Media Watch

ABC News

What causes fire embers to spread more quickly

ABC News -
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
ABC News

Tips for making your home more fire-resilient

ABC News -
We’ve really come to the experts. … They’ve been working for years on how to predict but also how to prepare for wildfires. … So let’s start with what they are studying. We hooked up with UC Irvine’s Tirtha Banerjee and his whole group who’s been doing these field studies while they look at how wildfires spread. They learned a couple of years ago, that the embers can go miles ahead of the fronts of fires but  now they are studying in the field, for the first time, how each of those embers are shaped, their velocities, how they act and this will help predict where fires will go in the future. It will be invaluable research that will then be put into a lot the modeling. Watch More
Philanthropy News Digest

UC Irvine receives $5 million for diversity in STEM fields

Philanthropy News Digest -
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
PhysOrg

Researchers uncover battery-like functions of mitochondria using super-resolution microscopes

Phys.org -
Using new super-resolution microscopes, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Pennsylvania have for the first time observed electrical charge and discharge functions inside mitochondria isolated from cells. … "When we first started studying isolated mitochondria, we knew they behaved like a battery …." said co-author Peter Burke, UCI professor of electrical engineering and computer science. "Now we can control each individual electrical component and cause it to charge and discharge." Read More
KJZZ 91.5

Electric vehicle owners in Phoenix can rent out their charging stations on new Buzze app

KJZZ -
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

Breast cancer detection and safety devices: the Prototypes of Humanity shortlist

Design Week -
A team from the University of California Irvine designed The Blue Box, a device claims to be able to detect breast cancer in urine with a sensitivity of 83%, accuracy of 79% and specificity of 75%. The team also designed it to be radiation-free, pain-free, accessible, low-cost and easy-to-operate. Read More
LAist

One Year Later, Massive University Of California Grad Student Strike Leaves Complicated Legacy For Some

LAist -
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

UC Irvine Teams Earn High Rankings In Orange County Sustainability Decathlon Results

India Education Diary -
“We were already excited to see our luminOCity house become a reality, but to place so well in the Orange County Sustainability Decathlon is definitely the icing on the cake,” said TeamMADE project manager Jennifer Wilkens, director of special projects in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UCI. “We were especially proud to place first in engineering & construction and in market potential, which reassures us that we were on the right track with our ideas and concepts.” Read More
UCI Gets Most of $8M Grant

Stacey Nicholas Gifts $5M to UCI STEM Program

Orange County Business Journal -
University of California, Irvine Foundation trustee Stacey Nicholas has gifted $5 million to a diversity program in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering. The donation will rename the school’s Office of Access and Inclusion to the Stacey Nicholas Office of Outreach, Access and Inclusion. Nicholas’ donation will also create the Women in Engineering Program, which will support women pursuing the field with leadership training and professional development mentorship. Read More

In Space, No One Can Smell Your Many, Many Farts

Jalopnik -
A new story from the New York Times exhaustedly points out that living in space comes with all sorts of “bodily indignities” which should give even the most eager potential space explorer pause. … “This is a report that came out last year from the authors Ronke Olabisi, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and Mae Jemison, a retired NASA astronaut. Sometimes the bladder fills but doesn’t empty, and astronauts need to catheterize themselves." Read More

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