UC Merced School of Engineering

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Engineering. Technology. Innovation.

Welcome to the School of Engineering at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIAMERCED . This is an institution that is truly on the rise, and we are quickly taking our place alongside our sister campuses in the most respected public university system in the world. UC Merced is the youngest university ever to receive the Carnegie R2 research classification, and in the U.S. News and World Report “Best Colleges” ranking. We rose more than 60 spots in just two years, nearly cracking the top 100 nationally in just our 15 th academic year. The School of Engineering is making a name for itself, too, showing steady gains in both the undergraduate and graduate program rankings by U.S. News. As you will see on the following pages, researchers in the School of Engineering are doing incredible work, using and developing new technologies to find novel solutions to some of our world’s greatest challenges. We are also contributing to our historically underserved region, connecting students with local businesses to address their needs, and providing resources to budding entrepreneurs both on and off campus.

UC Merced is truly building the future in the heart of California, and the School of Engineering is proud to be a major part of our success as a university.

Sincerely,

Mark Matsumoto Dean, School of Engineering

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Climate change, water, wildfire, air, soil and water pollution, drought, sustainability, natural resources management and competing land uses — all of these are topics being studied by researchers in the Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI) . SNRI, which was UC Merced’s first established research institute, now has more than 60 affiliated faculty members and researchers examining local, regional and global issues. Part of SNRI’s mission is sharing information, data analysis and research results with policy makers, resource

managers and public and private stakeholders to help them make fully informed decisions. Engineering researchers work closely with colleagues and research groups on campus in other disciplines, including management of complex systems, cognitive science, UC Water , the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and UC Solar . They also work with regional partners such as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and local, state, and federal agencies, as well as colleagues around the world .

LIVING LABORATORY

The NSF-CREST Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines explores and studies biological mechanisms with the aim of understanding how the basic components of life come together, how to manipulate and exploit

What are the underlying principles that govern the machinery of life? Our center’s quest is to answer this question

these principles of nature, and how to even make improvements upon them. This research will lead to a revolution in engineering applications in medicine, biotechnology, environment, and energy and contribute to an environmentally sustainable economy.

Professor Ajay Gopinathan

using a variety of scientific and engineering techniques. We aim to exploit our understanding of nature’s design principles to develop novel materials and devices to improve human health and promote a sustainable future.

- Professors Victor Muñoz and Ajay Gopinathan, CCBM Co-Directors CENTER FOR CELLULAR AND BIOMOLECULAR MACHINES

Professor Victor Muñoz

Drones and drone research deliver exciting STEM educational opportunities in precision agriculture and many other industries as student researchers think about ways to raise productivity and benefit society.

The Mechatronics, Embedded Systems and Automation (MESA) Lab is earning UC Merced national recognition, and the campus’s expertise prompted the UC system to establish its Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Safety — which determines systemwide policies for drone use and serves as an information resource — at UC Merced. Unmanned aerial systems, or drones, have significant appeal as remote sensing and actuation platforms for many civilian and commercial applications, from precision agriculture and using aerial mapping to explore and preserve historic sites to remote leak

sensing in the atmosphere and in the underground world of natural gas pipelines. The MESA Lab is in high demand from students, in part because its lead faculty member, Professor YangQuan Chen, is a pioneer in drone research. MESA students have won the Berkeley Big Ideas contest and prestigious fellowships, presented at conferences worldwide, and collaborated with some of the world’s largest research agencies, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory .

AIRBORNE ENGINEERING

- Professor YangQuan Chen, Director of the MESA

Lab

The Merced nAnomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing (MACES) is an exciting NASA-supported research endeavor in which possibilities are as limitless as the universe itself. The center’s faculty and students collaborate with NASA scientists to push the envelope in materials innovation for

students by providing more

than 200 student fellowship awards while also enabling cutting-edge collaborative research, supporting more than 15 research projects. Education is a key facet of MACES from pre-college through graduate school, including outreach and research training programs, and mentorships and summer internships at NASA facilities such as Langley and Glenn, all with a commitment to increasing student participation in research.

We’re shooting for the stars in materials research. We look at NASA’s missions and set our sights on

expanding the possibilities in space exploration and Earthly

endeavors.

making them happen in a big way. MACES is emerging as a launchpad for delivering excellent educational inclusive STEM opportunities. - Professor Jennifer Qing Lu, MACES Director experiences and providing broad,

MACES has established a strong track record in educating and training

NASA RESEARCH AT NANO-SCALE

There never seems to be enough water for California, a state plagued by droughts, shrinking snowpack and a groundwater deficit. But a unique interdisciplinary team is developing potentially game-changing advancements in water conservation and sustainable farming by bringing artificial

It’s a no- brainer. We need this kind of technology if we want to grow food, and in particular if we want to provide food in a sustainable way. - Professor Stefano Carpin

intelligence and robotics to

croplands.

The Robot-Assisted Precision Irrigation Delivery (RAPID) project is enhancing precision agriculture and helping deal with agro-economics, climate change and sustainability by using suitcase-size robots to fine tune drip irrigators on individual plants. It’s so intuitive that it knows, for example, which grape vines need more and less water, so not a drop is wasted. This kind of precision helps guarantee more successful harvests and maximize farmland, and could save millions of gallons of water each year.

ONE SMART ROBOT

rapid in action

CAMPUS ON THE RISE

TOP PUBLIC UNIVERSITY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT BEST COLLEGES RANKINGS 32 23 SPOTS AMONG PUBLICS JUMPING SPOTS OVERALL #44 (RANKED #104 OVERALL)

20 % FACULTY ARE NSF CAREER AWARDEES

#6 #13 #77 #104

#1 #1 #1 #4

DOCTORAL INSTITUTIONS - AASHE SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS INDEX

SUSTAINABLE RESEARCH - AASHE SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS INDEX

NATIONAL PUBLIC UNIVERSITY FOR BEST UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING - U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

% OF STUDENTS THAT GO ON TO RECEIVE MASTERS IN UC SYSTEM - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA INFORMATION CENTER

MOST INNOVATIVE SCHOOLS - U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

STUDENT OUTCOMES - U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

NATIONAL INSTITUTES + RESEARCH CENTERS

UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING AMONG PUBLICS - U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

2019 YOUNG UNIVERSITY RANKINGS - TIMES HIGHER ED

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SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

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