http://www.ucmerced.edu/sites/www/files/news/images/111122sacnasfeature.jpg" style="width: 200px; height: 863px; " title="Undergraduates David R. Jones, Jessica Sood and Janna Rodriguez were awarded outstanding student presentation at the annual SACNAS conference held last month in San Jose.
Researchers with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI) at the University of California, Merced, have received a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to expand on a prototype system that uses a network of wireless sensors to track snowpack depth, water storage in soil, stream flow, and water use by vegetation in the Sierra — information that is key to efficient usage of such a scarce resource.
Using solar thermal energy to power an air conditioning unit can be difficult and expensive. But a team of researchers at the University of California, Merced, have added a game-changing advance to the process that could make it much simpler, less costly and more effective.
UC Merced graduate student Brandi McKuin recently returned from a trip to India, where she spent time studying the energy needs of rural villages that have been told by their government that they’ll never get electricity.
UC Merced's computer graphics lab, with body sensors, motion-capture cameras, and a giant movie screen is straight out of Hollywood. But instead of producing blockbusters, a group of UC Merced researchers are working to create more realistic human motions for virtual reality avatars. The movements are analyzed to create more lifelike virtual characters, which will have multiple applications.
In a remarkable outdoor laboratory in the Sierra, a team of researchers led by UC Merced hydrologist Roger Bales is using sensors to gather a mother lode of data to greatly improve ecological measurement and hydrologic forecasting.
Mix up a few buckets of goo, and what do you have?
A messy and fun science lesson for local schoolchildren — courtesy of UC Merced students who help the community through an innovative engineering service learning program.
It's not just faculty and students in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Artswho are conducting groundbreaking research this summer. Those in Engineering and Natural Sciences will be busy as well.
Unlike many other schools, UC Merced allows freshman students to enter with a major of "engineering - undeclared." For Matt Nelson, now looking back on his freshman year more than five years down the line, the option proved a distinct advantage.
Coming from a private high school in Sacramento, Ian Donahue knows a thing or two about small class sizes.
In a remarkable outdoor laboratory in the Sierra, a team of researchers led by UC Merced hydrologist 
