanographer, he earned his bachelor’s degree in oceanography and mathematics, and his Ph.D. from the University of Southampton. He later served as a professor of sea level and coastal impacts at Southampton and directed its Center for Doctoral Training for Resilient Flood Futures. Haigh joined the ɫ���� in 2025, as the director of the Center for Integrated Coastal Research.

We are America’s Space University. And we celebrate UCF Space Week to honor our origin as we dare to build what’s next.

Where Global Leaders Unite to Forge the Future of Space

Since UCF first held classes on Oct. 7, 1968, we have always been driven by an ambitious charge: “Reach for the stars.” The first moon landing followed in 1969. Decades later, UCF keeps reaching as that founding mission lives on in the Knights developing the talent, discoveries and technologies taking humanity deeper into space — and transforming life here on Earth.

Before UCF had a single classroom, we had a mission: provide the talent to help humanity reach the moon.

UCF, America’s Space University, was built for the Space Age. We have spent every decade since building what’s next.

This year’s Mission X Space Game celebrates that momentum during a year of milestones: the 10th anniversary of UCF’s Space Game, the 20th season of the university’s on-campus football stadium, the 30th anniversary ɫ���� football’s rise to the highest division of collegiate athletics and the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Together, these milestones offer a chance to reflect on how far UCF has come — and look toward where Knights are headed next.

Across six decades, every breakthrough has built on what came before. The goalposts have moved from reaching the moon to sustaining life beyond it. New fields have joined the mission. Once-distant ideas have become experiments, breakthroughs and careers powered by Knights.

The moments that follow trace those threads across generations: then, the bold moves that launched UCF’s space legacy; now, the people and possibilities building on that foundation to push exploration even further.

1960s | Building the Space Workforce

1963: Florida Technological University, now UCF, is founded to provide talent for the growing space industry as the United States is challenged with landing a man on the moon before 1970.

Today: UCF is the No. 1 supplier of graduates to the nation’s aerospace and defense industries by Aviation Week. That impact is especially visible along Florida’s Space Coast, where 29% of Kennedy Space Center employees are UCF graduates.

1968: Classes begin across UCF’s original five colleges, with aerospace sciences among the university’s earliest degree programs.

Today: Space at UCF extends far beyond a single discipline. Students can choose from more than 35 space-related programs spanning business, engineering, hospitality, medicine, planetary science, optics and policy — preparing them for in-demand careers across the space sector.

1968: UCF receives its first research grant — $12,500 from NASA — establishing an early connection between the university and the agency.

Today: UCF has received $204 million in NASA awards since 1991, supporting work that advances planetary exploration, propulsion, space medicine, technologies and more. This underscores the strong decades-long collaboration between the university and the agency.

1970s | Connecting Education to Industry

1971: NASA employs 18 students through UCF’s Co-Operative Education initiative, which leverages the university’s metropolitan location to let students alternate quarters of study with off-campus work in their academic fields.

Today: UCF students are conducting hands-on research alongside Johnson Space Center astronauts and testing technology on the world’s largest simulated lunar surface.

These experiences strengthen students’ resumes while giving them workforce-ready skills and professional connections to step directly into the fast-growing space industry — and start contributing immediately.

1980s | Developing the Foundation of Space Medicine

1985: As rockets soared off Florida’s Space Coast for NASA’s Space Shuttle Program, UCF students were already exploring spaceflight’s impact on people. A group ɫ���� health sciences graduate students, including respiratory health alum Charles Gutierrez ’82 ’85MS, conducted experiments in labs on campus and on a field used as a makeshift launch site to understand how rockets impact heart and lung health. The research, published in The Physiologist, reflects UCF’s spirit of turning curiosity into action.

Today: Reaching farther into space requires an understanding of how humans will live, work and stay healthy there. As the closest medical school to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, UCF established the Led by Emmanuel Urquieta, vice chair of aerospace medicine and associate professor of medicine, the center brings together UCF experts across disciplines to lead research and develop technologies that will help humans prepare for longer missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. Urquieta also leads .

1990s | Creating a Place for Space

1990: UCF establishes the Space Education and Research Center, which later becomes the . The institute is a hub for space research, education and technology development connected to Florida’s space industry.

Today: FSI research ranges from studying the Earth’s upper atmosphere to the origin of the planets to propulsion technologies for aerospace vehicles. Through research, operations oversight and educational programs, the institute continues to position Florida as a global leader in the space industry and contributes to the state’s economic development.

Among its facilities is the , home to the world’s largest simulated lunar surface. Filled with 240,000 pounds of simulated lunar soil, the lab’s Lunar Highland Regolith Test Bin lets researchers, students and space organizations test how rovers, tools and other technologies perform on a moonlike surface.

1996: Robinson Observatory opens on UCF’s main campus, providing students and faculty a place to study planetary systems, asteroids and more. By 2004, it housed what the Orlando Sentinel described as the largest telescope in the Southeast open to the public.

Today: UCF researchers use observations from some of the world’s most powerful telescopes, including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, to investigate comets, asteroids, and the origins and evolution of our solar system.

2000s | Entering the Space Renaissance

2009: Engineering alum Nicole Stott ’92MS launches aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, becoming the first UCF graduate to fly aboard a NASA shuttle and live on the International Space Station.

Today: UCF is preparing students not only to travel to space, but also to build the industries, policies and experiences surrounding it.

Through the Barry S. Miller College of Business, students can earn the nation’s first fully online MBA in space commercialization. A Space Policy and Management course in the College of Community Innovation and Education examines the decisions and administrative mechanisms that help power the space industry. Students can help imagine the future of dining and hospitality in spaceports, shuttles and orbital hotels at the , a global leader in hospitality and tourism education.

2010s | Return to Liftoff

2017: Invigorated by a new uniform line and excitement around the hiring of Scott Frost as head coach in 2016, UCF Athletics decides to debut the Space Game — an idea conceptualized three years prior by UCF Athletics’ brand experience department.

“It’s a unique part of the UCF story that it was too good of an opportunity not to use the athletics platform to amplify,” Jimmy Skiles ’06 said in a 2022 article about the origin of the Space Game.

Today: The annual Space Game — which has crossed over into UCF’s other sports — has grown into a spectacular, fan favorite event that promotes our talented people, the revolutionary work done here and has laid the groundwork for what has become UCF Space Week.

2019: UCF sends five research projects into space with SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights after launch activity resumes in full force following the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

Today: UCF has worked with NASA on almost 600 projects since the 1990s, including the Lunar-VISE mission led by Associate Professor Kerri Donaldson Hanna and Department of Physics Chair Adrienne Dove. The $35 million project will land a spacecraft on a part of the moon never visited before: the Gruithuisen Domes.

2020s and Beyond

The next era of space exploration is already taking shape — and UCF is helping lead it.

NASA is targeting 2028 for the first crewed Artemis lunar landing. At the same time, commercial launches are accelerating — with the White House aiming to enable over 1,000 launches and reentries on American soil annually by 2030 — new markets are emerging, and the demand for space-ready talent and technology continues to grow. Our future on Earth will be shaped by our future advancements in space, and UCF will be an influential driver of that progress.

As the next phase of space exploration, launched in October 2024 as a first-of-its-kind partnership with the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, providing a centralized, physical space to advance hypersonic technology.

In May 2027, Knights from Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics aim to launch a rocket from sea through a partnership with Seagate. The ambitious effort aims to be to first sea-based launch by university students in the nation — an example of how we continue to forge a path forward for space exploration.

UCF is also helping connect Florida’s universities, NASA and industry through the Florida University Space Research Consortium. The partnership creates new paths for shared space research, technology development and workforce preparation tied to Kennedy Space Center — strengthening Florida’s ability to lead the United States’ future space efforts.

Six decades in, UCF’s space legacy is still being written — in classrooms, labs and places we are determined to reach.

We are America’s Space University. And we celebrate UCF Space Week to honor our origin as we dare to build what’s next.

Where Global Leaders Unite to Forge the Future of Space

With world-renowned faculty, hands-on learning experiences and a location less than an hour from Florida’s Space Coast, UCF continues to prove why it’s America’s Space University — where education, industry and exploration unite to shape the future of space.

Oct. 25 marks the start of the second UCF Space Week, a university-wide celebration of all the ways Knight Nation boldly pushes space forward. The observance highlights UCF’s vital role in advancing space research, supporting Florida’s fast-growing space economy, and preparing the next generation of explorers, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

Here are a few key reasons why we celebrate UCF Space Week and how SpaceU is launching the next era of space innovation.

A Legacy in Fueling the Space Industry’s Talent Pipeline

When the university first opened in 1963, landing humans on the moon was a dream that seemed out of reach. Yet UCF dared to believe — and take action — by supplying talent and research to the nearby space industry based on the Space Coast just 35 miles east. UCF’s purpose has only grown stronger more than six decades later as space exploration fuels transformative innovation here on Earth.

Every year, thousands of students gain real-world experience, conduct interdisciplinary research and participate in programs — including the aerospace medicine program — directly connected to industry, preparing them for in-demand roles across the space sector.

The university’s excellence in providing talent is supported by data, as the American Society of Engineering Education consistently ranks UCF in the top five nationally for awarding bachelor’s degrees in (2025):

• Aerospace engineering (No. 4)
• Mechanical engineering (No. 5)
• Computer science (No. 5)
• And No. 10 for awarding engineering bachelor’s degrees overall — the highest in Florida

Advancing Research That Reaches New Frontiers

When visionaries look to the future, they also look to UCF — a leader in space research, innovation and education with 14 experiments sent to space aboard commercial rockets since 2016. UCF Space Week spotlights these breakthroughs, connecting the community with the pioneering work happening right on campus.

Studying Aging in Space

Researcher: Professor Michal Masternak, College of Medicine
Project: Masternak and his team study how the extreme conditions of space affect human aging and health. By simulating microgravity and space radiation, the researchers identified molecular changes associated with accelerated aging, offering insights that could help protect astronauts on long-duration missions and inform future therapies for age-related diseases on Earth.

Unlocking Lunar Resources

Researchers: Planetary Geologist and Associate Professor Kerri Donaldson Hanna and Interim Department Chair of Physics and Associate Professor Adrienne Dove
Project: Donaldson Hanna and Dove are leading NASA’s Lunar-VISE (Lunar Vulkan Imaging Spectroscopy Explorer) mission, which aims to uncover clues about an unexplored part of the moon and potential insight for deeper space exploration.

Detecting Habitable Worlds

Researcher: Professor Stephen Eikenberry, College of Optics and Photonics
Project: Eikenberry and his team are developing advanced photonics technology to help future space telescopes detect Earth-like planets hidden by the brightness of nearby stars. The NASA-funded project could improve scientists’ ability to directly observe potentially habitable worlds and search their atmospheres for signs of life.

Building Partnerships That Propel Discovery

UCF Space Week highlights these crucial collaborations with support from Blue Origin, KPMG, Lockheed Martin, Verizon, Space Florida and SpaceX.

At the heart ɫ����’s success is collaboration. The university works closely with NASA, government agencies, private companies, and research institutions to create opportunities that bridge education, research, and real-world application. These partnerships help students gain experience and industry insight while advancing technologies that will define the next phase of space exploration.

On Sept. 9, UCF partnered with the U.S. Space Force’s innovation enterprise to launch the . The effort strengthens connections between government, academia, industry and entrepreneurs to help promising ideas move faster from research to real-world capability.

UCF is also helping space‑related research, innovation and workforce development across through the Florida Space Research Consortium. Alain Berinstain, who joined UCF in January as director of the Florida Space Institute, now leads the eight-university initiative — underscoring UCF’s leadership and expertise in this evolving field.

Powering Florida’s Space Economy

Space is no longer just a frontier — it’s the future. With the global space economy projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2035, UCF is preparing the visionaries who will fuel discovery and shape that growth.

Now expanding its impact into the business of space, UCF is helping lead the business of space under the direction of Space Commercialization and Strategy Program Director Zaheer Ali . His work is building a pipeline of leaders ready to drive innovation, strengthen national security and unlock opportunities that will advance humanity’s future beyond Earth.

Reaching for What’s Next

UCF Space Week isn’t just about looking back at past achievements — it’s about imagining what comes next. With a legacy built on exploration and a community fueled by curiosity, UCF continues to inspire students and researchers to reach higher, think bolder and push the boundaries of what’s possible.

Because at UCF, space isn’t the final frontier — it’s just the beginning.

Welcome to UCF’s  anechoic chamber.

Located in the UCF Innovative Center, the 217-square-foot chamber is not big by any means — but the impact it will play in understanding and improving hearing certainly is.

“Anechoic chambers are designed to do two things: to keep outside sound outside and to absorb reflected sound inside,” says Pavel Zahorik, professor of communication sciences and disorders. “This allows us to make acoustical measurements that are highly accurate and precise, by limiting background noise and reflected sound.”

Precision is critical in Zahorik’s research.

An expert in hearing devices and technologies, hearing science and psychoacoustics, he’s part ɫ����’s growing , which in just two years ago has attracted some of the nation’s top hearing scientists to the College of Health Professions and Sciences.

In the new chamber, Zahorik will focus on improving hearing aids and listening devices, and learning more about how the shape of our ears and heads impacts how we hear.

Fine-Tuning Tech

Hearing loss is far from rare. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), approximately 15% of American adults — roughly 37.5 million people — report some trouble hearing. Among adults ages 65 to 74, roughly a third have hearing loss in one or both ears.

The effects extend well beyond missed conversations. Untreated hearing loss has been linked to higher rates of depression, increased risks of falls and even a greater likelihood of developing dementia.

By stripping away stray noise, Zahorik can ensure the devices designed to restore hearing are as accurate, effective, and life-changing as possible. To do that, inside of the anechoic chamber, every inch of the walls and ceiling is covered in sound-absorbing foam wedges (that look not unlike oversized monochromatic Monopoly houses) affixed at alternating angels. The floor is a steel mesh grid suspended over a layer of the same wall-to-wall wedges, swallowing stray sound waves before they can ricochet.

Anechoic derives from the Greek words meaning “without echo,” and the chamber delivers just that.

It may seem like overkill, but for manufacturers developing everything from hearing aids and AirPods to car communication systems, antennas and loudspeakers, quality and consistency depend on this level of acoustic control.

In fact, the first anechoic chamber was built to improve high-altitude military communication during World War II. Today, they’re used to test everything from telecommunications and aerodynamics to medical devices, including MRI machines and pacemakers.

The one at UCF brings the distinctive designation of being devoted solely to research human health.

For Your Listening Pleasure

According to the NIH, an estimated 28.8 million U.S. adults could benefit from hearing aids. Yet the way we test these devices hasn’t always matched the way we actually use them.

Traditionally, hearing aids are placed inside a testing box fitted with loudspeakers. Researchers measure output and distortion in a controlled environment. It’s accurate — but it’s also artificial.

Ears aren’t boxes.

They have unique curves and angles and sit on heads of different shapes and sizes. Each ridge and contour subtly bends incoming sound before it reaches the eardrum, changing each individual’s response to how they hear.

Inside the anechoic chamber, Zahorik can test [hearing aid] devices the way they’re meant to function: in ears.

Inside the anechoic chamber, Zahorik can test devices the way they’re meant to function: in ears.

Using both mannequins and human participants, he can measure how sound behaves in real anatomical context — how it interacts acoustically with the head and ears before sound information ultimately reaches the brain.

“Everyone’s ears and heads are shaped differently, meaning acoustics are different for different people,” he says. “Understanding how the brain processes that different acoustical information could be really important for improving hearing.”

Zahorik’s longtime collaboration with Sonova — a global manufacturer of hearing aids, cochlear implants and wireless communication systems — builds upon this principle. By capturing cleaner, more realistic measurements, Zahorik hopes to refine how these devices amplify sound for users in everyday environments.

Because hearing isn’t just about volume.

It’s also about space: direction and distance.

It’s how we know a voice is behind us, a siren is blocks away or a friend is calling from across the room.

Zahorik has been fascinated by that puzzle ever since he was an undergraduate. A course on perception introduced him to the psychology of vision, but as a music enthusiast who dabbled in production, he was more interested in sound. His professor connected him with a researcher studying virtual sound simulation, and Zahorik volunteered for a study inside an anechoic chamber.

Blindfolded, he was led into the silent room. He sat there as a speaker emitted sounds and moved around him. His task was to say where he heard the sounds.

He was accurate in identifying direction. Distance, however, was another story.

“For the longest time, I thought I was in this huge space, and that the sounds were quite far away,” he says. “But when they took the blindfold off, I realized the space wasn’t very big at all. It was actually smaller than the chamber we have here.”

Without sight and echoes, the room distorted his sense of scale. That was in the late 1980s, and while technology has advanced dramatically since then, some of our understanding of auditory perception has not.

“We still don’t know, for example, exactly how our brain decodes acoustical information to represent space,” says Zahorik, a self-described sound nerd whose office setup includes state-of-the-art headphones and microphones. “We still don’t know how it is we know sounds are coming from a particular location and distance, and how the acoustical environment can change these perceptions.”

“Think of it like creating a 3D scan — but for sound.” — Pavel Zahorik, UCF researcher

The new chamber will eventually help probe those questions. For now, the room has one loudspeaker, but the plan is to install a movable speaker arc that will allow researchers to measure acoustical responses from nearly any position around a listener.

“Think of it like creating a 3D scan — but for sound,” Zahorik says.

And just as 3D imaging has transformed how we see, measure and interact with the physical world, the discoveries made in the quietest place on campus will help transform how we hear — resonating far beyond the chamber’s foam-lined walls.

Through a nearly five-year, $943,000-plus grant from the National Institutes of Health, Calarco’s lab is examining how neurons — nerve cells in the brain — and their molecules change when exposed to nicotine and other drugs. The goal is to understand how microscopic changes in the brain eventually influence behavioral decisions, including those associated with addiction.

“We want to understand what’s really influencing the neuron,” says Calarco, who began work on this project in 2024 as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, before joining UCF in January as an assistant professor. “Which component is critical for the neuron function that leads to drug-seeking behavior?”

For this research, Calarco’s lab is focused on the nucleus accumbens, an area of the brain involved in reward, learning and behavior.

“I call it a little computer that integrates a lot of signals that come in relationship to reward learning from a lot of other parts of the brain to guide behavioral choices,” she says.

“We want to understand what’s really influencing the neuron. Which component is critical for the neuron function that leads to drug-seeking behavior?” — Cali Calarco, assistant professor

The nucleus accumbens contains multiple types of brain cells, and Calarco’s research examines how individual cell types respond to nicotine and other drugs. Her lab is particularly interested in mitochondria, the structures within cells that produce the energy they need to function. Recent studies suggest mitochondria may also play an important role in drug-seeking behavior.

“Mitochondria have been underappreciated in neurons previously,” she says. “Neurons are incredibly complex cells that do incredibly complex tasks, both electrically and chemically that require a ton of energy, so we knew they were really important. But mitochondria also influence how neurons communicate with each other. They’re super important for gene transcription and translation and for steroid hormone production.”

By understanding addiction at the molecular level, researchers may ultimately be able to develop better treatments for substance use disorder.

“There aren’t that many substance use disorder treatments, and the ones available only work for a subset of people,” she says. “There is room for improvement in nicotine use disorder therapies, and new pathway targets may provide more effective treatments with fewer side effects.”

Nicotine use has persisted even as the products used to consume it have changed. Calarco compares the trend to a game of whack-a-mole, with new nicotine products gaining popularity as older ones decline. While cigarette smoking has declined, consumers now have access to products such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches placed between the lips and gum. According to data from the FDA and CDC’s 2025 National Youth Tobacco Survey, nicotine pouch use nearly quadrupled among U.S. youth and young adults between 2022 and 2025.

While her research is focused on nicotine, Calarco says her findings could have implications for other substances and even social media addiction.

Calarco earned her doctorate in neuroscience from Yale University before conducting postdoctoral research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where she studied mitochondria and cocaine-seeking behavior. She joined the UCF College of Medicine’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences in January 2026.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under award number K01DA061048. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.