A digital noticeboard celebrating achievements and highlights in the college,
from grant updates to best paper awards.
Take a bite of some byte-sized news.
Mason Earles Named a 2024 Wine Industry Leader
WineBusiness Monthly has named Mason Earles, an assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering, as a "Research Superstar" for its 2024 list of individuals shaping the wine industry. The outlet celebrated Earles for his efforts to take precision agriculture for vineyards to the next level with artificial intelligence.
New Research Investigates Internet for All
With new funding from the NSF, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Alexander Gamero-Garrido will use existing and novel methods of internet measurement to investigate and improve the quality of broadband networks at anchor institutions like libraries and schools, often the primary source of internet services in underserved communities.
BME Professor Co-Leads New Head and Neck Malignancies Innovation Group
Biomedical engineering professor Randy Carney co-leads a partnership for developing breakthroughs in head and neck cancer care. The team connects engineers, scientists and clinicians from UC Davis and UC Davis Health. “Think of it as a ‘meeting of the minds’ as we brainstorm outside of the box on new angles to research new treatments,” Carney said.
NASA Spotlights Alum Felipe Valdez
Now a flight controls engineer at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, Felipe Valdez earned his Master of Science degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from UC Davis in 2020. In a recent NASA profile, Valdez details pursuing his education through childhood adversity and how he turned early internships into a dream career.
2024 UC Davis Lab Safety Award
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Cheemeng Tan’s lab has been recognized for its dedication to safety. The lab frequently collaborates with specialized safety experts, conducts routine safety drills and has an ongoing tradition of celebrating safety wins with team lunches, reinforcing the lab’s commitment to a positive safety culture.
Extreme Environments at the Exploratorium
As part of the Exploratorium’s After Dark series and UC Davis Grand Challenges, assistant professors Maike Sonnewald of computer science and Rich Whittle of mechanical and aerospace engineering joined a panel of experts to discuss extreme environments and how humanity might manage increasingly severe conditions.
ACS 2025 Energy Lectureship Award
The American Chemical Society has selected Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Marina Leite as a finalist for the 2025 Energy Lectureship Award for her contributions to the solar energy conversion field. Leite, along with her fellow finalists, is invited to present her research during the society’s spring meeting in March.
Expanding the Reach of Computing Research
Computer science undergraduate student Ashwin Chembu took the international stage at the 2024 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research in Melbourne, Australia, to present his research on exploratory reading groups, which showed an increased sense of belonging and confidence in computing research activities among 136 students.
App Design Supports Health in Older Adults
Associate Professor of Computer Science Hao-Chuan Wang’s visual interface design of I-Care, a new platform that connects cognitively impaired older adults with their remote caregivers, uses human-computer interaction insights to translate data received by sensors into images that reflect the needs of the user and achieve better health outcomes.
NSF Partnership to Leverage AI for Ocean Research
The NSF's Collaborations in Artificial Intelligence and Geosciences program has awarded $1 million to Assistant Professor of Computer Science Maike Sonnewald and UC Santa Cruz researchers, who will develop an AI system to analyze satellite and ocean data, providing insights into how processes like ocean currents influence the ocean's heat storage.
2024 Graduate Program Advising and Mentoring Awardees
Seven faculty across the College of Engineering — Audrey Fan, Boris Jeremic, Harishankar Manikantan, Julian Panetta, Cindy Rubio González, Kari Watkins and Weijian Yang — were recognized by UC Davis Graduate Studies for their commitment and outstanding contributions to the graduate student experience.
Next-Gen Materials
The Army Research Office awarded $150,000 to Assistant Professor Mingwei Zhang to build a high-throughput computational framework to quickly identify refractory high entropy alloys, or RHEAs, that can stretch or bend without breaking at room temperature. RHEAs show potential as next-generation materials for deep space exploration, environmental sustainability and defense.
