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UC Merced Alum, Now a Robotics Expert for Amazon, Advises Students to Get Their Hands Dirty

January 6, 2026

Kevin Arrieta is pictured speaking to an electrical engineering class at UC Merced.
Kevin Arrieta got into robotics to avoid getting into trouble. Arrieta said he joined the robotics club at his Compton high school after the teacher who ran it gave him an ultimatum. "I had gotten in with the wrong crowd," he said. "I had a physics teacher who told me, '...

Black Excellence Symposium at UC Merced Aims to Advance Racial Justice

UC Merced hosted the annual Black Excellence Symposium on Nov. 3. Stemming from the Valuing Black Lives Initiative , the symposium has aimed to advance racial justice and Black liberation at UC...

UC Merced UpstART Presents Quinteto Latino

UC Merced's UpstART, a faculty-directed arts organization, presents Quinteto Latino, the San Francisco Bay Area wind quintet, expanding the boundaries of classical music by performing works...

An Exploration of Music's Role in Children's Brain Development

Music can be entertaining, moving and, when played too loud, infuriating. It also plays a vital role in the development of children's brains, one researchers are just beginning to understand....
Entries into a logo contest for First-Generation Student Week are displayed

First-Generation Students Offer Advice for Those Who Come Next

Nearly 65 percent of UC Merced's undergraduate students are the first in their families to go to college. Being a college student of any kind can be a thrilling, confusing, challenging, exciting...

Cognitive Science Professor’s First Book Released by Princeton University Press

Cognitive science Professor Paul Smaldino has astronomically high hopes for his first book. “I hope literally everyone reads this book,” Smaldino said. “Modeling Social...
A climate-action tabling event.

Labor, Community-based Groups Key to Addressing Climate Challenge, Study Shows

One of the major challenges of this century is democratically engaging institutions and large numbers of people with strategies to mitigate global warming by minimizing greenhouse gas emissions. A...

Ed and Jeanne Kashian Give $5 Million to Support Medical Education at UC Merced

Ed and Jeanne Kashian, longtime UC Merced donors who have supported the campus since its earliest days, have made a $5 million gift to advance the university's medical education efforts....

Annual Tradition Marks Start of Native American Heritage Month at UC Merced

The UC Merced Toloma 5K event was held over the weekend to mark the beginning of Native American Heritage Month. "Toloma" is Miwuk for "bobcat", and the annual event pays tribute...
Sharim's father's hands, damaged fieldwork.

Film, Poetry, Philosophy the Subjects of Three Foundry Pieces by Humanities Community

The new issue of Foundry, a digital platform similar to a magazine, assembled by the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI), features works by three members of the UC Merced...

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