“Some boats make it around the pond, some spin around in little circles and some sink — designing, building and racing an autonomous (self-guided) vessel is quite difficult,” says Jacqueline Sullivan ’87 ’91MS, instructor of the Introduction to Engineering course that culminates with this final project.

Beyond a passing grade, a coveted grand prize is up for grabs for the team of the fastest vessel: a four-year McGraw book, e-book and software scholarship for each team member.

The race, in its 29th year, has all the components for innovation and potential for a mess. The classes of budding engineers have grown to nearly 2,000 students who form hundreds of teams. They’re using advanced technology and more components.

With this in mind, perhaps the most amazing aspect of the event is that it has become more orderly than ever, with races starting every 10 minutes for nine straight hours. There is no waste, in terms of time or materials.

“Sustainable engineering,” Sullivan calls it, before admitting, “but it wasn’t my idea. Race day used to be a bit chaotic until Mason [Clewis] came along.”

It’s been only two years since Clewis, a senior photonic science and engineering student, recognized an opportunity to create a perfectly tuned e-waste recycling system, a timeline even he can hardly believe.

“The students are doing at this level what SpaceX and NASA are doing at the highest level — reusing and recycling.” — Jacqueline Sullivan, instructor

“At first, I thought I’d run a recycling booth by myself and maybe reuse the boat parts or sell them on eBay,” he says. “But it’s grown beyond me, to multiple departments and a network of volunteers. It’s all happened fast and naturally.”

The magic begins as each race ends. Participants who don’t advance to the final rounds take their boats to a tent where students disassemble each craft with the speed of NASCAR pit crews. They pull out batteries, computer chips and servomotors. Stainless steel screws and hardware are also collected. Whatever is left of the hulls is crushed and deposited into recycle bins.

The oranges are saved for other races.

As the day progresses through dozens of races, the lawn around the Reflecting Pond never changes from its original condition: a green carpet, in perfect spring form.

“The students are doing at this level what SpaceX and NASA are doing at the highest level — reusing and recycling,” Sullivan says. “That’s why I say Mason is my hero.”

A Village Beyond the Tent

Clewis watched his first GNOR as a curious freshman. He’d been working on his own capstone project — developing a temperature-controlled fan. During the races, a few of his internal wheels started turning when he noticed boat carnage spilling from trash cans and onto the lawn.

“Some of the parts on the boats were the same parts I needed for my own project,” he says. “I know plenty of students like me who don’t want to shell out $100 for the same perfectly good batteries, chips and sensors that are being thrown away. Plus, I’m interested in entrepreneurship and keeping the environment clean. So, I took the basic idea for a recycling booth to Miss Sullivan.”

“That’s the most rewarding aspect for me: the lasting impact — a positive, mutually beneficial impact. The campus looks better. Students can access free parts for their projects. Everyone has fun. There is no downside.” — Mason Clewis, student

The power of organic growth took root when Sullivan put Clewis and his project partner, Chris Lesniak, in touch with Jim Essad, manager of the machine shop sciences program. When students from UCF’s Robotics Club found out, they offered to disassemble boats on race day and organize parts for future reuse. Word then spread to College of Engineering and Computer Sciences Facilities Operations Manager Pete Alfieris, who offered recycle containers and golf carts. Don Harper ’88, manager of the Texas Instruments Innovation Lab, said he’d gladly take the discarded wood and barely-used hardware for the next cohorts to access for free.

“I never thought so many people would want to be involved,” Clewis says, “but we’re helping others and there’s something inherently attractive about that.”

Students want to be involved. Faculty and staff want to be involved. In the past 24 months, the savings in money and materials has been incalculable. The cycle feeds itself with the rare combination of sustainability and scale.

“Mason started doing the right thing about a need when no one was looking,” Sullivan says. “Now everyone is looking.”

E-Cycling into the Future

Clewis was in the recycling booth again for this year’s GNOR, but with a slightly different purpose: Teaching freshmen how to run the show.

“I won’t be here in a couple of years, but someone else will keep it going,” he says. “That’s the most rewarding aspect for me: the lasting impact — a positive, mutually beneficial impact. The campus looks better. Students can access free parts for their projects. Everyone has fun. There is no downside.”

They had been tasked in a semester-long class assignment to build a carbon fiber rocket that would successfully carry the professor’s payload. While their design may have failed epically — while being broadcast live on the internet — they noticed one very important element that turned out to be the spark for their future company.

“When we walked up to the rocket, we saw that the motor had gone through a 2-inch-thick steel plate, but the carbon fiber that we had made was intact and still super strong and actually protected the professor’s payload after exploding and crashing,” Saltzman says. “We said, ‘Hey, we’re pretty good at manufacturing this [carbon fiber] stuff.’ ”

They took it as a sign to change their majors from aerospace engineering to materials science and engineering, and the earliest roots of Soarce were planted.

Sustainably Strengthening Industries

Soarce is at the forefront of bio-based nanomaterials and seeks to solve society’s greatest climate challenges by leveraging natural materials to create products that can outperform those made synthetically.

Drawn from seaweed, hemp and elephant grass, their nanocellulose coating can be applied to and fortify carbon fiber structures — everything from hockey sticks to electric vehicles to rocket ships.

“That allows engineers to design parts that are lighter, stronger and more efficient,” Saltzman says. “For electric vehicles, they can now go farther. In the world of aerospace, we’re making those materials stronger so now you have more payload mass that you can put into space.”

Their innovation has so much promise it has already secured $3.2 million in funding.

“UCF is about dreaming big, going as big as you can. And that’s how we feel.” — Derek Saltzman

“UCF is about dreaming big, going as big as you can. And that’s how we feel,” Saltzman says. “We’re on pace to what we feel is going to be the largest global nanocellulose producer in the world. And we are not afraid to say that and stand behind it. That’s a big dream, but that’s kind of what we’re here to do — make big changes.”

UCF-Backed Entrepreneurship

Their entrepreneurial journey has gone through several iterations since Saltzman and Mincey were randomly assigned as roommates in during their freshman year. The pair dabbled in enterprises involved with agriculture and drone racing, cutting their teeth on the business side of running a company through resources UCF offers including the ’s .

To this day, they’re still partnering with the UCF ecosystem, utilizing the UCF Business Incubation Program’s Life Sciences Incubator in Lake Nona, which gives Soarce access to a fully equipped, Biosafety Level II wet lab to foster their work in advanced materials.

“UCF has really strong partnerships and connections to industry that allow you to funnel your idea from a lab-benchtop scale all the way to integrating into a Fortune 500 company to get that product off the ground,” Saltzman says.

Now, along with fellow UCF alums and Soarce co-founders Matthew Jaeger ’22, an actuarial science alum, and Patrick Michel, a former management student, they’re looking forward to expanding their operations into an 8,000-square-foot facility in partnership with Tavistock and heading into pilot trials with Fortune 500 companies.

“It’s really cool to see how far we’ve come, from an idea in a notebook that we started eight years ago to now within the next three to five years, we’ll have that material not only created, but actually being flown into space and amongst the stars,” Saltzman says.

The Soarce co-founders were recognized on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Manufacturing & Industry list in 2026.

The UCF Knights – environmental engineering majors Jennifer Hughes and Lance-Nicolas Rances and environmental engineering doctoral student Stephanie Stoll, along with associate professor and principal investigator Woo Hyoung Lee – are one of 21 student teams to receive the funding through the agency’s People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Program. This program is designed to support research that addresses environmental and public health challenges.

“I am thrilled and honored to have received this award for our research,” Hughes says. “For the past year, I have focused on microcystin-detecting biosensors, and it feels great to be recognized for my undergraduate research.”

Microcystins are the most common toxins found in fresh water, and the most harmful type is microcystin-LR (MC-LR). When high levels of MC-LR accumulate in water, they form a blue-green algae bloom that can disrupt the aquatic ecosystem by depleting oxygen, blocking sunlight and altering the nutrients that marine life feeds on. In Florida, blue-green algae are a common problem due to the warm temperatures, excess nutrients and stagnant water found in lakes, rivers or ponds. When ingested by humans, it can cause abdominal pain, a sore throat or gastrointestinal distress. At elevated levels, it could lead to damage of the liver or kidneys.

To test water sources for MC-LR, samples must be transported to a laboratory where they can be examined by trained technicians. The process can be both time-consuming and costly, but the UCF-developed biosensor could solve those problems.

The UCF-developed device would be portable, cost effective and located onsite, so that MC-LR blooms could be detected early on. The device will use an antibody to detect the harmful algae, and the students are currently fine-tuning its detecting capabilities.

“Our next steps at the moment are to refine the biosensor to make its detection capabilities as accurate as possible,” Rances says. “There are several interfering toxins that can be detected in place of MC-LR, so honing in on the right antibodies that are MC-LR sensitive will help enhance what may be later made available for use in real-world scenarios.”

In a real-world scenario, once the biosensor detects MC-LR in drinking water, health officials can take appropriate action such as treating the water and notifying the public.

As Phase I recipients, the students will use the funding to deliver a proof of concept. They’re also eligible to compete for Phase II funding, worth up to $100,000, to help them implement their design.

Although the sensor will take time to develop, both Hughes and Rances are excited to work on a project that can have a positive impact on local waterways.

“Algae blooms are one of the biggest conversation points regarding Florida’s water health,” Rances says. “I am motivated to continue the MC-LR research to expand the capabilities of our coastal regions to understand and potentially combat harmful algae bloom events.”

UCF Lake Nona Hospital is a joint venture between the university and HCA Healthcare that opened two years ago adjacent to the UCF College of Medicine in the heart of Lake Nona’s Medical City. In addition to providing needed in-patient care to non-veteran adults in the community, the hospital serves as an education site for UCF medical and nursing students and a site for collaborative medical research.

The designation recognizes the hospital’s commitment to sustainable building products and energy-saving operations, including:

• Systems that reduce water use, including sinks, toilets and showers, that conserve 767,908 gallons of water per year — equivalent to nearly 6 million bottles of drinking water
• Native landscaping that reduces water consumption by nearly 600,000 gallons of water each year
• High efficiency LED lighting and other systems that save over 21% in annual energy costs, as compared to standard design and construction practices
• On-site recycling, recycled and sustainable building materials, and the fact that 75% of the building waste during the hospital’s construction was recycled

“Today we celebrate another step towards creating improved health and wellness in Lake Nona and Central Florida. Sustainability is a growing priority and we are excited about this recognition by the USGBC,” says Wendy Brandon, CEO of UCF Lake Nona Hospital.“This is one more way I am proud of the work we are doing at UCF Lake Nona Hospital.”

Through design, construction and operations practices that improve environmental and human health, LEED-certified buildings are helping to make the world more sustainable. In the U.S. alone, buildings account for almost 40% of national CO2 emissions, but LEED-certified buildings have 34 percent lower CO2 emissions, consume 25% less energy and 11% less water, and have diverted more than 80 million tons of waste from landfills. UCF is home to 30 other LEED certified buildings, including the College of Medicine in Lake Nona, Dr. Phillips Academic Commons at UCF Downtown and Classroom Building II on main campus.

“This is an exceptional accomplishment for both UCF and HCA,” says Amy Pastor, USGBC Central Florida Board chair, who attended Friday’s announcement. “You are among the best and you will be known worldwide for this.”

“LEED was created to make the world a better place and revolutionize our buildings and communities by providing everyone with access to healthy, green and high performing buildings,” says Peter Templeton, president and CEO of USGBC. “UCF Lake Nona Hospital is a prime example of how the innovative work of project teams can create local solutions that contribute to making a global difference.”

UCF was among the first universities to commit to the American College & ����ֱ�� Presidents’ Climate Commitment to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Since that commitment, the university has saved more than $30 million in operating expenses, reduced the campus energy use intensity by 41% dating back to 2006 and have become a leader in green building standards.

Sustainability Initiatives at UCF focuses on the strategic advancement of sustainability and incorporates its economic, environmental, and social dimensions into education and research. We offer a wide range of programming for faculty, staff and students to grow their sustainability literacy. With so many built and natural assets on campus, we assist faculty in using the campus as a “living laboratory,” providing tours of LEED-certified facilities, solar sites, and natural lands.

We encourage sharing utility data with students and faculty, giving researchers the ability to test theories and new technologies. The annual Kill-A-Watt energy conservation scholarship competition for on-campus residents, UN World Water Day Fair and Campus Swap Shops help students and the university save money and precious resources. The Sustainability Training Series for faculty and staff provides the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge in sustainability for use on the job and at home. Altogether, our programming, academic and operations support helps create a culture of conservation that expands beyond our campuses.

The maxim “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” applies in many respects to sustainability. Despite UCF’s growth in enrollment and building square footage, our green building and retrofitting efforts have led to a 45% reduction in emissions per 1,000 square feet of building space and 28% reduction per full-time enrollment since 2007. Transparency is also key to the university’s sustainability commitment. We submit UCF’s progress in emissions and other facets of sustainability to organizations, such as the Princeton Review. More importantly, we submit comprehensive data about our activity to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS). UCF was rated silver in 2016 and 2021 in this global benchmarking system. We aspire to reach gold and, eventually, platinum.

In March, Sustainability Initiatives embarked on a new strategic plan. Building on the 2010 Climate Action Plan and the successes that earned us a silver STARS rating, the new plan will cover academics, the built environment, waste, transportation and landscape and natural resources. It will guide us to become a “Zero Waste” university that integrates sustainability across all disciplines. We’ve already engaged many faculty, staff and students via committee meetings and town halls. There’s still time for you to join us in charting UCF’s path toward innovative sustainability leadership in academics and operations. We invite you to share your vision in the survey below to earn a limited-edition sticker. You can also email your ideas at any time to sustainable@ucf.edu.

Learn more: https://sustainable.ucf.edu/resources/climate-action-plan

UCF’s Green Building Portfolio: https://energy.ucf.edu/high-performance-buildings/

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STARS report:

The regulations state that anyone selling power in Florida, regardless of size, must follow the same rules as large utility companies. This has resulted in keeping smaller energy developers from entering into what is known as a power purchase agreement with individuals, businesses and nonprofits. These rules include building codes, permitting, reliability reporting, electric-rate scheduling and tariff regulations under the Florida Public Service Commission. Currently, 28 states allow solar power purchase agreements to operate, while Florida is one of seven states with legal barriers in place effectively prohibiting their use.

With a power purchase agreement, a person or organization allows an energy developer to install, own, operate and maintain an energy production system, such as a solar array, on their property. The electricity generated from the solar array is sold back to the person or organization at a price that is often lower than what they are paying their utility provider.

“The electricity generated from the solar array is sold to the customer using a long-term contract at a price that is typically below retail electric rates,” says Kelly Stevens, an assistant professor in UCF’s and report co-author. “This way, the customer receives the electricity generated from the solar array yet avoids the high up-front capital costs and difficulty of arranging financing, design, permitting and construction of the array.”

Stevens says things to consider before entering into a solar power purchase agreement are the electricity rate negotiated with the developer and the space available for a solar array.

“The third-party, power purchase-agreement rate that is typically lower than retail electricity prices could escalate over time, which would be identified in the long-term contract, so it would be anticipated,” Stevens says. “But that price escalation or baseline price may not be significantly lower than the retail electricity price, which reduces some of the economic benefit to the customer.”

“Also, not all customers can support the same amount of solar on their property due to space and environmental constraints,” she says. “So, the benefit will depend on specific characteristics of each site.”

In the study, the researchers examined the potential economic and environmental impacts of solar power purchase agreements in Florida if they were enabled in the state.

The researchers determined that if Florida increased its non-utility solar generation by 42 percent through power purchase agreements, bringing its share closer to the national average of 65 percent, that this would add an additional 1,165 to 1,942 megawatts of additional solar capacity to the grid.

This would result in an annual reduction of 1.8 to 3.1 million tons of greenhouse gases emitted, which is the equivalent of removing more than 118,000 gasoline-powered cars from the road each year.

Construction of Florida-based solar arrays through power purchase agreements would result in an economic impact of $2.3 billion to $3.8 billion, and the creation of 15,000 to 25,000 jobs, according to the report.

To illustrate the implementation of solar power purchase agreements in Florida, the report also provided three case studies of potential savings if the agreements were implemented in three Central Florida locations – the City of Orlando, the Osceola School District, and the First Unitarian Church of Orlando.

For instance, the City of Orlando currently has 19 city facilities participating in a community solar program. If the city were to install 18 megawatts of solar through a power purchase agreement on 14 additional city-owned buildings, it would save more than $400,000 in electricity costs annually and reduce carbon emissions equivalent to removing more than 1,200 gasoline-powered cars off the road each year.

For the Osceola School District, there are currently solar panels installed on seven schools. If solar was installed on an additional three schools through a power purchase agreement, the district could see annual electricity savings of more than $90,000, and it would result in the equivalent of more than 150 cars taken off the road annually.

Study co-authors were Gilbert Michaud, an assistant professor of practice at Ohio ����ֱ��, and David Jenkins, a research associate at Ohio ����ֱ��.

The research was funded by a $10,000 grant from Solar United Neighbors, a national nonprofit organization that promotes solar energy production.

Stevens received her doctorate in public administration from Syracuse ����ֱ�� and joined UCF’s School of Public Administration, part of UCF’s , in 2017. She’s a member of UCF’s Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems Cluster.

The Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab at UCF has been experimenting with various products looking for an effective, biodegradable material for restoration that’s inexpensive. For the past 14 months the group has been testing a mesh made from leftover potato starch collected from chip factories. So far, it’s been a successful method providing habitats for the lagoon’s vital shellfish population. A second material — a cement-infused fiber — also shows promise as an alternative to traditional plastic-based methods to attract oysters, which help improve lagoon water quality.

“The oysters seem to really be taking to the potato chip method,” says biology Professor Linda Walters. “While our plastic mesh was effective and brought over 14 million oysters to Mosquito Lagoon, this is an exciting step forward in using genuinely effective biodegradable materials.”

In the past 100 years, more than 85 percent of shellfish reefs have been lost globally as the result of human harvesting, loss of habitat, diseases and invasive species, according to research published in BioScience. Oyster reefs play a vital role in ecosystems as natural water filters, barriers against erosion and habitats for marine life.

“Harmful algal blooms became frequent after the loss of oysters,” Walters says. “The reefs can stabilize shorelines and provide nutrients to other animals. We need them so that synergy in ecosystem services may be restored.”

The recent innovation builds on years of work by Walters and a team of students and more than 62,000 volunteers to rebuild these lost habitats in Mosquito Lagoon waters near New Smyrna Beach. Walters is also a member of the Sustainability Coastal Systems cluster at UCF. Their search for a more eco-friendly product led them to the Netherlands and a company called BESE Ecosystem Restoration Products. BESE-products, formed around a team of ecologists and habitat experts, developed the innovative mesh from leftover potato starch collected from chip factories. The mesh is manually attached to the shells of oysters using wire, then left alone to be observed in the regeneration process. After 14 months of pilot testing, the potato chip reefs have over 400 live oysters per square meter.

“We wanted to test a method that is biodegradable and has the material lifespan approaching that of a local oyster. That span ranges around five to ten years,” explains Walters.

That durability is a key component of a long-time challenge for the lab. Previous products either quickly fell apart in the corrosive seawater or proved too expensive for the broad scope of Indian River Lagoon restoration.

Success on Florida’s coast augers well for similar projects in the U.S. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, for instance, currently funds more than 70 restoration projects in 15 states.

“People generally don’t understand how difficult it is to make biodegradable materials that get the job done for coastal restoration,” Walters said. “There are a lot of technicalities to consider when finding new materials to use. We also are testing for unintended consequences to the environment.”

While the team tests the efficacy of potato chip mesh, another restoration material is in competition for long-term adoption by the lab. A faculty member of the ����ֱ�� of North Carolina developed a cement-infused fiber called OysterCatcher. The lightweight, biodegradable material is modular, making it significantly easier to set up than lugging heavy bags of oyster shells into place. Free-floating oyster larvae attach to the shells and create their own shell, exponentially growing the reef over time.

“We are testing both methods simultaneously as to not put all our eggs in one basket. So far, this method works great and we’ve noticed that crabs and fish are loving the refuge it provides,” Walters says.

It will be at least a year until Walters reaches a conclusion on the best option.

“It’s a very different summer with COVID, that much is for sure,” Walters says. “It’s been difficult not being able to work with community volunteers and with only 20 percent of the number of UCF students that we planned to hire. It is a total adjustment, but it’s better to continue working this way than not working at all.”

It’s a green solution with a bonus – the oil could be recycled for future use.

The students will showcase their invention at the National Sustainable Design Expo, which is part of the  in Washington, D.C., on April 7-8.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded UCF one of only 31 national student-design competition awards for Sustainability Focusing on . Students submit their designs, and those selected get $15,000 to prepare an exhibit to showcase their work. Only the best student designs from around the nation are showcased. While there, the teams also compete for an additional $75,000, which would allow them to further develop their inventions.

“This technology will lead to cleaner surface water and can be used for oil-spill remediation,” says Professor Woo Hyoung Lee, who is a principal investigator of the project and mentored the students.

“This technology will lead to cleaner surface water and can be used for oil-spill remediation,” said Professor Woo Hyoung Lee, who is a principal investigator of the project and mentored the students. “The project has given our interdisciplinary team of students an excellent experience in how to work together to solve problems putting to use their areas of expertise and learning from each other. It’s how the real world works.”

The students agree and said they learned as much about working together and managing a project as they did putting their academic and technical skills to use.

The tech harks back to the idea of keeping solutions simple.

Currently, chemicals and dispersants are used to remove oil during a spill, but these also create byproduct pollution. Instead, the UCF superhydrophobic MoS₂-coated sponges take in oil while simultaneously rejecting water. They leave no residue behind. The challenge is that MoS₂ sponges require complex fabrication. The team of students used microscopy and spectroscopy to determine the best way to make the sponge. The conclusion was that MoS_2�� should be layered along the porous areas of the sponges. The dip-dry method resulted in durability and reduced cost. The sponges could be turned into mats that would be deployed again and again after they are cleaned, keeping costs low.

“My role on the team was to bring a biotechnological perspective to the project, which focuses on the cellular and biomolecular process of what we are trying to achieve, and expand on those processes in application to commercial production,” said Dianne Mercado, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology. “While biotechnology is my specialty, one of the best aspects of being part of this project is having other students who come from a variety of fields work together to create something truly interdisciplinary.”

“I had extra motivation in the project because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, which occurred near Mexico, where my family is from,” says student Hernan Sabua.

The project appears to be exactly the kind of result the EPA program is looking to inspire. P3’s two-phased research-grants program challenges students to research, develop, and design innovative projects that address real-world challenges involving all areas of environmental protection and public health, according to the competition website. The goal of the competition is to foster progress toward environmental awareness by achieving the goals of improved quality of life for all people, economic prosperity, and protection of the planet.

It was the competition’s mission that attracted Hernan Sabua, a civil engineering major who was the student team leader.

“Ever since I was little, I wanted to make a difference in the environmental sustainable aspects of engineering,” Hernan said. “I had extra motivation in the project because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010, which occurred near Mexico, where my family is from.”

The spill dumped more than 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico during 87 days, making it the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.

“I like to be involved in EPA’s activities for improving the quality of our life and protecting our planet,” Lee says.

Other members of the team include Kelsey Rodriguez from environmental engineering, Conner Thompson from biomedical sciences, Dwight Davis from mechanical engineering, post-doctoral associate Taejun Ko from the . Professor Yeonwoong Jung from the NanoScience Technology Center and Jae-Hoon Hwang, a post-doctoral scholar from environmental engineering, round out the team as co-principal investigators. Hwang is a recipient of UCF’s P3 program that helps fund postdoctoral candidates at UCF.

This is not UCF’s first invitation to the showcase. In 2015, Lee took another team to Washington. That team’s project focused on making algal biofuel easier and less expensive to produce. They earned an honorable mention for their project.

For Lee, participating in this competition is a lot of extra hours and instruction, but he said he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I work on these competitions because of my passion for undergraduate educations as well as outreach activities for environmental sustainability,” he said. “I also worked for the EPA as a post-doc before joining UCF. So I like to be involved in EPA’s activities for improving the quality of our life and protecting our planet.”

Researchers found significant dune erosion that swept away some nests and exposed the eggs of others. It was a record year for green turtle nesting along the refuge’s beaches in southern Brevard County, but storm surge due to hurricane Irma destroyed many unhatched loggerhead and green turtle nests. UCF researchers estimate that of nests laid through the end of September, more than half of the season’s green turtle nests and a quarter of loggerhead nests were lost.

Both species are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and Florida hosts the majority of both species’ U.S. nests. The section of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge monitored by UCF hosts about a third of the Florida’s green turtle nests.

“Last year with Hurricane Matthew, we lucked out because it was a low green turtle year,” said Kate Mansfield, assistant professor and director of the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group, noting that green turtles typically have alternating high and low nesting years. “This year was an extraordinarily exciting year for green turtle nesting, breaking all previous records within the refuge and continuing the conservation success story for the species. Unfortunately, we had another big hurricane this year, highlighting the need for continued conservation efforts in the area.”

Green turtles set a new record in 2017, laying 15,744 nests in the sands of the 13 miles of the Brevard County portion of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge monitored by UCF. An estimated 8,830 of those were lost to the storm. Green turtles nest later in the season than other species, so many of their eggs hadn’t hatched by the time Irma hit. Some 56 percent of total green nests were lost, an estimated 81 percent of those that were still incubating.

Along the same stretch of beach, loggerheads laid 9,690 nests in 2017, but most had already hatched when Irma passed through the region. Still, an estimated 2,290 loggerhead nests were lost. That’s 24 percent of the total loggerhead nests and 91 percent of those that were still incubating when hurricane-driven storm surge came ashore.

The refuge is located at the northern extent of dense leatherback nesting in Florida, but the species nest in far fewer numbers, laying just 23 nests in 2017 within the portion of the refuge monitored by UCF. But they nest earlier than greens and loggerheads, and all of the leatherback nests had finished incubating before the hurricane.

UCF also monitors another 16.4 miles of beaches north of the wildlife refuge, at Patrick Air Force Base and in central Brevard County. Considerably fewer nests are laid there than in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, but the numbers are still high compared to many other parts of the country. On those beaches, an estimated 642 of 2,251 green turtle nests and 831 of 6,229 loggerhead nests were lost due to the hurricane.

The UCF Marine Turtle Research Group also found evidence that some green turtle hatchlings have emerged since the hurricane. And some turtles have continued to come ashore and lay new nests. Within the wildlife refuge, 466 new green turtle nests and eight new loggerhead nests were laid in September following Irma. Along the other UCF-monitored beaches, 72 new green nests and three new loggerhead nests were laid.

Still, the nests aren’t out of danger.

“Green turtles are still nesting, but recent extremely high tides have likely wiped out many of those new nests, too,” said Erin Seney, an assistant research scientist with the UCF group. “The good news is that the nesting habits of sea turtles do protect them from large-scale nest loss and make them more resilient to this kind of event. They lay multiple nests per nesting season, roughly every other year for 30 years or more.”

UCF researchers have run a sea turtle monitoring and research program on the beaches of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge in southern Brevard County for 35 years. Their findings about sea turtle nesting activity are among the reasons the refuge was created in 1991. Last year, the university and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a landmark agreement that formalized UCF’s use of refuge facilities and established a protocol that will allow UCF to build research facilities and a plan that will give UCF oversight of the facilities for 40 years or more.

To support sea turtle research at UCF, visit www.ucffoundation.org/seaturtleresearch.

The rebate is one of the largest Duke Energy has issued in years.

The purchase of two water chillers for District Energy Plant IV, an under-construction water plant that will produce chilled and hot water to cool and dehumidify campus buildings, earned UCF $200,000 of the rebate because of the chillers’ high efficiency, said Curtis Wade, director of UCF Utilities & Energy Services.

The chillers will hold 4,000 tons – or 1 million gallons – of chilled water that will serve Research Building 1, when complete, and be added to an existing underground infrastructure that serves nearly 75 percent of campus buildings. Over the lifespan of District Energy Plant IV that’s being built on the northeast side of campus, the university is estimated to save $121,000 annually in operation costs and resources because of its energy-efficient design.

“This project has been developed over three years and in many phases to ensure we meet our current and future energy demands in the most efficient way possible,” said Wade. “Our goal always is to ensure that energy at UCF remains as affordable and reliable as possible.”

The remaining $78,000 of the recent rebate is from automation controls installed in Partnership I and II, Student Health Services, Mathematical Sciences and Engineering II buildings. The controls use CO2 sensors that measure when more outside air is needed to balance the CO2 levels in the buildings. Vents open when more outside air needed, and are closed when there’s enough. This reduces the demand on the equipment, which works harder to de-humidify the interior of buildings when vents are constantly open to let in outside air.

Since 2010, UCF has earned more than $1 million in rebates for energy-efficient measures.

“We have a great partnership with the ����ֱ��,” said Sharon Arroyo, director of large-account management for Duke Energy Florida. “Energy efficiency is a great sustainability measure and UCF’s efforts are outstanding. We are pleased to present them with one of the largest rebates we’ve presented in recent years.”