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March 05, 2025
Professor’s TED Talk warns of AI’s hidden water costs
While artificial intelligence, or AI, is transforming industries, its environmental impact is often overlooked. Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UC Riverside, took to a TED Talk stage last fall in Vienna, Austria, to discuss a hidden consequence of AI’s rapid expansion.

February 27, 2025
UCR and U of Michigan launch hydrogen-engine alliance
Officials at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), the University of Michigan, and several industry partners launch of the Hydrogen Engine Alliance of North America (H2EA-NA) to promote hydrogen as a viable alternative fuel.

February 21, 2025
Beehive sensors offer hope in saving honeybee colonies
A UC Riverside computer science team has developed a sensor-based technology that could revolutionize commercial beekeeping by reducing colony losses and lowering labor costs.

February 12, 2025
Romance at a hackathon
It all started when computer science majors Siena Ha and Nate Brennan arrived late to UC Riverside’s Highlander Orientation in the summer of 2018. They quietly walked into Bourns Hall minutes apart, taking seats in the back to minimize the disruption and finding themselves sitting beside each other.
“It was at this moment we introduced ourselves and first met,” Brennan said.

January 29, 2025
Women’s pelvic tissue tears during childbirth unstudied, until now
Millions of women undergo episiotomies during childbirth every year, yet the mechanics behind these surgical cuts remain largely unstudied. A new research project is poised to change that, addressing this significant gap in women’s healthcare.

January 22, 2025
Bourns doctoral students earn research awards
One is harnessing the power of yeast. Another is profiling maliciousness. A third is using electromagnetic levitation to create new metal alloys.
Sci-fi characters? No. Award-winning doctoral students? Yes!

January 14, 2025
$7.5 million project to curb greenhouse gas emissions
UC Riverside engineering associate professor Fudong Liu will oversee a multidisciplinary team spanning academia and industry that has been awarded a $6 million federal grant to develop advanced catalytic technology to reduce Earth-warming methane pollution in the production of liquefied natural gas (LNG). With additional financial support from the participating universities and companies, the project will total $7.5 million.

January 02, 2025
Detecting disease with only a single molecule
UC Riverside scientists have developed a nanopore-based tool that could help diagnose illnesses much faster and with greater precision than current tests allow, by capturing signals from individual molecules.

December 20, 2024
Get to know UCR’s National Society of Black Engineers Chapter
After a busy year of accomplishments, UC Riverside’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, or NSBE, was voted 2024’s Outstanding Student Organization of the Year and Social Justice Activists of the Year. This marks the second time UCR’s Student Life office has recognized NSBE in four years.

December 17, 2024
$1.4 million grant awarded to spur water recycling technology
The University of California system has awarded a $1.4 million grant to UC Riverside chemical and environmental engineering professor Haizhou Liu and a collaborative team from several UC campuses to combat water scarcity by developing strategies to clean and reuse water for agriculture.

December 09, 2024
AI’s deadly air pollution toll
Computer processing demands for artificial intelligence, or AI, are spurring increasing levels of deadly air pollution from power plants and backup diesel generators that continuously supply electricity to the fast-growing number of computer processing centers. This air pollution, a new UCR and Caltech study estimates, is expected to result in as many as 1,300 premature deaths a year by 2030 in the United States and bring health costs to nearly $20 billion a year.

November 25, 2024
UCR environmental engineering faculty make the Top 2% list
Four UC Riverside research scientists have been named among the top 2% of scientists worldwide in a list compiled by Stanford University and Elsevier.

November 22, 2024
UCR collaboration brings in electric truck manufacturer
Voltu Motor Inc., an Argentine company recognized for its sustainable and versatile electric vehicles, will establish its global headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Riverside.

November 11, 2024
Undergrad student veteran starts career with NAVSEA
UC Riverside undergraduate Jacob Bradfield shares a connection with UCR’s first student, Jim McMillin, who was admitted 70 years ago. They were both student veterans and entered UCR after serving in the United States Navy.

October 15, 2024
UC Riverside receives seven grants totaling $7M for graduate education
GAANN fellowships from the Department of Education will support students pursuing research in areas of national need

October 09, 2024
UCR scientists cut harmful pollution from hydrogen engines
UC Riverside scientists have discovered a low-cost method to significantly reduce nitrogen oxides pollution from hydrogen engines by improving the efficiency of their catalytic converters.
As reported in the journal Nature Communications

October 04, 2024
Inland SoCal Accelerate Hub gives IE startups a boost
UC Riverside is leading the Inland SoCal Accelerate Hub, which connects local startup companies with the resources they need to be successful.

September 27, 2024
UCR experts call for comprehensive electrical grid upgrades
Significant growth in electricity use in California in the coming decades calls for systemic, well-coordinated, proactive, collaborative, and equitable upgrades to state’s electrical grid

September 20, 2024
New data science tool greatly speeds up molecular analysis of our environment
UC Riverside-led team developed the tool through an international virtual research group

September 10, 2024
Q&A: What, exactly, is going up in flames?
Several Southern California communities are being hit with smoke from the huge Line Fire in the San Bernardino Mountains. UC Riverside experts on environmental pollution describe what we’re breathing.

August 20, 2024
NSF grants $22 million for 'extreme microbe' lab collaboration
The National Science Foundation has announced a $22 million grant to establish a “BioFoundry” laboratory for the study of extreme microorganisms with collaborating facilities at UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara, and Cal Poly Pomona.

August 14, 2024
How air-powered computers can prevent blood clots
A new, air-powered computer sets off alarms when certain medical devices fail. The invention is a more reliable and lower-cost way to help prevent blood clots and strokes — all without electronic sensors.

June 03, 2024
UCR joins federal transportation research effort
UCR partners with five universities in a new, federally funded research center based at UC Davis to advance technologies needed to reduce vehicle emissions and improve climate resiliency in transportation.

May 21, 2024
UCR’s CE-CERT honored for clean air leadership
UC Riverside’s Center for Environmental Research and Technology, known as CE-CERT, has been recognized by Southern California’s air quality agency for three decades of research that reduces air pollution and improves air quality.