School of Engineering

UC Merced's Smart Farm Abuzz with Activity

June 25, 2025

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

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 experiments. They study everything from pollinators to hydroponics, but there are more than just...

Students Compete Against Thousands in 24-Hour Hackathon

UC Merced computer science and engineering teams are again taking part in the IEEExtreme Hack-a-Thon, a 24-hour challenge in which teams respond to one or more prompts to solve a problem by...

Scientists collect vegetation data from the Cape Of Good Hope, Western Cape, South Africa. Photo by Adam M. Wilson

NASA-funded Biodiversity Research Project Launches in South Africa

Understanding and conserving biodiversity, or the variety of life in ecosystems, is key to sustaining life on Earth. A research project funded by NASA that is launching this week in South Africa,...

Campus and Academic Growth Highlighted in UC Merced State of the University Address

Distinguished rankings, new academic offerings, world-class research and campus expansions were among the highlights of the UC Merced State of the University address delivered by Chancellor Juan...

Alumnus Edwin Shen designed a multi-material bioprinter with novel features that improve resolution and embed hydrogels with concentration gradients of small molecules.

UC Merced Alum Drives Innovation in Drug Manufacturing

You could almost say Edwin Shen was destined to become a bioengineer. His mother, a medical doctor, practices pathology in Northern California, and his father retired from a career as a mechanical...

UC Merced's Experimental Smart Farm is shown.

Grants Fund Wide Variety of Climate Change Research Projects

UC Merced researchers will tackle climate changes in multiple ways through more than $4 million in grants recently awarded from within the university. The Office of Research and Economic...

Professors Briana Ballis, Shijia Pan and Xuan Zhang are pictured.

Three Hellman Fellows Awarded at UC Merced

Three UC Merced researchers have recently received the prestigious Hellman Fellowship. Computer science and engineering Professor Shijia Pan, economics Professor Briana Ballis and life...

What is the Future of Water? UC Merced Hosts Vital Discussion

Water is the most precious, and most debated, resource in the Central Valley. Secure Water Future (SWF) and the UC Merced Library are co-hosting a vital discussion Sept. 28 about the future of...

Merced Materials Science and Engineering professor Yue "Jessica" Wang

UC Merced Researcher Earns Her Third Early Career Award

A UC Merced Materials Science and Engineering professor recently earned a prestigious award from the Army Research Office, a directorate of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army...

UC Merced Computer Science and Engineering Professor Xiaoyi Lu and members of the Lu lab.

Department of Energy Grant will Fund EECS Professor Lu's Research into Improving Federated Machine Learning

UC Merced Computer Science and Engineering Professor Xiaoyi Lu is leading a collaboration that secured a $4.35 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) to improve federated...