Media Watch

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine who study the behavior of fire embers have determined the majority of fire damage in major wildfires comes from embers that have the ability to move far away from the actual burn site. They also have studied how strong wind gusts can send even large embers flying long distances where they can land and create new spot fires. "We are trying to understand under what conditions the embers are lofted away from the fire," Tirtha Banerjee, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Irvine, told ABC News. "So, how fast do they emerge? How many of these embers can emerge and how far they can really land?" Watch More

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) has announced a $5 million gift from UCI Foundation trustee Stacey Nicholas to support diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. The gift to the Henry Samueli School of Engineering will endow and rename the Stacey Nicholas Office of Outreach, Access, and Inclusion, a campus program that supports the recruitment, retention, and graduation of students to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields. In addition, the gift will create the Women and Engineering Program, which will provide leadership training, mentorship, and professional development to promote the success and advancement of women in engineering. Read More

Analysts cite a number of factors for consumer’s hesitancy to buy an EV — price is often a big one. But so too can be the infrastructure needed to charge an EV, and how available chargers are. A local start-up, called Buzze, is looking to help in that area. Owners of EV chargers can essentially rent them out to EV drivers who are looking for a place to plug in. It’s a mobile app …. To talk about how effective this kind of peer-to-peer platform can be is Matt Dean, an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California, Irvine, where his work looks at sustainable transportation. Read More

UC Irvine doctoral student Tia Chung-Swanson didn't miss the reminder of how her life changed a year ago. … One photo shows her on the first day of the UC graduate student strike on Nov. 14, 2022. She’s holding a megaphone. She was one of nearly 50,000 graduate students across 10 University of California campuses whose United Auto Workers-affiliated locals went on strike for higher pay and better working conditions. “[In science] you're asking hard questions that people don't know the answer to, you have to constantly devise experiments to try to prove yourself wrong, and [it] just involves so much and back and forth between the mentor and the mentee … counting hours is something that's never been on our radar," said Elliot Botvinick, a UC Irvine professor in the departments of surgery and biomedical engineering. … “Now I feel like an employer, which is an absolute catastrophe from the point of view of doing science,” he said. The contract and its rules, he said, are affecting his lab’s productivity. But the previous arrangement of low pay for full time-plus work had to change, he added. Read More