Media Watch
Tiny burning embers flew miles, causing L.A. fire destruction on historic scale
Los Angeles Times -
Tirtha Banerjee, [is] an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Irvine. … Banerjee’s research has found that those strong wind gusts help loft and transport embers, which is “what’s responsible for most of the building damage,” he said. “It’s not necessarily always this big wall of flame but rather embers transporting long distances and landing on some kind of fuel nearby or directly landing on a building.” Homes that are set ablaze by embers can also then contribute to even more ember generation, Banerjee said. Read More
The LA wildfires are ripping through the celebrity-packed Pacific Palisades. Here's which stars have lost homes in the blaze.
Business Insider -
Wildfires in the western US have been steadily growing bigger and more severe for decades, while the time of heightened risk known as "fire season" has been getting longer each year. A paper published in 2023 by researchers from the University of California, Irvine, found the human-caused climate crisis is the "major driver" for the state's increase in wildfires over the last quarter century. Read More
Time is Now to Abandon ‘Bathtub Modeling,’ Researchers Argue
Stormwater Report -
“Projections of flooding need to make sense to people, not only for building understanding of what’s at risk but also for deciding upon the investments and policies that will be made to manage it,” said Brett Sanders, UC Irvine Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and letter co-author. “Research studies that oversimplify flooding and don’t represent real-world data pose a threat to transformative action.” Read More
Origami-Inspired Heart Valve May Revolutionize Treatment for Toddlers
ZME Science -
Every year, over a million children worldwide are born with congenital heart defects that threaten their lives and development. … Nnaoma Agwu, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate at UC Irvine and his mentor Professor Arash Kheradvar have developed a new valve that can also work for toddlers. The origami-inspired valve operates at different diameters, which makes it suitable for growing toddlers. Read More
Commentary: Five Initiatives to Achieve AI Engineering Dominance
National Defense -
Pramod P. Khargonekar, UC Irvine distinguished professor of electrical engineering and computer science and vice chancellor for research writes, “A recent report, “AI Engineering: A Strategic Research Framework to Benefit Society,” produced by the Engineering Research Visioning Alliance, an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation, sought to define the emerging field of AI engineering and identify five research priorities around which decision-makers — including in the defense establishment — must collaborate on driving key advances.” Read More
Polluted communities hold their breath as companies struggle with California’s diesel truck ban
CalMatters -
UC Irvine researchers reported last year that even considering new vehicle technology and the state mandate, heavy-duty drayage trucks will still cause an estimated 2,142 asthma attacks and 106 premature deaths and $1.31 billion in health costs in 2035. … “The problem is not going to solve itself,” said Jean-Daniel Saphores, chair of UC Irvine’s department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and an author of the study. “These trucks are still doing a lot of harm and they’re disproportionately harming disadvantaged groups, even with all the regulation.” Read More
Advancing flood risk analysis: The shift away from bathtub modelling
Innovation News Network -
Flooding has emerged as one of the most destructive natural disasters, with damages and disruptions escalating over recent decades due to climate change and urbanisation. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Bristol are emphasising the need to abandon outdated methods of flood hazard mapping, specifically a technique known as “bathtub modelling.” Read More
Scientists urge to resist reliance on “bathtub modeling” of flood risk
Tech Explorist -
In a compelling commentary published in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future, researchers from the University of California, Irvine … call on scientists to more accurately model these risks and caution against overly dramatized reporting of future risks in the news media. …“Bathtub models can both overpredict and underpredict flooding,” said co-author Brett Sanders, UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of Civil & environmental Engineering. “One of the biggest causes of error is that bathtub models fail to accurately account for the systems in place to protect people and assets, including storm drains, levees, and pumping.” Read More
Scientists urged to pull the plug on 'bathtub modeling' of flood risk
Smart Water Magazine -
“Bathtub models can both overpredict and underpredict flooding,” said co-author Brett Sanders, UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of civil & environmental engineering. “One of the biggest causes of error is that bathtub models fail to accurately account for the systems in place to protect people and assets, including storm drains, levees and pumping.” Read More
High-Resolution Spectroscopy Identifies Key Factors in Iron-Based Superconductivity
AZO Materials -
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have identified the atomic-scale mechanisms that improve superconductivity in an iron-based material. … “Our vibrational spectroscopy approach enabled us to achieve highly detailed imaging of the vibrations at the superconducting material’s interface with its substrate.” said Xiaoqing Pan, Study Lead Author and UC Irvine Distinguished Professor, Materials Science and Engineering. … The ultrahigh spatial and energy resolutions of state-of-the-art instruments at IRMI provide exceptional experimental data for theoretical analysis,” said Ruqian Wu, Study Co-Author and UC Irvine Distinguished Professor, Physics and Astronomy. Read More