University of California, Merced - Patty Guerra

Disruptions in the Digital Supply Chain Can Have Major Physical Impacts

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 20:05:11 +0000

By Patty Guerra, ��ϰٿ�

June 9, 2025

A computer systems failure of one service provider can delay hundreds of flights.

Last July, a glitch in a software upgrade by a cybersecurity company impacted 8.5 million computers, resulting in the cancellation of 2,800 flights and delays for 11,000 more.

In an increasingly computerized world, digital supply chains use data and analytics to manage the flow of goods, services and information. These chains are increasingly interconnected and vulnerable to disruption, ��ϰٿ� management of complex systems Professor Lisa Yeo wrote in a recent issue of The Conversation, based on a paper she co-wrote for the Association of Computing Machinery.

"Combating threats to the digital supply chain is the top challenge for leaders in most supply chain industries," Yeo and her co-authors wrote.

The global havoc triggered by the faulty CrowdStrike update last July is just one of the latest examples of the fragility of a world that depends on a few digital providers for crucial computing services.

In April 2019, a computer systems failure of service provider AeroData, which delivers flight planning services to Southwest, United, American and Delta airlines, among others, grounded hundreds of flights.

"The synchronization of disruptions for firms that use a common service provider has implications for service provider choice and investment," Yeo wrote.

She and her paper co-authors, researchers from the University of Calgary, Cal Poly Pomona and the University of Alberta, analyzed how disruptions at a service provider impact a company's customer demand and how this affects the company's choices in managing risk. They also looked at the effects on customer service and profit.

"An overlooked factor in deciding a firm's (information and communications technology) provider is the demand effects of using a common or separate provider," co-author Hooman Hidaji, professor of business technology management at Haskayne School of Business, told the University of Calgary. "This is a mechanism by which supply chain decisions are impacted, and one which had not been explored before - that is, whether to use common or separate providers based on disruption risks and downstream substitutions or complementarities."

The researchers examined the benefits of diversifying the supplier base - so if one supply chain were disrupted, it wouldn't affect all or most of the involved industry.

Though they cited airlines in their work, they noted that other areas also can be struck. For example, artificial intelligence is transforming industries such as customer support and health care, making digital supply chain disruptions more likely in those industries.

Several factors, such as rapidly changing technology, expanding opportunities for attacks, high costs to address privacy and security, and lack of employee awareness, make addressing the concerns challenging.

But there are ways to mitigate the risks, the researchers found.

"For businesses, building resilience against digital supply chain disruptions and supplier outages requires strategic partnerships," they wrote. "Companies must consider how inevitable disruptions will affect not only their customer demand, but also how competitors' disruptions could affect them, and vice versa."

Industry coalitions and government regulators also play a role. Understanding the ripple effects of a shared digital supply chain can help determine what regulations should be implemented.

Customers should also be aware of the potential for disruptions to the digital supply chain and have workaround plans. This can be as simple as booking a flight a day earlier than necessary or allowing extra time to return home in case of a disruption with an airline service provider.

��ϰٿ� Brings Climate Justice Course to Title I High School Students Across the Nation

Anonymous — Wed, 28 May 2025 23:11:19 +0000

By Patty Guerra, ��ϰٿ�

May 28, 2025

Recently, more than 150 students at 10 high schools in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C. completed Climate Justice, a ��ϰٿ� course , through a unique partnership between the University of California and the National Education Equity Lab.

Guided by its mantra, "Talent is evenly distributed, opportunity is not," the partners with leading universities across the United States to deliver select college courses for students at high schools in historically underserved communities nationwide.

Courses offered through the Lab challenge students to develop skills and habits that are markers of college readiness; the Lab also prepares students for future success in higher-ed learning environments by facilitating mentoring from university professors and graduate students. Students can earn high school credit and widely transferable university credit.

As part of President Michael Drake's priorities, the University of California in 2024 became the first university system to partner with the Lab. Following the success of Climate Justice, UC and the Lab are offering Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions this spring at six high schools in New York and Miami. UC plans to offer additional undergraduate courses through the Lab in the coming years.

Climate Justice is offered through the Department of Management of Information, Sustainability and Technology (MIST). Drawing inspiration from a long history of social justice movements, the course seeks to educate a new generation of climate justice changemakers through transformative lectures centering around intersectional equity issues and using a holistic systems perspective.

The course was designed by Professor Tracey Osborne, founding director of the UC Center for Climate Justice and Presidential Chair in the Management of Complex Systems Department at ��ϰٿ�. Lectures are organized across the six pillars of climate justice: Just Transition; Social, Racial and Environmental Justice; Indigenous Climate Action; Community Resilience and Adaptation; Natural Climate Solutions; and Climate Education and Engagement.

The course's content and academic rigor in the Lab offering are equal to that of the traditional course at ��ϰٿ�; the only difference is delivery. With Lab courses, high school students engage online once a week with "teaching fellows" - graduate and undergraduate students who contextualize content, run discussion sessions, develop and implement activities and solidify understanding. On the course's other days, teachers at the high schoolsfacilitate recorded lectures, individual assignments and engagement prompts, using a teaching guide developed as part of the course curriculum. Each week's content applies to the next week, and weekly assessments ensure understanding so that each week can build upon the previous one.

The UC instructional team consisted of faculty and graduate students from UCs Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz. Osborne served as founder and co-director with UC Davis Professor Julie Sze and UC Santa Barbara Professor Javiera Barandiarán. Sierra Nevada Research Institute researcher Deb L. Morrison was the project manager. Lupe Franco, UC Davis Ph.D. candidate in Geography, and Kristin Hogue, Ph.D. student in Cultural Studies at UC Davis, were responsible for in-class and virtual lesson plans and student interactions. Three undergraduate ��ϰٿ� students supported the course as readers.

The shift from in-person college courses for undergraduates to online college courses for historically underrepresented high school students came with challenges, but the affordances of the online opportunity more than made up for the obstacles.

"A lot of the students don't have stable internet," said Sze. "And some struggled with the assignments because it's college-level content. It's going to be hard. But overall, the students had an amazing experience. There were moments I would hear about in weekly meetings (with Franco and Hogue) where a lecture went really well and blew the students' minds."

Franco, who researches climate change and homelessness in California, was similarly impressed with the students' tenacity in the course.

"Being a part of high school students' experience taking a UC-level course on climate justice was incredibly rewarding, and an immense learning opportunity," she said. "It was fascinating to see how their diverse backgrounds shaped their lived experiences and how they connected the content to their own communities and the issues they faced locally. For instance, students from Southern California engaged differently than those from New York, as the climate change risks in their regions vary greatly."

She said navigating high school and the demands of a college-level program presented a steep learning curve for the enrolled students.

"It was crucial to consider everyone's capacity when developing lesson plans and providing support," she said. Franco and Hogue used a suite of online education tools supported through the Lab to scaffold the learning experience, including breaking down complex concepts into shorter parts with opportunities for reflection, offering regular office hours, and incorporating interactive activities regularly.

"Climate Justice is truly innovative, featuring lectures from leading faculty across the UC system working at the intersection of climate and equity," Osborne said. "It was an honor to share this important curriculum with high school students nationwide. The success of the course is a testament to our incredible instructional team - our teaching fellows, readers, the Center's Academic Coordinator and partners - who made the experience engaging, rigorous and meaningful for students."

Franco said the class was "more than just an academic experience. It was a space for students to engage deeply with real-world issues, reflect on their communities and develop a sense of agency in addressing climate justice."

She said she was surprised by how engaged the students were and how deep their insights were in connecting with the material.

"My hope is that the students leave feeling empowered to question everything, inspired to make a difference in the world and reassured that a future built on love, care and equity for everyone is possible," Franco said. "Most importantly, I hope they recognize they have the power to be a part of that change."

'It's Ours!' Merced Selected for UC's Newest Campus 30 Years Ago

Anonymous — Mon, 19 May 2025 18:00:41 +0000

By Patty Guerra, ��ϰٿ�

May 19, 2025

The ��ϰٿ� campus, once only a dream, has flourished. Photo by Sarah Boyle

On May 18, 1995, the University of California Board of Regents voted to select Merced as the site for its ninth undergraduate campus.

To get to that point, Merced had to beat out what started as a list of 85 potential sites drawn up in 1989, after regents announced the year before they wanted to explore opening as many as three new campuses.

Ahead of the final selection, the regents had winnowed the list down to two: a site near the banks of Lake Yosemite outside Merced and one on Table Mountain in Madera County. The Central Valley was targeted because it was the largest population area of the state not directly served by a UC campus.

Merced's bid boasted the winning combination of donated property by a single landowner, the ready availability of water and passionate community support that included postcards from thousands of local schoolchildren.

Regent Roy T. Brophy seemed to speak for many on the board when he described the Madera County site as simply "too iffy."

"The real issue here today is which site has the best chance in the long run of becoming a reality," Brophy said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "I think without question it's (Merced)."

Community members who had lobbied for Merced for years returned from the vote to a celebratory lunch, according to the Merced Sun-Star, whose headline the next day of "It's Ours!" leaped from the page in the size of type reserved for heralding major news.

It was the culmination of several years of work by a citizens' committee led by Bob Carpenter that included Tim Razzari, Judy Campbell, and numerous other elected officials and community members.

"I don't think I've ever been prouder of this community, the way we pulled together and stuck together," said then-City Councilman Dennis Cardoza, who later would serve in the state Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives.

The city of Merced had already eyed the Lake Yosemite area for expansion, so the campus location fit right into its plans.

"We had planned on growing to the north and wrapping around the northern part of the lake before UC was even a possibility," planning director Phil Block said, according to the Merced Sun-Star. "So we really don't have to alter what we have been planning for the next eight or 10 years."

Getting the vote from the Regents was a tremendous accomplishment, but there would be more hurdles to overcome. Even as they voted for the new campus, officials warned that there was no money to build it.

"We have neither the resources nor the plan to start a campus," then-UC President Jack Peltason said after the vote, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "If I had to guess, we are 10 years away from confronting the problem of starting to build the new campus."

Peltason's prediction was a bit off: Administrators began work in leased offices at the former Castle Air Force Base in 2002, and two years later, faculty welcomed ��ϰٿ�'s first graduate students. Ten years after the vote, ��ϰٿ� welcomed undergraduates to its North Lake Road campus.

Since then, ��ϰٿ� has stayed true to its founding mission: expanding access to a University of California education. The campus has grown from its modest beginnings into a premier research institution and is now consistently among the highest-ranked universities for social mobility. Its student population is mainly from California, the first in their families to attend college and reflects the state's diverse population.

"For far too long, lower-income students, including those from our region, were told that a UC education was unattainable," said Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz. "But thanks to the tireless work of our faculty and staff, as well as our partners and supporters, that is no longer the case."

The university serves more than 9,000 students, with more than 60 undergraduate academic programs and 18 graduate programs. Researchers are tackling real-world issues such as climate change and artificial intelligence, and students get a world-class education in the heart of the Central Valley.

��ϰٿ� has become a major economic driver for the local community and the Northern San Joaquin Valley, infusing an estimated $372.9 million into Merced County and $514.6 million into the San Joaquin Valley each year.

Thirty years after it was made official, ��ϰٿ� continues to grow. Construction is underway on the Medical Education Building, which will house the SJV Prime+ B.S. to M.D. program, and soon will begin on a new housing facility and classroom building. Next year, ��ϰٿ� will start competing in NCAA Division II sports. The campus was annexed into the city of Merced last year, and officials are planning the community that will grow around the site.

At a time when public universities face mounting challenges, ��ϰٿ� symbolizes what can be achieved when access, equity and excellence are pursued together - with the backing of a tenacious community. And a few hundred postcards.

How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Fuel Record-Breaking Wildfires in 2020? New Study Explains

Anonymous — Mon, 05 May 2025 20:43:24 +0000

By Patty Guerra, ��ϰٿ�

May 5, 2025

Nearly 10,000 fires burned more than 4.2 million acres in 2020. Photo courtesy of CalFire

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many facets of life, including health care, schools and the work environment.

A new study by ��ϰٿ� researchers shows evidence that the pandemic also fueled an elevated number of wildfires in the United States that year.

How?

With schools and businesses shutting down and people trying to maintain safe social distances outside their pandemic pods, many headed out to nature for respite. That contributed to a 36% increase in the number of recreation-caused fires, like campfires, in 2020.

The study led by Adam Jorge, a Ph.D. student in the Management of Complex Systems program, showed that 2020 had one of the highest numbers of human-caused ignitions in the past three decades.

Those fires consumed a record-breaking amount of land in the Western United States. According to CalFire, nearly 10,000 fires burned over 4.2 million acres, more than 4% of the state's roughly 100 million acres of land, making 2020 the largest wildfire season recorded in California's modern history.

The ��ϰٿ� research team, in partnership with Oregon State University, Boise State University and USDA Forest Service scientists, reviewed nearly 30 years of fire ignition records, weather data, public land visitation data and data from Google's Community Mobility Reports to assess the influence of social disruptions indirectly tied to COVID-19 on wildfire ignitions. The study spans 11 Western states and specifically explores the distinct patterns in the increased number of debris burning, recreational use and fireworks-caused ignitions observed in 2020.

The article - "COVID-19 Fueled an Elevated Number of Human-Caused Ignitions in the Western United States During the 2020 Wildfire Season" - was recently published in Earth's Future. Among its key findings:

Human-Caused Ignitions Surged: The number of human-started wildfires in 2020 was nearly 20% higher than the 1992-2019 average. Specific fire ignition causes such campfires, fireworks, debris burning and powerlines were also among the highest on record.
COVID-19 Behavioral Shifts: Increased human presence in wildland areas - driven by social distancing measures and closures of indoor spaces - favored ignitions that further compounded fire management efforts.
Weak Climate Correlation: Unlike burned area, which was linked to anomalous dryness, the spike in ignitions had a weak correlation with climate factors.

"Reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic altered mobility, recreation and fire management operations, and these changes led to increased and unsafe human interactions with fire-prone lands," Jorge said. "While we used COVID-19 as an experiment, changes in behavior resemble other social disruptions that impact fire management, such as government shutdowns, economic recessions and extreme weather conditions, which can limit resources for managing recreational lands and enforcing fire prevention measures."

Human sources ignite the majority of wildfires.

"Our results show how sensitive the environment is to behavioral changes," Jorge said. "Understanding the intersection of human behavior and fire ignitions is critical to mitigating future wildfire risks, especially as we face similar disruptions, such as sudden decreases in staffing or funding for parks and land management."

The increasing number of large wildfires in the Western United States poses severe risks to human health and the environment. Climate change and years of fire suppression have left the west susceptible to wildfire, and these risks are exacerbated by increased human presence in fire-prone landscapes.

The pandemic demonstrated how unexpected events can significantly alter human-environment interactions, and future fire management plans should incorporate contingency strategies for such disruptions, the researchers argue. Strengthening collaboration between public land agencies, local governments and fire departments can ensure more effective fire prevention and response efforts. The authors believe this study underscores the need for enhanced public awareness, enforcement of fire safety regulations and strategic resource allocation to mitigate human-caused ignitions in an increasingly fire-prone world.

The research team included ��ϰٿ� co-authors, Professor Crystal Kolden, director of the ��ϰٿ� Fire Resilience Center, professors John Abatzoglou and Jeff Jenkins, and postdoctoral research scientist Emily L. Williams. The work was supported through grants from the Department of the Interior's Joint Fire Science Program and the National Science Foundation.

Researchers Look Ahead to Fire Season 2025

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 23:16:47 +0000

By Patty Guerra, ��ϰٿ�

April 22, 2025

The Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed nearly 7,000 structures in January 2025. Photo courtesy of CalFire

Pictures accompanying Professor John Abatzoglou's presentation on the 2025 fire season were blurry. That was intentional, he said, because so much about wildfire is unpredictable.

"There's a lot that we know, and a lot we don't know," he said.

However, Abatzoglou said, some conclusions can be drawn and measures taken to prepare. The management of complex systems professor spoke at a Fire Resilience Seminar hosted by ��ϰٿ� on April 17. ��ϰٿ� researchers Crystal Kolden and Sandie Ha and the founder of disaster information app Watch Duty, John Mills, also took part.

California has seen a significant increase in wildfires in the last 50 years, Abatzoglou said. "The last decade or so, it's been a bit of a roller coaster." The 2022 and 2023 seasons, for example, were relatively quiet.

Hotter, drier weather, which the Western United States has increasingly seen in the summer months, can exacerbate conditions. And wetter months ahead of those dry, hot days can provide more fuel for fires.

A short series of hot days can change conditions quickly.

"Heat waves are another key ingredient for catalyzing fire," Abatzoglou said. "Half of the burned area in California happened either during or in the three days after a heat event."

This year, a fairly wet winter in northern California will likely slightly delay the start of fire season. Southern California remains in drought conditions, but had a wetter-than-normal March, which might also stave off fires for a while.

"We're probably not going to see anything really interesting right now or over the next few months, but come summer, if we don't get any significant rain events…things could be on," Abatzoglou said.

The forecast for the upcoming fire season is unclear in April.

Other factors include winds and lightning - which caused destructive fires in August 2020 - and human behavior. According to the National Parks Service, nearly 85 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by humans, including campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, equipment use and malfunction, discarded cigarettes and arson.

All those fires impact the health of the people around them, and of Central Valley residents because fire-polluted air settles between mountain ranges and can be slow to move.

Ha, a public health professor and member of the Health Sciences Research Institute, outlined the health risks associated with wildfires and what measures can be taken to mitigate them.

"As we know, the composition of the air pollution emitted by wildfire can be slightly different from regular ambient air pollution we are regularly exposed to," she said. This pollution has more toxic components, such as ultrafine particles and metals.

Wildfire pollution impacts just about every system in the body, Ha said, including cardiovascular, respiratory and reproductive. Perhaps less immediately obvious is the toll fires take on mental health.

Wildfire exposure is linked to a higher risk of mental health complications due to the stress of uncertainty about one's home, pets or loved ones. This often manifests in post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep disturbance, anger, interpersonal violence and depression, Ha said.

"Mental health complications can exacerbate the physical health impacts that people maybe already have as well."

People can counteract these impacts by remaining informed and implementing measures such as air purifiers and closed windows when the conditions are bad outside.

But the responsibility isn't just on individuals, the researchers said.

Health care providers can help by training and educating patients, paying special attention to early warning signs about mental and physical health complications, and by collaborating with public health and local agencies.

Researchers are working to identify health impacts and mechanisms, identify people at risk and develop and test novel tools to mitigate risks.

Policymakers can help by establishing early warning systems and equitable policies to reduce wildfire risks, and earmarking funding for more research and services.

The lack of sufficient early warning systems led Mills to create the Watch Duty app. Mills, an entrepreneur, started the disaster information app after moving to Sonoma and experiencing devastating wildfire firsthand. The only notice he got about a nearby fire was seeing a helicopter carrying water above his house, he said.

Mills did some research and learned no instrument existed for communicating vital information about disasters in real time to people who might be in harm's way, or even among first response agencies.

"Firefighters put their lives on the line for us," he said. "They don't have what they need."

He put together a network of volunteers and formed a nonprofit organization that aggregates and vets information on fires as they break out and shares it with users. The app has been so successful that he has launched a premium version for firefighters and the government and is looking to expand its use throughout the United States and beyond.

"Watch Duty was made for two groups of people - people who run toward the fire and people who run away from it," Mills said. "So, everybody."

The information Watch Duty provides is vital, said Kolden, a management of complex systems professor and director of ��ϰٿ�'s Fire Resilience Center.

"In talking with people who ran for their lives in the 2017 fires, in the 2018 Camp fire, we hear over and over again how they didn't know what to do," she said. "The lack of information was a big piece of how we had such destruction."

In the last decade, California alone has seen more than 300 civilian fatalities, more than 50,000 homes destroyed by wildfires, and millions of people evacuated for days, weeks or even months at time, Kolden said.

The Fire Resilience Center, started last year under the Climate Institute of the university's Sierra Nevada Research Institute with funding from the Packard Foundation, aims to support wildfire solutions that benefit all Californians, Kolden said.

"I hope this seminar will be the first of future special events as we work toward how we become more resilient and better live with wildfire in California and across the United States."

Machine Learning Research Earns CAREER award

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 23:45:38 +0000

By Patty Guerra, ��ϰٿ�

April 3, 2025

Pengfei Su is the 41st researcher from ��ϰٿ� to earn one of the prestigious awards.

Electrical engineering and computer science Professor Pengfei Su has received a CAREER award for his research on cross-layer performance tuning to enhance deep learning model efficiency.

He is the 41st researcher from ��ϰٿ� to earn a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

CAREER awards are among the NSF's most prestigious awards. They are given through the Faculty Early Career Development Program to recognize untenured faculty members as teacher-scholars. Early-career faculty members are selected based on three factors: the strength of their research proposals; their potential to serve as academic role models in research and education; and their leadership in their field and organizations.

Su will receive $604,250 over the next five years for the project "Reforming Profiling Techniques to Guide Systemic Performance Tuning for GPU-Accelerated Deep Learning Workloads."

The project aims to establish a systematic approach for tuning deep learning models. It is structured around three techniques: unified binary code analysis to identify inefficient code segments and data objects across layers, incremental analysis to refine performance monitoring to locate the root causes of inefficient code segments and data object analysis to diagnose the root causes of inefficient data objects.

Su and his lab specialize in programming languages, program analysis, high-performance computing, machine learning systems and software engineering, with a focus on developing tools to analyze and optimize software inefficiencies.

"Graphics processing units (GPUs) are the powerhouse of deep learning, delivering unmatched computational performance," Su said. "Yet, fully unlocking their potential remains a formidable challenge as deep learning models grow increasingly complex, spanning multiple abstraction layers.

"While this complexity fuels innovation across diverse applications, it also introduces hidden inefficiencies that arise from intricate cross-layer interactions," Su said. "This project will pioneer a comprehensive, cross-layer performance analysis to expose these inefficiencies, optimize execution and push GPU performance to new frontiers."

Deep learning uses artificial neural networks to teach computers to learn and make decisions. It is a subset of artificial intelligence often used to recognize complex patterns in data, such as images, text and sounds.

Su has been with ��ϰٿ� since 2021. He is affiliated with the High Performance Computing Systems and Architecture Group.

Each CAREER award proposal includes educational outreach. The project's findings will be integrated into computer science curricula and K-12 programs to cultivate a new generation of experts in performance analysis and optimization, ensuring lasting contributions to academia and industry.

Su was honored to learn about the CAREER award.

"This award represents a major step forward in fundamental software performance analysis, driving a deeper understanding of performance challenges in deep learning," Su said. "By strengthening the foundations of program analysis, the project will accelerate breakthroughs in many AI-driven fields, such as image processing. Additionally, with interest from industry leaders like Meta, the project is poised to translate cutting-edge research into real-world impact."

Researchers Make the Case for Charging Cars During the Day

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 17:40:39 +0000

By Patty Guerra, ��ϰٿ�

April 1, 2025

California is predicted to need more than 2 million chargers by 2035.

Many people with electric vehicles drive them to work during the day and then charge them overnight after returning home. But a simple reversal of that schedule could make it cheaper and easier to charge your electric car.

That was the conclusion reached by a team of ��ϰٿ� researchers, who recently published a paper in the Electricity Journal on "Aligning Electric Vehicle Charging with the Sun: An Opportunity for Daytime Charging?"

The paper, by mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Farzan ZareAfifi, mechanical engineering Professor Ricardo Pinto de Castro and electrical engineering Professor Sarah Kurtz, suggests that installing slow-charging infrastructure "in both residential and non-residential settings such as workplaces where cars are parked for several hours during weekdays, could make daytime charging more economically and practically attractive."

By charging during daylight hours, cars could draw energy directly from the sun, rather than charging a battery during the day, then using that battery to charge the car's battery during the night. Daytime charging, the researchers point out, would cut down on the need for expensive energy storage.

As more people shift away from gas-powered vehicles, the need for additional options is rising. California is predicted to need more than 2 million chargers by 2035 to support the targeted adoption of electric vehicles in the state. An earlier study Kurtz took part in showed that the ways people are using energy are changing so fast that planners can't keep up. The time is right for new approaches such as the daytime charging the researchers suggest.

There are some obstacles to the idea, however. Nonresidential charging stations can be pricey. The researchers advocate installing more lower cost "level 1" chargers at workplaces. Level 1 chargers are the slowest but most cost-effective, and sometimes the most convenient, for example when a level 1 charge is adequate, and a driver doesn't want to move their car after charging at a level 2 charger for a half-hour so someone else can use it.

In some areas such as California, electricity rates fluctuate on some days, with higher rates during the late afternoon and early evening hours when the demand on the grid is highest. This, in addition to the availability of relatively inexpensive at-home chargers, is why many people charge their cars during the off-peak overnight hours.

In recent years, the cost of solar electricity has dropped by roughly 90 percent, making it competitive with traditional electricity generation in many areas. Daytime electrical vehicle charging aligns solar generation and charging demand times, the researchers said. Daytime charging can both support solar industry growth and make electric vehicle charging more economically viable.

The researchers suggest updating time-of-use rates to encourage daytime use of electricity, which would encourage the adoption of more solar energy.

"Policymakers and industry stakeholders should consider policies that incentivize the expansion of robust daytime charging networks to supplement the policies that have successfully enabled the initial adoption," they wrote.

Consortium Looks to Expand Solar-Over-Canal Projects Statewide

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 15:28:28 +0000

March 24, 2025

Project Nexus has started generating electricity.

The first solar-over-canal project in California, which started with research at ��ϰٿ�, has begun producing electricity. Plans are now in the works to expand the technology to other areas.

A groundbreaking initiative led by faculty from seven top research universities aims to accelerate the deployment of solar arrays over California's extensive canal network.

According to a 2021 ��ϰٿ� study published in Nature Sustainability, covering large sections of the state's 4,000 miles of canals with arrays of solar panels could help conserve water, reduce air pollution, save land, and generate clean energy using existing land and infrastructure.

A pilot effort, Project Nexus, is being built over Turlock Irrigation District canals to test the theory. The pilot is funded by the state of California and is a public-private-academic partnership between Turlock Irrigation District, Solar AquaGrid, ��ϰٿ� and the California Department of Water Resources.

At a solar summit in Sacramento on Monday, TID General Manager Brad Koehn said the panels on the initial phase of Project Nexus have started to generate electricity.

The California Solar Canal Initiative (CSCI) research project aims to accelerate the use of solar power across the state by equipping government agencies, utilities, community members and other interested parties with data on optimal locations and identifying willing host communities.

Led by the University of Southern California (USC) Dornsife Public Exchange and independent advisor Solar AquaGrid , CSCI researchers will collaborate with the state agencies responsible for water and land: California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and California Natural Resource Agency (CNRA).

"California is leading the way in exploring innovative solutions to tackle climate change and strengthen our water and energy resilience," said CNRA Secretary Wade Crowfoot . "We are excited to see top research institutions come together to help deploy solar panels over water canals - a big idea with great potential.."

CSCI researchers will evaluate solar canals' potential to address the needs of a rapidly changing energy market, compete with other distributed-solar projects, enhance current canal operations and maintenance procedures, navigate existing water and land regulations and provide numerous benefits to communities where projects are developed.

USC Dornsife Public Exchange has assembled a multidisciplinary research team that includes faculty from USC, ��ϰٿ�, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Law San Francisco, San Jose State University and the University of Kansas.

The CSCI research is guided by an advisory council of experts from government, academia and the private sector to ensure its outcomes are actionable. The Advisory Council, chaired by Solar AquaGrid, includes members from DWR, CNRA, California Forward, New Energy Nexus, Environmental Policy Center and Stanford Water in the West. On March 24, the California Solar Canal Summit was held in Sacramento with research faculty, advisors, state agencies and community partners in attendance.

While not all canals are suitable for solar installations, the ��ϰٿ� study, led by project scientist Brandi McKuin, estimated that covering all 4,000 miles of California's exposed canals with solar panels could generate enough electricity to power about 2 million homes each year, conserve enough water to supply up to 2 million homes annually and reduce land use by placing solar arrays on developed land.

"We hypothesized that putting solar panels over canals would have multiple benefits," McKuin said in a video promoting Project Nexus.

The study indicated that covering significant portions of canals could provide benefits beyond power and water, including conserving up to 50,000 acres of land and habitat by placing solar arrays over existing infrastructure; lowering maintenance costs by shading the canals, which reduces weed and algae growth in the canals; enhancing the efficiency of the solar panels due to the cooling effect of the water below; and creating local jobs to install and maintain the systems.

Although California experienced multiple episodes of intense rainfall and flooding emergencies in the past two years, scientists predict the state will continue to swing between intense rainfall and prolonged droughts. Droughts have plagued the state for thousands of years, but they are worsened by climate change, emphasizing the continued need to conserve water and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while meeting the state's increasing energy needs.

CSCI represents the next step in the state's commitment to exploring solar canal deployment to meet its 2045 clean energy goals and 30x30 conservation commitment.

Thymus Research Could Unlock Immune System Improvements

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 17:04:38 +0000

By Patty Guerra, ��ϰٿ�

March 12, 2025

Spencer's lab will use a novel imaging system it developed.

A multimillion-dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund research at ��ϰٿ� that could help cancer patients and others live longer, healthier lives.

The $3.5 million, five-year grant will fund bioengineering Professor Joel Spencer's lab, which is investigating the thymus, a key organ in the human immune system.

The thymus, located under the sternum and on top of the heart, is where a type of white blood cell called a T cell develops. T cells originate from stem cells in the bone marrow and help protect the body from infection. The thymus has recently been shown to be important for maintaining health throughout life.

"What's interesting about the thymus is it gets its heyday in your youth," said Spencer, a member of the university's Health Sciences Research Institute. After that, "it starts to shrink, and function starts to diminish so by the time you're in your early 20s it looks old."

And some treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiation, can damage the thymus as well as bone marrow while killing unhealthy cells such as cancer.

"If you damage the bone marrow it needs to be repaired," Spencer said. "One of the first things we're trying to do clinically is restore normal blood cells in your bone marrow."

But the impacts on the thymus are not as well understood.

The research funded by the grant, Spencer said in his proposal, "will hopefully enable us to make an impact in our understanding of how a key organ in our immune system (the thymus) responds to acute damage and open up potential therapeutic targets for regenerating the thymus and immune system after damage or aging."

Spencer's lab will use a novel imaging system it developed to focus on endothelial cells, which make up blood vessels and interact with other cells in the thymus.

Spencer likened blood vessels to highways.

"If there's a car accident on one of the highways, you're going to get traffic for miles," he said. "We know that these highways, these blood vessels, are also impacted by cancer treatments. We can see the structure of those highways and we want to study how that might play a role in regeneration."

To accomplish that, the lab will use cutting-edge technology that it developed to examine the thymus of mice. Previously, researchers had to transplant the thymus somewhere else to examine it due to its location in the body.

"But you completely alter the blood system when you disconnect it," he said.

Other researchers have used zebrafish because their organs are more easily examined. But fish and mammals have key immunological differences, so it's more difficult to translate that data.

Spencer credited the members in his lab, particularly graduate student Christian S. Burns and previous graduate student Negar Tehrani, with having the tenacity needed to develop the imaging tool. Tehrani has since completed her doctorate. Spencer also credited previous graduate student Nastaran Abbasizadeh and undergraduate researchers Ruth Verrinder and Victoria Okafor for their role in this work. Researchers published a paper about the new thymus imaging technology in the journal PLOS One.

"We had a lot of trial and error," he said. "We tried hard and failed, for probably four to five years. When we finally got our first images of the thymus and could see blood flow, it was a huge accomplishment."

Spencer said the grant from NIH will allow the lab to take its work to the next level and gain greater insight into both how the thymus works and how its function might be protected.

"It's opening up a lot of possibilities for what we're going to do."

Merced Native Makes Her Mark at the University and in the Community

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:10:16 +0000

By Patty Guerra, ��ϰٿ�

March 3, 2025

Linda Chang served as president of the Merced Breakfast Lions Club in 2022-23.

Family is everything to Linda Chang.

Chang, a 30-year-old administrative officer with the ��ϰٿ� Police Department, was a quiet high school freshman when she joined the Leo Club, the youth branch of the Merced Breakfast Lions Club's community service organization.

The youngest of 10 children (including two sets of twins), Chang got involved with the Leos at Merced High School for a simple reason: She was following her older sisters' footsteps.

"When you're the youngest and you don't know what to do, you look up to your siblings," she said. Her parents, immigrants from Laos who fled the Vietnam War, trusted that the community service organization would provide a positive influence on their children.

Gary Eno met Chang when he served as the Leo Club adviser.

"Linda is a very astute young lady," Eno said. "She was very quiet, but I saw her blossom into a superstar for the Leos."

Chang went on to hold several offices for the Leos, including a stint as president. Upon graduation, she enrolled at ��ϰٿ�.

The university, she said, provided a second home for her and several of her siblings.

"Having it built here was perfect for us," she said.

Initially, Chang majored in human biology with a minor in psychology, eyeing a nursing career. Attempting to pursue this career path, she became an ER medical scribe at Merced Mercy Medical Center from 2019-2021. However, a chronic back injury during a 2015 summer program made her turn toward a different path - administration.

She worked in the Facilities Management Department at ��ϰٿ� as a student employee. Upon graduation in 2016, she accepted a temporary full-time position. She then worked for a number of departments around campus, including the School of Natural Sciences and Students First Center, then went back to Facilities Management as a help specialist/dispatcher before obtaining her current position.

"I get to build connections with different departments," she said. "I think that's why I like it here so much. The environment is just great."

In 2018, she joined the Merced Breakfast Lions Club and immediately got involved with numerous activities and community service efforts , eventually serving as the club president in 2022-23. Being the club president requires a five-year commitment, she said. Service begins with the office of third vice president, then second vice president, first vice president, president and then past president. Her family obligations, work and extracurricular activities didn't leave her with a ton of free time.

"I had to calendar sleep or nap," Chang said, laughing.

She found the time to meet her husband, Kenny Yang, during the COVID-19 pandemic at a store where he worked.

"It was an interesting time. We met with our masks on," she said. He's now employed at the federal penitentiary in Atwater, and the couple is expecting their first child, a girl, in May.

The Lions Club, of which Chang remains an active member, threw her a wedding shower.

"They really do become family," she said. "They've seen me grow up."

Eno said he has watched Chang grow from a quiet teenager into a "very determined young lady." He said that on occasions when he thoughtt the Lions didn't have enough volunteers for an event, Chang would get on the phone and suddenly the event was fully staffed.

"Linda has a gift in that she will never take no for an answer when it comes to doing something to help people," Eno said.

Helping people comes in the form of cooking meals at the D Street shelter in Merced or for other community organizations, as well as providing scholarships for students and support for efforts such as building bleachers at a local sports complex.

"During my (presidential) year, we helped the Boy Scouts with purchasing a trailer to store all their equipment, contributed toward a portable shower facility for the unhoused and we helped the Merced County Library fund their teen center," she said.

As she grows her own family, Chang said she has no plans to leave her Lions Club family behind.

"I'm trying to get my husband to join as well," she said.

She said she has been thrilled to watch the university and the community grow up around her.

"Seeing how campus has changed is really mind-blowing," she said. "It's so much bigger than when I went here. And it's fun to see student groups out in restaurants and in downtown Merced."

She's excited about the future with her family, her club and at ��ϰٿ�.

"Everything always works out for a reason," she said. "I still tell myself now, if all else fails you, you can't fail yourself. You have to keep going with what you have."

University of California, Merced - Patty Guerra

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