Engineering

Multinational Effort to Map South Africa’s Biodiversity from the Air Earns NASA Award

October 15, 2025

BioSCape, a multinational research project co-led by UC Merced, the University at Buffalo and the University of Cape Town, which monitored Earth’s biodiversity from the air, has received a Group Achievement Award as part of the 2024-25 NASA Honor Awards. A new documentary also showcases...

Photo depicts a silhouette of California firefighters battling a lightning-caused fire in 2020.

Damaging Lightning-Caused Wildfires Likely to Increase in a Few Years, Researchers Find

Lightning from thunderstorms rolling through Central California on Sept. 2 ignited numerous wildfires, including several large fires in the Sierra Nevada foothills that had burned more than 19 square...

Photo depicts mugshots of professors Andrea Joyce, Josh Garcia and Crystal Kolden on a background of the Beginnings sculpture at UC Merced.

UC Merced Agricultural Experiment Station Adds Fire, Insect and Soil Researchers

Three professors are joining UC Merced’s Agricultural Experiment Station this fall, bringing more expertise and resources to the 3-year-old research center. Management of complex systems...

Buhach Valedictorian Pursues Environmental Engineering at UC Merced this Fall

This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester. Drake Ledford was an exemplary high school student, earning a 4.29 GPA. The Merced...

Photo depicts Professor Xiaoyi Lu on a blue and gold graphc background.

Boosting AI and Science: NSF Invests $600K in OpenDOTA Project at UC Merced

The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $600,000 to support a groundbreaking project at UC Merced aimed at accelerating the future of artificial intelligence and scientific research...

Two people with a banner, blue and yellow graphic reading "Bobcat Bound."

Incoming Bobcats ‘Grew Up’ with UC Merced

This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester. One could say UC Merced has always been part of incoming Bobcats Ella and Satchel Ortez...

Photo depicts a UC Merced student holding a 3D printer available for use at the university's Makerspace.

Imagination the Only Limitation at UC Merced's Makerspace

UC Merced's Makerspace lab has been living up to its name recently. The School of Engineering's lab, housed in the Sustainability Research and Engineering building, has been increasingly...

UC Merced GEM Fellow Seizes Summer Internship Opportunity

Mechanical engineering Ph.D. candidate Justus Nwoke was awarded a competitive fellowship from the National GEM Consortium, giving him the opportunity to intern at Lam Research Corporation this summer...

Photo depicts UC Merced Professor Christopher Viney and graduate researcher Kiana Shirzad on a blue and gold graphic background

Researchers Apply Materials Science Equation to Broader Real-World Issues

At first glance, a mathematical model that describes how quickly materials transform from one phase to another might seem to have few other practical applications. But what if this kind of model...

Photo depicts UC Merced student Jesse Martinez operating a robot on the Experimental Smart Farm.

UC Merced's Smart Farm Abuzz with Activity

At UC Merced's biggest lab, students work from before sunrise to well after dusk. They are operating the university's Experimental Smart Farm, 40 acres of dirt and plants, research and...