Research

Strawberry season may be getting streamlined thanks to new robot coworkers developed at UC Davis.   Using an innovative prediction and scheduling system, Fragile cRop hArvest-aIding mobiLe robots, or FRAIL-bots, track the picking process of each worker so when they’re finished filling a tray with strawberries, a FRAIL-bot is already nearby to take it back to the collection station for them. 

Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS) at the University of California (UC) recently announced the 2022 CITRIS Seed Awards recipients. The eight selected proposals, submitted by multicampus teams from Berkeley, Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz, will receive up to $60,000 for their work, thanks in part to external philanthropic support. 

It starts with the crunchy, crisp bites found only in the fresh leaves of iceberg lettuce. As employees in the local cafe clock in late after missing their alarm, they start their shift first counting the money in the till. That is, until their coworker comes bustling out the back doors, imploring them for help with food preparation.

A solution to world hunger might start with boba and caviar. Using an innovative process, engineers at UC Davis are growing “myco-foods” — small balls of edible fungi that can be processed into products like boba and lab-grown caviar with a wide range of textures, colors and flavors.

The Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at UC Davis was renewed for five years by the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety. The center is led by Biological and Agricultural Engineering Professor and Chair Fadi Fathallah and includes funding for research from Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension Farzaneh Khorsandi.

For the very best tips on how to choose, wash, and store grapes for maximum freshness and shelf-life, we turned to the faculty at UC Davis’ PostHarvest Technology Center, including Irwin Donis-González, assistant professor of cooperative extension in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.

CNBC spoke with several companies and experts who are working to reduce water waste in agriculture and help sustain food production in a future where extreme climate will be more common, including Biological and Agricultural Engineering faculty Isaya Kisekka and Alireza Pourreza.

Researchers at UC Davis have found a new, safe way to treat dairy manure for use as a high quality, organic liquid fertilizer on fresh produce crops. Professor Ruihong Zhang talks with Vegetables West about the results of their studies her work in the field.

Tien-Chieh Hung, director of the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Lab, talks on July 8, 2022, about the breeding program for the endangered Delta smelt in his lab in Bryon, at the mouth of the California Aqueduct.

The three-quarter Capstone course at UC Davis gives biological systems engineering students the skills and experiences they need to become leaders in engineering design. This year’s teams worked on projects ranging from remote sensing to aquaponic indoor plant growth to alginate encapsulation of caviar. Two exceptional teams are highlighted.

Adjunct Professor Zhongli Pan is one of nine UC Davis faculty to receive a proof-of-concept grant this year, which helps scientists advance compelling research and innovations toward commercial applications. Pan's team is developing a wireless, cloud-based system for early detection of insects for use in the food industry.

UC Davis engineers are innovating at high and low temperatures to enable travel at hypersonic speeds and sustainably keep food safe and fresh, respectively.

Have you ever stopped to think about how much energy it takes to dry the coffee beans in your coffee? Or the corn in the tortilla chip you’re crunching? Or the rice in your sushi roll? Probably not — you might lose your appetite. Biological Systems Engineering Ph.D. student Alice Dien has thought about it a lot and come up with an intriguing solution: Desiccation.