School of Engineering

An aerial view of the UC Merced campus displaying a green field, walking paths, and buildings

Raindrops, Red Wine Inspire Solar Tech Advancements

In recent publications, Professor Vincent Tung proves that inspiration for advancements in materials science can come from anywhere — even the merging of raindrops on a windshield or the sheeting of red wine down the inside of a glass. Through those liquid movements, Tung discovered and optimized a

An aerial view of the UC Merced campus displaying a green field, walking paths, and buildings

‘Diverse’ Magazine Names Groundbreaking Professor an Emerging Scholar

The magazine Diverse: Issues in Higher Education has named UC Merced Professor Ala Qattawi an Emerging Scholar of the Year in its first issue of 2017. Qattawi, with the School of Engineering, is the first woman in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in automotive engineering, and the only automotive

An aerial view of the UC Merced campus displaying a green field, walking paths, and buildings

Bird Researcher Expands Knowledge About Reserve’s Kestrels

Kestrels are a fixture among the birds on the Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve adjacent to campus. Though they are not endangered, the small falcons’ population has declined by 60 percent in California over the past half-century because of changes in land usage. Nesting-box programs like

An aerial view of the UC Merced campus displaying a green field, walking paths, and buildings

Students Building Living Machines Out of Engineered Tissues

There are many labs at UC Merced where visitors can see students huddled over microscopes and petri dishes, using tweezers to extract and examine different items. But no one at UC Merced has ever seen the likes of what’s going on in Professor Kara McCloskey’s class. The graduate and undergraduate

An aerial view of the UC Merced campus displaying a green field, walking paths, and buildings

Scientists Build Synthetic Cell-Sized Membranes Out of Paper

Scientists have been synthesizing lipid membranes from a variety of materials, making them as lifelike as possible to learn more about how cells work and how they can be manipulated. UC Merced Professor Anand Subramaniam and his students have come up with a novel, portable and startlingly simple way

An aerial view of the UC Merced campus displaying a green field, walking paths, and buildings

GirlCode Workshop Aims to Address STEM Gender Gap

Women make up about half of the nation’s college-educated workforce, but in the fields of science and engineering, that drops to less than 30 percent. UC Merced’s STEM Resource Center is working to change that discrepancy by addressing the gender gap head on — and at early ages. Last month, the

An aerial view of the UC Merced campus displaying a green field, walking paths, and buildings

Student Engineering Team Rewarded in International Competition

The federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recognized this year’s team of UC Merced engineering students for its design of a device that cools high-powered electronics aboard military aircraft. In the yearlong Field-Reversible Thermal Conductor (RevCon) Challenge, hosted by DARPA

An aerial view of the UC Merced campus displaying a green field, walking paths, and buildings

Student Team Makes the Cut in Global ‘Hyperloop’ Competition

A small team of undergraduate students from UC Merced is gaining major exposure in a global competition to design portions of what could be the next big innovation in transportation. Elon Musk, the billionaire inventor and co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors, has envisioned a “hyperloop” in

An aerial view of the UC Merced campus displaying a green field, walking paths, and buildings

Six UC Merced Students Awarded UC Food Initiative Fellowships

As part of the University of California Global Food Initiative, 54 students — including six from UC Merced—have been awarded fellowships to fund projects that will address issues ranging from community gardens and food pantries to urban agriculture and food waste. All 10 UC campuses plus the UC