The same curiosity that once led Jeonghyun Song to shape clay with his hands now drives him to engineer materials at an atomic level, combining chemistry and creativity.

He began his college journey in the arts, drawn to pottery. But as he worked with ceramics, his attention shifted beneath the surface — to the chemistry of the materials and the possibilities within them. That shift in perspective pushed him from the art studio into the lab — and now to a national fellowship.

A materials science and engineering major, Song will join the University of Notre Dame this summer as a recipient of its Nanoscience and Technology Undergraduate Research Fellowship, hosted from May 18 through July 24.

“I chose to attend UCF because of the opportunities it offers — especially in research — along with its strong engineering program.”

The opportunity marks a turning point in his journey from an arts major to an engineering major, which he began when he transferred to UCF in Fall 2025.

“I chose to attend UCF because of the opportunities it offers — especially in research — along with its strong engineering program,” Song says. “The MSE (Materials Science and Engineering) Program is relatively new and rapidly growing, which gives students more chances to get involved and grow.”

He didn’t waste time getting started.

As a new Knight and burgeoning materials researcher, Song set his sights on working with Assistant Professor Kausik Mukhopadhyay, whose research bridges materials, chemistry, biology and engineering to develop solutions for surfaces, coatings, electrochemistry and more.

Now in Mukhopadhyay’s , Song studies clay-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries.

“As a student who comes from a ceramics background, Dr. Mukhopadhyay’s research was the most interesting to me,” Song says. “Based on his work in chemistry and materials science, I knew his lab would be a place where I could grow and actively engage in research.”

The lab quickly became more than a workspace — it became a launchpad, which Song says he’s grateful for.

“I would like to thank Dr. Mukhopadhyay and the people in our group for their support,” he says. “If it wasn’t for them, I would have had a hard time blending into the UCF community.”

His perspective as a researcher is evolving, too.

“I find it more interesting to study how common … materials can be engineered to achieve similar or even more useful properties.”

Once drawn to examining rare and expensive materials for their unique characteristics, Song is now focused on factors in materials costs and environmental impact.

“While studying rare materials is interesting due to their distinct properties, I find it more interesting to study how common and inexpensive materials can be engineered to achieve similar or even more useful properties,” he says.

That mindset will guide his work at Notre Dame.

His project, “Prototyping High-speed Synthesis of Gold Microplates,” tackles a key challenge in nanotechnology: efficiently producing ultrathin gold coatings. These coatings are useful in technology like biosensors and electronics, but current synthesis methods are slow, and controlling their size, shape and placement is challenging.

Song will help explore faster synthesis methods using a reaction chamber to study the process through three activation approaches: light, temperature and merging chemical streams.

As he prepares to spend the summer in Indiana, Song acknowledges some anxiety — the kind that comes with stepping into something bigger — as he looks ahead to what could be a pivotal moment in his journey as a researcher.

“I would like to meet new people, learn from them and also expand my vision for research,” Song says. “I think this summer will be the most important for me in terms of deciding my future.”

A future nurse adjusts their cap, preparing to enter a hospital where the need for care continues to grow.

An engineer looks out into the crowd, knowing the next step leads into an industry building what’s next.

ɫ����, these moments don’t happen one by one. They happen all at once — thousands of stories, each with a different starting point, moving forward together.

Opportunity, Provided at Scale

ɫ����, scale has always meant more than size.

It means access. It means opportunity. It means students who arrive with ambition and leave with proof.

More than 10,000 Knights make up the Spring Class of 2026.

Additionally, about 37% of bachelor’s degree recipients are eligible for Pell Grants, and about 22% are the first in their families to earn a college degree  — reflecting a university built to open doors and help students move through them.

This is scale with purpose.

Where Talent Meets Demand

UCF graduates move directly into high-demand fields — from hospitals and schools to tech firms, startups and public agencies.

This is a workforce built not just in classrooms, but for real-world impact.

Each year, the university awards nearly 19,000 degrees — more than any other institution in Florida — including leading the state in bachelor’s degrees in engineering and nursing. These two fields are essential to sustaining Florida’s economic growth and meeting the needs of an expanding population.

Turning Studies Into Real Skills

Before they graduate, Knights are already building career-ready experience.

That same hands-on approach extends into high-impact research across fields from computer vision to biotechnology to pediatric prosthetics.

Career Prep From the Start

Support starts early, and it’s designed to carry students all the way through.

From day one, students connect with career counselors who help them build resumes, practice interviewing, find internships and connect with employers.

And when it’s time to take the next step, campus-wide career fairs open the door. They’re a gateway for students to explore a wide range of career paths, get real insight from industry professionals and stay ahead in a fast-moving job market.

Retaining Talent Across Florida

The impact of a UCF education doesn’t leave with its graduates. In many cases, it stays — and grows.

But where graduates go next tells an even bigger story.In and around Orlando — the No. 2 Best City to Start a Career in America (WalletHub) and one of the fastest-growing hubs for innovation — that talent doesn’t just fill jobs.

It builds industries. It strengthens economies. It accelerates growth.

More Than a Milestone

Commencement is what everyone sees.

The walk. The tassel. The celebration.

But at UCF, it’s also something more.

Before students cross the stage, they’ve already built experience. By the time they graduate, they’re aligned with real-world demand. After they leave, they power the industries shaping Florida’s future and beyond.

Each commencement adds thousands more to that momentum. Each graduate strengthens the pipeline.

And across the state — and far beyond it — you can already see what they’re building.

To better understand Assistant Professor Hamzeh Ghasemzadeh and his work, he goes back to a childhood memory of broken toys. Within hours of receiving little robotic figures or remote-control cars, he’d dissembled what had once been a carefully crafted package of technology. To him, sitting among the remnants of a new gift meant he was sitting in a circle of fun.

“My favorite game was to take the toys apart to see how they work and then try to put them back together,” Ghasemzadeh says. “My parents saw my curiosity as a great thing.”

“This is why I came to UCF. I’ve been able to jump right in and address mysteries that haven’t received much attention.”

That same curiosity now drives his research at , where he seeks to take apart discomforted voices, figuratively, so he can develop strategies to make each one whole again. Ghasemzadeh, who joined UCF in late Summer 2025 and will teach in the school’s newly launched , has already secured one research project funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and is developing another.

“This is why I came to UCF,” he says. “I’ve been able to jump right in and address mysteries that haven’t received much attention until now.”

A Common Problem Without Clear Answers

The first such mystery sounds quite straightforward: vocal fatigue, a common vocal complaint. Beneath the surface, however, it’s deceptive. Solutions have mostly evaded scientists, leaving vocal fatigue as an ongoing problem for many people who rely on their voices, like coaches, public speakers, singers and teachers. Many of Ghasemzadeh’s colleagues experience the very throat discomfort that he’s deconstructing during the funded project just underway.

“We want to collect … multi-modal data and use machine learning models to analyze [vocal fatigue] and develop recommendations for each person.”

“Some instructors get vocal fatigue quickly, some get it slowly and some don’t get it at all,” he says. “There’s a genetic component, but there are also behavioral components. How do they use their voice? How often do they use it? What about the environment where they’re using it? What about personality? We want to collect such comprehensive multi-modal data and use machine learning models to analyze it and develop recommendations for each person.”

The recommendations might include pacing voice usage, projecting the voice efficiently and allowing the voice to recover. Ghasemzadeh envisions this model being predictive and — this is the part he stresses most — personalized.

“The approach to general medicine started with an assumption that while we’re different on the outside, we are very similar inside. Patients with similar ailments took the same medications and [the] same dosages. But we now know that people don’t always respond to pills the same way. If we can quantify how we’re different inside, we can create a computational model to predict responses to medications and optimize treatment plans.”

To integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into vocal fatigue solutions, subjects in Ghasemzadeh’s study will wear sensors that track how and where they use their voices. He’ll prompt them to perform specific vocal tasks and monitor their phonatory function throughout the day. The AI model will analyze these patterns in real time to identify early signs of vocal strain and predict when fatigue is likely to occur.

“We are different. Every prescribed solution should be different, too.”

Participants will also visit his lab at the in Central Florida Research Park, where specialists will collect imaging, aerodynamic and acoustic data. The highly equipped facility brings together America’s leading hearing and voice scientists to develop new technologies and clinical tools for people with hearing loss or voice disorders.

With all of that in hand, including the technology, Ghasemzadeh and his team hope to unwind the mystery of vocal fatigue — one person at a time.

“That’s the idea I want to put forward with every project,” he says. “We are different. Every prescribed solution should be different, too.”

From Engineering to Human Connection

Many would think a toy-reassembling boy is destined to become an engineer. That’s what Ghasemzadeh thought, too. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and began his career with a focus on telecommunications and signal processing.

“There was something important missing,” he says. “Human connection.”

“Speech became my research interest because … it sets us apart as a species and as individuals.”

He crossed paths with a close friend who mentioned his own research in a field Ghasemzadeh was vaguely familiar with: communication sciences and disorders. The conversation sparked Ghasemzadeh’s enthusiasm for applying his expertise in areas such as signal processing to personally help others.

“Speech became my research interest because it’s the signal we predominantly use to communicate,” he says. “It sets us apart as a species and as individuals.”

For example, it’s quite easy to identify Ghasemzadeh without even seeing him. He sounds young yet intelligent enough to have dual doctoral degrees. There’s an inflection of humility in his voice. The curiosity is always there, too. In fact, his peers have noticed, from his work, what his parents noticed among his broken toys: his curiosity leading to great things. Shortly after arriving at UCF, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association chose Ghasemzadeh for its Early Career Contributions in Research Award.

“It’s also a reminder that I’m early in my career,” he says, “and the sky is the limit.”

At the center of his work as a principal investigator is a belief that progress doesn’t happen alone, but through teamwork.

“You have to surround yourself with different skillsets, all of us willing to take things apart that have never been taken apart, with everyone focused on one goal,” Ghasemzadeh says. “When you win, I win and everyone wins.”

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health under award number R00DC021235. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

During UCF Celebrates the Arts 2026, Legally Blonde took the stage with a twist audiences didn’t see coming — one that blurred the line between performance and possibility.

The story still delivered the heart: College student Elle Woods chases love, faces doubt and ultimately discovers her own strength along the way. But this production layered something new into that journey: state-of-the-art robotics. ɫ����, Florida’s Technological University, innovation shows up in unexpected places — even onstage.

The result was a show that felt both nostalgic and forward-looking, where dynamic musical theater met emerging tech.

Musical theatre major Lyric Stratton played the perfect protagonist, Elle Woods, whose dreams of settling down after college graduation are cut short when her boyfriend, Warner, breaks up with her to attend Harvard Law School. Devastated and determined to get him back, Woods pulls together an unconventional application and charms her way into Harvard Law.

High-energy dance numbers powered the production from start to finish. In one standout scene titled “What You Want,” Woods turns her Harvard application into a full-scale performance, trading a traditional essay for a show-stopping number alongside the UCLA cheer team.

The number featured 25 students on stage and took 13 hours to stage.

Three characters led a Harvard admissions conference room scene, delivering sharp dialogue as they debated Woods’ fate.

From left: Joey Fields as Winthrop, Tristan Haberland as Lowell and Jasper Allen as Pforzheimer.

Just as the audience settled into the story, two robot dogs stepped into the spotlight. During the nine-minute number “What You Want,” they appeared in a Harvard campus scene where engineering students — played by theatre majors Mia Freeman and Isabel Ramos — walked them around as UCLA cheerleaders looked on in awe. In a brief but striking moment, technology wasn’t just a prop — it became part of the story.

Operated live on stage, the robots transformed the moment into a seamless blend of performance and engineering. Freeman and Ramos were trained by Mohsen Rakhshan, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and his graduate teaching assistant, Chinmay Dhanraj Nehate.

“We’re seeing the incorporation of robotics into different things at an accelerated rate, including art. It’s exciting,” says Rakhshan, who closely collaborated with the production’s director to bring the robots into the show.

The electrical and computer engineering department houses 15 state-of-the-art robot dogs, nine of which are in Rakhshan’s Laboratory for Interaction of Machine and Brain. There, he and his graduate teaching assistant use them for both instruction and research — teaching an Introduction to Robotics course and training the robots to navigate the uncertainties of real-world environments.

During last year’s annual UCF football Space Game, Michael Jablonski, assistant professor of musical theatre in the College of Arts and Humanities, watched the ECE department’s robot dogs in motion across the field. At that moment, he saw more than entertainment — he saw the potential for storytelling. A way to take something typically confined to classrooms and labs and give it emotion and meaning.

When planning Legally Blonde, a story rooted in breaking expectations, the idea came naturally: why not let innovation share the stage?

Even with its high-tech twist, the show stayed true to its roots — including Bruiser, Woods’ loyal (and stylish) Chihuahua, brought to life by a real dog named Marty McFly.

During “Whipped Into Shape,” fitness guru Brooke Wyndham, played by theatre major Isabel Ramos, led her cellmates through a relentless workout. Accused of murder, Wyndham refused to reveal the truth when Woods visited — unless she could keep up — turning the moment into a high-energy number where actors sang while performing intense jump rope choreography.

In the climactic courtroom scene, Woods took the lead, defending Wyndham and using sharp instincts, wit and confidence to expose the real culprit. It was a defining moment where she proved she belongs, blending intelligence, intuition and boldness to win the case.

Front row from left: Lyric Stratton as Elle Woods, Isabel Ramos as Brooke Wyndham and Jaxon Ryan as Emmett Forrest.

Along the way, Woods stops chasing approval and finds her confidence, purpose and voice. This central theme drew Jablonski, Legally Blonde production director, to the female-driven story.

“This story showcases how a very strong, intelligent woman [Elle Woods] finds her way in a male-dominated world. She initially follows love, but through it, she finds a space where she fits perfectly,” Jablonski says. “Through being misjudged and stereotyped, we come to see that she’s far above the people around her in her thinking and in the way she brings humanity into her work as a lawyer.”

What audiences saw was only part of the story. Behind every scene change, lighting cue, and musical number is a network of students, faculty, and staff working in sync — often just out of sight. Behind the curtain, more than 50 people managed lighting, sound and scene transitions in real time.

The music didn’t just support the story — it drove it. Legally Blonde, presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International, featured music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, with 23 total musical numbers. The book is by Heather Hach.

Projection-mapped animations and imagery — created with QLab software and delivered through two high-brightness front projectors — were precisely timed to the music, blending seamlessly with choreography and lighting to shape the show’s visual rhythm.

“Each scene had its own visual identity, with projections adding specific details that help it stand out,” says Tim Brown, associate professor of theatre design and technology. “The goal is to support the show’s fun, colorful world in a clear and energetic way.”

Costuming defined each character with bold color and precise detail. Huaixiang Tan, professor of costume and make-up design in the School of Performing Arts, led the design, with support from assistant costume designers Sabrina Cervilla and Aisha Bader-Ortega. The production featured more than 100 costumes, each the result of hundreds of hours of craftsmanship.

In the Theatre UCF scene shop, students began using hands-on technical skills to build and refine set pieces in January.

Built through layers of paint, planning and precision, the set came together as a large-scale collaboration among more than 40 students.

Designed for transport, much like a touring production, the set added an extra layer of complexity and was built to be assembled at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. It was completed and delivered on March 30.

Now, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has taken notice.

Deneé Lichtenberg was awarded the DOE’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship, giving her the opportunity to further her research at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. This premier multidisciplinary research institution is advancing breakthroughs in science and technology to address national security challenges.

The opportunity brings her closer to achieving one of her biggest goals: working at a national laboratory, where she’ll collaborate with experienced researchers and learn how large-scale scientific projects are conducted.

Raised in Titusville, less than an hour away from �����’s main campus, Lichtenberg says she always knew she’d attend UCF, especially given the strength of its engineering programs. What she didn’t yet know was how far that decision would take her.

“The ability to design and improve materials that impact a variety of fields really motivated me to pursue this discipline.”

She found her path in materials science — a field where physics, chemistry and engineering intersect — which would allow her to study materials from the atomic level to real-world applications.

“Ultimately, everything is made up of materials,” she says. “By changing a material’s structure or composition, you can drastically alter its performance. The ability to design and improve materials that impact a variety of fields really motivated me to pursue this discipline.”

That curiosity has evolved into something bigger: tackling the challenge of sustainably recovering rare earth metals that are vital to the future of energy and technology.

Advancing Sustainable Extraction

Over the past year in the , led by Assistant Professor of Engineering Kausik Mukhopadhyay, Lichtenberg has focused on a breakthrough approach that uses a naturally occurring protein, lanmoudulin.

“The protein can capture rare earth elements from dilute waste streams, and then a small temperature change can trigger the protein to release them so they can be collected,” she says. “This could create a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly way to recover valuable materials.”

Those materials are critical to everything from renewable energy systems to manufacturing; however, traditional extraction methods rely heavily on large amounts of energy and chemicals sourced from acid mine drainage, coal byproducts and electronic waste.

Lichtenberg’s work points to a sustainable future.

“By developing protein-based systems that selectively capture and release these elements, we could potentially reduce the reliance on traditional extraction,” she says.

At Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lichtenberg will take that work further, designing modified proteins, producing them in the lab and testing how effectively they bind and release rare earth elements.

“It is a very exciting interdisciplinary project that combines protein engineering, materials science and sustainability,” she says. “I hope to continue this research after the internship ends.”

It Takes a Lab — and a Team

But just as impactful as the research has been, the environment that’s shaped it has been.

“Dr. Mukhopadhyay is a fantastic mentor who creates a very supportive and positive environment that encourages learning [both] in and out of the lab,” Lichtenberg says. “The graduate students in the lab have [also] played a huge role in … helping me learn new techniques and [understand] the experiments and science itself.”

Next, she plans to continue her journey as a Knight by pursuing a doctoral degree at UCF, advancing her research as a graduate member of the KM Lab.

For Lichtenberg, the DOE internship isn’t the finish line — it’s just the beginning of reimagining how the world sources its most essential materials.

Justin Press ’24, a UCF photonic science and engineering major, may have developed a solution that benefits both employers and applicants. His brainchild, Hire Match AI, is an analytics layer that integrates with existing applicant tracking systems to better analyze and interpret hiring data.

“We reparse resumes, structure candidate data more accurately and use statistics to identify which combinations of skills and experiences tend to stay longer and perform better in a company over time,” Press says. “That helps teams look past what I call ‘checklist champion’ resumes, where a candidate appears perfect on paper but is really just optimized for a filter.”

Press says what sets his digital tool apart is its focus on analytics, fit and compliance.

From Frustration to Framework

He developed the idea as head of professional development for the Engineering Leadership and Innovation Institute — part of �����’s College of Engineering and Computer Science — where students develop professional skills through a certificate program, specialized courses, maker spaces and mentorship. In that role, he helped students optimize their resumes for job listings and quickly realized the process wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed.

“ɫ����, I was going through hundreds of applications and postings each year, and it became obvious how much of the process was turning into a game,” Press says. “That gave me a firsthand look at how inefficient and frustrating the process was for both applicants and the people trying to help them.”

Launching What Hiring Lacks

From that frustration came Hire Match AI. Press brought the idea to the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, where he received guidance on turning the concept into a business. Now, as he prepares for launch, several businesses have already expressed interest in using the platform to analyze their hiring data more deeply. Press says the goal is to make data analytics more accessible, no matter which ATS a company uses.

“The bigger vision is to make hiring more data-driven, more transparent and less dependent on surface-level filtering.”

“We want Hire Match AI to plug into every major ATS so companies can get better visibility into candidate fit, hiring patterns and compliance risk without having to switch the systems they already rely on,” he says. “Down the line, that means expanding into larger platforms like Workday and other major enterprise systems. The bigger vision is to make hiring more data-driven, more transparent and less dependent on surface-level filtering.”

Engineering with Purpose

Press says he was drawn to the field of photonic science and engineering by a desire to create technology that improves people’s lives. His advice to students with similar ambitions: focus on what makes their idea unique.

“For engineering students especially, having a wide range of experiences is a huge advantage,” Press says. “A lot of the best ideas come from [understanding] how technical problems connect to business problems, user behavior or broken systems in the real world. That matters even more now, with tools like large language models making it easier to build quickly.”

Companies interested in using Hire Match AI can or sign up for early access.

For computer engineering major Kamalakkannan Ravi ’20MSCpE ’25PhD, the goal was never to just earn a doctorate — it was to build artificial intelligence (AI) systems people could trust in the moments that matter most.

That bold vision found its momentum at UCF. As a student, Ravi was drawn to a university that encouraged big questions and interdisciplinary thinking, along with strong engineering fundamentals — the kind UCF is rapidly becoming known for as a rising force in engineering and technology. The university’s dynamic research environment gave him the freedom to explore where machine learning, biomedical applications and human-centered AI converge, while mentorship in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering helped sharpen his purpose.

Now, he’s carrying that UCF-driven determination to Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, where he’ll begin a research fellowship with the Division of Genetics and Genomics to advance trustworthy AI for clinical decision-making in healthcare.

At Harvard, Ravi will work on a project that aims to help physicians identify rare diseases earlier and respond more quickly. His research focuses on developing and evaluating clinical decision support tools that analyze electronic health record data and natural language processing to detect patterns that may signal a rare condition. These tools are designed to support clinicians in identifying patients who may benefit from further genetic evaluation, testing or a specialist referral. Ravi’s role centers on creating trustworthy, transparent AI methods that align with clinical systems, helping ensure these technologies are used responsibly in real-world healthcare.

Overcoming Obstacles Without a Blueprint

Ravi’s path to this opportunity was shaped by his persistence and commitment to making an impact long before he arrived at UCF.

Originally from Chennai, India, he’s a first-generation college student who entered higher education without a family blueprint to guide him. That experience influenced how he navigated graduate school and advanced research environments, reinforcing the importance of mentorship, community and resilience.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Anna University, Ravi worked as a research assistant at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. There, he gained early exposure to data-driven modeling and applied systems research at the intersection of engineering and medicine — experiences that shaped his interest in applying computational methods to biomedical and societal challenges. He’d take this interest on his pursuit of graduate education abroad.

Finding Interdisciplinary Opportunity at UCF

Ravi chose UCF specifically for its strength in engineering combined with opportunities for interdisciplinary, human-centered research.

Within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, he found an environment that encouraged him to explore machine learning, biomedical applications and ethical AI.

Under the mentorship of Pegasus Professor Jiann-Shiun Yuan, who oversees the NSF-sponsored Multi-functional Integrated System Technology Center and specializes in developing the next generation of smart systems, Ravi refined his research, which bridges technical innovation with societal impact.

ɫ����, Ravi’s research focused on trustworthy and comprehensible AI in critical settings, including healthcare and public safety. His dissertation, “Artificial Intelligence for Social Wellness: Threats and Ideology Detection in Online Texts,” examined how scalable and ethically grounded AI systems can be designed for real-world applications. His work emphasized interpretability, reliability and evaluation with human decision-makers in mind.

His doctoral work led to the development of several datasets and frameworks, including:

• RICo, a large-scale dataset analyzing ideological discourse in online communities
• ALERT, a threat detection framework that combines active learning with AI to support transparency and reduce labeling burden
• TRuST-M, a human-subject study exploring how explanation quality affects user trust in AI-assisted moderation systems.

Portions of this work were supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — a testament to its national relevance and real-world value.

Growing Through Leadership, Mentorship and Community

Beyond his studies, Ravi immersed himself in the UCF graduate community, taking on leadership roles that reflected his commitment to service and mentorship.

He served as senator for the in student government, director of professional development for the Graduate Student Association and president of the . He also led Alpha Alpha Alpha, the national honor society for first-generation college students, advocating for the success of first-generation graduate students.

Mentorship remained central to his experience through his involvement in the NSF-funded L.E.A.R.N. (Learning Environment and Academic Research Network) program, a STEM-focused living-learning community for first-year and transfer college students, and his service as a senior design project judge.

Ravi’s academic excellence, leadership and mentorship at UCF were recognized through multiple awards, including the ORCGS Doctoral Fellowship, the Graduate Presentation Fellowship, the Graduate Research Mentor Award, the UCF Alumni Fellows Leadership Scholarship and the Reuel Buchanan Aspire to Inspire Scholarship. These honors provided valuable support and enabled him to focus on research throughout his doctoral studies.

Advancing Impact Beyond UCF

As Ravi prepares to begin his fellowship at Harvard Medical School, he credits UCF with shaping both his research approach and his sense of responsibility as a scholar. He hopes his journey encourages other students, especially first-generation scholars, to pursue ambitious, interdisciplinary work while remaining grounded in mentorship, ethics and service to the broader community.

Although Royal knew since high school that he wanted to be an engineer, he didn’t know these courses were essential to succeeding in his studies. He enjoyed working with his hands, solving practical problems, and was interested in science, math, and technology. Mechanical engineering felt like the perfect intersection of all his interests.

What he didn’t have was guidance.

Starting Behind — and Pushing Forward

Royal didn’t know anyone in engineering or have access to mentors who could advise him on the classes a university engineering program required. When he later reconnected with two friends from high school — Kent Huerta and Isaac Washington, both civil engineering majors at the University of South Florida — he quickly discovered they faced many of the same challenges navigating STEM pathways without early guidance.

“I would’ve still been a year behind graduating if I [hadn’t taken] an accelerated courseload,” says Royal, who’s now a mechanical engineering graduate student on track to become a double Knight. “We realized that … if we had some prior knowledge or someone to talk to us about STEM before we got to this level, or before we tried to enter STEM, we could have avoided those pitfalls.”

That realization helped turn his personal ambitions into action that benefits others.

In 2024, Royal, Huerta and Washington co-founded STEM Mentorship Matters, an outreach program that connects students at their high school, Q. I. Roberts Junior-Senior High School, with professionals in STEM fields and equips them with the knowledge to successfully pursue their careers.

“We … didn’t have that many opportunities or much education related to STEM when we were in high school,” Royal says. “That made it a lot more difficult compared to our peers who did. So we thought, ‘Is there any way to give something to students who were like us, who could use opportunities in STEM?’”

Giving Students a Head Start

What began as a grassroots effort serving just 30 students at Q. I. Roberts has since grown into a network of 10 high schools across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, reaching hundreds of junior and senior high school students. The organization now includes 30 volunteer mentors who lead monthly workshops that connect professionals with students.

STEM Mentorship Matters also offers a range of resources, including guidance on applying to universities through the Common App, explanations of different engineering disciplines and advice on getting involved on campus. Monthly discussions focus on preparing for careers in STEM, with topics shaped by student interest and shared through the organization’s Discord server.

From navigating the college application process and building strong resumes to learning how to network and apply for internships, volunteer mentors guide students to success in the classroom and beyond graduation.

“It helps students think, ‘What would I want to do beyond middle and high school? Am I even interested in STEM?’” Royal says. “[And] it’s OK if they’re not. We’re just trying to provide them with some insight. It also provides some insight into what they may want to do in STEM if they are interested.”

Royal adds that these interactions help students narrow their interests, explore future career possibilities and feel more confident entering their chosen field. Just as important, it gives them something Royal says he and his co-founders lacked early on: encouragement.

“Just someone saying, ‘You can do this if you set your mind to it,’ is very important because we didn’t have a lot of that pursuing STEM,” he says. “And I feel it’s important to have because it makes it easier to accomplish whatever you set out to do.”

With specialized programs in hospitality and themed experience design — alongside robust engineering opportunities through student-led clubs and industry partnerships — UCF has played a critical role in preparing the workforce behind Epic Universe’s debut and has built a direct talent pipeline into the park.

Now as the park prepares to open its gates this week, it’s also transforming how students learn.

Epic in Curriculum

At �����’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, located less than a mile from Epic Universe, the park has become a living case study for both faculty and students. Ranked No. 1 in the world for hospitality education by CEOWORLD magazine for 2025, the college is globally recognized for its leadership in shaping future professionals in tourism, attractions and entertainment.

“Anyone looking to build a career in the global attractions industry would not find a better place to attend than UCF.” — Carissa Baker ’08MA ’18PhD, Rosen College assistant professor

Carissa Baker ’08MA ’18PhD, assistant professor of hospitality, has embedded Epic Universe into multiple classes across the theme park and attraction management curriculum. In one course, students analyze the park’s community and economic impacts. In another, they follow the site creation process from research and development to operations and guest experience. Students have also designed guest experience concepts based on Universal’s creative parameters and presented them directly to leaders at the company.

“Several of my students were involved in design, construction and operations development for the park,” Baker says. “Dozens were in attractions commissioning roles, and many are working at the park full time, part time and through internships.”

Culinary Spectacle as Storytelling

Epic Universe is also reshaping �����’s approach to culinary education. Chef Jonathan “Jay” Judy, assistant chair of the Department of Foodservice and Lodging Management, and senior instructor, uses the park’s immersive lands to explore how food enhances themed environments.

“Our students aren’t just studying the industry. They’re helping shape its future.” — Jonathan “Jay” Judy, Rosen College faculty member

In his course, Culinary Experiences in Theme Parks and Attractions, students study the full lifecycle of culinary operations in destination attractions — from food concept development to intellectual property (IP) integration and guest immersion.

“When Universal Orlando announced the themes for the various worlds, my students created sample menus based on the IP for each world. We have also used Epic extensively as a class discussion topic,” Judy says. “Watching a park like Epic Universe launch is a masterclass in themed food innovation. From kitchen concept to culinary spectacle, this course gives students the tools to imagine and execute food experiences that could exist in any world, real or fictional.”

Epic Economics, Real-World Impact

The scale of Epic Universe also offers powerful insights into economic development, infrastructure and regional transformation — areas that Rosen College Associate Professor Jorge Ridderstaat is bringing into the classroom.

“Epic Universe presents a valuable opportunity to view a theme park not just as an attraction, but as a major investment with measurable economic impact — something I’m looking to incorporate into my Hospitality Industry Finance class,” Ridderstaat says.

He notes that the park’s projected $7 billion investment and estimated 17,000 new jobs could generate up to $2 billion in economic impact in its first year, while driving new infrastructure and expanding the region’s global tourism appeal. But he also encourages students to consider other related topics — such as housing affordability.

A Creative Pipeline to Universal

“Epic has solidified Orlando as the international hub of the themed entertainment industry.” — Peter Weishar, director ɫ����’s themed experience graduate programs

�����’s themed experience M.F.A. program, based in the College of Arts and Humanities, is providing a direct pathway into the creative engine of the industry. The programs — which are among the first of their kinds nationally — teach students the unique creative skills, processes, and concepts needed to design and produce themed environments and attractions. Many graduates go on to become show set designers, architects, show writers, coordinators, project managers, producers, art directors and even creative directors at some of the top themed entertainment companies.

Through the UCF/Universal Creative Lab, students work directly with Universal Creative’s show producers, engineers and designers, gaining rare access to behind-the-scenes development processes.

According to program director and professor Peter Weishar, approximately 40% of themed experience students go on to work for Universal Creative.

“Our students, alumni and even faculty have worked for years to help make Epic Universe a reality,” Weishar says. “Now that it’s opening to the public, it’s serving as a working laboratory for new ideas, innovation and experiential learning.”

“UCF is in the perfect location to collaborate with some of the top creatives in the field,”  Weishar adds.

Engineering the Experience

At the intersection of innovation and imagination, �����’s STEEL Club — the Society of Themed Entertainment Engineers and Leaders — is creating new pathways for engineering students to enter the attractions industry. Founded in early 2024, the club has quickly become a hub for students eager to apply technical skills to the world of themed entertainment.

Focused on disciplines like ride control, show systems, mechanical safety and systems integration, the club regularly hosts industry speakers from Universal Creative, Disney, SeaWorld, and third-party vendors. Members also participate in technical workshops on topics ranging from Arduino programming and LED integration to mechanical modeling and wiring — all aligned with the demands of modern attraction engineering.

“We’re building a great program,” says Mikel Garner, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and STEEL Club vice president. “We look at design, manufacturing, and maintenance — not just how a ride looks, but how it runs and how you troubleshoot it to keep guests safe.”

Garner, who was a Compliance and Auditing intern for Universal Creative, says his experience applied Advancing Standards Transforming Markets (ASTM International) safety standards and engineering best practices to support the development of the park.

STEEL President Bryanna Price, also a senior mechanical engineering major, says the club was founded to fill a gap at UCF for students who wanted hands-on, engineering-focused experience in themed entertainment.

“We’re helping students develop tangible technical skills that translate directly into the industry,” Price says.

The club recently competed in the Ride Engineering Competition, where student teams design and build operational ride models under strict time and size constraints. In the latest event, held at The Ohio State University, Price’s team built a fully functioning flat ride model from scratch — applying controls, mechanics and problem-solving under real-world pressure.

“It’s exciting to know we’re helping prepare the next generation of engineers for the theme park world — right here at UCF.” —  Bryanna Price, student and STEEL Club president

Beyond competitions, STEEL students are attending industry events like the ASTM F24 Conference, which develops global engineering safety standards for amusement rides and devices. They’re also partnering with other UCF organizations to grow their board, expand student participation and bring in even more professional mentorship.

“We’re still a young club, but we’ve already seen members go on to internships with companies like SeaWorld and Universal,” Price says.

For UCF, Epic Universe is more than a neighbor — it’s a living laboratory. From immersive design to food and beverage innovation, and from economic modeling to technical prototyping, UCF students aren’t just learning about the future of themed entertainment — they’re building it.

Catbas collaborated with his former civil engineering student Marwan Debees ’23�ʳ��, who now works as a NASA Bridge Program manager, on newly published research that details how infrared thermography, high-definition imaging and neural network analysis can combine to make concrete bridge inspections more efficient.

Catbas and Debees are hopeful that their findings, recently published in the Transportation Research Record, can be leveraged by engineers through a combination of these methods to strategically pinpoint bridge conditions and better allocate repair costs.

“If we better understand which bridges need more repairs and which bridges may be postponed, then [funding agencies] can use limited funds more wisely, and then we can direct our efforts to the really critical bridges,” Catbas says. “We have about 650,000 bridges in the U.S. and we have been working to examine how we can use novel technologies to understand the existing condition of structures.”

Debees noted an instance during a NASA bridge load test where Catbas and his team assisted in evaluating the repairs. They determined that the repairs made were sufficient, ultimately, eliminating the next phrase of planned work.

“We’re only spending the money where we need to instead of doing it without a comprehensive understanding of the actual conditions of the bridge in the field,” Debees says. “The goal is to better understand the conditions of the bridge and have a better priority list of what bridges are really in need.”

Diagnosing Concrete Bridges

Catbas says what he and other civil engineers do to assess a structure’s overall integrity may be likened to a doctor’s diagnostics for a person’s wellbeing.

“Structural health monitoring, which is almost like human health monitoring, is where we use different types of equipment to better understand the safety and serviceability of structures,” he says.

To help take high-definition images to compare to infrared data, the researchers closely collaborated with NEXCO-West USA. Inc, an imaging and non-destructive evaluation company in Tysons, Virginia, that have specialized vehicles equipped with imaging tools. With the company’s support, the research team utilized the infrared data to assess the conditions of bridge components, including the deck, superstructure and substructure.

“As far as the infrared itself, there are some limitations,” Debees says. “One of the things in this paper that helped overcome some of these limitations is high-definition images to complement the infrared images.”

These technologies that were used in the study by Catbas and Debees provided a more comprehensive record of concrete bridge health.

“Human visualization has limitations,” Catbas says. “It’s almost like a doctor just looking at you and saying that you look fine when you might really be fine, or you might not be. There may be other problems that the sensors and other technologies can tell you, kind of like when a doctor says he wants more testing, so he sends you to get an X-ray or an MRI. We are taking a similar approach to our bridges.”

Bridging the Gap Between Technology and Interpretation

Infrared thermography works by collecting a structure’s thermal responses, which can indicate defects within it such as heat loss, moisture intrusion or other structural problems.

To analyze the different parts of the bridge such as the deck, superstructure and substructure, the research team used thermography and image capturing technologies deployed on boats under the bridge and on vehicles traveling across it so that traffic wouldn’t be impeded and motorists may continue using the roads.

The combination of visual inspection and imaging is common practice, but Debees says the element of utilizing a neural network and machine learning to decipher the data is something that is an emerging component of inspections. The collective knowledge from experienced engineers doing similar inspections was used to compare the results in the study.

“The way it differs from other utilization is that we are not using just infrared cameras and collecting raw data, but then we have a level of post-processing, and we are eliminating the noise or unnecessary information within the infrared image,” Debees says. “Then we use this data to understand where these defects are and then we integrate them within the current required bridge inspection processes. We close the loop by using some decision-making and algorithms with an easy-to-use perceptron neural network to guide the inspector or engineer without spending too much time or data analysis.”

The two parts of the paper are how to implement this new technology and how it can be used to accelerate decision making while keeping it accurate and safe, he says.

“When we do bridge inspections, we aim to find ways to accelerate or make it more efficient while also having more data to rely on in the future or in the immediate decision making,” Debees says. “We can determine which bridge needs to be evaluated right away, which needs more testing and we can see the significance of the finding quicker.”

Crossing Into the Future

Debees says one of the most exciting parts of the research findings is the realization that the framework of multiple inspection techniques can be integrated with collective knowledge and applied to monitor a wide variety of structures.

“We’re not limited to concrete bridges,” he says. “We can build on this research and applying it with different inspection methods and use it for different infrastructure types. We can try this on concrete buildings, or steel bridges, buildings or other structures.”

Using machine learning and collective knowledge to interpret data is something that Debees believes will continue to have a role in inspections even beyond the purview of their study.

“I think what was eye-opening to me is there is room, even outside of conventional inspections, to utilize more decision-making neural networks to standardize the decision-making [process],” he says. “You can make it easier on the people in the field to know where to make decisions on the spot or where to seek more experienced help.”

There are ample opportunities to discover even more innovative ways to assess structural health, and Catbas says he gladly looks forward to meeting the next challenge with former students and collaborators like Debees.

“Like other Ph.D. students of mine, we still keep in touch once they graduate and then become my colleague,” Catbas says as he turns to Debees. “So, my question is this: ‘What are we going to work on next?’”

Researchers’ Credentials:

Catbas holds a doctorate in structural engineering from the University of Cincinnati. After postdoctoral studies at Drexel University in Philadelphia, he joined �����’s College of Engineering and Computer Science in 2003 and is the founding director of the Civil Infrastructure Technologies for Resilience and Safety (CITRS) Initiative. His research covers various aspects of civil engineering, including analysis, design, and assessment of civil infrastructure systems, structural health monitoring, structural identification, structural dynamics, and earthquake engineering.

Debees graduated in 2023 from UCF with a doctoral degree in civil engineering. His research focuses on structural engineering, particularly on bridge systems. His work emphasizes the application of technology in bridge assessment and the efficacy of structural repairs. Debees currently serves as the Bridge Program Manager at NASA, where he has worked since 2013. Prior to joining NASA, he spent three years with Manson Construction.