In its first year, the UCOP Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards seek to advance the university’s commitment to the scholarship and creative activity of early career faculty across all 10 UC campuses. Engineering professors Hyoyoung Jeong and Jie Zheng help make up the inaugural cohort.
The Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering will be led by incoming chairs Sanjeevi Sivasankar and Vinod Narayanan, respectively.
At the 2026 Engineering Design Showcase, three teams were recognized with Sandia Engineering Design Awards for advances in aerospace, clean energy and biomedical engineering.
Members of the Davis Undergraduate Engineering Network credit the organization with providing opportunities — from resume workshops and internship panels to large-scale engineering projects — that extend well beyond the classroom.
Concrete, the second-most-used material in the world, after water, requires significant resources for its production. A study in the journal Nature Sustainability from UC Davis researchers shows that global concrete production requires far more resources than previously estimated.
University of California, Davis, researchers have received a nearly $4 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop the world’s first standardized method for measuring and describing the neurotoxicity of nanoplastics inhaled as part of air pollution.
UC Davis researchers found that red-tailed hawks adjust their wing and tail movements during molt to maintain flight performance despite missing feathers. The findings could improve wildlife rehabilitation practices and inspire more resilient drones and uncrewed aerial vehicles.
UC Davis undergraduate teams captured three of four major awards in the 2025-26 CITRIS Aviation Prize, developing innovative software and simulation tools to support California’s future advanced air mobility network and electric air taxi transportation systems.
Through leadership roles, entrepreneurship and direct experience in artificial intelligence, computer science and engineering major Senara Millawabandara found a strong sense of community and purpose at UC Davis — and a commitment to building solutions that improve people’s everyday lives.
The National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development will fund the assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering’s work investigating the wing movements hawks use to conduct lateral flight maneuvers.
