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.
During the 2021-22 fiscal year, 13 startup companies executed agreements to access foundational intellectual property and commercialize new technologies developed at the University of California, Davis.
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.
Mycelium, the white filament-like root structure of mushrooms, might be an important building block of a more sustainable world. By growing mycelium with a biomass—anything from coffee grounds to leftover agricultural waste—researchers at UC Davis are creating sustainable structures that can be turned into everything from biodegradable plastics and circuit boards to filters that remove harmful antibiotic and pesticide residues from water.
The UC Davis Digital Agriculture Laboratory sits at the intersection of agriculture and digital technology. Led by biological and agricultural engineering assistant professor Alireza Pourreza, the lab works directly with growers to develop and deploy technology that gives them the information they need to better understand their plants and navigate our changing climate.
