Students

Adapting technology that has become the standard in the automotive, aerospace and air-conditioning industries, Professor Gerardo Diaz has designed and is testing the next generation of solar-collecting units at UC Merced.

The University of California, Merced, kicks off its 2013-14 academic year today with the largest and most diverse class of incoming freshmen, the largest contingent of graduate students, the largest total enrollment and the largest body of faculty members in its history, the university said today.

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.

In a move that will save the campus money, improve campus safety and help save the environment, Professor Jason Hein set up a new solvent purification system.

This project is similar to his previous efforts to reduce hazardous waste generated by his lab by capturing and recycling acetone.

Working to map every square inch, UC Merced master’s student Andrew Zumkehr found there are 111 million acres of abandoned farmland in the United States.

That’s a lot of space for growing biofuels that could replace between 5 percent and 30 percent of the United States' primary energy or liquid fuel demands, he said.

Armanti Hardesty is ready to join the next generation of teachers.

“We’re all going into a more technological age,” said Hardesty, an alumnus from Long Beach. “It’s great to have new teachers learning the best ways to help students.”

Tyler Shaddix’s house looks like most of the other houses on his block in a subdivision not far from the UC Merced campus.

It’s what’s inside that’s different – the home office of a startup company offering a web service that has, in less than a year, become very popular with government agencies, large companies and universities across the country and around the world.

Many universities offer the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, but they don’t have what UC Merced has to offer.

“Yosemite really draws people in,” said Professor Stephen Hart, one of the REU program leaders. “Other REUs might take students into the field, but not into a national park.”

UC Merced artists are sharing their best work this semester in the eighth annual Bobcat Art Show.

The exhibit runs from April 1 to May 2 and entries can be seen at the Leo and Dottie Kolligian Library and the UC Merced Art Gallery in the Social Sciences and Management Building, Room 106.

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.