Patty Guerra

The speakers who will address graduating UC Merced students at their commencement ceremonies May 10-12 come from a variety of backgrounds and achievements, but all three are vanguards in their fields.

UC Merced's School of Engineering is expanding its offerings into some exciting areas.

Most recently, the university added a major in aerospace engineering, one of the fastest-growing industries in California, with the number of jobs projected to grow 8.5 percent in the next decade, according to the proposal to add the major. The new major begins in fall 2025.

Ensuring people have access to reliable, clean water is no game.

Except when it is.

UC Merced's Secure Water Future interns, administrative assistant and coordinator joined the university's Game Development Club to host the "Aqua Arcade Game Jam" in early April. Dozens of students from UC Merced and Merced College competed to develop a game that included an aspect of hydrology education.

Sometimes public service at UC Merced looks like finding ways to grow crops with a changing water supply. Or delving into how children translate for their non-English-speaking parents.

And sometimes it looks like picking up a paintbrush and refurbishing park benches and curbs at Lake Yosemite.

The newest major in UC Merced's School of Engineering is one of the most exciting subjects in - and out of - this world.

Aerospace engineering, one of the fastest-growing industries in the state, will be available as a major area of study at the university in fall 2025.

The adoption of an aerospace engineering major at UC Merced is exciting for all the romantic reasons you might expect - visions of alumni working on satellites and spacecraft and taking part in missions to explore the vast frontier.

A UC Merced undergraduate student's work at NASA helped ensure the space agency will have cost-effective and efficient communications.

Tejas Bhartiya, who recently graduated from the university after only 2.5 years, also last month concluded an internship with NASA's Goddard Space Center.

The Goddard Space Flight Center, based in Greenbelt, Md., is home to the nation's largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study Earth, the sun, the solar system and the universe, according to its website.

Editor's note: In honor of Black History Month, the UC Merced newsroom is highlighting some of the organizations, services and people who serve or represent the Black community on campus.

UC Merced's Black Student Coalition has tripled in size in just the past year.

Editor's note: In honor of Black History Month, the UC Merced newsroom is highlighting some of the organizations, services and people who serve or represent the Black community on campus.

An organization that was created in a time of tragedy and crisis has been a force for good for UC Merced's Black community.

Using magnetic resource imaging, or MRI, to harmlessly detect seeds in Mandarin oranges. Identification of pathogens in an image library with artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose plant disease. Creating a robot to more efficiently manufacture a robot. Building a user-friendly database to organize information for a global tech organization. Production-grade employee coaching and training applications for a large cold chain industry and a multinational computer storage company.

UC Merced police officers Enrique Rodriguez and Brian Carbaugh were on routine patrol July 26. Carbaugh had recently joined the department and was undergoing field training with Rodriguez.

At 6:22 p.m., they were dispatched to the Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation Center on campus for a medical aid call. A gentleman who had been involved in a pickup basketball game had collapsed.

"The report was that someone was having a heart attack," said Chief Chou Her. "When they arrived, people were performing CPR and attaching the automatic external defibrillator."