School of Engineering

New Approaches Coming to UC Merced Electrical Engineering Department

February 24, 2026

Photo depicts two students working on a circuit board at UC Merced.

As technology advances and new problems present themselves, electrical engineers who can meet the needs of the modern world are in high demand, and adapting to electrical engineering education has become increasingly important. UC Merced's electrical engineering program, one of the...

Professor Joshua Viers stands near a canal on the UC Merced campus.

UC Merced Leads Innovative Effort to Secure Water for Agriculture and Ecosystems

UC Merced’s largest research grant in its 16-year history aims to improve agricultural and environmental water resilience. The new $10 million collaborative focuses on water banking, trading...

Professor Colleen Naughton (center) poses with first-year doctoral student Ana Grace Alvarado (left) and fourth-year undergraduate student Fernando Adali Roman, Jr (right). Photo by Veronica Adrover, UC Merced

UC Merced Joins Global COVID-19 Wastewater Data Center Effort

As the number of cases of COVID-19 surge again globally as a result of the delta variant, world leaders are searching for ways to make more informed decisions on how to contain the pandemic....

Incoming freshman Kyle Chun (mechanical engineering), third-year Daniel Baerwaldt (chemistry) and first-year Alejandro Lopez-Vaca (engineering) in front of their presentation.

USDA-funded Internship Program Introduced New Bobcats to Agriculture Research

Shortly before the fall semester kicked off in person, 11 students were wrapping up their first summer on campus as part of the FACTS summer bridge program. FACTS stands for San Joaquin Valley...

UC Merced remains in the top 100, rising to 93rd among national universities

UC Merced Continues Rankings Rise

The University of California, Merced, continues its historic climb in the venerable US News & World Report rankings of U.S. universities, with the 2022 list released this morning. UC...

Professor Thomas Harmon shows students how to use Topcon Positioning Systems equipment on campus.

New Civil Engineering Major Designed for a Sustainable Future

Civil engineering usually brings to mind bridges and skyscrapers, but at UC Merced the engineering program extends far beyond that. This fall, UC Merced is launching a new civil engineering...

Professor Joel Spencer (far right) and members of his lab at UC Merced.

Spencer Lab Publishes New Technique for Live Imaging

Some scientific discoveries are a happy accident (think: penicillin). Others have been there all along, they just take a keen eye to notice, which was recently the case in Professor Joel Spencer...

Competitive Edge Summer Bridge participants and mentors

Incoming Grad Students Get a Jump Start

While the campus remained quieter than usual this summer, a group of new graduate students began their UC Merced journey earlier than the rest of their cohort. On July 6, 19 incoming grad students...

UC Merced Faculty Land Three UC-HBCU Grants, Most in System

The University of California Office of the President awarded three out of only seven UC-Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Initiative grants to UC Merced faculty members. The...

A machine developed in Professor Reza Ehsani's lab improves almond harvests by reducing the amount of dust stirred up as the nuts are gathered from the ground.

New AI Institute Expands UC Merced’s Smart, Sustainable Agriculture Effort

With a new $20 million federal grant, UC Merced becomes part of a multi-institutional research collaborative to develop artificial intelligence — or AI — solutions to tackle some of...