The University of Central Florida is a metropolitan public research university located on a 1,415-acre (5.73 km2) main campus in Orlando, Florida, United States. UCF is a member institution of the State University System of Florida and is the second-largest university in the United States.
Metropolitan Orlando sustains the world's largest recognized cluster of modeling, simulation and training companies, and the university has made noted research contributions to optics, modeling and simulation, digital media, engineering and computer science, business administration, education and hospitality management. The UCF Office of Research & Commercialization is responsible for the organization and administration of the university's research centers, institutes and partners. The Office is located directly south of the main campus in the Central Florida Research Park, which is one of the largest research parks in the nation. Providing more than 10,000 jobs, the Research Park is the largest research park in Florida, the fourth largest in the United States by number of companies, and the seventh largest in the United States by number of employees. Collectively, UCF's research centers and the park manage over $5.5 billion in contracts annually.
Significant research also takes place on UCF's Health Sciences Campus in Lake Nona. The campus includes the university's College of Medicine and Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, as well as the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, M.D. Anderson Orlando Cancer Research Institute, and a University of Florida Academic and Research Center. It is estimated that the campus will create up to 30,000 jobs and have a $7.8 billion economic impact by 2020.