An ordinary bus stop in Vallejo has a fresh new look. The local site got a makeover designed by UC Davis students Ashley Gear and Katie Wong, both seniors majoring in landscape architecture.

Solano County Transit (SolTrans), which runs the bus service in Vallejo, recently unveiled its newly transformed bus stop located at Gary Circle and Magazine Street. SolTrans chose the students’ design, which Gear and Wong created last spring for the “Plants in the City” course led by Assistant Professor Haven Kiers.

From concept to completion – UC Davis student Mariah Padilla has taken what she’s learned in class to help create a tool that aims to enhance a local community’s social and economic health and well-being. Padilla, a community and regional development major going into her senior year, took a community economic development course (CRD 156) last spring which empowered students to provide an assessment of food security and community violence in two neighborhoods located in South Sacramento.

Researchers at UC Davis are working to develop new and improved varieties of celtuce, a leafy green vegetable that plays an important role in Asian cuisine. The Student Collaborative Organic Plant Breeding Education (SCOPE) project, which works with local organic growers on improving crop varieties, is analyzing the traits of celtuce to improve seed availability for small scale farmers.

Imagine securing a cooler, two loaded duffle bags, a bed roll and a trash can onto two mules and leading them all by horse the length of a football field.

How long do you think it would take?

For world champions, it’s roughly 2-and-a-half minutes.

Just ask UC Davis student Catharine Renner who, along with three other teammates, were named the World Champion Interscholastic Packing Team at the Bishop Mule Days held in Northern California over Memorial Day weekend.

The end of the academic year is a time to celebrate students’ successes. Eight undergraduate students are being honored by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CA&ES) for their exceptional accomplishments in the areas of academic excellence, distinctive leadership and community service. This year, a CA&ES student will be honored as the top graduating senior at UC Davis.

Senior Amanda Portier of the University of California, Davis, led the team of hundreds that put on this year’s Picnic Day — attended by tens of thousands of people and believed to be the largest student-run event in the country. She also has been a mentor to individuals with intellectual disabilities, shed light on social justice issues and achieved a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average. 

Meteorologists use a wide array of instruments to measure weather conditions. At University of California, Davis, students studying atmospheric science get an up-close look at those various instruments — some of which were first designed in the late 1800s — to gather data to predict the weather.

Raise a glass to the newest beer in town: a Scottish export ale created by UC Davis students that is due to go on sale this week. Mighty Gale Ale’s production by Sudwerk Brewing Co. of Davis was the prize for the students and their ale having won the 2022 UC Davis Iron Brew Competition among brewing science students.

Take a seat and relax on the new addition to the UC Davis campus – a sod couch. The outdoor seating is located near the main entrance to Hunt Hall, not far from the Memorial Union (MU) and the Unitrans bus terminal. As the name implies, it’s a couch made of soil and grass sod. The unique fixture is the product of landscape architecture students who completed the Design and Build course last fall, which was led by instructors Haven Kiers and Gabino Marquez.

A new award fund has been created to help students interested in the wine industry pursue their degree in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis.

The Theopolis Vineyards Diversity Fund will provide one scholarship of up to $10,000 each year to students interested in viticulture and enology and related research or managing a vineyard, with a preference for students who are underrepresented or understand barriers to entering the industry.