The Student Union is pioneering the county's first Hyphen-run restaurant: orders placed online at Greens to Go-Hyphen are made via robot, hidden under the counter, while staff attend to in-person orders. The robotic makeline can produce 120 meals an hour while eliminating order defects such as missing ingredients and cross-contamination. It's the first of many dining changes coming to the SU this year.

National Science Foundation announced a multi-institutional consortium to confront the climate challenges facing the desert Southwest and spur economic development in the region. Both UNLV and the Desert Research Institute will serve as core academic partners on the project, leading and/or contributing to project management and water innovation, workforce development, and community development teams.

Las Vegas’ continued ascent into a global sports and entertainment powerhouse received a boost with the official launch of the UNLV Sports Innovation Institute (SII). Led by an interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff, SII connects UNLV students from a variety of sport-related academic disciplines with career and internship opportunities, and serves as the conduit for mutually beneficial partnerships between the sports industry and the university to advance sports science, business, and performance.

Rebel football had a record season, winning nine games for the first time since the 80s and advancing to their first-ever Mountain West Conference championship game at the Guaranteed Rate Bowl. Quarterback Jayden Maiava earned the conference's Freshman of the Year honor, kicker Jose Pizano was named Special Teams Player of the Year, and first-year head coach Barry Odom became Mountain West Coach of the Year.

UNLV is fortifying its status as a top tier provider of cybersecurity education, kicking off 2024 with a $3.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to train the next generation of cyber defense professionals. Over the next five years, UNLV will establish a CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) program to cultivate cybersecurity experts skilled in artificial intelligence and machine learning for service in federal and local government.

In response to the community’s outpouring of support after the Dec. 6 shooting at UNLV, in which three faculty members were killed and another injured, the UNLV Foundation has created scholarship funds in honor of the three deceased faculty members. Business professors Dr. Jerry Cha-Jan Chang and Dr. Patricia Navarro Velez lost their lives that day, along with Dr. Naoko Takemaru, an associate professor of Japanese studies within the College of Liberal Arts.

President Whitfield, in collaboration with university leaders, created the campuswide Rebel Recovery Program following the tragic Dec. 6 shooting. The safety, security, and well-being of the UNLV family – employees and students – is the priority. Rebel Recovery will encompass special events, wellness services, training opportunities, security and safety issues, and more.

Southern Nevada is an emerging epicenter for the cannabis industry with roughly $1 billion in annual legal cannabis sales. UNLV established the Cannabis Policy Institutite to address the research and scholarship behind this fast-growing and highly watched public policy topic; the institute will provide leadership by fostering an understanding of the complex issues surrounding cannabis legalization while being mindful of the disparate impacts of past practices and the importance of social equity and justice going forward. Through education and outreach efforts to lawmakers, industry leaders, and the public, the institute will be an invaluable resource for local, state, and national communities.