University of California, Merced - Patty Guerra

UC Investment Academy Propels Students to Financial Career Success

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 19:00:15 +0000

July 14, 2025

By Patty Guerra, �鶹��

The UC Investments Academy educates, motivates and trains students for careers in investing and finance.

This summer, 2024 �鶹�� graduate Tatiana Howell is set to begin working as a wealth management analyst with Goldman Sachs. She got the job through tenacity, a strong work ethic and participation in an innovative program that prepared her and other students to work in the financial sector.

The UC Investments Academy educates, motivates and professionally trains students for careers in investing and finance, at no cost.

Originated by UC Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher, the academy launched in 2022 with 100 students at �鶹�� and has since expanded to include 1,000 students on campus and 4,500 throughout the UC system.

The academy has two tracks:

An intensive career track aimed at those who want to pursue the industry professionally and involves five to 10 hours of work per week.
A personal finance track, which is for those who want to learn more about managing their own portfolios and requires about a one-hour-per-week commitment.

"For years, we kept hearing about a 'pipeline problem' in the finance industry," Bachher said. "At UC, we're in the business of building pipelines. We saw the opportunity to turn talk into action - and the Investments Academy was our answer. It's about unlocking potential and creating pathways to success for our students."

In only three years, the academy already is seeing results.

"The academy is making a big impact on career readiness and job placement," said Brian O'Bruba, assistant vice chancellor for student engagement at �鶹��.

Howell took part in the program's first cohort, which is supplemental to regular UC courses. She said she was excited for the unique opportunity.

"I took a global markets and investment course with (economic and business management lecturer) Mark Harris, and he shifted the whole landscape of the class to be centered around understanding the industry," she said. "I got to meet the UC Investments team and do the Training the Street program as a final project."

Training The Street offers targeted courses in accounting, corporate finance, financial modeling, and valuation to academic, corporate and public enrollment clients. It is used by financial institutions worldwide.

"Students in the UC Investments Academy gain practical, career-relevant training that mirrors what entry-level professionals would receive at a top investment firm," said Economics and Business Management Professor Jason Lee. "The academy is designed to make the world of finance and investing more accessible, especially for students without prior knowledge or experience."

Tiler Fears, who came to �鶹�� to play basketball, knew he was interested in business and finance.

"This academy provided a direction," he said. In addition to the training, the academy provided valuable networking opportunities that led Fears to two internships, one at Mercer Investments and one at L'Attitude Ventures.

Fears has since graduated and landed a job as a client account manager at Albourne, an alternative investment consulting firm.

"It was great being able to hear from different industry professionals and kind of just shaping my exposure to the industry," he said. Though the academy is a lot of work at times, he said he appreciated the ability to go at his own pace.

For Eshaan Kajani, the program led him into a new and unexpected direction.

"I did not know that much about finance other than paying taxes and bills before the Investments Academy," said Kajani, now a second-year law student at Georgetown University. "I joined my junior year after taking Economies of Investments and realizing how interesting financial markets were. The academy opened doors to learning more about the financial world and the way markets operate."

Kajani said he will be working in a law firm in a practice group that works with hedge funds and private equity firms, "the very same businesses I was learning about during my time with the Investment Academy."

Lee said students get four key benefits from taking part in the academy:

Hands-on technical training in financial modeling, valuation and investment analysis.
Invitations to live speaker sessions featuring industry professionals.
Financial literacy workshops that teach students how to build personal wealth and make informed financial decisions.
Career strategy sessions with members of the UC Investments team and other investment professionals who mentor students on how to navigate the job market.

"Most students leave the program with greater confidence and gain valuable connections in the finance world," Lee said.

The students agreed.

"I had a great experience," Fears said. "I think it prepared me mentally and physically, getting the training and knowing the lingo and industry terms and what these companies are expecting."

For Howell, the Investment Academy opened doors to opportunities she didn't know existed.

"You can work in these spaces that are almost Ivy League institutions," she said. "It's a place to go and learn as much as you can about being the best of the best in this industry."

For more information about the program or to apply, contact UC Investments at UCinvestmentsacademy@ucop.edu .

Imagination the Only Limitation at �鶹��'s Makerspace

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 18:00:11 +0000

By Patty Guerra, �鶹��

July 9, 2025

A new program allows students to check out 3D printers.

�鶹��'s Makerspace lab has been living up to its name recently.

The School of Engineering's lab, housed in the Sustainability Research and Engineering building, has been increasingly busy. The Makerspace offers services to courses, research and campus clubs.

Last year, Makerspace staff came to the rescue of Dining Services after a plastic bushing on the door of a cooker in the Pavilion broke. The bushing, part of a latch that holds the lid on the quarter-ton large, tilting skillet, isn't made anymore.

The replacement part was fabricated on a 3D printer in the Makerspace lab. It is believed to be the first time the technique, also known as additive manufacturing, was used to replace a machine part at a �鶹�� facility.

Students, staff and faculty can make projects in the space after taking part in a roughly 30-minute training session on the equipment. Pretty quickly, they can be creating something nifty on one of the facility's printers or laser cutters.

"We really focus on making sure students get hands-on experience," said Salvador Diaz, instructional lab coordinator. "It gets very busy here during the end of the semester."

As of this spring, the Makerspace had hosted 300 students to make figurines, an airless soccer ball and even a Boba Fett helmet.

The space is free for students, staff and faculty to use for personal projects. They must pay for materials. It's not expensive - material can be purchased for $20 or $25 and turned into printing projects.

And if you can't make it to the Makerspace, the Makerspace will come to you. A new program will allow students to check out portable 3-D printers for off-site projects. Thirty printers are available and will be part of a pilot project starting this week.

"We are student-run," said Jose Morales, also an instructional lab coordinator. "We are open when we have student staff. During peak times, we'll get 15-20 students in here." The facility is typically open from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.

A 3D printer creates by squirting out layer upon layer of melted material, following a digital blueprint of the desired shape.

"We call regular printers you'd have in an office a 2D printer," Diaz said.

The machine shop next door is also open to students. It operates in a similar yet opposite manner to the Makerspace. Users can create projects, but rather than building them out of material from scratch, they take materials and remove or carve out parts to get the desired result.

"That's subtractive manufacturing, and what we do in here is additive manufacturing," Morales said.

Campus organizations have used the Makerspace to create items for events. Miniatures of the Beginnings sculpture are a popular request. For Bobcat Day, students created tokens to give to prospective students.

"Whether you're studying engineering, art, or anything in between, our Makerspace is open to all," Diaz said. "If you can imagine it, we can help you bring it to life - no experience needed. Come learn to 3D print, create and explore what's possible."

More information on the Makerspace is available on the facility's website.

Honors Student from Merced Ready for Next Big Step

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 18:00:15 +0000

July 8, 2025

"I truly believe this school will open so many opportunities for me."

This is part of a series of profiles of new �鶹�� Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester.

Leslie Perez-Cruz will start at �鶹�� with several accomplishments already under her belt - she took classes at Merced College while attending high school and is a certified nursing assistant, on her way to become an emergency room technician and ultimately attend medical school.

Where I come from: I am a local here, born and raised in Merced. I graduated from El Capitan High School, which is about four to five minutes from �鶹��.

What I've done: As a student from ECHS, I graduated as salutatorian and was on the honor roll all four years. I was able to become a CNA during my high school years. I was involved in the aquatics program, where I played water polo for three years and did competitive swimming for two years. While at school, I would also work in my parents' family business at flea markets, where we would sell aguas frescas.

Why are you excited about coming to �鶹��? I truly believe this school will open so many opportunities to me. I am excited about the hands-on opportunities and learning new things within my major. I'm excited for the fresh new start and campus life.

Academic and personal goals:I wish to accomplish an amazing application for medical school once I graduate. I wish to build beautiful bonds with friends and my professors. I want to build strong academic resources that will help me build skills and knowledge to succeed. Personally, I want to grow as an individual, becoming more independent, confident and involved.

Favorite food: My favorite food will forever be clayudas, an Oaxacan dish.

What do you do to relax? Swimming. It helps me feel free and not worry about anything.

You can teleport anywhere in the world for a three-day weekend. Where do you go? Lake Tahoe. It is an amazing place to connect with nature and just relax.

Quotable: "If you are new to Merced, I will be happy to show you around the town."

Project Envisioning Air Transport Between UC Campuses Earns Award

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:00:14 +0000

By Patty Guerra, �鶹��

June 24, 2025

The �鶹�� team won the CITRIS Aviation Excellence award.

A simulation for a proposed air transport system among University of California campuses earned an award for a team of �鶹�� students.

Advised by mechanical engineering Professor Francesco Danzi, students Kyra Ruiz, Randy Serrano, Ana Hernandez, Samir Ahmed and Eduardo Miramontes competed against three other teams in the 2024-25 CITRIS Aviation Prize design contest. Teams developed air operations simulation software for a proposed air transportation system between the four CITRIS campuses.

The �鶹�� team won the CITRIS Aviation Excellence award.

The competition is held annually by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS), a UC research center focused on creating IT solutions that generate societal and economic benefits for everyone. A �鶹�� team won the very first contest in 2021-22, with a design for a 115-mile-long autonomous drone endurance flight.

"I think the most challenging aspect was doing the research to figure out what we needed and piecing it all together," said Ahmed, a first-year student from Fremont. "The most fun was just working with the team."

Team members named their project Corvus Systems, inspired by the constellation Corvus, which they said closely resembles the layout of the four UC campuses on a map. Their main objective, according to the executive summary, was to develop a sustainable model for electrical vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) services between campuses.

The team developed a modular simulation environment integrating real-time flight scheduling, optimization algorithms, multi-modal ground transportation and 3D virtual modeling of UC campuses.

"As their faculty mentor, I find it immensely rewarding to watch our students succeed," Danzi said. "Our team was composed entirely of undergraduates, and it is remarkable that they earned this award even before our formal aerospace engineering curriculum launches next fall. All five students are active members of �鶹��'s American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics chapter, where they sharpen their aerospace skills through hands-on projects - and that experience clearly paid off here."

Danzi said he also is deeply grateful to Brandon Stark, director of the University of California Center of Excellence on Unmanned Aircraft Systems Safety, for invaluable insights he shared with the team throughout the competition. The center provides system-wide expertise to all UC campuses, cooperative extensions and other research stations across the state of California.

Ruiz said the team had to do a lot of work to balance the skillsets among members.

"The presentation was the most fun, which was ironic because I kept complaining about it," said Ruiz, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major from Riverside. "We had to present in front of a bunch of big-name companies. They'd ask you technical questions. It was like a puzzle."

Though the project involved a simulation, the team members said they could see a day when people will hop into an air car between campuses and towns. I do believe air mobility is a thing that's going to happen, whether in the UC system or outside of it," Ruiz said. "But we have to figure out the infrastructure and change the laws and regulations around it."

More information about the competition is available on the CITRIS Aviation Prize website.

Disruptions in the Digital Supply Chain Can Have Major Physical Impacts

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 20:05:11 +0000

By Patty Guerra, �鶹��

June 9, 2025

A computer systems failure of one service provider can delay hundreds of flights.

Last July, a glitch in a software upgrade by a cybersecurity company impacted 8.5 million computers, resulting in the cancellation of 2,800 flights and delays for 11,000 more.

In an increasingly computerized world, digital supply chains use data and analytics to manage the flow of goods, services and information. These chains are increasingly interconnected and vulnerable to disruption, �鶹�� management of complex systems Professor Lisa Yeo wrote in a recent issue of The Conversation, based on a paper she co-wrote for the Association of Computing Machinery.

"Combating threats to the digital supply chain is the top challenge for leaders in most supply chain industries," Yeo and her co-authors wrote.

The global havoc triggered by the faulty CrowdStrike update last July is just one of the latest examples of the fragility of a world that depends on a few digital providers for crucial computing services.

In April 2019, a computer systems failure of service provider AeroData, which delivers flight planning services to Southwest, United, American and Delta airlines, among others, grounded hundreds of flights.

"The synchronization of disruptions for firms that use a common service provider has implications for service provider choice and investment," Yeo wrote.

She and her paper co-authors, researchers from the University of Calgary, Cal Poly Pomona and the University of Alberta, analyzed how disruptions at a service provider impact a company's customer demand and how this affects the company's choices in managing risk. They also looked at the effects on customer service and profit.

"An overlooked factor in deciding a firm's (information and communications technology) provider is the demand effects of using a common or separate provider," co-author Hooman Hidaji, professor of business technology management at Haskayne School of Business, told the University of Calgary. "This is a mechanism by which supply chain decisions are impacted, and one which had not been explored before - that is, whether to use common or separate providers based on disruption risks and downstream substitutions or complementarities."

The researchers examined the benefits of diversifying the supplier base - so if one supply chain were disrupted, it wouldn't affect all or most of the involved industry.

Though they cited airlines in their work, they noted that other areas also can be struck. For example, artificial intelligence is transforming industries such as customer support and health care, making digital supply chain disruptions more likely in those industries.

Several factors, such as rapidly changing technology, expanding opportunities for attacks, high costs to address privacy and security, and lack of employee awareness, make addressing the concerns challenging.

But there are ways to mitigate the risks, the researchers found.

"For businesses, building resilience against digital supply chain disruptions and supplier outages requires strategic partnerships," they wrote. "Companies must consider how inevitable disruptions will affect not only their customer demand, but also how competitors' disruptions could affect them, and vice versa."

Industry coalitions and government regulators also play a role. Understanding the ripple effects of a shared digital supply chain can help determine what regulations should be implemented.

Customers should also be aware of the potential for disruptions to the digital supply chain and have workaround plans. This can be as simple as booking a flight a day earlier than necessary or allowing extra time to return home in case of a disruption with an airline service provider.

�鶹�� Brings Climate Justice Course to Title I High School Students Across the Nation

Anonymous — Wed, 28 May 2025 23:11:19 +0000

By Patty Guerra, �鶹��

May 28, 2025

Recently, more than 150 students at 10 high schools in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C. completed Climate Justice, a �鶹�� course , through a unique partnership between the University of California and the National Education Equity Lab.

Guided by its mantra, "Talent is evenly distributed, opportunity is not," the partners with leading universities across the United States to deliver select college courses for students at high schools in historically underserved communities nationwide.

Courses offered through the Lab challenge students to develop skills and habits that are markers of college readiness; the Lab also prepares students for future success in higher-ed learning environments by facilitating mentoring from university professors and graduate students. Students can earn high school credit and widely transferable university credit.

As part of President Michael Drake's priorities, the University of California in 2024 became the first university system to partner with the Lab. Following the success of Climate Justice, UC and the Lab are offering Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions this spring at six high schools in New York and Miami. UC plans to offer additional undergraduate courses through the Lab in the coming years.

Climate Justice is offered through the Department of Management of Information, Sustainability and Technology (MIST). Drawing inspiration from a long history of social justice movements, the course seeks to educate a new generation of climate justice changemakers through transformative lectures centering around intersectional equity issues and using a holistic systems perspective.

The course was designed by Professor Tracey Osborne, founding director of the UC Center for Climate Justice and Presidential Chair in the Management of Complex Systems Department at �鶹��. Lectures are organized across the six pillars of climate justice: Just Transition; Social, Racial and Environmental Justice; Indigenous Climate Action; Community Resilience and Adaptation; Natural Climate Solutions; and Climate Education and Engagement.

The course's content and academic rigor in the Lab offering are equal to that of the traditional course at �鶹��; the only difference is delivery. With Lab courses, high school students engage online once a week with "teaching fellows" - graduate and undergraduate students who contextualize content, run discussion sessions, develop and implement activities and solidify understanding. On the course's other days, teachers at the high schoolsfacilitate recorded lectures, individual assignments and engagement prompts, using a teaching guide developed as part of the course curriculum. Each week's content applies to the next week, and weekly assessments ensure understanding so that each week can build upon the previous one.

The UC instructional team consisted of faculty and graduate students from UCs Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz. Osborne served as founder and co-director with UC Davis Professor Julie Sze and UC Santa Barbara Professor Javiera Barandiarán. Sierra Nevada Research Institute researcher Deb L. Morrison was the project manager. Lupe Franco, UC Davis Ph.D. candidate in Geography, and Kristin Hogue, Ph.D. student in Cultural Studies at UC Davis, were responsible for in-class and virtual lesson plans and student interactions. Three undergraduate �鶹�� students supported the course as readers.

The shift from in-person college courses for undergraduates to online college courses for historically underrepresented high school students came with challenges, but the affordances of the online opportunity more than made up for the obstacles.

"A lot of the students don't have stable internet," said Sze. "And some struggled with the assignments because it's college-level content. It's going to be hard. But overall, the students had an amazing experience. There were moments I would hear about in weekly meetings (with Franco and Hogue) where a lecture went really well and blew the students' minds."

Franco, who researches climate change and homelessness in California, was similarly impressed with the students' tenacity in the course.

"Being a part of high school students' experience taking a UC-level course on climate justice was incredibly rewarding, and an immense learning opportunity," she said. "It was fascinating to see how their diverse backgrounds shaped their lived experiences and how they connected the content to their own communities and the issues they faced locally. For instance, students from Southern California engaged differently than those from New York, as the climate change risks in their regions vary greatly."

She said navigating high school and the demands of a college-level program presented a steep learning curve for the enrolled students.

"It was crucial to consider everyone's capacity when developing lesson plans and providing support," she said. Franco and Hogue used a suite of online education tools supported through the Lab to scaffold the learning experience, including breaking down complex concepts into shorter parts with opportunities for reflection, offering regular office hours, and incorporating interactive activities regularly.

"Climate Justice is truly innovative, featuring lectures from leading faculty across the UC system working at the intersection of climate and equity," Osborne said. "It was an honor to share this important curriculum with high school students nationwide. The success of the course is a testament to our incredible instructional team - our teaching fellows, readers, the Center's Academic Coordinator and partners - who made the experience engaging, rigorous and meaningful for students."

Franco said the class was "more than just an academic experience. It was a space for students to engage deeply with real-world issues, reflect on their communities and develop a sense of agency in addressing climate justice."

She said she was surprised by how engaged the students were and how deep their insights were in connecting with the material.

"My hope is that the students leave feeling empowered to question everything, inspired to make a difference in the world and reassured that a future built on love, care and equity for everyone is possible," Franco said. "Most importantly, I hope they recognize they have the power to be a part of that change."

'It's Ours!' Merced Selected for UC's Newest Campus 30 Years Ago

Anonymous — Mon, 19 May 2025 18:00:41 +0000

By Patty Guerra, �鶹��

May 19, 2025

The �鶹�� campus, once only a dream, has flourished. Photo by Sarah Boyle

On May 18, 1995, the University of California Board of Regents voted to select Merced as the site for its ninth undergraduate campus.

To get to that point, Merced had to beat out what started as a list of 85 potential sites drawn up in 1989, after regents announced the year before they wanted to explore opening as many as three new campuses.

Ahead of the final selection, the regents had winnowed the list down to two: a site near the banks of Lake Yosemite outside Merced and one on Table Mountain in Madera County. The Central Valley was targeted because it was the largest population area of the state not directly served by a UC campus.

Merced's bid boasted the winning combination of donated property by a single landowner, the ready availability of water and passionate community support that included postcards from thousands of local schoolchildren.

Regent Roy T. Brophy seemed to speak for many on the board when he described the Madera County site as simply "too iffy."

"The real issue here today is which site has the best chance in the long run of becoming a reality," Brophy said, according to the Los Angeles Times. "I think without question it's (Merced)."

Community members who had lobbied for Merced for years returned from the vote to a celebratory lunch, according to the Merced Sun-Star, whose headline the next day of "It's Ours!" leaped from the page in the size of type reserved for heralding major news.

It was the culmination of several years of work by a citizens' committee led by Bob Carpenter that included Tim Razzari, Judy Campbell, and numerous other elected officials and community members.

"I don't think I've ever been prouder of this community, the way we pulled together and stuck together," said then-City Councilman Dennis Cardoza, who later would serve in the state Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives.

The city of Merced had already eyed the Lake Yosemite area for expansion, so the campus location fit right into its plans.

"We had planned on growing to the north and wrapping around the northern part of the lake before UC was even a possibility," planning director Phil Block said, according to the Merced Sun-Star. "So we really don't have to alter what we have been planning for the next eight or 10 years."

Getting the vote from the Regents was a tremendous accomplishment, but there would be more hurdles to overcome. Even as they voted for the new campus, officials warned that there was no money to build it.

"We have neither the resources nor the plan to start a campus," then-UC President Jack Peltason said after the vote, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "If I had to guess, we are 10 years away from confronting the problem of starting to build the new campus."

Peltason's prediction was a bit off: Administrators began work in leased offices at the former Castle Air Force Base in 2002, and two years later, faculty welcomed �鶹��'s first graduate students. Ten years after the vote, �鶹�� welcomed undergraduates to its North Lake Road campus.

Since then, �鶹�� has stayed true to its founding mission: expanding access to a University of California education. The campus has grown from its modest beginnings into a premier research institution and is now consistently among the highest-ranked universities for social mobility. Its student population is mainly from California, the first in their families to attend college and reflects the state's diverse population.

"For far too long, lower-income students, including those from our region, were told that a UC education was unattainable," said Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz. "But thanks to the tireless work of our faculty and staff, as well as our partners and supporters, that is no longer the case."

The university serves more than 9,000 students, with more than 60 undergraduate academic programs and 18 graduate programs. Researchers are tackling real-world issues such as climate change and artificial intelligence, and students get a world-class education in the heart of the Central Valley.

�鶹�� has become a major economic driver for the local community and the Northern San Joaquin Valley, infusing an estimated $372.9 million into Merced County and $514.6 million into the San Joaquin Valley each year.

Thirty years after it was made official, �鶹�� continues to grow. Construction is underway on the Medical Education Building, which will house the SJV Prime+ B.S. to M.D. program, and soon will begin on a new housing facility and classroom building. Next year, �鶹�� will start competing in NCAA Division II sports. The campus was annexed into the city of Merced last year, and officials are planning the community that will grow around the site.

At a time when public universities face mounting challenges, �鶹�� symbolizes what can be achieved when access, equity and excellence are pursued together - with the backing of a tenacious community. And a few hundred postcards.

How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Fuel Record-Breaking Wildfires in 2020? New Study Explains

Anonymous — Mon, 05 May 2025 20:43:24 +0000

By Patty Guerra, �鶹��

May 5, 2025

Nearly 10,000 fires burned more than 4.2 million acres in 2020. Photo courtesy of CalFire

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many facets of life, including health care, schools and the work environment.

A new study by �鶹�� researchers shows evidence that the pandemic also fueled an elevated number of wildfires in the United States that year.

How?

With schools and businesses shutting down and people trying to maintain safe social distances outside their pandemic pods, many headed out to nature for respite. That contributed to a 36% increase in the number of recreation-caused fires, like campfires, in 2020.

The study led by Adam Jorge, a Ph.D. student in the Management of Complex Systems program, showed that 2020 had one of the highest numbers of human-caused ignitions in the past three decades.

Those fires consumed a record-breaking amount of land in the Western United States. According to CalFire, nearly 10,000 fires burned over 4.2 million acres, more than 4% of the state's roughly 100 million acres of land, making 2020 the largest wildfire season recorded in California's modern history.

The �鶹�� research team, in partnership with Oregon State University, Boise State University and USDA Forest Service scientists, reviewed nearly 30 years of fire ignition records, weather data, public land visitation data and data from Google's Community Mobility Reports to assess the influence of social disruptions indirectly tied to COVID-19 on wildfire ignitions. The study spans 11 Western states and specifically explores the distinct patterns in the increased number of debris burning, recreational use and fireworks-caused ignitions observed in 2020.

The article - "COVID-19 Fueled an Elevated Number of Human-Caused Ignitions in the Western United States During the 2020 Wildfire Season" - was recently published in Earth's Future. Among its key findings:

Human-Caused Ignitions Surged: The number of human-started wildfires in 2020 was nearly 20% higher than the 1992-2019 average. Specific fire ignition causes such campfires, fireworks, debris burning and powerlines were also among the highest on record.
COVID-19 Behavioral Shifts: Increased human presence in wildland areas - driven by social distancing measures and closures of indoor spaces - favored ignitions that further compounded fire management efforts.
Weak Climate Correlation: Unlike burned area, which was linked to anomalous dryness, the spike in ignitions had a weak correlation with climate factors.

"Reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic altered mobility, recreation and fire management operations, and these changes led to increased and unsafe human interactions with fire-prone lands," Jorge said. "While we used COVID-19 as an experiment, changes in behavior resemble other social disruptions that impact fire management, such as government shutdowns, economic recessions and extreme weather conditions, which can limit resources for managing recreational lands and enforcing fire prevention measures."

Human sources ignite the majority of wildfires.

"Our results show how sensitive the environment is to behavioral changes," Jorge said. "Understanding the intersection of human behavior and fire ignitions is critical to mitigating future wildfire risks, especially as we face similar disruptions, such as sudden decreases in staffing or funding for parks and land management."

The increasing number of large wildfires in the Western United States poses severe risks to human health and the environment. Climate change and years of fire suppression have left the west susceptible to wildfire, and these risks are exacerbated by increased human presence in fire-prone landscapes.

The pandemic demonstrated how unexpected events can significantly alter human-environment interactions, and future fire management plans should incorporate contingency strategies for such disruptions, the researchers argue. Strengthening collaboration between public land agencies, local governments and fire departments can ensure more effective fire prevention and response efforts. The authors believe this study underscores the need for enhanced public awareness, enforcement of fire safety regulations and strategic resource allocation to mitigate human-caused ignitions in an increasingly fire-prone world.

The research team included �鶹�� co-authors, Professor Crystal Kolden, director of the �鶹�� Fire Resilience Center, professors John Abatzoglou and Jeff Jenkins, and postdoctoral research scientist Emily L. Williams. The work was supported through grants from the Department of the Interior's Joint Fire Science Program and the National Science Foundation.

Researchers Look Ahead to Fire Season 2025

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 23:16:47 +0000

By Patty Guerra, �鶹��

April 22, 2025

The Palisades and Eaton fires destroyed nearly 7,000 structures in January 2025. Photo courtesy of CalFire

Pictures accompanying Professor John Abatzoglou's presentation on the 2025 fire season were blurry. That was intentional, he said, because so much about wildfire is unpredictable.

"There's a lot that we know, and a lot we don't know," he said.

However, Abatzoglou said, some conclusions can be drawn and measures taken to prepare. The management of complex systems professor spoke at a Fire Resilience Seminar hosted by �鶹�� on April 17. �鶹�� researchers Crystal Kolden and Sandie Ha and the founder of disaster information app Watch Duty, John Mills, also took part.

California has seen a significant increase in wildfires in the last 50 years, Abatzoglou said. "The last decade or so, it's been a bit of a roller coaster." The 2022 and 2023 seasons, for example, were relatively quiet.

Hotter, drier weather, which the Western United States has increasingly seen in the summer months, can exacerbate conditions. And wetter months ahead of those dry, hot days can provide more fuel for fires.

A short series of hot days can change conditions quickly.

"Heat waves are another key ingredient for catalyzing fire," Abatzoglou said. "Half of the burned area in California happened either during or in the three days after a heat event."

This year, a fairly wet winter in northern California will likely slightly delay the start of fire season. Southern California remains in drought conditions, but had a wetter-than-normal March, which might also stave off fires for a while.

"We're probably not going to see anything really interesting right now or over the next few months, but come summer, if we don't get any significant rain events…things could be on," Abatzoglou said.

The forecast for the upcoming fire season is unclear in April.

Other factors include winds and lightning - which caused destructive fires in August 2020 - and human behavior. According to the National Parks Service, nearly 85 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by humans, including campfires left unattended, the burning of debris, equipment use and malfunction, discarded cigarettes and arson.

All those fires impact the health of the people around them, and of Central Valley residents because fire-polluted air settles between mountain ranges and can be slow to move.

Ha, a public health professor and member of the Health Sciences Research Institute, outlined the health risks associated with wildfires and what measures can be taken to mitigate them.

"As we know, the composition of the air pollution emitted by wildfire can be slightly different from regular ambient air pollution we are regularly exposed to," she said. This pollution has more toxic components, such as ultrafine particles and metals.

Wildfire pollution impacts just about every system in the body, Ha said, including cardiovascular, respiratory and reproductive. Perhaps less immediately obvious is the toll fires take on mental health.

Wildfire exposure is linked to a higher risk of mental health complications due to the stress of uncertainty about one's home, pets or loved ones. This often manifests in post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep disturbance, anger, interpersonal violence and depression, Ha said.

"Mental health complications can exacerbate the physical health impacts that people maybe already have as well."

People can counteract these impacts by remaining informed and implementing measures such as air purifiers and closed windows when the conditions are bad outside.

But the responsibility isn't just on individuals, the researchers said.

Health care providers can help by training and educating patients, paying special attention to early warning signs about mental and physical health complications, and by collaborating with public health and local agencies.

Researchers are working to identify health impacts and mechanisms, identify people at risk and develop and test novel tools to mitigate risks.

Policymakers can help by establishing early warning systems and equitable policies to reduce wildfire risks, and earmarking funding for more research and services.

The lack of sufficient early warning systems led Mills to create the Watch Duty app. Mills, an entrepreneur, started the disaster information app after moving to Sonoma and experiencing devastating wildfire firsthand. The only notice he got about a nearby fire was seeing a helicopter carrying water above his house, he said.

Mills did some research and learned no instrument existed for communicating vital information about disasters in real time to people who might be in harm's way, or even among first response agencies.

"Firefighters put their lives on the line for us," he said. "They don't have what they need."

He put together a network of volunteers and formed a nonprofit organization that aggregates and vets information on fires as they break out and shares it with users. The app has been so successful that he has launched a premium version for firefighters and the government and is looking to expand its use throughout the United States and beyond.

"Watch Duty was made for two groups of people - people who run toward the fire and people who run away from it," Mills said. "So, everybody."

The information Watch Duty provides is vital, said Kolden, a management of complex systems professor and director of �鶹��'s Fire Resilience Center.

"In talking with people who ran for their lives in the 2017 fires, in the 2018 Camp fire, we hear over and over again how they didn't know what to do," she said. "The lack of information was a big piece of how we had such destruction."

In the last decade, California alone has seen more than 300 civilian fatalities, more than 50,000 homes destroyed by wildfires, and millions of people evacuated for days, weeks or even months at time, Kolden said.

The Fire Resilience Center, started last year under the Climate Institute of the university's Sierra Nevada Research Institute with funding from the Packard Foundation, aims to support wildfire solutions that benefit all Californians, Kolden said.

"I hope this seminar will be the first of future special events as we work toward how we become more resilient and better live with wildfire in California and across the United States."

Machine Learning Research Earns CAREER award

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 23:45:38 +0000

By Patty Guerra, �鶹��

April 3, 2025

Pengfei Su is the 41st researcher from �鶹�� to earn one of the prestigious awards.

Electrical engineering and computer science Professor Pengfei Su has received a CAREER award for his research on cross-layer performance tuning to enhance deep learning model efficiency.

He is the 41st researcher from �鶹�� to earn a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

CAREER awards are among the NSF's most prestigious awards. They are given through the Faculty Early Career Development Program to recognize untenured faculty members as teacher-scholars. Early-career faculty members are selected based on three factors: the strength of their research proposals; their potential to serve as academic role models in research and education; and their leadership in their field and organizations.

Su will receive $604,250 over the next five years for the project "Reforming Profiling Techniques to Guide Systemic Performance Tuning for GPU-Accelerated Deep Learning Workloads."

The project aims to establish a systematic approach for tuning deep learning models. It is structured around three techniques: unified binary code analysis to identify inefficient code segments and data objects across layers, incremental analysis to refine performance monitoring to locate the root causes of inefficient code segments and data object analysis to diagnose the root causes of inefficient data objects.

Su and his lab specialize in programming languages, program analysis, high-performance computing, machine learning systems and software engineering, with a focus on developing tools to analyze and optimize software inefficiencies.

"Graphics processing units (GPUs) are the powerhouse of deep learning, delivering unmatched computational performance," Su said. "Yet, fully unlocking their potential remains a formidable challenge as deep learning models grow increasingly complex, spanning multiple abstraction layers.

"While this complexity fuels innovation across diverse applications, it also introduces hidden inefficiencies that arise from intricate cross-layer interactions," Su said. "This project will pioneer a comprehensive, cross-layer performance analysis to expose these inefficiencies, optimize execution and push GPU performance to new frontiers."

Deep learning uses artificial neural networks to teach computers to learn and make decisions. It is a subset of artificial intelligence often used to recognize complex patterns in data, such as images, text and sounds.

Su has been with �鶹�� since 2021. He is affiliated with the High Performance Computing Systems and Architecture Group.

Each CAREER award proposal includes educational outreach. The project's findings will be integrated into computer science curricula and K-12 programs to cultivate a new generation of experts in performance analysis and optimization, ensuring lasting contributions to academia and industry.

Su was honored to learn about the CAREER award.

"This award represents a major step forward in fundamental software performance analysis, driving a deeper understanding of performance challenges in deep learning," Su said. "By strengthening the foundations of program analysis, the project will accelerate breakthroughs in many AI-driven fields, such as image processing. Additionally, with interest from industry leaders like Meta, the project is poised to translate cutting-edge research into real-world impact."

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