School of Engineering

Forest Carbon: Store it or Burn it? Actually, Both is Best

September 25, 2025

Photo depicts smoke over a wildfire burning through a forest.

Storing carbon in forests is an essential, nature-based buffer against climate change. Yet forests packed with too many trees increase the threat of severe wildfires, which are becoming all too common in warmer, drier conditions. A team of UC Merced and collaborating researchers evaluated the...

Program Makes Transition Easier for Transfer Students

Four weeks after her move to UC Merced in January 2014, psychology major Valara Villanueva wasn’t sure if she fit in. She felt academically prepared, but the transition from community college to a...

New Engineering Dean Brings Experience to School, Campus

New School of Engineering Dean Mark Matsumoto is not new to UC Merced. In fact, he’s not even new as the engineering dean, having served in the interim between founding Dean Jeff Wright and Dean...

Sun and Salt: How Solar Tech Can Help California’s Drought

By Andy MurdockUniversity of California Newsroom In the midst of California’s ongoing drought, researchers at the University of California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute (UC Solar) at UC...

Mobile App Challenge Gets a Boost from AT&T

Earlier this month, AT&T presented its Investing in California award to UC Merced’s Mobile App Challenge. The communications company gave $5,000 to support the competition, which is held each...

New Supercomputer Can Advance Diverse Array of Research

A new supercomputer assembled on campus this summer is the first step toward making UC Merced a computational training ground for researchers throughout the Central Valley. “We can do extraordinarily...

Students Recognized for Important MESA Lab Projects

Professor YangQuan Chen has many reasons to be proud of his Mechatronics, Embedded Systems and Automation (MESA) Lab. Besides being extremely popular — so popular the lab has to turn away applicants...

Twelve Fresh Faces Join UC Merced Faculty

There are more than a few new faces on campus this year. In addition to new first-year, transfer and graduate students, 12 tenure-track professors have chosen the University of California’s newest...

Campus Continues to Set Precedents in Sustainability

UC Merced is the only university in the country to have all of its buildings certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. That body...

Matsumoto Appointed Dean of School of Engineering

Mark Matsumoto has been named dean of the School of Engineering at the University of California, Merced, the university announced today. His appointment is effective Sept. 1, 2015. Matsumoto is...