Research

Since the onset of many governors’ stay-at-home orders, there are fewer cars on the road as fewer people are driving to work. While some people can work from home, sadly, some are not working at all.

The global pandemic has caused record unemployment in the United States and the future of the economy and the American workforce is unclear. Economics Professor Greg Wright weighs in on the impact COVID-19 has had on the nation’s economy and what we can expect moving forward.

Most people wouldn’t think physics has anything to do with baby babble and human language development.

But most people aren’t Ritwika Vallomparambath PanikkasserySugasree.

Flocks of starlings producing dazzling patterns across the sky are natural examples of active matter — groups of individual agents coming together to create collective dynamics.

In a study featured on last week’s cover of the journal Science, a team of researchers including a UC Merced theoretical physicist revealed new insights into what happens inside such active systems.

Two projects from a UC Merced engineering lab are making interactions with mobile devices easier and quicker, especially for blind people.

Computer science Professor Ahmed Arif and his students have developed a new way for blind people to be faster and more accurate when entering text, and a new way for all users to work with numbers.

Breakthrough collaborative science by an interdisciplinary team of researchers brought together by computational biology Professor David Ardell promises a new approach for treating all types of infections.

Infections have become more dangerous in recent years because bacteria and parasites rapidly evolve resistance to the medicines.

From a young age, Maria Ramirez Loyola has been fascinated by the trait of resiliency.

Her mother escaped an abusive marriage and fled from Mexico to the U.S. with two small children in tow. Ramirez Loyola witnessed first-hand the stress and sleepless nights her mother endured to make ends meet and support her and her younger brother.

UC Merced celebrates Research Week from March 2-6 to highlight the ground-breaking work taking place at the University of California’s newest campus.

The annual week of events, sponsored by the Office of Research and Economic Development , is an opportunity for all to see the innovative projects emerging from UC Merced.

Professor Sarah Kurtz has become the first UC Merced faculty member to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in recognition of her contributions to the development of gallium indium phosphide/gallium arsenide photovoltaic cells and for her leadership in solar-cell reliability and quality.

Bioengineering Professor Victor Muñoz has answered a long-standing genetic mystery, and his research suggests that someday, bioengineers could devise ways to control gene activity — manually switching off the genes that contribute to cancer, for instance.

“If this mechanism turns out to be as powerful as we anticipate, engineering it will be relatively straightforward,” Muñoz said. “Controlling the output of genes could be done in a targeted way by new genome editing technologies such as CRISPR.”

Competitions, showcases, career success stories and more highlight the work of the School of Engineering and its students at UC Merced’s annual celebration of National Engineers Week, Feb. 18 to 21.

E-Week is an opportunity for engineering students to share the work they do with the campus, invite some friendly competition and introduce other students and younger school children to the field. Each day carries a specific theme, from Project Palooza (a showcase for engineering clubs and organizations) to Professional Day (career advice and alumni success stories).