Patty Guerra

Recently, the university and the U.S. Green Building Council Central California hosted a tour showcasing the university's leadership in sustainable design and green business practices throughout the Central Valley.

UC Merced's Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations got off to a lively, colorful start on Tuesday, with a performance by Mariachi Los Bobcats, food and tabling in the university's Conference Center.

Attendees received a Loteria-themed T-shirt and were entered into a raffle drawing for a special deck and player cards of the Mexican bingo-like game.

Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated nationally from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, recognizes the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to history, culture and advancement.

It might seem that an airfield filled with old planes is a strange place to talk about the future of space flight. But Jared Isaacman, the administrator of NASA, said the Castle Air Museum was the perfect setting to talk about what's ahead.

Isaacman visited the former Air Force base last week to tour the planes and talk with students, including a contingent of more than 30 from UC Merced. The group included undergraduate and graduate students, members of the university's first nanosatellite team, and faculty conducting NASA-supported research.

Dozens of California high school students recently finished four weeks on the UC Merced campus, where they delved into topics including nanoparticles, digital twins, bioluminescent squids, and quantum physics.

Imagine driving down a road in an electric vehicle with no charging stations in sight. Do you want only an estimate of how many more miles your car can go before the battery dies?

As electric vehicles proliferate throughout much of the world, it's never been more important to know precisely how much charge is left in their batteries.

A few months ago, Adesh Johal wanted to join Patti LiWang's research group.

"At the time, he was loaded up on credits so it didn't seem like he would have enough time to get much done in lab," said LiWang, a professor of molecular biology at UC Merced.

UC Merced is no stranger to solar panels. The campus, built to be sustainable from the beginning, is home to thousands of them, and they provide a good chunk of the electricity that powers the university.

But one very special panel was recently installed on the top of the Science and Engineering 2 Building.

The panel was crafted by Tandem PV, a Fremont company that uses perovskite-silicon tandem technology to make high-efficiency solar panels that integrate into existing manufacturing supply chains.

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.