‘Space U’: NASA’s Bill Nelson will speak at UCF graduation ceremony

ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA Administrator Bill Nelson will address the University of Central Florida graduates on Saturday.

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UCF expects to award about 9,800 degrees at the commencement ceremony, including about 3,000 in STEM fields.

This is one of UCF’s six graduation ceremonies this week.

Nelson will speak to the engineering, computer science and optics graduates at the Addition Financial Arena.

Read: 2024 NFL Draft: See the UCF Knights who are charging on

The university said he plans to talk about how the next generation of leaders can reach for the moon and how to use that knowledge for life on Earth.

Given its proximity to the coast, UCF has been known for helping train talent for the space industry since it was founded in 1963. Faculty and students have also conducted research and contributed to NASA projects.

Many UCF space researchers and alumni are part of the Artemis program.

UCF awarded Nelson the Exemplary Public Service Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

UCF hosts tech summit for local middle school girls Nearly 400 Central Florida teen girls gathered at UCF Thursday for a tech summit meant to encourage them to pursue STEM careers. (Q McCray, WFTV.com/WFTV)

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