Patty Guerra

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program provides some of the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards to higher education faculty. According to the NSF website, these awards are given "in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization."

UC Merced's computer science and engineering faculty has been remarkably successful in attaining these prestigious awards.

Much of the work Yue (Jessica) Wang does at UC Merced sounds like science fiction: She creates flexible material that gets stronger the more you hit it. And it conducts electricity.

Science, yes. Fiction, no.

This work is happening. It was featured in a presentation materials scientist Di Wu from the Wang lab delivered this spring at the American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans.

UC Merced's School of Engineering is expanding its offerings into some exciting areas.

Most recently, the university added a major in aerospace engineering, one of the fastest-growing industries in California, with the number of jobs projected to grow 8.5 percent in the next decade, according to the proposal to add the major. The new major begins in fall 2025.

Ensuring people have access to reliable, clean water is no game.

Except when it is.

UC Merced's Secure Water Future interns, administrative assistant and coordinator joined the university's Game Development Club to host the "Aqua Arcade Game Jam" in early April. Dozens of students from UC Merced and Merced College competed to develop a game that included an aspect of hydrology education.

The world of energy is changing so quickly that the processes used for planning can’t keep up.

UC Merced electrical engineering Professor Sarah Kurtz took part in a study that showed how swiftly the needs and resources for electricity are shifting. The study, “How Demand-Side Management Can Shape Electricity Generation Capacity Planning,” was published last week.

The newest major in UC Merced's School of Engineering is one of the most exciting subjects in - and out of - this world.

Aerospace engineering, one of the fastest-growing industries in the state, will be available as a major area of study at the university in fall 2025.

The adoption of an aerospace engineering major at UC Merced is exciting for all the romantic reasons you might expect - visions of alumni working on satellites and spacecraft and taking part in missions to explore the vast frontier.

Federal and state government officials journeyed to the western corner of Merced County on Thursday to announce a new project to place solar panels on the water in the Delta-Mendota Canal.

The project is part of a $19 million investment through President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act announced by the Department of the Interior to install panels over irrigation canals in California, Oregon and Utah, with the aims of decreasing evaporation of critical water supplies and advancing clean energy goals.

Inflammation is the process by which the human immune system responds to injury and stimulates tissue repair and healing. But it can become a chronic condition, leading to health concerns such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and arthritis.

Water is among the most precious resources on the planet. Some areas don't get enough; some get too much. And climate change is driving both of those circumstances to ever-growing extremes.

Professor Hyeran Jeon has received a CAREER award for her research into computer efficiency.

She is the 40th researcher from UC Merced to earn a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).