Sarah Kurtz

Professor, UC Merced School of Engineering

IEEE Officer at UC Merced August 2023

IEEE Club Meeting

Adviser Ayush Pandey, officers: Daniel Baerwaldt, Thomas Kellogg, Zayd Andre, Jacob Bates, and Conor Olive, and adviser Sarah Kurtz at August 2023 kick-off IEEE meeting

UC Merced students form IEEE Chapter in August 2023

IEEE Club Meeting

UC Merced students at IEEE meeting

UC Merced students attend Silicon Valley Engineering Council dinner

Dinner in Mountain View

UC Merced students Rodrigo Martinez, Brandon Ortega, Alvin To, Cody Peng, Angelo Fatali, Martin Urueta, Farzan ZareAfifi and Mahmoud Abido join former UC Merced postdoc Ashling Leilaeioun and UC Merced professor Sarah Kurtz at the Silicon Valley Engineering Council's 32nd Annual National Engineers Week Banquet to meet Bill Dally of NVIDIA and others

IEEE Club makes solar fountain

It works!

(From right) Zayd Andre, Conor Olive, Jacob Bates, and Thomas Kellogg present IEEE-Merced's solar fountain. It pumps water when the sun is shining!

IEEExtreme (hack-a-thon)

Teamwork late into the night

Thomas Kellogg, Tom Le, and Socheata Hour undertook their very first hack-a-thon, IEEExtreme, in October 2022 and placed in the top 1000 out of almost 7000 teams worldwide.

Field Trip to Floating PV System

Photo of visit to Healdsburg's Waste Water Treatment plant to see their floating solar panels

UC Merced students visit Healdsburg's Waste Water Treatment plant to see their floating solar panels.

SEA Studies Solar Ovens

Photo of SEA with solar ovens Photo of SEA with solar ovens

UC Merced's Solar Energy Association (SEA) learned how a solar oven is constructed and even on a partly cloudy day got to eat solar-oven-heated hot pockets.

SEA Studies Solar Cells by Zoom

Screenshot during SEA meeting

SEA learned how solar cells work during a zoom meeting during the pandemic.

Solar Car Race at UC Merced

On March 16, 2019, Calteach and SEA sponsored a solar car race, hosting ~40 teams from local schools.

SEA Wins Award

Photo of Dr. Kurtz and SEA leadership team at awards presentation

On April 29, 2018, SEA received the Outstanding New Student Organization leadership award. The organization faced many challenges in its first year, yet managed to continue bringing educational workshops and hands-on learning projects to UC Merced.

SEA Sponsors Energize Merced February 2018

Photo of Dr. Kurtz with a student at Energize Merced 2018

SEA successfully coordinated its first annual Energize Merced conference which brought faculty, students and many on-campus and outside organizations together to discuss the latest solar energy technologies as well as career opportunities in the renewable energy industry. Dr. Kurtz was one of the faculty members to present their research and knowledge with the Merced community.

Solar Energy Association at UC Merced

The Solar Energy Association at UC Merced (SEA) is a solar-project-based organization, with ongoing projects, workshops, info sessions, and more. SEA strives to educate and prepare the community for a clean energy future. By being a project based organization, SEA hopes to give students a chance to gain hands on experience that they are sometimes unable to obtain in a classroom. Students will have the opportunity to gain skills such as learning how to write proposals, using tools they haven’t worked with before, and working in teams. If you are interested, please contact Briana Aguilar at baguilar28@ucmerced.edu.

Material Science Research Chapter

The MRS Chapter brings together students interested in Materials Science.

Contact: skurtz@ucmerced.edu