Research

Project Aims to Put AI to Work Reducing its Own Energy Needs

April 8, 2026

Photo depicts Elizabeth Nowadnick, center, surrounded by members of her lab on campus at UC Merced.
It's no secret that artificial intelligence uses a lot of electricity. A standard ChatGPT query consumes approximately 0.34 watt-hours - roughly 10 times more than a Google search. According to the Pew Research Center, U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2024 -...

New Center, Conference Focus on Mesoamerican Studies

Topics ranging from ethnobotany, public health and feminism to agriculture, urban growth and social movements are among the highlights of the Mesoamerican Studies Center’s upcoming conference...

Grad Student Researches Biology Behind Political Views

If you’ve ever wondered why people stand where they do on the political spectrum, science might have at least part of the answer: People can be biologically predisposed to certain feelings...
Electron micrograph of crumpled sheets of molybdenum disulfide.

Crumpled Nanosheets Could Help Produce Clean Energy

A new paper from School of Engineering Professor Vincent Tung has made the cover of Advanced Materials, one of the top journals in materials science and engineering, and the research could one day...

Students Invited to Celebrate Political Science Anniversary

Political science students are invited to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the unit’s founding with a special student-oriented event from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Oct. 18 in the Classroom and...

Event to Address Race Issues on Campus, in the Community

As part of an ongoing community and campus dialog about race, the Graduate Students of Color Coalition at UC Merced presents “Addressing Race in Our Community: Unifying Against Bigotry,”...
Solar panels on the UC Merced campus.

Potential California-New York Partnership Highlights UC Solar Symposium

UC Merced Professor Roland Winston will announce a proposed solar research partnership between the states of California and New York at the 2017 UC Solar Research Symposium, to be held Oct. 13 at the...

Cognitive Scientists Find Links Between Jazz, Speech and Whale Songs

Jazz musicians riffing with each other, humans talking to each other and pods of killer whales all have interactive conversations that are remarkably similar to each other, new research reveals....

Interdisciplinary Collaborations Broaden Archaeology Research

Archaeologists have been asking where high-elevation populations came from for decades; how they are going about answering the question, however, is new. “Fifty years ago, I would have...

Photographer’s Exhibit Depicts Students’ Decade-Long Journeys

Through a series of black-and-white photographic portraits taken 10 years apart, photographer Roger J. Wyan’s “Transitions” exhibit explores the journeys of some of UC Merced’...

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