UC Davis students in Cyclone RoboSub are taking their autonomous underwater vehicle beyond the pool, using it to support environmental research in open waters and to educate the next generation of robotics engineers.
Research led by a UC Davis Ph.D. student shows that AI models can maintain response quality while using far less energy on existing hardware. The work received the Best Paper Award at MLSys 2026, a leading machine learning and AI systems conference.
Researchers found that the structure and composition of materials can dramatically increase how often fusion happens at low energies. With a better understanding of the mechanism behind that effect, we may eventually be able to design materials that improve neutron sources or other fusion-based technologies.
A new study from UC Davis materials science and engineering researchers shows how combining AI with laboratory experiments could speed up the development of more durable, stable materials, ultimately leading to reliable, low-cost solar energy technologies.
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.
UC 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.
Professor of Biomedical Engineering Aijun Wang co-leads a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test a bioengineered graft infused with molecules to treat neuropathic bladders of children with spina bifida or spinal cord injuries.
Clinicians and engineers at the University of California, Davis, are collaborating on AI-driven tools to analyze vast digital archives of brain tissue scans — work that cannot be done at scale by humans alone — to better understand dementia and improve diagnosis and treatment.
As silicon-based computing approaches its limits, materials science and engineering researcher Seung Sae Hong is studying oxide membranes, an emerging material platform with unusual electronic properties that could power more energy-efficient electronics and future computing technologies.
