School of Engineering

High school students have an extraordinary opportunity to explore software development through a summer internship program at UC Merced.

Computer science and engineering Professor Ahmed Arif started the High School Internship program in the Inclusive Interaction Lab in 2018 to give young minds early exposure to research.

One of the biggest hurdles facing local farmers is the rising cost of doing business.

However, some innovative solutions are in the works, as highlighted at the Central Valley Rural Energy Systems Workshop at UC Merced in early December.

Should a scientist who sees signs of global catastrophe sound an early alarm or wait until more conclusive evidence is in? Does going public lead to swifter action or give naysayers more time to discredit the message?

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, 'Join my robotics club or I'm calling your mom.'"

In the club, Arrieta found he loved working with sensors and doing programming, and he was good at it.

"You have an engineering mind and you don't even know it," his teacher said.

 A beaming Jesus Cevon-Gonzalez stood on Merced’s Main Street, surrounded by his mom and dad, grandparents, sister and other loved ones. He clutched the proof of a freshly bestowed bachelor’s degree in computer science.

“I’m just trying to make my parents proud,” the Merced native said.

The global climate crisis was entirely predictable and impacts nearly every facet of life. But we still can slow its progress and mitigate the effects we already see.

That was the message delivered earlier this month by climate scientist Michael Mann, who spoke at the first in a series of presentations at UC Merced planned for the university community and the public.

Mann said he and colleagues published research in the 1990s that showed the Earth's warming and the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the climate.

Starting next summer, UC Merced will join an elite group of University of California campuses hosting COSMOS — the California State Summer School for Math and Science — giving some of the state’s most talented high school students a new destination for exploring advanced STEM fields.

The Small Farm Tech Expo brought researchers, farmers, university students and even a group from a Modesto elementary school to UC Merced to talk about agriculture technology and how it can best help those who grow the world's food.

Sponsored by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, also known as CAFF, for the fifth year, the expo featured equipment demonstrations, educational sessions on hardware and software, panel discussions, and support organizations to highlight what's available for small farmers.

When UC Merced launches Give to UC Merced 2025 on Dec. 2, it won’t just be about one day of giving; the month-long campaign will be about hope, opportunity and community impact.

For the 12th year, the campus joins the global Giving Tuesday movement, inviting donors to power change through the university’s UC Merced Fund. Contributions to Give to UC Merced will support the campus’s greatest needs, ensuring UC Merced has the flexibility to fund emerging opportunities, expand programs and student support initiatives, and assist promising scholars with direct financial assistance.

An expo at UC Merced next week will bring together farmers, ranchers, researchers and community organizers to highlight what's possible when agriculture technology is designed for small farms.

The Small Farm Tech Expo, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, will include hands-on demonstrations and panel discussions about the latest in ag tech innovations. There is no admission charge. Parking will be available in the Bellevue lot.