Instructor: Gregg Buckingham, a�� adjunct instructor and retired associate lecturer.

During his 28-year NASA career, Buckingham served in various roles in Washington, D.C., and at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), including positions in the NASA Administrator’s Office, the Space Shuttle Logistics Program and external relations at KSC.

When is the class offered?

The class will be offered fully online in Fall 2026.

What is the class about?

For many people, astronauts and engineers are among the first things that come to mind when thinking about space exploration. What they may not picture is the host of professionals working behind the scenes whose jobs are crucial to managing and implementing space policy.

�����’s Space Policy and Management course offers graduate students — as well as select undergraduate students — a historical overview of the policy and administrative issues surrounding space exploration, from presidential initiatives and congressional oversight to governance, infrastructure, international competition and cooperation, and commercial participation.

From the Instructor

Gregg Buckingham

What is space policy?

A policy is simply a direction that an organization wants to go in. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before Congress and proposed that the United States should land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth in a decade — and Congress agreed. That’s a policy statement.

Over NASA’s history, the United States has shifted direction from the moonshot to the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, and now to increased commercial involvement in space, while also carrying out a host of scientific missions. Each direction was sponsored by a president, funded by Congress and implemented by NASA. Many variables drive these policy and management changes, including national prestige, efficiency and technology development.

How do public administration and public policy intersect with the space industry?

NASA is a government organization, and like any organization, it has administrative needs involving budgeting, procurement, organizational structure and leadership. With 10 primary field centers nationwide, various components of NASA’s mission are carried out across the centers.

When people think about space, they often think about rocket launches, engineers, scientists and astronauts — and they are certainly very important. But behind that technical work are contract specialists, finance and accounting professionals, public affairs professionals and many other necessary roles to support the agency’s technical work.

Emergency management is crucial, too. NASA has valuable facilities and hardware to protect during events such as hurricanes, and for launches, public-safety planning and preparation in case something doesn’t go as planned.

What will students learn in this course?

This course uses NASA as a case study for government infrastructure and governance in space exploration. We’ll discuss the organization and structure of the NASA network over the last 70 years, from policymaking and implementation to collaborative governance and communication.

In the space policy arena, students will learn about the many stakeholders that affect policy in one way or another. The president and Congress set policy and determine the budget, but other organizations — including commercial firms such as SpaceX and Boeing — also have an ongoing interest in NASA’s work.

Some of the resources we’ll use include NASA’s oral histories with astronauts and administrators, as well as recordings from the Presidential Library system of presidents discussing the space program with NASA administrators and engineers. The goal is for students to gain a sense of different approaches to and perspectives on space policy and space management. They’ll also look at leaders from around NASA and the impact they’ve had on programs and policy.

Who should take this course?

This graduate-level course is open to students across the university, including those studying engineering, business, political science and public administration. It’ll also be available to outstanding undergraduate students.

Anyone interested in working in the space industry or government in some capacity could benefit from gaining perspective on policy and management, especially those who plan to move up from a technical position to a managerial one. Many of the variables that affect policy are similar whether you’re at NASA, the Department of Defense or another government agency.

What do you hope students take away from the experience?

My goal is to convey the excitement, innovation and creativity that goes into the space program and the role policy, management and administration play in making it possible. The course focuses on the space program, but students will also gain a broader understanding of the relationship between industry and government and how it can be applied to whichever sector they choose to pursue.

Joshua Taggart knew he wanted to work for the space industry the day he experienced his first launch while attending a camp at Kennedy Space Center, seeing the space shuttle Endeavour soar into the sky. He’s now closer to making that dream a reality after being recognized with one of the industry’s most distinguished awards.

Taggart is the latest Knight to receive the coveted Astronaut Foundation Scholarship, a national award that provides more than 70 scholarships of up to $15,000 each for some of the nation’s very best STEM students. He will be recognized with the 2026 class of scholars at the foundation’s gala, to be held next month in Houston.

Taggart says he chose UCF for its reputation in engineering as the No. 1 supplier of talent to the nation’s aerospace and defense industries (Aviation Week Network). He is in good company as part of a trio of Astronaut Scholars this year from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, joining mechanical engineering student Keanu Brayman and computer engineering student Kyle Coutray (a biomedical sciences double major), who have received the scholarship for second consecutive year.

As Taggart works to complete his final year at UCF, his latest accomplishment fuels his path to make an impact as a future space researcher.

Future Focused

Driven to contribute to humanity’s exploration of our universe, Taggart is already working on future-focused innovations that can benefit the space industry.

Through NASA Office of STEM Engagement, he interned at the Johnson Space Center working on communications, avionics, propulsion and flight software for CubeSat subsystems.

This summer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, he is researching packaging materials for silicon carbide pressure sensors, working to make sure they perform reliably above 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit), and on integrating thermocouple sensors for temperature compensation.

“I chose this field of research because I want to be involved in next-generation electronics that can withstand the extreme nature of outer space.” — Joshua Taggart

“With the harsh environment that outer space is and planet surfaces like Venus, electronics must survive very high temperatures and radiation effects,” he says. “I chose this field of research because I want to be involved in next-generation electronics that can withstand the extreme nature of outer space.”

His work as an undergraduate researcher for the Q-Sim Lab, directed by Assistant Professor Jaesung Lee, also centers around developing technology designed to operate in outer space. Taggart is working on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators designed to perform under extreme conditions, such as elevated temperatures and increased exposure to radiation.

He recently won a Judge’s Choice Award at UCF Student Research Week for his Honors Undergraduate Thesis, “Robust AlN MEMS Resonators for High Temperature Space Environments.”

His passion for space has only grown over the years, reflected by his ongoing research at UCF and for NASA. As an Astronaut Scholar, Taggart is launching into a future full of possibilities.

“Aside from the financial support that this scholarship will provide me as I complete my undergraduate program, I am very eager for all of the networking opportunities I will have,” Taggart says. “I look forward to networking with other students and industry leaders to learn and grow as much as I can thanks to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.”

Those interested in the Astronaut Scholarship and other opportunities should reach out to the Office of Prestigious Awards at��OPA@ucf.edu.

Over millions of years, flowing water etched valleys, shaped mountainsides and formed the branching blue and green scars visible across Earth — and potentially those on other celestial bodies.

Now, UCF researchers and collaborating institutions developed a framework capable of reconstructing realistic 3D landscapes using only 2D river network patterns. By combining computer models that simulate how river networksform with principles of hydraulic geometry — the study of how rivers naturally shape themselves over time — the researchers were able to estimate terrain features such as elevation, channel depth, slope and sediment transport.

The approach could help scientists better understand how landscapes evolve under different environmental conditions on Earth and potentially other planetary bodies such as Mars and Titan.

Rivers as Geological Records

According to Arvind Singh, an associate professor in �����’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, river networks preserve traces of the physical processes and external forcings that shaped them over time.

“River networks encode the integrated effects of hydrologic and geomorphic processes, reflected in metrics such as drainage structure, channel geometry, relief and hypsometry (the measurement of elevation and depth),” Singh says.

Reconstructing Landscapes from Networks

Traditionally, researchers study river systems by starting with 3D topographic data gathered through satellite imaging and digital elevation models, then extracting river networks from the terrain.

The new framework flips that process.

Instead of beginning with terrain itself, the researchers investigated whether river networks contain enough information to reconstruct landscapes from the ground up.

“Because traditional approaches require full topography and only describe patterns, reverse engineering (e.g., from networks) can reveal the underlying physical processes that govern landscape form,” Singh says.

The researchers say river networks can reveal far more than simple drainage patterns. Under the framework, the geometry of the networks can also help estimate hidden environmental variables tied to landscape formation.

“A key insight is that realistic 3D landscapes, and even unobservable quantities like discharge or sediment transport, can be reconstructed from 2D network structure alone, revealing strong constraints imposed by fundamental scaling laws,” Singh says.

Testing Alien Worlds

Because the framework is dimensionless and scalable, researchers were also able to adapt the model to hypothetical landscapes on Mars and Titan by changing variables such as gravity and sediment density.

The resulting simulations revealed how river valleys and terrain formations may differ across planetary environments. Compared to Earth and Mars, Titan’s lower gravity and unique environmental conditions produced wider channels, deeper river systems and flatter overall landscapes.

“Mars and Titan provide natural laboratories with different gravity and fluid/sediment properties, allowing the framework to test how identical network structures yield different landscapes under altered physical conditions.”—Arvind Singh, associate professor

The planetary comparisons allowed the researchers to test how different environmental conditions influence landscape formation even when river structures remain similar.

“Mars and Titan provide natural laboratories with different gravity and fluid/sediment properties, allowing the framework to test how identical network structures yield different landscapes under altered physical conditions,” Singh says.

The simulations also demonstrated how gravity and sediment behavior can dramatically alter the shape of landscapes over time.

“Differences in gravity and sediment properties directly alter channel width, depth, slope, and relief, leading to distinct landscape geometries even with the same network structure,” Singh says.

The researchers say the framework may also help scientists better understand how precipitation, sediment size and watershed structure influence the evolution of landscapes over time. Unlike many traditional landscape evolution models, the framework explicitly resolves river channels and their physical characteristics, including depth, slope and gravel transport.

A New Framework for Landscape Evolution

The researchers say the framework differs from many traditional landscape evolution models because it directly incorporates the physical properties of river channels into the simulations.

“This framework couples probabilistic 2D channel network generation with physically based, dimensionally consistent hydraulic geometry and hillslope models, explicitly resolving channel properties and producing fully scalable 3D landscapes,” Singh says.

By revealing how river networks preserve hidden information about the worlds they shape, the researchers hope the framework can help scientists better understand not only Earth’s geological past, but also the ancient landscapes of distant planetary environments.

��The study was conducted by researchers from UCF, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and collaborating institutions, with support from the UCF P3 program and other funding sources.

For scientists working on NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory, that question is no longer purely philosophical. It is increasingly becoming an engineering problem.

Researchers at �����’s are helping develop technology designed to help future space telescopes detect potentially habitable planets orbiting distant stars.

The NASA-funded project, known as PEEPSS (Photonics-Enabled Exoplanet Spectroscopic System), aims to help astronomers directly observe planets hidden within the overwhelming brightness of their parent stars.

“If they’re in the habitable zone, that means they are orbiting close to their host star, and that host star is typically going to be 10 billion times brighter than the planet,” says Professor Stephen Eikenberry, principal investigator on the project.

To explain the difficulty, Eikenberry compares the task to trying to spot “a tiny blinking light while someone is shining a spotlight directly in your face.”

The work supports the long-term goals of NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), a future flagship space telescope intended to search for Earth-like planets beyond our solar system and analyze their atmospheres for signs of life.

Solving One of Astronomy’s Hardest Problems

Astronomers already know planets are common throughout the universe. The challenge now is identifying Earth-like planets that are extraordinarily faint compared to the stars they orbit.

Astronomers use instruments called coronagraphs to block a star’s glare while allowing faint planetary signals to reach a telescope’s detectors.

Even then, however, microscopic imperfections in a telescope’s optics can allow enormous amounts of starlight to leak through the system.

“And you can say, ‘Well, that’s only a part in a million,’ ” Eikenberry says. “Guess what? A part in a million means it’s still 10,000 times brighter than your exoplanet. You’re doomed.”

The system performs an advanced form of wavefront sensing that detects and corrects tiny distortions in incoming light before they overwhelm planetary signals.

Unlike many existing systems that monitor light earlier in the optical process, PEEPSS performs wavefront sensing directly at the telescope’s focal plane, the same location where scientific imaging occurs.

That distinction is important because it allows researchers to detect and correct optical errors that emerge after light passes through a telescope’s coronagraph. Scientists refer to these distortions as “non-common-path aberrations.”

To explain the concept, Eikenberry compares the system to trying to monitor a room you cannot fully see.

“Imagine you’re in a house and you want the entire house to be perfectly clean,” he says. “You can see people walking into the bedroom, but you can’t actually see inside the bedroom itself. That’s the non-common path.”

By monitoring the complete optical pathway all the way through to the focal plane, researchers hope PEEPSS can help future observatories achieve the extraordinary precision necessary to detect habitable worlds.

A New Approach Using Photonic Lanterns

At the center of the project is an emerging technology known as a photonic lantern.

The device separates complex incoming light into individual optical channels, allowing researchers to recover not only brightness information, but also phase information carried by light waves, data that conventional imaging systems typically discard.

“Traditional detectors wipe that information out,” Eikenberry says. “Photonic lanterns allow us to recover it.”

That additional information enables what researchers describe as “quantum-inspired imaging,” an emerging technique that uses light behavior to improve image resolution and filter out the remaining starlight.

Researchers at CREOL have become major contributors to the rapidly growing field of astrophotonics, which combines astronomy, fiber optics and advanced photonic technologies.

“There are really only two major centers doing cutting-edge work on photonic lanterns,” Eikenberry says. “Us and the University of Sydney in Australia.”

The project brings together collaborators from UCF, University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of Sydney, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. ɫ����, Eikenberry works alongside graduate student Genevieve Markees and researchers including Rodrigo Amezcua Correa, Miguel Bandres and Jose-Enrique Antonio-Lopez, whose expertise in fiber optics and photonics helped establish the collaboration.

Looking Toward Habitable Worlds

The current PEEPSS project is structured as a three-year effort focused on building and testing prototype photonic lantern systems in laboratory and telescope environments.

Some versions of the technology have already undergone testing on telescopes in Hawaii through collaborations with the Air Force Research Laboratory and international research partners.

Ultimately, researchers hope the technology could become part of the future NASA missions searching for habitable planets around distant stars.

“If we can identify habitable worlds around other stars and show they possess conditions where Earth-like life could survive, that’s already revolutionary,” Eikenberry says. “If we discover actual evidence of life, then we’re talking about one of the greatest scientific discoveries in human history.”

For Eikenberry, humanity may now be approaching a historic turning point.

“We are one mission away,” he says.

And if future observations succeed, humanity may no longer simply wonder whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. For researchers involved in the project, that possibility is what makes the work so compelling.

“We’ll look up and know.”

The PEEPSS project is supported by NASA through award No. 80NSSC26K0577 and brings together researchers from UCF, the University of Sydney and the University of California, Santa Cruz to develop advanced photonic technologies for future exoplanet imaging and spectroscopy missions, including NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory. The initial PEEPSS concept development was supported by the ɫ���� through its SPICE Academic Excellence Program.

UCF Professor Michal Masternak and his team have identified molecular changes in the liver that happen when space travelers experience radiation and microgravity. These changes – that resemble accelerated aging – provide new insight into how prolonged space missions may increase health risks for astronauts and reveal potential targets for therapies that could combat age-related diseases on Earth.

“Just 24 hours after radiation exposure, there are many genetic changes in the liver that are remarkably similar to what happens during aging.” — Professor Michal Masternak

“We focused on the liver because it is one of the major metabolic organs in our body,” says Masternak, leader of the College of Medicine’s aging and space medicine research efforts. “What we found was that just 24 hours after radiation exposure, there are many genetic changes in the liver that are remarkably similar to what happens during aging. We can assume that if someone were in space much longer, the damage could be much greater.”

The findings were recently published in��GeroScience.

Navigating the Science

For their study, UCF researchers and scientists from the U.S. created a simulated deep space environment in the lab. The team exposed animal models to simulated microgravity for 14 days and galactic cosmic radiation and solar particle events at NASA Space Radiation Laboratory trying to mimic the dosage that astronauts would be exposed to during a trip to Mars.

The exposure triggered noticeable and potentially harmful changes in the liver, including increased cellular senescence (aging and decreased cell function), inflammation and fibrosis. Left untreated, these conditions can eventually lead to declining and even failing organ function.

The research team then compared their results with data collected from astronaut blood samples taken during the NASA Twins Study and Inspiration4 astronauts. They saw similar genetic changes in blood.

“We’ve got this raw data from human studies, and they show that some of these changes are similar,” Masternak says. “That tells us we’re identifying useful molecular targets that one day could help protect astronauts during long-duration space missions.”

They��also��went a step further to see��whether the��changes could be treated. They��identified��a group of molecules known as antagomirs that alter several aging and inflammatory genetic pathways��by interacting with the body’s��microRNA. This system could pinpoint promising��future��therapies for space travelers.

Understanding Aging in the Space Age

Masternak says��the nation’s��growing space industry provides a unique opportunity to study aging at an accelerated pace.

“Very often when we study different aging processes, it takes time,” he says. “Even in humans, it’s almost impossible because it would take decades. But if we see some acceleration of aging in space, then we can translate it to human studies. We can observe processes happening much faster, understand them better and eventually use that knowledge to improve health for people here on Earth.”

“If we see some acceleration of aging in space, then … we can observe processes happening much faster, understand them better and eventually use that knowledge to improve health for people here on Earth.” — Masternak

Those discoveries could eventually lead to therapies that slow age-related diseases, preserve organ function and improve quality of life for everyone as they age.

“Our understanding of aging is very complex,” Masternak says. “Aging isn’t simply wrinkles or cosmetic changes. It’s the gradual and cascading failure of multiple organs and biological systems that happen at the same time. By understanding what starts that process and where it happens, we have a better chance of preventing many diseases before they develop. That is one of the biggest outstanding questions.”

Students Positioned at the Forefront of Space Medicine

College of Medicine students are also benefitting from space medicine research. Biomedical sciences Ph.D. student Md��Tanjim Alam��’25MS��joined Masternak’s laboratory during his��biotechnology��master’s program after initially planning to study cancer in relation to aging biology. Then he was introduced to space medicine, including processing astronaut samples from commercial space travelers to study how extreme environments affect human biology. That research has inspired him.

“I want to keep exploring the unknown,” Alam says. “I really want to understand how space travel influences human health, particularly its effects on aging and cancer.”

Biotechnology��graduate��student��Sarah��S.��Siddiqi��’24��says the interdisciplinary nature of the research attracted her to the space medicine and aging lab.

“When people think of aging, they think only about elderly populations,” says Siddiqi, who earned her bachelor’s degree as a Burnett Honors Scholar in biomedical sciences. “But we study aging across different stages of life and different environments, including space. I’ll always be focused on improving quality of life. I want to better understand diseases that are increasingly prevalent and find ways to recognize them earlier, before they progress to later stages.”

Funding and Disclosure:

Representing��UCF,��Natalie Hayslip��’24��served as first author, while��Sarah Ashiqueali��’21MS ’24PhD, Xiang Zhu, Ridwan Hussein��’22��and��Mishfak��Mansoor also contributed to the research.��Researchers from��Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine,��Universidade��Federal de Pelotas,��the��University of��Pittsburgh��and��the��University of North Carolina at Chapel��Hill��also��contributed.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Award Number (FAIN): 2317758(MMM), Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program of the��Florida Department of Health,��Public Health Research, Biomedical Research Program��24A12 (MMM), and the National Science Centre, Poland UMO-2023/51/B/NZ5/00498 (MMM).

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the awarding agencies.

Berinstain, director of the Florida Space Institute at UCF,�� has more than 30 years of experience spanning government, industry and academia. Throughout his career, he has led major space initiatives, advanced international collaborations and worked to expand opportunities across the rapidly evolving space sector.

Founded in 1963 to fuel the space race, UCF is America’s Space University. Berinstain’s appointment to lead the Florida Space Research Consortium underscores UCF’s leadership and expertise in this evolving field.

The consortium is a statewide partnership uniting Florida’s major research universities — Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida A&M University, Florida Institute of Technology, Florida International University, Florida State University, UCF, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida — with government, industry and investment partners.

“I am honored to lead the Florida Space Research Consortium at a time of tremendous opportunity for space research and innovation.” — Alain Berinstain, Florida Space Institute director at UCF

“I am honored to lead the Florida Space Research Consortium at a time of tremendous opportunity for space research and innovation,” says Berinstain, who is a resident of Florida’s Space Coast. “Florida is the world’s busiest and best place to launch to space. I look forward to working with Florida universities, industry and government partners to accomplish together what no individual member of the consortium can achieve on their own and to advance Florida’s leadership in space.”

From 1997 to 2013, Berinstain worked at the Canadian Space Agency, including serving as director of planetary exploration and space astronomy. He has advised companies such as Virgin Galactic and served as chief strategy officer at Space Tango and at CSS Inc.

“Dr. Berinstain brings a unique combination of leadership experience, strategic vision and deep knowledge of the space sector,” says David Norton, vice president for research at the University of Florida and chair of the Florida Space Research Consortium board. “He has a proven ability to build partnerships and advance the collaborative mission of the Florida Space Research Consortium.”

“Dr. Berinstain brings a unique combination of leadership experience, strategic vision and deep knowledge of the space sector.” — David Norton, ��chair of the Florida Space Research Consortium board

Faculty and students at the member universities are advancing a wide range of space research that supports everything from exploration and discovery to practical technologies needed for future missions. Ongoing work across the consortium includes developing smarter spacecraft and satellites; improving propulsion, navigation and communications systems; designing new materials that can withstand the harsh conditions of space; and creating technologies to manufacture, build and operate in space and on the lunar surface.

“Researchers are also focused on using space for the benefit of Earth, addressing human health issues including aging, cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease,” Berinstain says. “As Earthlings prepare to explore the moon, mars and beyond, understanding the human side of spaceflight is key. This includes studies of how people, plants and biological systems function in space; efforts to grow food in lunar and Martian conditions; and research in planetary science, astrophysics, space weather and Earth observation. As a team, we can take on bold, new challenges.”

Together, these efforts reflect a shared commitment to advancing knowledge, supporting long‑duration space missions, strengthening the space economy and translating scientific breakthroughs into real‑world benefits, Norton says.

“I want students to come to UCF knowing they can participate in an industry that’s about to take off, no matter what field they’re interested in. This is the place to launch the next stage of your career.” — Greg Autry, ��UCF’s associate provost for space commercialization

A national leader in online education, and the top supplier of talent to the nation’s aerospace and defense industries, UCF launched a in Spring 2026. It aims to meet the expanding needs of the booming industry on Florida’s Space Coast and around the world. Graduates will emerge ready to shape a fast-growing, high-impact global industry, applying their skills across aerospace, commercial space, government, startups and emerging tech.

“We have world-class researchers, direct connections to the space industry and the very best location,” says Greg Autry, creator of the pioneering program and associate provost for space commercialization and strategy at UCF. ��“I want students to come to UCF knowing they can participate in an industry that’s about to take off, no matter what field they’re interested in. This is the place to launch the next stage of your career.”

The space MBA merges the university’s excellence in both space and online education to develop forward-thinking leaders ready to shape the future of the space sector. This part-time, fully online graduate business program spans 24 months and blends core MBA courses with four specialized electives in space entrepreneurship, governmental and commercial space finance, space leadership and the global space domain. With its flexible, asynchronous format, students can learn from anywhere on Earth — or even in orbit.

At the forefront of this future-ready pathway is Zaheer Ali, a new instructor in the College of Business, and program director of �����’s space commercialization and strategy initiative. He spent more than a decade at NASA and previously led space efforts across the defense and national security enterprise.

“The space industry isn’t the future. It’s happening now. Our new space MBA will put talent at the center of that movement.”— Paul Jarley, UCF College of Business dean

Ali is ready to guide the next generation of space business leaders at SpaceU — and he’s hoping to recruit students from every major to find their place in space.“I’m here helping build what I think is the greatest program in the world for space

business,” Ali says. “Our students are … given direct access to leaders in every aspect of space, creating a space network for them that will be unmatched by graduates of any other program.”

Through more than 25 years of providing highly ranked online degrees, UCF is a trusted source for innovative academic programs and pathways, and is recognized among the nation’s leaders in online education. Courses across more than 130 fully online degree programs are led by world-class faculty with extensive industry and academic experience, equipped to prepare students to succeed in their

careers and advance their fields. “The space industry isn’t the future. It’s happening now. Our new space MBA will put talent at the center of that movement,” says Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business, which houses the program. As the business school at Florida’s Technological University, our goal is not just to fuel the talent pipeline, but to help shape the market — even if it’s in space.

Four outstanding undergraduate students are redefining the boundaries of STEM through their high-impact research — and in doing so, placing the university among the nation’s top producers of Goldwater Scholars.

The prestigious Goldwater Scholarship identifies and supports the nation’s best student researchers in the fields of engineering, mathematics and natural sciences.

This year’s honorees — all expected to graduate next spring — have propelled UCF into an elite tier of research institutions, surpassing several Ivy League institutions and tying for fourth in the nation in total Goldwater Scholars produced alongside Stanford University, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago. Their impactful work reflects UCF’s commitment to building a high-level research environment that empowers students to lead projects addressing significant global and scientific challenges.

Supporting Space Exploration

Goldwater Scholar: Keanu Brayman

Major: Mechanical engineering

Ultimate Goal: To develop robotic systems to support human exploration on Mars.

Keanu Brayman’s passion for space began early.

“One of my earliest memories is watching a Space Shuttle streak across the sky from a beach in South Florida,” Brayman says. “I remember being amazed there were people on board and feeling drawn to one day help explore the stars and discover what lies beyond our planet.”

ɫ����, Brayman has refined that dream with the support of faculty and mentors — including Department of Physics Chair and Professor Adrienne Dove, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Tarek Elgohary and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Engineer Christopher Proctor — as well as through programs like the .

He plans to pursue a doctoral degree in aerospace engineering to support lunar exploration and NASA’s Artemis program, as well as develop robotic systems that can extract resources and build infrastructure to support human exploration on Mars.

Engineering the Brain

Goldwater Scholar: Kyle Coutray

Majors: Computer engineering and biomedical sciences

Ultimate Goal: To research ways to restore communication, movement and cognitive function to the brain through engineering methods.

Kyle Coutray is focused on the intersection of neuroscience and technology.

“I’m interested in building systems that interact directly with the brain,” Coutray says. “In the lab, … [I’m] blending [both majors] into one approach.”

He aims to pursue a doctoral degree in neural engineering to further his research on brain-computer interfaces that translate complex brain activity into useful functions.

A 2026 Order of Pegasus inductee and a Burnett Honors Scholar, Coutray credits his success to disciplined focus and strong mentorship, particularly from Charles N. Millican Professor of Computer Science Joseph LaViola and Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Helen Huang.

Advancing Patient Care

Goldwater Scholar: Varun Nannuri

Major: Molecular and cellular biology

Ultimate Goal: To pursue a career as a physician-scientist.

Varun Nannuri is driven by a desire to understand why people experience different health outcomes and improve care.

“Through my clinical experiences, I have seen how much patients and families rely on physicians during some of the most difficult moments of their lives,” Nannuri says. “My research experiences have shown me that better care depends on asking better questions.”

Nannuri plans to pursue a dual M.D./Ph.D. degree and become a physician-scientist. His ambition earned him recognition as a 2026 Order of Pegasus inductee while also completing his Honors Undergraduate Thesis. Nannuri is also a member of the Burnett Honors College as a Burnett Medical Scholar, a program that offers guaranteed admission to the UCF College of Medicine upon completion.

“UCF has given me opportunities to grow as a student, researcher, leader and future physician,” Nannuri says.

Restoring Human Senses

Goldwater Scholar: Trevor Overton

Majors: Electrical engineering and biomedical sciences

Ultimate Goal: To improve the lives of people with disabilities through advanced robotic prostheses.

Burnett Honors Scholar Trevor Overton’s work centers on neuroengineering and next-generation prosthetics.

“I’ve always had a passion for building things, and I also love reading and watching sci-fi,” Overton says. “When UCF offered me the opportunity to join the MEDD [ … I knew I had to take it.”

�����’s MEDD program provides scientifically driven students like Overton with a unique opportunity to integrate engineering principles into medicine.

Much like the development of cochlear implants, Overton imagines similar breakthroughs with vision and touch.

“I envision a future where robotic prostheses are so advanced that they could completely replace or enhance the abilities of humans,” Overton says. “It’s not entirely impossible.”

After earning a doctoral degree in electrical engineering with a focus on neuroengineering, he hopes to inspire the next generation — just as his professors inspired him — emphasizing that �����’s strength lies in professors who actively invest in their students.

A Growing Research Powerhouse

With four 2026 Goldwater Scholarship recipients, UCF continues to strengthen its position as a leader in undergraduate research. The achievement reflects both students’ immense dedication and a university-wide commitment to driving innovation, mentorship and hands-on discovery. As these Knights prepare for the next steps in their academic journeys, they carry forward a shared mission: to turn research into real-world impact.

Students interested in applying for the Goldwater Scholarship or other major national awards should contact the Office of Prestigious Awards at��opa@ucf.edu.

They proclaimed there is no better place than UCF, the closest medical school to Kennedy Space Center, to create a new frontier in healthcare as humans prepare for longer missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.

“You are in a global destination for medical innovation,” Michal Masternak told participants in the Star Nona 2026 event in Lake Nona’s Medical City. An anti-aging and cancer researcher at the UCF College of Medicine, Masternak organized the event as part of the Lake Nona Research Council, which is focused on encouraging interdisciplinary scientific partnerships between industry, academia and healthcare.

Space medicine is one of the council’s priorities. Deep space travel and the commercialization of space bring unique health challenges that science is just beginning to explore. The College of Medicine’s focuses on how factors such as microgravity, radiation and isolation impact the human body in space and how that knowledge can drive innovation into diagnostics, treatment and disease prevention for patients on Earth.

Former NASA Administrator and U.S. Senator Bill Nelson told attendees the Artemis voyage’s return to the moon should inspire space medicine experts to make new discoveries.

“We’re in a whole new era, an exciting era, of space exploration that makes this time so special,” Nelson said.

Star Nona’s goal was to bring together experts to understand current research on the health impacts of space travel and what challenges need to be addressed as more professional and commercial space travelers go to the moon and beyond.

The Physical Challenges of Space Flight

Former NASA astronaut Robert Curbeam holds the record for most spacewalks on a single mission. He described how the body feels during launch and splashdown when G-forces are so strong you must remind yourself to breathe. He presented with his former NASA flight surgeon, Smith Johnson, now a faculty member at �����’s new Center for Aerospace and Extreme Environments Medicine (CASEEM). The two discussed the important relationship between physicians and space travelers before, during and after a mission.

“I loved being an astronaut and flying space shuttles,” Curbeam says. “The only problem with space travel is that not a lot of people get to do it.”

Your Brain Actually Shifts in Space

Living in space causes the body’s fluids to move up to the head and brain. But symptoms of that condition do more than cause puffy faces. Space travel actually causes the brain to shift. Jogi Pattisapu, of the Hydrocephalus and Neuroscience Institute, said as astronauts go to Mars for years-long missions and settle on the moon, scientists will have to understand how living in space affects brain function and create predictive tests and preventative measures. Eye health will be key, as fluid buildup has caused spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS)��in 70% of astronauts on the International Space Station, leading to farsightedness, optic nerve swelling and eyeball flattening.

“What are we going to do if the pilot goes blind 210 million miles from Earth?” he said.

Team Dynamics in Space

Interpersonal communication is key to any team’s success, but how do relationships change for crews in confined spaces and face additional challenges such as sleep deprivation, isolation and differences in rank and roles. Shawn Burke and Stephen Fiore from �����’s Institute for Simulation and Training have researched team dynamics in space to understand and prevent collaboration failures that can impact mission success.

Their research has also identified the formal and informal roles crew members play in encouraging positive social interactions and teamwork, especially in long-term missions. Missions to Mars may take up to 36 months and include 20-minute communications delays to and from Mission Control. Team dynamics will impact performance, mental health and affect, Burke said, because “you’re stuck with the people you have.”

Conducting Medical Research in Microgravity: Everything’s Upside Down

The weightlessness of space provides a unique research environment for new discoveries in areas including nutrient production, waste treatment, crystallization and biomanufacturing, said Alain Berinstain, director of the Florida Space Institute at UCF.

“Terrestrially, whenever space can make a difference, it’s a great economic driver,” he said.

In space, air doesn’t slow down processes, he explained, so experiments that involve weight, separation, sedimentation, fluid flow and buoyancy change. His advice to researchers considering space as a lab?

“Turn your experiment upside down. Does it still work? If the answer is no, you have a lot of work to do.”

UCF and the Big 12 unveiled the 2026 conference slate in January, with every game initially scheduled on Saturday. Two of those games are now shifted to Friday:

• Oct. 30 vs. Baylor (Mission X Space Game)
• Nov. 20 vs. Iowa State (Senior Knight)

TV and streaming designations and kickoff times will be added as announced.

2026 Schedule & Game Day Themes

-Home games in bold-

9/3 vs. Bethune-Cookman, 7 p.m., ESPN+ (Season-Opener)
9/12 at Pittsburgh
9/19 vs. Georgia State, 7 p.m., ESPN+ (Family Weekend)
9/26 vs. TCU (Big 12 Opener)
10/3 at Houston
10/10 at Oklahoma State
10/24 vs. BYU (Homecoming)
10/30 vs. Baylor, 7:30 p.m., ESPN (Mission X Space Game)
11/7 at Kansas
11/14 vs. Arizona State
11/20 vs. Iowa State, 6 p.m., FS1 (Senior Knight)
11/28 at Colorado

The Big 12 Championship Game is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 4, and will once again be played at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Dallas, Texas.

Under the direction of head coach Scott Frost, UCF carries early momentum into the 2026 season after landing quarterback Alonza Barnett III and a strong group of transfers through the portal. The Knights also secured a pair of four-star high school recruits, highlighting a solid overall class.

Tickets

Season tickets, mini plans and single-game tickets for the 2026 campaign can be purchased at .

Why We Bounce

The 2026 campaign will mark the 20th season that UCF football plays its home games in Acrisure Bounce House. To recognize UCF’s 20 years of Acrisure Bounce House, ��a season-long celebration of the countless memories made inside the place Knight Nation calls home. The 2026 campaign is more than just another season. It is a chance to tell our story.

We want to know why YOU bounce. If you’d like to help us tell our story of the bonds built through game day experiences, , and be ready to include photos.