Media Watch
As a hotter, drier climate grips the Colorado River, water risks grow across the Southwest
The Arizona Republic -
“The main issue is the snow drought everywhere in the entire West, including Arizona, Utah, California, Colorado,” said Amir AghaKouchak, a professor in UC Irvine’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “When the snow is below average, it means low-flow situations in summer, drier soil moisture. And drier soil moisture increases the chance of heat waves.” The upshot, he said, is that “we have to prepare for a different hydrologic cycle, basically.” Read More
California's wildfire season has lengthened, and its peak is now earlier in the year
Phys.org -
Researchers in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine have conducted a thorough analysis of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection wildfire statistics from 2000 to 2019, comparing them with data from 1920 to 1999. They learned that the annual burn season has lengthened in the past two decades and that the yearly peak has shifted from August to July. The team's findings are the subject of a study published today in the open-access journal Scientific Reports. Read More
Startups & Innovations – New hires
Orange County Business Journal -
GATC Health of Irvine announced Jonathan Lakey will lead the development of the company’s diagnoses and treatment platform. He also joined its board of advisors. Lakey is a professor of surgery and biomedical engineering and the director of the clinical islet program at the University of California, Irvine. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
Running on Empty: There's a Lot to Like About Hydrogen, If You Can Find It
Car and Driver -
Jack Brouwer, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center at the University of California, Irvine, says it's "very unfortunate that the infrastructure has not been sufficient for quite a few people" who drive hydrogen-powered vehicles. Certainly, he says, it hasn't grown as quickly as EV-charging infrastructure, with "many more millions spent" on those stations. In December, California pledged $115 million to add up to 111 more hydrogen-fueling stations by 2027. "I'd suggest it's too slow, but it is coming along," Brouwer says. Read More
Egerstedt Named UCI Samueli Engineering School Dean
Orange County Business Journal -
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine named Magnus Egerstedt its dean. He will begin in July. …“I look forward to working to ensure that the UCI Samueli School of Engineering is a place where we support and celebrate each other; where we partner seamlessly across disciplinary boundaries; where diverse groups of faculty, students and staff come together to have impact at scale on the defining issues of our time; and where we reach out and partner with our local communities,” Egerstedt said. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
Orange County Water District works to clean polluted groundwater from decades of manufacturing
Daily Pilot -
Russell Detwiler, UC Irvine associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, said many sites of similar magnitude on the Superfund list still end up taking decades. “That’s the cost of these things, it is easy to contaminate an aquifer, it’s very difficult to get it back to its pristine state,” Detwiler said. Detwiler was brought in to provide expert testimony by a law firm of a defendant in the South Basin lawsuit. He said he didn’t end up being deposed or providing any on-the-record testimony. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.] Read More
LaserChick inspires students through her journey in STEM
City Times Media -
[Desiré] Whitmore then studied at the University of California, Irvine, where she earned a Masters of Science and a Ph.D. in chemical and material sciences. She then worked with some of the fastest lasers on earth during her post-doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. … Now a Senior Physics Educator at the Exploratorium, an interactive museum of “Science, Art and Human Perception” in San Francisco, Whitmore designs learning experiences for the museum’s teacher institute. Read More
Breast Cancer-Detecting Blue Box Allows Women to Swap Mammograms for At-Home Tests
Yahoo News -
For her work, [Judit Giró] Benet won the James Dyson 2020 Award, a scientific and engineering contest. “The day that James Dyson told me that I had won the International prize was a real turning point as the prize money will allow me to patent more extensively and expedite research and software development I am doing at the University of California Irvine,” she says. “But, most of all, hearing that he believes in my idea has given me the confidence I need at this vital point.” Read More
AI Is Changing the Workforce. At This District, It’s Changing the Curriculum Too
EdSurge -
Anaheim Union High School District Superintendent Michael Matsuda s quick to point out that Anaheim isn’t just “rebranding a computer science class and calling it artificial intelligence.” He credits partnerships with Neil Sahota, a United Nations AI advisor and a [lecturer in the school of engineering], at UC Irvine, and several private sector organizations with helping to drive the momentum. Read More
Opinion: Voice: Government can help advance economic resiliency in Coachella Valley and its environs
The Desert Sun -
Another joint effort between local government, and either academia or the federal government, that I would like to see explored is the development of microgrids. As I noted in a Valley Voice here in November 2019, we have local expertise at the National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC) at UC Irvine. The NFCRC is a part of the Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP) at the school and was founded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission. Read More