“How is the wind channelized in the gap between two trees? Believe it or not, that actually matters a lot,” says UC Irvine atmospheric scientist [and associate professor of civil & environmental engineering] Tirtha Banerjee, who studies how wind influences wildfire.
“The common denominator here is rising temperatures,” says Amir AghaKouchak, a professor at University of California, Irvine who has studied the future risk of compound events. “Temperature has increased significantly, and it’s contributing to all of [the disasters] and it’s intensifying maybe the relationship between different hazards.” Read More
Teaming up for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon competition in Fall 2015, students from the University of California, Irvine; Chapman University; Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College are building Casa del Sol, a Spanish-inspired, net-zero, solar-powered house for Southern California. Comprised of a research institution, a private university, and two community colleges, Team Orange County incorporates a broad range of perspectives and educational backgrounds.
Leave the wallet at home, soon you may be able to pay for items with a swipe of the sleeve. In a recently published paper, UC Irvine researchers detailed how they developed a flexible textile that allows clothing to communicate with nearby devices. The technology advances near-field technology, which is how people are able to use their smartphones to pay for items in a store.
Amir AghaKouchak, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine, recently co-authored a study in “Science Advances” showing that regions facing drought conditions have warmed four times faster than parts of the country with average weather conditions. That combined effect of heat waves and droughts is contributing to an uptick in the severity of wildfires in California. “Fires are getting more frequent, more intense,” he said.
Scientists developing new materials are studying an unlikely source of strength: a beetle that can withstand being run over by a car. Researchers from Purdue University and the University of California, Irvine, studied the aptly named diabolical ironclad beetle -- Phloeodes diabolicus -- to understand the secret behind its strength. Read More
A group gathered at the UC Irvine one recent day to discuss the “Business of Beaches,” drawing politicians, planners, educators and economic experts to brainstorm ideas to tackle a problem — the shrinking supply of sand that makes up much of the region’s beaches — that could have a domino of disastrous impacts.
A University of California, Irvine associate dean guides her students in studying the latest issues involving law, privacy, and policy, including in social media, AI, and computer networks. “We look at end-user devices — smartphones, smart speakers, browsers, Internet of Things (IoT) — and explore and try to expose whether tech companies collect the data, and whether they use the data for targeting consumers,” said Athina Markopoulou, Ph.D., associate dean for graduate and professional studies at the University of California, Irvine Samueli School of Engineering.
