Student & Alumni Success

UC Merced Alum, Now a Robotics Expert for Amazon, Advises Students to Get Their Hands Dirty

January 6, 2026

Kevin Arrieta is pictured speaking to an electrical engineering class at UC Merced.

Kevin Arrieta got into robotics to avoid getting into trouble. Arrieta said he joined the robotics club at his Compton high school after the teacher who ran it gave him an ultimatum. "I had gotten in with the wrong crowd," he said. "I had a physics teacher who told me, '...

Estefania Cuevas-Zepeda and Zachary Mauri

Two Undergraduate Stars Earn Unique Summer Opportunities

Two undergraduate students who will receive their bachelor’s degrees later this month have been selected for a unique opportunity to attend a meeting of some of the greatest minds in the world...

Sign Up Now to Attend This Spring's I2G Events

Innovate to Grow (I2G), the biannual showcase of innovative engineering design projects developed in partnership with industry and nonprofit partners, continues in-person and virtually this spring...

Quantitative and Systems Biology Ph.D. candidate Jessica Wilson won UC Merced's 2022 Grad Slam competition and heads to the UC final on May 6.

Jessica Wilson’s CBD Research Talk Advances Her to UC Grad Slam Final

UC Merced’s top 10 Glad Slam finalists went head-to-head earlier this month to share their research in three minutes, in a format meant to share their scholarly work in a manner that is...

Professor David Strubbe and student Elsa Vazquez pose for a photo at UC Merced.

Cottrell Award Giving Undergrad a Grad Student Experience

Physics undergraduate student Elsa Vazquez and her faculty mentor Professor David Strubbe have won a prestigious Cottrell Postbaccalaureate award that allows Vazquez to continue her research...

Environmental Systems graduate student Jonathon Kuntz

California Sea Grant Funds Grad Student’s Shark Conservation Research

Leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata) populations in the San Francisco Estuary (SFE) are experiencing extreme decline in recent years, causing concern for coastal ecosystems. With funding from a...

Students with a drone in a field with cows

Apply Now for a Paid Summer Internship with Real Research Experience

The May 1 deadline is fast approaching for students to apply for the San Joaquin Valley Food and Agriculture Cyberinformatics Tools and Science (FACTS) bridge program, a paid summer research...

Plan to Attend Innovate to Grow or Volunteer as a Judge

Now is the time to register to attend this year's Innovate to Grow (I2G) competition and see some of the 66 student engineering teams present their solutions to real-world engineering...

Keith Ellis '12 will be the first UC Merced representative to serve as Alumni Regent.

Campus Appoints First Representative to Serve as Alumni Regent

For the first time, a UC Merced alumnus will serve on the UC Board of Regents. Keith Ellis, who received his bachelor’s degree from UC Merced in 2012, will serve a two-year term beginning in...

Graduate Students’ Fellowships Promote Study of Valley Fever

Professor Katrina Hoyer ’s lab is helping UC Merced serve the San Joaquin Valley community through its studies of immune responses to Valley fever and other diseases. Graduate students...

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