In Brief

UC Merced Students Invited to Tackle Real-World AI Challenges in 2026 Data Science Program

February 23, 2026

Four student standing in front of their poster at the Data Science Challenge

Applications are open for the 2026 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Data Science Challenge, a two-week summer internship that gives students a firsthand look at national lab research through high‑impact, data‑driven problem solving. “I want our students to see themselves in these...

Campus Hosts First UC-Wide Chess Tournament

Chess players from across the UC system— ranging from beginners to international masters — convened for the 2016 UC Chess Championship held April 23 at the Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation Center ...

UC Merced Student a Winner at Clinton Event

Besides attending Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) with 1,200 other college students from around the world, UC Merced student Hoaithi Dang helped his team win the weekend’s “Code for...

Psychology Student Earns Ford Predoctoral Fellowship

Doctoral student Patricia Cabral, who studies adolescent health risk behaviors in the Psychological Sciences graduate group, recently won a highly-competitive Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship...

Bodie Digital Preservation Project Earns CITRIS Grant

UC Merced Professor Nicola Lercari is leading an effort to preserve, through 3-D renderings, the deteriorating ghost town of Bodie. Thanks to $60,000 in seed funding from the Center for Information...

Symposium Features Faculty Research on the ‘Developing Child’

UC Merced will host its third annual Symposium on the Child and Family on April 30, offering hours of talks by researchers on the theme of “The Developing Child in a Developing World.” The symposium...

Small Business Development Center Receives National Accreditation

The UC Merced Small Business Development Center (UCM-SBDC) has received full reaccreditation by the Association of Small Business Development Centers (ASBDC), a national accrediting agency. The...

Two Alumni Create Legacies Through Scholarship Endowments

Jessica “JaeJae” Julian (2010) and Marko Zivanovic (2014) are proving that giving back shortly after graduation can be possible. During the campus’s Giving Tuesday fundraising efforts last December...

Recovery Group Supports Students Dealing With Addiction

Last fall, UC Merced’s first peer-led recovery program — known as Bobcats for Recovery — began meeting weekly to help support undergraduate and graduate students in recovery from substance use ...

New Lecture Series Draws Distinguished Maya Scholars

UC Merced Professor Arturo Arias, recently named one of the campus’s first John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Chairs, has established a new lecture series to further critical race issues and ethnic...