School of Engineering

Engineering Professor Earns Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award

December 5, 2025

Photo depicts Professor Siddaiah Yarra accepting a plaque on a blue and gold graphic background.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has awarded civil and environmental engineering Professor Siddaiah Yarra the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award for Region 9. The ASCE San Francisco Section Individual Awards aim to recognizepeople outstanding achievements or leadership in civil...

Photo depicts Professor Xiaofan Yu standing next to the UC Merced sign.

New UC Merced Professor Delves Deep into Artificial Intelligence in Real Life

From smartphones to medical devices, artificial intelligence is a part of much of everyday life. One of UC Merced's newest professors is working to make AI more explainable and more efficient...

Every gift during the Give to UC Merced 2025 campaign supports students on their educational journeys.

Giving Tuesday at UC Merced: Collective Generosity Transforms Lives

When UC Merced launches Give to UC Merced 2025 on Dec. 2, it won’t just be about one day of giving; the month-long campaign will be about hope, opportunity and community impact. For the 12th...

Depicted is a sign reading "UC Merced Experimental Smart Farm" with the university campus in the background.

Ag Tech For Small Farms Highlighted at UC Merced Expo

An expo at UC Merced next week will bring together farmers, ranchers, researchers and community organizers to highlight what's possible when agriculture technology is designed for small farms...

Professor and Environmental Champion Bales Retires, But Research and Advocacy Continue

Professors Roger Bales and Martha Conklin arrived in Merced in 2003, the first non-administrative faculty members at UC Merced. They came with a vision: to create a research university that would...

Photo depicts trees that survived a fire, surrounded by ash on the ground.

Thinning, Burning Forests Provide Multiple Benefits, Some of Them Surprising

Wildfires are growing more frequent and severe across the western United States, and California's Sierra Nevada is ground zero. Decades of fire suppression have left these forests overstocked and...

20 Years In, UC Merced Celebrates Achievements, Looks to Future

Only 20 years since undergraduate instruction began, UC Merced is a recognized leader in conducting academic research, developing young minds for career success and driving economic growth, the...

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

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...

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

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

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...

Photo depicts a firefighter battling a blaze at a Southern California home during the Palisades fire in January 2025.

Wildfire Disasters Surged in the Past 10 Years, Study Shows

Nearly half of the world’s worst wildfire disasters have occurred in just the past decade, new research from UC Merced’s Fire Resilience Center shows. A study published Thursday in the...