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.

Questions asked at UCF rarely stay put.

The answers travel — making highways safer, informing disaster planning, shaping conversations about life-changing technologies and more. Behind that reach are brilliant minds, including eight faculty members whose research and scholarship are being celebrated at the 2026 Luminary Awards. Their achievements demonstrate how UCF expertise reaches beyond campus to address challenges facing Florida and the world.

Now in its 10th year, the annual awards honor faculty whose work brings UCF national and international recognition while elevating the university’s influence across disciplines and communities.

Selected from nominations submitted by deans, directors and department chairs across UCF, the 2026 awardees will be celebrated Oct. 20. Joining the ceremony will be President Cartwright; John Buckwalter, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs; Winston Schoenfeld, vice president for research and innovation; and Kelly Ferris Lester, vice provost for faculty excellence.

Meet this year’s luminaries.

Haitham Al-Deek

Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, College of Engineering and Computer Science

Haitham Al-Deek is helping stop wrong-way drivers before a dangerous turn becomes a devastating crash.

Working with the Central Florida Expressway Authority, he helped create and implement North America’s first highly accurate wrong-way driving detection and deterrence system. Since its introduction in 2015, thousands of drivers have corrected course before heading in the wrong direction, helping prevent potentially fatal or debilitating crashes.

His algorithm for cost-effectively addressing the highway exits most at risk for wrong-way driving has been widely adopted in Florida and Idaho. Al-Deek’s broader expertise includes freeway operations, intelligent transportation systems and traffic safety. His work has influenced public policy and advanced transportation planning, freight transportation, and the deployment of life-saving technologies on high-speed toll roads and freeways.

Since joining UCF in 1992, Al-Deek has secured more than $10 million in research funding and developed innovations that have resulted in multiple patents for the university while preparing the next generation of transportation engineers to make an impact on society. His honors include awards from the U.S. National Research Council’s Transportation Research Board.

Kevin Mackie, Al-Deek’s department chair, says his extensive efforts to improve highway safety and transportation “are contributions that touch the lives of all of us.”

Andrea Blanco-Redondo

Florida Photonics Center of Excellence Endowed Professor, College of Optics and Photonics

Andrea Blanco-Redondo is harnessing light to push the boundaries of quantum technology.

Her research develops scalable ways to generate and control quantum states of light — advances that could unlock new possibilities in computing, communications and information processing. She’s internationally known for discovering a new class of optical pulses that behave like a particle and can help researchers and industry shape what’s next. In three years at UCF, her scholarship has informed roughly two dozen conferences and produced papers in prestigious journals, including Science, Nature Materials, Nature Communications and Nature Photonics.

An Optica (Optical Society of America) Fellow, Blanco-Redondo also serves as chair of the SPIE OPTO Symposium at Photonics West, a premier annual conference of the international society for optics and photonics. Alongside her research and professional leadership, she mentors future scientists and helps expand opportunities in engineering and optics.

“Through internationally recognized scholarship, sustained external engagement and demonstrable impact, Dr. Blanco-Redondo exemplifies the UCF Luminary ideal through globally impactful work that both broadens understanding and inspires future scientists,” UCF College of Optics and Photonics Dean David Hagan says.

William Crampton

Professor, Department of Biology, College of Sciences

William Crampton’s research on electric fish is revealing extraordinary capabilities — and has even earned a world record.

A leading global authority in his field, Crampton recorded an 860-volt eel in the Amazon Basin, the highest voltage ever documented from a living organism, according to Guinness World Records. His work advances species discovery, documentation, and conservation while revealing principles of biological sensing relevant to radar, sonar, and autonomous sensing technologies.

In a recent study, Crampton and other UCF researchers uncovered how eels and knifefish strategically suppress their electric signals to avoid detection, balancing the need to sense their surroundings with the need to remain concealed. His open-source tools are also expanding how scientists study behavior in natural systems. Crampton’s discoveries have also reached audiences worldwide through major media outlets, including National Geographic.

“His recent work combines innovative discovery, international recognition and exceptional public visibility, producing scholarship that advances knowledge while capturing the imagination of both the scientific community and the public,” UCF Department of Biology Chair Eric Hoffman says.

Alan Fyall

Visit Orlando Endowed Chair of Tourism Marketing,

Alan Fyall is helping destinations worldwide rethink how tourism can better serve the people who visit and the communities that call them home.

His research addresses destination planning, travel accessibility, resilience, sustainability and tourism’s impact on communities. His appointment to the United Nations Pool of Experts for Global Reporting on the State of the Marine Environment brings UCF expertise into international ocean governance.

An elected fellow and leader with the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, Fyall has advised organizations and governments across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and the United States. His scholarship includes eight books, 105 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 100 conference papers and editorials. The New York Times, USA Today and Forbes have featured his expertise.

“Dr. Fyall’s work connects local relevancy to global impact,” says Rosen College of Hospitality Management Dean Cynthia Mejia. “His research on accessible tourism through mega-events, the well-being impacts of tourism on residents and the vulnerability of coastal destinations to climate disruption is improving how communities around the world plan for and benefit from tourism.”

Ivan Garibay

Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, College of Engineering and Computer Science

Ivan Garibay is advancing artificial intelligence (AI) to confront challenges ranging from social media misinformation to disease.

He uses AI to model and predict complex human behavior and develops data-driven strategies to counter misinformation and propaganda. This year, he co-founded a biotechnology research company to commercialize AI research aimed at accelerating the search for cures for diseases – an effort supported by a patent filing.

Since joining UCF in 2016, Garibay has secured more than $36 million in research funding and testified before Congress about AI’s challenges and opportunities. The master’s program in data analytics he founded has produced 240 UCF graduates for the workforce.

His work has attracted media attention on four continents, including on NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. His honors include election as an associate member of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida.

“[Garibay] exemplifies the externally recognized, world-changing scholarship the Luminary Award celebrates,” says Waldemar Karwowski, chair of the UCF Department of Industrial Engineering and Management.

Claire Connolly Knox

Professor, School of Public Administration, College of Community Innovation and Education

Claire Connolly Knox is strengthening how communities prepare for and mitigate disasters, respond when they strike and recover in their aftermath.

Her nationally recognized research connects coastal resilience, emergency management, environmental vulnerability and equitable delivery of public services. Supported by millions of dollars in grant funding, her work informs federal policy, disaster response, emergency management capacity and strategies for building more resilient communities.

As founder and director of UCF’s Master of Emergency and Crisis Management program, Knox also helps prepare future leaders in the field. Her contributions have helped advance UCF’s homeland security and emergency management graduate programs, which U.S. News & World Report ranks No. 1 nationally.

Knox was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2024 — one of the field’s highest honors — and received the International Association of Emergency Managers’ 2025 Emergency Management Educator of the Year Award.

“Her sustained scholarly productivity, national prominence, public engagement and commitment to addressing complex societal challenges have enhanced UCF’s reputation while advancing more equitable and resilient communities,” says Bradley Heim, director of the UCF School of Public Administration.

Abdul-Akeem Sadiq

Professor, School of Public Administration, College of Community Innovation and Education

Abdul-Akeem Sadiq helps governments and communities prepare for complex threats while equipping the next generation of researchers to take them on.

His interdisciplinary research spans floods, infrastructure failures, human trafficking and other emerging crises. By examining disaster preparedness, emergency communication systems, organizational mitigation strategies and equitable disaster response, he generates insights that inform public policy and professional practice.

Sadiq also leads a U.S. National Science Foundation initiative to develop future hazards and disaster researchers. He recently brought scholars from across the nation to UCF to strengthen collaboration and workforce development in disaster science. His honors include election as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, one of the field’s highest distinctions.

“Dr. Sadiq has established himself as a nationally and internationally recognized scholar whose research, leadership and public engagement have significantly advanced the fields of emergency management and public administration while elevating UCF’s visibility as a leader in disaster resilience and public service scholarship,” Heim says.

Mel Stanfill

Professor, Texts and Technology Program and Department of English, College of Arts and Humanities

Mel Stanfill brings critical insight to the technologies and online communities reshaping digital culture.

In examining how technology, identity, law and economics influence cultural participation, Stanfill explores fandoms, music, AI, digital games, social media governance, parasocial relationships and more.

Stanfill’s book Fandom Is Ugly: Networked Harassment in Participatory Culture earned the National Communication Association’s 2025 Diamond Anniversary Book Award for its analysis of politics, online communities and harassment.

Stanfill’s expertise has reached the public through commentary for NPR, The Guardian, National Geographic, Forbes, NBC News and Teen Vogue, bringing scholarly insight to contemporary conversations about technology and popular culture.

“Dr. Stanfill has made UCF a national player in the discussion of the cultural effects of technology,” UCF Department of English Chair James Campbell says. “UCF needs to be a place not just where new technology is conceived, but where it is questioned, critiqued, and has its cultural meanings and effects made clear, and Dr. Stanfill is making that happen.”

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

On a clear night, Teresa Kinney ’11MS can step into her backyard in Merritt Island, just a few miles from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), and look toward the moon. Its illuminated gray and white surface is no longer just a distant destination — it represents the next chapter of human space exploration and her own engineering������������.

As transportation office program lead engineer in NASA’s Moon Base Program, the UCF alumna plays a critical role in the agency’s phased effort to establish America’s first permanent outpost near the moon’s South Pole. Her engineering team oversees the surface transportation systems needed to deliver cargo, move equipment across the lunar surface, support deep-space and orbital missions and ensure every component works together as part of the larger lunar architecture.

Kinney evaluates whether transportation concepts and designs are technically ready to advance and how they fit into NASA’s long-term vision for building and sustaining a lunar base.

“I make sure technically that the design is worthy of moving forward to the next phase, that we’re looking at all the right thermal, dynamic and radiation environments and making sure the integration of hardware, including electronics and other parts, is coming together the proper way,” Kinney says.

Engineering a Moon Base

NASA’s Moon Base Program is designed to evolve from robotic and early uncrewed missions to semi-permanent infrastructure, early habitation and, eventually, a sustained human presence on the lunar surface. Every phase depends on reliable transportation systems capable of delivering the hardware and supplies needed to build, operate and maintain a base hundreds of thousands (238,855) of miles from Earth.

For Kinney, success depends on how every system works together. Landers must deliver the right payloads. Surface vehicles can transport equipment once it arrives. Orbital and deep-space transportation systems must support the broader mission. Each piece must perform safely on its own while also working within the overall architecture.

“I was surprised by the logistical complexity of maintaining a permanent presence on the International Space Station,” Kinney says. “I guess I shouldn’t have been — it’s like going on a month’s-long camping trip when you’re used to camping for long weekends. You need a lot more for that longer duration because you can’t just make do for an extended period. You think you’re prepared, but then you realize there are things you didn’t expect to need and things you wish you had with you. I think we’ll learn those same kinds of lessons from Moon Base, and I’m excited and ready to get started.”

Kinney also serves as project chief engineer for the Liquid Oxygen-Methane Assessment, a joint initiative involving NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Space Force. As the project’s final technical authority, she’s helping quantify the explosive yield and risks associated with the large quantities of liquid oxygen and methane carried by next-generation rockets and spacecraft, including human landing systems, particularly during catastrophic failures or other anomalies. The data will help inform safety protocols for spacecraft, launch sites and surrounding communities.

Whether she’s assessing lunar transportation architecture or helping government agencies better understand the risks of cryogenic propellants, Kinney’s work comes down to the same challenge: understanding how complex systems behave, where they can fail and how engineers can make them safer.

A Curiosity That Started Early

That instinct to understand how the pieces fit together began early.

” … my dad slid me up under the dashboard and started handing me parts. At some point I realized, ‘I can do this.’”

At 8, Kinney started helping her father work on cars. By 12, she was small enough to slide under the dashboard of the family’s Chevrolet station wagon and install its air-conditioning system before a summer trip to Florida.

“We were living in Alabama and were going to [Walt] Disney World [Resort] but couldn’t make the drive to Florida without air conditioning,” Kinney says. “I was small enough that my dad slid me up under the dashboard and started handing me parts, asking me to connect things. At some point I realized, ‘I can do this.’ It was the first time I had ever completed a mechanical task entirely on my own.”

That experience sparked an interest in solving complex problems, shaping her career and allowing her to do what she enjoys most: putting things together.

Career Takes Off

Before becoming a NASA civil servant at Kennedy Space Center in 2005, Kinney earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and spent two decades supporting the space shuttle solid rocket booster, Spacelab and International Space Station programs as a contractor at Marshall Space Flight Center.

As a structural dynamicist at NASA, she embraced the challenges of loads analysis and modal testing of large space structures while enjoying the freedom to explore new ideas and uncover innovative solutions.

“I never had any roadblocks in front of me,” Kinney says. “They were like, ‘Here’s the work. Here’s your part of it, Teresa. If you have problems, come and talk to us.’ No one ever treated me in a way that wasn’t wonderful and supportive.”

UCF Landing

As her career evolved, Kinney realized technical expertise alone wasn’t enough if she ever wanted to lead an interdisciplinary team. With UCF’s longstanding presence at Kennedy Space Center, she knew where to turn.

“UCF has a great reputation and the proximity, but it took me years to say, ‘OK, start doing a master’s,’” Kinney says.

While working full-time, she attended most classes at KSC through a special program, often balancing 60- to 70-hour workweeks as she earned her master’s degree in industrial engineering.

“You never know what opportunities might be waiting in front of you.”

Kinney applies that same dedication to everything she does, whether she’s building bookcases with her husband — a retired NASA engineer she met while working at NASA (MSFC) — or encouraging young people to pursue careers in space exploration. She offers the same advice she gave her daughter, Julia Kinney ’19, a UCF biomedical sciences graduate who works at a cancer center, and her son, Jackson, an aerospace engineer at Marshall Space Flight Center.

“Don’t be intimidated,” Kinney says. “Don’t see things as too hard — see them as challenges. You never know what opportunities might be waiting in front of you.”

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.

Engineering students are constantly told that grueling workloads, sleepless nights and brutal exams will eventually pay off with lucrative careers. But Michael Ferrante ’15MSEM wants them to know something far more important: they are not alone.

“I’m providing evidence that somebody cares. That’s important to students — knowing that somebody is listening.” — Michael Ferrante ’15MSEM, CECS special instructor

“I’m providing evidence that somebody cares,” says Ferrante, an engineering management graduate and a special instructor in UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) who has championed student success for over 50 years. “That’s important to students — knowing that somebody is listening.”

His peers at the Florida Engineering Society have tuned in as well, naming Ferrante their 2026 Engineering Faculty Member of the Year. The recognition came as a surprise to Ferrante, who does not teach full-time. Instead, he wears many other hats, all displaying an unwavering devotion to expanding engineering opportunities
at UCF.

“When a student comes back to me years later and says, ‘Hey, I got my Ph.D., I am working where I want to work and I’m enjoying life,’ that’s what matters,” Ferrante says. “I may have given them advice and steered them in the right direction, but they did the heavy lifting. They earned the grades and they put in the work.”

Tau Beta Pi Is In His DNA

Ferrante’s legacy began in the 1970s when he helped record UCF courses on Betamax tape for traveling engineers. Since then, he has been deeply embedded in campus engineering organizations. He is the chief advisor for Tau Beta Pi — the National Engineering Honor Society — and has served on numerous leadership committees, including the CECS Alumni Council, the Engineering Leadership and Innovation Institute (eli2) and the UCF student chapter of the Florida Engineering Society.

When he is not running between the engineering buildings, Ferrante is networking on behalf of students at national conferences, securing scholarships and bringing industry leaders to campus for recruitment events.

“The thing I’m most proud of involves Tau Beta Pi,” Ferrante says. “These students are the cream of the crop. When I began advising the UCF chapter 12 years ago, we had just three students. Today, our chapter has grown to more than 100 students and we regularly initiate dozens of new members each semester.”

Until Ferrante secured approval at a Tau Beta Pi national convention several years ago, computer science majors at UCF were ineligible to join the prestigious engineering honor society. Today, UCF stands as one of only an elite number of colleges nationwide permitted to induct computer science students into the organization.

“Mr. Ferrante is the kind of person who is always around and has his hands in everything. Nothing is too much for him. He’ll make the time for it.” — Julia Moras, computer science student

Computer science major Julia Moras is one of those select members. Since being initiated during her first year, Moras has spent the past two years leading the UCF chapter as its president.

“Mr. Ferrante is the kind of person who is always around and has his hands in everything,” says Moras, who has taken on the role of student advisor for the UCF chapter. “Nothing is too much for him. He’ll make the time for it.”

Next year, the Florida Delta chapter of Tau Beta Pi will celebrate its 50th anniversary at UCF. As the chapter prepares to host the District 5 conference for the third time, Ferrante will be busy organizing the landmark event. The numerous chapter awards lining his office walls stand as a testament to his impact — even if he is quick to deflect credit by insisting he is “just the advisor.” Yet, his influence extends far beyond the campus borders.

Alongside four decades of service to the Naval Air Warfare Center, where he worked on simulation and live system development projects, Ferrante served as a weapons expert and test sniper for the U.S. Army’s small arms development program. He also was vice president of a local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, volunteered for 40 years as a reserve captain with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and currently sits on the Zoning and Planning Board for the City of Winter Springs.

No Slowing Down

His wife and fellow UCF graduate, Pamela Ferrante ’85 MEd’95 EdS ’00, insists that retirement is out of the question. Even at 73, slowing down is simply not an option for her husband, a past recipient of the CECS Alumni Night Leadership and Service Award.

As a student advisor, Ferrante believes his job is to show up, listen and help. Sometimes that mentorship means writing letters of recommendation for scholarships or graduate schools, introducing students to prospective employers or providing them with advice. He and his wife also donate food, clothing and supplies to the UCF Knights Pantry, which provides for students’ immediate needs.

There is no telling how deep Ferrante’s campus footprint will grow. With his recent  appointment to College of Community Innovation and Education as courtesy professor of practice for engineering integration, Ferrante intends to leverage his five decades of engineering expertise to foster new strategic partnerships and collaborative initiatives across the university and beyond.

“What really makes me feel good is when students make the effort and get the job of their dreams. All I do is try to direct them.” — Michael Ferrante ’15MSEM, CECS special instructor

“Mike has an extraordinary gift for making people feel supported,” says CCIE Interim Dean and Professor Ross Wolf ’88 ’91MPA ’98EdD, who volunteered with Ferrante in the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. “Over three decades, I watched him dedicate countless hours to mentoring and encouraging others. Whether in law enforcement, engineering or community service, Mike’s true passion has always been helping people reach their goals.”

One thing is for sure. Ferrante’s goal remains the same: to pay forward the education and opportunities that UCF provided him and his four children — Matthew ’16, Aimee ’17, Deanna ’17 and Jennifer ’19.

“What really makes me feel good is when students make the effort and get the job of their dreams,” Ferrante says. “All I do is try to direct them.”

Powerful innovation changes more than technology. Put to work for UCF students, it expands what they can learn, discover and achieve.

Across UCF, innovation takes shape through meaningful experiences. Students navigate patient care through immersive simulations, explore new possibilities for prosthetics, and learn from world-class faculty who bring industry expertise and mentorship into the classroom.

That approach has helped place UCF among the nation’s top five most innovative public universities and earn recognition as Florida’s most innovative university for the 10th consecutive year, according to the 2027 Best Colleges rankings released today by U.S. News & World Report.

“We are proud to see UCF recognized as Florida’s most innovative university and among the best in the nation for the opportunities we provide our students,” says UCF President Alexander N. Cartwright. “Our students work alongside outstanding faculty, contribute to meaningful research and gain experience taking on real problems. We want them to graduate from UCF knowing what they are capable of and ready to put that experience to work in our state and beyond.”

The distinction reflects the university’s commitment to elevating how students learn, how discoveries are made and how higher education strengthens the state it serves.

Preparing Talent That Strengthens Florida

For UCF nursing students, learning to care for critically ill patients can begin well before they enter a hospital room.

ɫ����’s Helene Fuld Health Trust Simulation, Technology, Innovation and Modeling (STIM) Center, a global leader in healthcare simulation education, nursing students build patient care skills in realistic clinical environments.

“[We] continue to evolve the way we teach our nursing students because healthcare and technology are constantly evolving.” — Frances Armstrong, UCF clinical assistant professor

Clinical Assistant Professor and Graduate Simulation Coordinator Frances Armstrong recently combined the center’s immersive cave, a virtual ventilator and an artificial intelligence-enhanced platform to create a simulation for acute care nurse practitioner DNP students. The experience brings theory to life, challenging students to apply what they’ve learned as they prepare for the complexities of patient care.

“It’s important for us to continue to evolve the way we teach our nursing students because healthcare and technology are constantly evolving,” Armstrong says. “One of the main ways to do that is by being innovative.”

That impact extends beyond the classroom. UCF has educated more than 17,000 Knight nursing alumni to date, with over 80% living and working in Florida. Our undergraduate nursing program also ranks among the top 50 public universities nationally.

When Research Meets the Real World

UCF also ranks among the nation’s top 15 public universities for Best Undergraduate Teaching and top 10 for public universities for Best Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects — and is the only Florida university recognized in the latter category. Those strengths converge as students work alongside faculty to answer questions without obvious solutions.

More than 2,000 UCF undergraduate students conduct research each year. For computer science graduate student Eugenio Diaz ’26, that opportunity began as a sophomore through a research event that matches students with faculty experts.

There, he connected with Mohsen Rakhshan, an assistant professor in . Together, they began exploring a question with life-changing potential: Could technology help a prosthetic hand recognize what it touches?

Their project, “Texture Classification Using Neuromorphically Encoded Tactile Sensing Data,” combines AI, neuroscience and engineering to identify textures from tactile data. The technology relies on spiking neural networks, which more closely mimic how biological neurons communicate. The research could eventually help prostheses restore a sense of touch.

“This project showed me how satisfying it can be to take [theoretical] ideas … and turn them into something that addresses a tangible problem.” — Eugenio Diaz ’26, UCF student

Diaz helped redesign the data-collection system, train models, analyze results and author a paper now under review.

Progress wasn’t immediate. For months, the models performed little better than random guessing. Guided by Rakhshan, Diaz kept experimenting until accuracy surpassed 80%.

“Mentoring undergraduate students is both teaching and research,” Rakhshan says. “I try to teach students how to think and guide them to find answers to what is known and unknown.”

For Diaz, the breakthrough revealed what his skills could accomplish.

“This project showed me how satisfying it can be to take ideas that are interesting theoretically and turn them into something that addresses a tangible problem,” Diaz says.

Putting More Opportunity Within Reach

Experiences like these have a greater impact when more students can reach them.

UCF is among the nation’s top 30 public universities for Best Value for In-State Students.

Value goes beyond the cost of a UCF degree. It’s reflected in the opportunities students have to learn and collaborate with faculty experts, contribute to hands-on research, work with emerging technology and develop skills that prepare them for graduate study and the workforce.

Together, the rankings reinforce innovation with a clear purpose: creating more possibilities for students to learn, discover and build what’s next.

To see the full list of U.S. News & World Report rankings, visit ucf.edu/academics/us-news-rankings.