2023 Media Watch Archives
Sand project to rebuild beach in south OC complete — but will it last?
The Orange County Register -
Beachgoers who frequent this south Orange County coastline are enjoying a newly-built beach, a joint effort between the county and the state to revamp the battered stretch. … A big takeaway from the project is early and regular communication with neighboring agencies, officials said. In addition to the county and state working together, the city of Dana Point contracted a team from UC Irvine to do regular monitoring and measurements of the sediment to track its movement in coming months. Read More
States Implement Better Traffic Management With Smart Transportation Systems
State Tech Magazine -
“Intelligent transportation” is not a new concept, says Sarah Catz, a research associate [and lecturer] at the University of California, Irvine’s Institute of Transportation Studies. The first ITS America conference, which she attended, was held 28 years ago. “The big difference now is how far the technologies have advanced and the fact that, today, ITS solutions can be found at just about every transportation agency in the country,” Catz says. Read More
Flooding and water resources for Southern California
KABC-TV -
The FEMA flood risk maps may not accurately reflect the flooding risk. Jochen Schubert, research specialist in the UCI civil engineering department said, “The FEMA maps mostly show flooding from rivers and streams and coastal flooding. They don’t map flooding from rainfall.” Jochen Schubert and his colleagues at UC Irvine have developed their own ways of modeling flood risks in the LA area and have found changes in the land development since the FEMA maps were adopted. “FEMA maps were built so long ago that they don’t capture these changes,” Schubert said. … UC Irvine Flood Lab: More information on the research and models from UCI's Flood Lab …. Watch More
Can College Students Really Design California’s Homes of Tomorrow?
Voice of OC -
Teams of college students from around the world have spent the past year working to design and construct model homes that promote energy-efficient living in California. Just over a dozen teams will compete as part of the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon, a new event aimed at curbing climate change. … The college teams include students from UC Irvine, Orange Coast College, Cal State Fullerton and other schools across the U.S. and the globe. Each team was provided with $100,000 to plan, build and transport their finished model homes to the Costa Mesa fairgrounds, where they will be on display beginning Oct. 5. Read More
Cost of solar panels in California
Consumer Affairs -
Robert Flores, [senior scientist in the Advanced Power & Energy Program], a solar expert at the University of California, Irvine, said it’s smart to upgrade any old appliances before going solar. … Monocrystalline panels are generally considered the “best bang for your buck,” according to Flores. … Aso consider space … “The worst place would be to install on north-facing roofs, especially if those roofs have a high pitch.” For example, if the only place you can install is a north-facing roof with a 30-degree pitch, your cost of going solar will increase by 30% to 40%. The overall amount of electricity produced will be less, and the dollar per unit of electricity gets a lot more expensive, according to Flores. Read More
The First Orange County Sustainability Decathlon Imagines The County’s Future As A Hub For Green Housing
LAist -
Applicants chosen from 14 schools across California and the country were given $100,000 in seed money, and a year-and-a-half to raise more and put together the engineering teams to fully realize their home builds. Now, they'll be competing to see which squad built the most sustainable home, and winners of the Decathlon will get the satisfaction of victory over some of their best and brightest peers. The teams are comprised mostly of college students, some of them local like Cal Poly Pomona, UC Irvine, and CSU Long Beach, but the competition also includes students from as far east as Virginia and Tennessee — even one team from China — who have traveled to Costa Mesa to show off their engineering skills. Read More
Mystery behind how coated nanodiamonds form finally solved
Interesting Engineering -
Applying metal oxides like titanium and zinc could lead to innovative quantum sensing and biological labeling developments. “Nanodiamonds are incredible microtools with immediate applications,” explained Karen Lopez, a biomedical engineering Ph.D. student at the University of California, Irvine, who, like the other SJSU authors, worked on the study as an undergraduate. “Now that we understand how the silica shell forms, we can begin optimizing it and expanding to other materials," she added. Read More
South OC Has A New(ish) Beach. Here's How They Saved The Sand
LAist -
University of California, Irvine, engineering professor Brett Sanders says south Orange County, especially, now has a large sand deficit. "Our natural sand supplies have been significantly reduced," Sanders wrote in an email. Sanders said the sand replenishment project in Dana Point is significant, in part, because it's the first such project along this stretch of the coast in decades. … The Doheny project is also significant, Sanders said, "because local governments have taken responsibility and taken action." … "We’ll also need a long-term plan for higher rates of sea level rise," Sanders said. Read More
Toyota Invests Long-Term in Hydrogen Production
Waste360 -
Toyota has commissioned FuelCell Energy to build a system to make renewable electricity, hydrogen, and water for the car maker’s largest port facility in North America. The project is Toyota’s latest in a series of moves in reach of an ambitious corporate goal: net zero emissions from its operations by 2050. ... FuelCell Energy brought Tri-gen to fruition working with the U.S. Department of Energy, several California agencies, and the University of California at Irvine. Read More
Thessaly: "The existing infrastructure is outdated" - The similarities with Derna in Libya
To Vima -
A strong storm hit the northeastern coast of Libya last Sunday, causing two dams to burst in the port of Derna, causing a torrential flood that has killed more than 5,000 people. These floods are a terrifying example of how infrastructure can collide with climate and geography and ultimately turn a storm into a disaster. However, risk and damage can vary widely, and a whole "recipe" of factors determines the effects of a severe storm in each location, University of California, Irvine civil and environmental engineer [and Professor] Brett Sanders, founder of UCI Flood Lab. Read More