Graduate Students

Two Weeks, One Challenge, Lifelong Impact: Bobcats Dive into Data Science Challenge

October 6, 2025

This summer's cohort of Data Science Challenge students and Professor Suzanne Sindi (red scarf)

Kathy Chau believed she knew what her future would look like. The first in her family to attend college, she had long been advised to aim for a safe and stable job — one that might not light a fire in her soul but would pay the bills. “I resigned myself to working a corporate job. I...

Students Share Personal Stories in Program to Keep Kids in School

UC Merced senior Patricia Paredes didn’t grow up in the best neighborhood or have the easiest childhood. But she overcame those hardships to graduate from a San Jose high school and enroll at the...

Academic Year Begins with Sharper Focus on Emerging Fields of Excellence, Graduate Programs and Flexible Growth

The University of California, Merced, begins its eighth academic year today with record enrollment of approximately 5,600 students, a 23 percent increase in graduate-student enrollment and 26 newly...

Events Help New Students Make Transition to Campus Life

This week, UC Merced welcomes more than 1,400 new first-year, transfer and graduate students to campus. Special programs are happening campuswide to provide information and ensure new students have a...

Book Rental Gives Students Instant Savings

Like many students, UC Merced sophomore Demonte Hughes is gearing up for the fall semester. At the top of his list is securing the textbooks required for his courses, which he says is a good...

UC Merced Plasma Lab Turning Leftovers into Cleaner Energy

There’s a reason the UC Merced plasma lab is isolated behind a locking fence near the entrance to campus. There’s some serious heat being produced down there. Engineering professors Gerardo Diaz,...

Researchers Spend Summer Working on Projects Near and Far

From the caves of Belize to laboratories in Japan, UC Merced faculty members and students are abroad conducting research this summer across the globe. Though the semester ended in mid-May, the campus...

Doctoral Student Researches Area History, Pursues New Career

An academic focus on the Central Valley region’s historically African-American communities brought Michael Eissinger to UC Merced. He decided the UC’s newest campus was the best...

Cognitive Science Student Studies Conflict

http://youtu.be/AVZS22SFLVgGraduate student Alexandra Paxton finds opinionated students, puts them in a room together and tells them to argue about a hot-button issue. Then she records what happens....

Grad Student Focuses Research on Energy Efficiency

It’s no surprise UC Merced graduate student Siyu Wu’s research — rooted in mechanical engineering — has veered toward the environmental. Wu, who grew up in China, was raised by parents who felt...