Engineering

One of the world’s oldest civilizations – with the worst air pollution and the coldest capital city – will employ cutting-edge technology from the newest UC campus starting in February.

Professor Roland Winston, who leads the UC Merced-based UC Solar Institute, just returned from a trip to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital. He met with the owner of Mongolia National University, a 15-year-old institution with about 9,000 students, to discuss installing a solar-thermal unit on one of the campus buildings to generate 3 kilowatts of steam heat for a portion of the campus.

UC Merced researchers will develop solutions to regional problems that arise from balancing three limited resources – water, food and energy – thanks to a $75,000 grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Between record enrollment and research expenditures, a massive economic impact on the San Joaquin Valley, new buildings and a visit from the new UC president, the University of California, Merced, has had a big year.

Newly appointed University of California President Janet Napolitano chose UC Merced for her first campus visit – in her first week on the job – saying the youngest UC campus is important to the UC system, but also to the Central Valley and the state.

Jose Garcia, a fourth-year student, will spend next summer as the only intern in Chevron Oronite’s Tribology division, with a small group of researchers who delve into lubricants, additives and the relationship between machines and fluids for the multinational corporation.

The past two years, the division has chosen an MIT student for the summer position.

“It’s going to be a great experience,” said Garcia, who hails from Santa Paula and is majoring in mechanical engineering.

Two University of California, Merced, students – Viridiana Murillo and Alexandro Perez-Tovar – won first prize in their divisions at the recent Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Nineteen UC Merced students joined other scholars from all over the country at the conference, presenting the details of the research they’ve been conducting.

It has been four years since Mike Oliveira earned his bachelor’s degree in bioengineering at UC Merced, but the campus still feels like home to him.

Just because it’s summertime doesn’t mean research at UC Merced comes to a halt.

Just the opposite.

This summer, professors and students at all levels are conducting a variety of research projects on campus, off campus, in the oceans and forests and around the world.

Up in Yosemite National Park, for example, nine undergraduate students are getting a summer experience to last them a lifetime, conducting research with faculty researchers from UC Merced, scientists from the U.S. Geologic Survey and from the park.

After six months of intense planning and programming, the winning team of the Mobile App Challenge at the University of California, Merced, will be announced during a showcase finale April 26.

One group of engineering students is focusing on tiny ways to make big strides in education.

A 10-member Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network (NISE Net) team is developing a piece of curriculum that is good enough to become part of the national NISE Net catalog – a hub for anyone to access and learn more about nanoscale technology.