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UCF’s CREOL, The College of Optics and Photonics, was recently accused\u00a0by The Nation for alleged conflict of interest regarding Jeff Crystal and his role as a part of the school’s dean external advisory council.<\/p>\n
Joseph Wiedeman<\/p>\n
UCF is under increased scrutiny after a recent article by The Nation<\/a> detailed its relationship with Israeli drone manufacturer and the university\u2019s longstanding feeder programs to weapons companies like Lockheed Martin and L3Harris.<\/p>\n The article asserted that two of the university\u2019s leading researchers at its Center for Research in Computer Vision received direct grants from Elbit Systems, an\u00a0Israeli military technology company, in 2020. This\u00a0totalled $260,000 for its \u201chuman activity recognition\u201d technology and its \u201calgorithms for object detection and human activity recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Mubarak Shah is the founder of UCF\u2019s Center of Computer Vision and one of the two researchers who allegedly accepted the grant money from Elbit, according to The Nation. The Charge reached out to Shah for comment, but he said he was unaware of the article at the time of correspondence.<\/p>\n A petition from the UCF Divest Coalition to Chair Brian Butler asking for the school to ”Disclose and Divest” from technologies contributing to the “more than 35,000 Palestinians that have been killed and the over 75,000 injured.” The petition also asked to allow student oversight in the decision making process when the university forms partnerships.\u00a0<\/p>\n Joseph Wiededman<\/p>\n Elbit is the largest manufacturer of weapons for Israeli drone systems, according to the American Friends Service Committee<\/a>. Elbit came under fire for its \u201csuicide drone\u201d that has been used in the targeting of \u201ccivilian homes and infrastructure in Gaza,\u201d since tensions escalated between Israel and Gaza in October 2023, according to The Nation.<\/p>\n The university also touts Jeff Crystal,\u00a0technical director of Elbit Systems for America<\/a>,\u00a0as an external advisor to its College of Optics and Photonics<\/a>.<\/p>\n In fiscal year 2023, UCF received\u00a0more than $31 million<\/a>\u00a0from the Department of War, formerly the Department of Defense, for research and development purposes.<\/p>\n Lockheed Martin, an aerospace and defense company, has had a deep relationship with the university, starting in 1981 through its College Work Experience Program<\/a>. The company is the\u00a0\u201cleading provider for offensive and defensive weapons systems,\u201d according to its website.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Nation stated that $550,000 in funds were set aside for the partnership between the university and the weapons company. The \u201cPegasus Partnership\u201d has led the company to employ more than 3,000 alumni, according to the company’s LinkedIn.<\/a><\/p>\n An article from UCF Today<\/a> outlines a previous agreement in July 2025 to establish the university\u00a0\u201cas Lockheed Martin’s first university strategic partner in Florida.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLockheed Martin\u2019s unwavering partnership empowers our students with real-world opportunities, drives innovation, and strengthens our shared commitment to building a brighter future,\u201d UCF President Alexander Cartwright said in the article. \u201cTogether, we will work even more closely to shape the next generation of leaders and advance industries and technologies that benefit Florida and the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Another prominent relationship the university maintains is its partnership with L3Harris, an American technology and defense company, recognizable from the L3Harris Engineering Center on campus.<\/p>\n The\u00a0American Friends Service Committee<\/a>\u00a0defines L3Harris as\u00a0\u201ca U.S. weapons manufacturer that provides phone tracking devices and other equipment to the Israeli military and U.S. immigration authorities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n L3Harris, based in Melbourne, was under fire in 2019 by the Department of State for violating the\u00a0Arms Export Control Act<\/a> and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations<\/a>, forcing a settlement of $13 million\u00a0to be paid out by the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2025, L3Harris paid $62 million due to false claims the company made about the cost of communication equipment sold to the Department of War<\/a>, formerly known as the\u00a0Department of Defense. This year, the company received a new billion-dollar deal from the Department of War<\/a> for the supply of rocket motors.<\/p>\n Furthermore, on Feb. 26, Peter Williams, former managing director for a digital division of L3Harris, was sentenced to 87 months for selling stolen U.S trade secrets to a Russian broker,\u00a0according to the Office of Public Affairs<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWilliams exploited his senior role at a U.S. defense contractor to enrich himself at the expense of the United States and his employer,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg in a press release. \u201cThe tools he compromised were intended to protect this Nation; instead, he auctioned them off to a Russian bidder.\u201d<\/p>\n Will Greenberg, a 2013 UCF alum in computer science, works as a senior staff technologist at the\u00a0Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that has been defending people’s digital rights<\/a>\u00a0online since 1990. He said\u00a0that partnerships with large-scale security corporations are concerning.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that one of the preeminent surveillance companies powering the Trump Administration’s deportation machine is named Palantir (after the obviously evil spy orb in Lord of the Rings),”\u00a0Greenberg said in an email. \u201cI don’t think it’s a stretch to say that some tech CEOs and politicians are reading dystopian books as instruction manuals.\u201d<\/p>\n Orlando further cemented its connection to the wider security apparatus, as the city council voted in favor of amending its contract with Axon Security on Feb. 23.<\/p>\n The city added 11 Skydio drones<\/a> to the police’s repertoire that can be built into the existing emergency response network provided by Axon. This would make Orlando a part of the growing national \u201cDrone as First Responder<\/a>\u201d program, which faces scrutiny due to Skydio\u2019s ties to Israel\u2019s attacks on Gaza, as reported by the American Friends Service Committee<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an email from the Orlando Police Department, officials stated the program is designed to improve emergency response times and overall public safety outcomes for residents within the first minutes of 911 calls.<\/p>\n \u201cDFR drones would not be used for random patrols or mass surveillance,\u201d the police department said. \u201cState law will govern the types of calls that the drones can respond to.\u201d<\/p>\n However, OPD\u2019s longtime partner, Axon Security, worked in partnership with Canadian police departments to\u00a0integrate facial recognition software for its\u00a0body cameras,\u00a0the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported<\/a> in December. This is an area of law enforcement that the company has largely cornered in North America, according to the University of Denver<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tony Ortiz, commissioner for Orlando\u2019s District 2, is a UCF alumnus and a 14-year veteran of OPD. He said during a call that he would be hesitant to implement facial recognition technologies, but that in certain situations it has \u201chelped a number of cases.\u201d<\/p>\n Wired<\/a>, a technology and science magazine,\u00a0reported that within 10 days of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022, the CEO of Axon announced that the company had started developing taser-equipped drones to be put into schools.<\/p>\n A letter from Axon’s board of ethics<\/a> indicates that nine of 12 members resigned following the announcement, and the company temporarily halted the program,\u00a0according to Wired.\u00a0The company then acquired the drone manufacturer Sky-Hero, a\u00a0surveillance and security company\u00a0based in Belgium.<\/p>\n \u201cDrones are a form of remote and relatively covert surveillance, and as such they should receive the same level of scrutiny as any other type of police surveillance,\u201d Greenberg said. \u201cThis means demanding transparency into how and when they’re used, that the data is properly secured and disposed of in reasonable time frames, and ensuring that the data they collect isn’t shared to agencies who shouldn’t have access to it.\u201d<\/p>\n A Flock Safety automated license plate reader-system at Alafaya Trail and E. Palm Valley Drive. One of 16 total ALPRs is mapped within a 2-mile radius of UCF’s main campus, according to DeFlock<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Joseph Wiedeman<\/p>\n The expansion of the city’s drone capabilities follows\u00a0last year’s additions to its red-light camera system<\/a> and years of records from the EFF\u2019s Atlas of Surveillance<\/a> connecting OPD to advanced surveillance technology. The Atlas documents that OPD established its \u201creal-time crime center\u201d in 2019, as it created a network of surveillance cameras, a variety of police databases and an array of\u00a0Automated License Plate Readers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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