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Photo depicts the reservoir at the UC Merced Experimental Smart Farm.

Idea for Powering UC Merced Smart Farm a Winner in Solar Energy Contest

June 20, 2025
A UC Merced team competing in a U.S. Department of Energy contest won its division with a proposal to use floating solar panels to power the campus's Experimental Smart Farm. The Solar District Cup is a collegiate competition that challenges teams to design and model distributed energy systems for...
Photo depicts UC Merced graduate Adamaris Alvarez in a black hat on a blue and gold graphic background.

From Strawberries to Smart Farm: Alum Adamaris Alvarez Grows Passion into a Career Path

June 18, 2025
Growing up in Watsonville, a vibrant agricultural community on California's Central Coast, Adamaris Alvarez always knew she wanted to work in agriculture. She worked on her family's berry ranch, Alvarez Farms, where she grew a deep appreciation for the hard work agriculture demands. But it wasn't...
Image depicts UC Merced mechanical engineering Professor Ricardo Pinto de Castro talking to students near a small robot.

Championing the Transition to Clean Energy

June 11, 2025
Mechanical engineering Professor Ricardo Pinto de Castro has turned a penchant for systems-level thinking and a longtime love of cars into a climate-resilient research mission. From electric vehicles (EVs) traversing San Francisco's busiest streets to electric appliances such as induction...
Stock image depicts an electronic flight board with multiple delays at an unnamed airport.

Disruptions in the Digital Supply Chain Can Have Major Physical Impacts

June 9, 2025
Last July, a glitch in a software upgrade by a cybersecurity company impacted 8.5 million computers, resulting in the cancellation of 2,800 flights and delays for 11,000 more. In an increasingly computerized world, digital supply chains use data and analytics to manage the flow of goods, services...
Hurricane Bud left some surprising changes in its wake, UC Merced researchers found.

Hurricanes Create Powerful Changes Deep in the Ocean, Study Reveals

June 6, 2025
With careful planning and a little luck, researchers found a surprising upside to hurricanes after a Category 4 storm disrupted their expedition off the coast of Mexico. The team was able to sample the ocean right after the storm passed and found that the storms churn the ocean so powerfully and...
Two UC Merced graduate students wearing blue

Students Awarded Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

June 4, 2025
Two UC Merced graduate students and an alum from the School of Natural Sciences were recently awarded fellowships from the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. This year, NSF awarded 1,000 GRFP fellowships compared to about 2,000 in previous years....

Dunham Named Cal Pac Athletic Director of the Year

June 4, 2025
UC Merced Executive Director of Recreation & Athletics David Dunham has been named California Pacific Conference Athletic Director of the Year for the second straight year and for the third time in four years. Under Dunham's leadership in 2024-25, UC Merced won a Cal Pac-record 13 conference...
Photo depicts students describing their product, an irrigation sensor, at the Innovate to Grow event at UC Merced.

Creative Solutions Win at Innovation Event

June 3, 2025
Imagine you're a farmer who uses a drip irrigation system on your crops. On watering day, you open the valve from the canal, then go to your orchard, maybe a few acres away, and wait. Once enough water arrives, you walk back and shut the valve. But that takes a long time and wastes water, a...
The Central Valley is a major contributor to a growing dust problem, in large part because of agriculture, researchers say.

Study Indicates Human-caused Dust Events are Linked to Fallow Farmland

June 2, 2025
An average of more than 1 million acres of idled farmland a year is a significant contributor to a growing dust problem in California that has implications for millions of residents’ health and the state’s climate. A new study published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment by UC Merced...

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