"What a microgrid is, is the ability for a battery to operate, separate from a utility, a number of lots," said Scott Hansen, vice president of KB Homes Forward Planning and Land Development. "If you want to think of it like an island of power unto itself." … The idea started two years ago with a federal grant and joint partnership between University of California-Irvine, KB Homes, SoCal Edison and SunPower. "How do we provide reliability to our customers?

"We know we're taking more than we're putting back in – how long do we have before we can't do that anymore?" said Alexandra Richey, who conducted the studies as a graduate student at UC Irvine. "We don't know, but we keep pumping. Which to me is terrifying." … Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a UC Irvine professor, said that aquifers should be studied and valued the same way as precious oil reserves.

Maaikee Pronda, the reigning Miss Fountain Valley, was crowned second runner-up at the Miss California competition in Fresno Friday. … At age 20, Pronda earned her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering at UC Irvine .… She graduated magna cum laude from both Fountain Valley High School and UC Irvine.  At UCI, she was president of the Engineering Student Council and initiated “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day,” which partnered local companies with Girls Scouts and their parents during an interactive learning event.