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A fluorescence microscope image of one kind of active matter being studied. Image courtesy of Amanda Tan, UC Merced

UC Awards Support Tackling Big Questions in Health, Physics, Agriculture and Climate

February 5, 2025
Faculty members at UC Merced are taking the lead on four Multicampus Research Program Initiatives (MRPI), working with colleagues around the University of California system to address challenges around labor and agriculture, active matter, Indigenous health and fusion energy. “The MRPI program...
Members of the BioSCape team are pictured with NASA and South African aircraft.

Multinational Research Project Shows How Life on Earth can be Measured from Space

February 3, 2025
Measurements and data collected from space can be used to better understand life on Earth. An ambitious, multinational research project funded by NASA and co-led by UC Merced civil and environmental engineering Professor Erin Hestir demonstrated that Earth's biodiversity can be monitored and...
A student is depicted in front of a poster describing the almonry stockpile project at UC Merced.

Projects That Solve Problems Win Awards at I2G

January 31, 2025
Helping diplomats navigate new cultures, removing mircroplastics from stormwater and automating raisin processing: These are some of the projects awarded winning scores at UC Merced's fall Innovate to Grow event. Innovate to Grow, or I2G as it's known on campus, is a twice-a-year showcase for UC...
UC Merced Professor Rose Scott

COVID Lockdown Disrupted Preschoolers’ Social Skills, Trailblazing Research Shows

January 29, 2025
Lockdowns. Social distancing. Shuttered schools and businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic and its sweeping disruptions set off a stampede of “what it’s doing to us” research, focused largely on schoolchildren. How were students’ academics affected? Their mental health? Their social development? Left...
Image depicts a scene of grass, sidewalks and a large UCM at UC Merced.

Sensor Provides Cheap, Smart Way to Monitor How Much Water Crops Need

January 24, 2025
As water becomes an ever more precious and unpredictable resource, particularly in the Central Valley, finding ways to precisely irrigate crops is a valuable tool in the fight against climate change. Climate shifts have triggered more frequent and more severe droughts that have reduced the amount...
A mugshot of Professor Roberto Andresen Eguiluz is depicted on a graphic background.

Award Supports Research into What Makes Things Stick Under Water

January 8, 2025
Understanding how bacteria and other organisms stick to surfaces in wet environments could help develop better products ranging from medical adhesives to specialized boat paint. UC Merced chemical and materials engineering Professor Roberto Andresen Eguiluz has been awarded $168,700 from the...
People are showing attending the I2G event and examining posters of projects.

Innovate to Grow Highlights Engineering, Software Capstone Projects

December 12, 2024
Innovate to Grow, or I2G as it’s known on campus, is a twice-a-year showcase for UC Merced engineering and computer science students demonstrating projects they have been developing. Students compete on teams that are judged by experts from around California. People can see the fall showcase Dec....
Photo depicts a sepia-toned image of Albert Einstein transformed into Cubist art.

High School Student Part of AI Art Project at UC Merced

December 9, 2024
Here's a nifty use for AI: Turning photographs and other images into Cubist art. A team of UC Merced researchers developed a project to do just that, using artificial intelligence to transform images into the style of art created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque that reduces and fractures...
Photo depicts Professor Debora Lyn Porter and a blue and gold background.

Grant Funds Research into Fungal Structures

December 4, 2024
Mushrooms are pretty amazing. They are light and porous yet have a high strength-to-weight ratio. They are absorbent. They can serve as filters. Manufacturing a material that mimics mushrooms and other fungal structures could provide opportunities in any number of areas, ranging from aerospace...

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