News

What Do Driverless Cars and Building Evacuation Routes Have in Common? A Lab at UC Merced

Students and Professor Ross Greer are pictured in his lab, holding a small car with a processor affixed to the top of it.

Step into Ross Greer’s lab — gingerly, because there’s a makeshift racetrack on the floor — and you will see multiple projects aimed at making autonomous vehicles smarter and safer.

And these projects are getting global recognition.

Wildfire Seasons Are Starting to Overlap. That Spells Trouble for Firefighting.

Group of individuals attending event with grads student presenting on stage

Ready, Set, Slam: 10 UC Merced Scholars Battle for Champion Title

Ten UC Merced graduate researchers are gearing up to deliver the most intense three minutes of their academic careers. Each spring, master’s and Ph.D. students across the campus’s three schools are invited to participate in Grad Slam — a fast‑paced competition that challenges scholars to distill...
Depicted are the letters

Amazon Funds Research into Making AI More Efficient

Two UC Merced computer science and engineering professors will delve deep into artificial intelligence in projects with Amazon. Dong Li and Xiaoyi Lu earned Amazon Research Awards, the technology giant announced recently. Amazon Research Awards provide unrestricted funds and Amazon Web Services...

Avalanche survivors would have had only minutes to help save others

Weeks in the making: How a brittle snowpack primed the Sierra for disaster

Depicted are five people looking at a robotic model car.

Engineers Week Events Set at UC Merced

A research panel, project demonstrations and career advice are all part of activities set for Engineers Week at UC Merced Feb. 23-27. And it all kicks off with the university's first networking expo aimed at the engineering industry. Founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951...
Depicted is a scene of burned-out trees and ash in the wake of the Caldor Fire.

Rising Simultaneous Fire Weather Threatens International Firefighting Efforts

High-risk conditions for fires are increasingly happening across countries at the same time, making wildfires even more challenging to tackle, new research reveals. Scientists from UC Merced and the University of East Anglia found this synchronized extreme fire weather — characterized by...

Trump immigration sweeps upended L.A.’s economy, with some businesses losing big

Exclusive: HISD has lost nearly 4,000 immigrant students amid ICE crackdown: 'We fear coming to school'

Sea star murder mystery: What’s killing a key ocean species?

UC Merced students are depicted in front of a poster explaining their project for I2G.

Creative, Problem-Solving Projects Win at I2G

A semi-automated washing system for bins at a tomato-processing facility and a mobile app for hikers earned big wins at the Fall 2025 I2G, or Innovate to Grow, event at UC Merced. I2G is a unique "experiential learning" program that engages external partner organizations with teams of students who...

UC Merced Scientists Among Global Elite Shaping AI, Climate and Health

UC Merced continues to demonstrate its growing influence on the global stage. Several faculty members landed on Clarivate’s 2025 list of the world’s most‑cited researchers. The honor is reserved for the top 1% of scholars whose work has shaped their fields over the last 10 years. Clarivate, which...
Photo depicts participants in the summer internship program in front of the Beginnings statue at UC Merced.

High School Students Invited to Apply for Free Computer Science Internship

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...
graphic with five individuals higlighted; three females and two males with UC Merced and ARCS logos on blue background

Innovative Research Secures Coveted Fellowships for Ph.D. Students

The ARCS Foundation Northern California awarded five UC Merced graduate students with 2025-26 fellowships. ARCS advances science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to exceptional graduate-level scholars in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. In...
UC Merced professor and students

New Major Teaches How to Tackle Questions of Ethics in Science, Tech

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? Students in Professor Dan Hicks’ course in science, technology and ethics...
Student speaker at 2024 UC Merced Fall Commencement

Fall Commencement Graduates Urged to Write Their Own Story

 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. Cevon-...
Student speaker at 2024 UC Merced Fall Commencement

Fall Commencement Grads Urged to Write Their Own Story

 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. Cevon-...

Recipe for L.A.’s fire disaster: Intense rains followed by unprecedented heat and dry conditions

Photo depicts climate scientist Michael Mann speaking at a podium at UC Merced.

Climate Speaker Series at UC Merced Kicks Off with Warnings … and Hope

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...
High school students will have a wider array of research opportunities through COSMOS starting next summer.

COSMOS Expands to UC Merced, Opening Doors for California’s Brightest Young Scientists

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. Established by...

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