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<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Founded only recently in 2005, the University of California, Merced is the United States’ first research university built in the twenty-first century and is located in the heart of California's Central Valley. UC Merced is unique among the University of California campuses as half of its student body are first generation college students, many of whom are local to the under-served Central Valley. Due to its constant growth, the university has the innovative outlook necessary to put into practice ambitious, forward-thinking ideas, whether they be encouraged by the administration or driven by students. Student entrepreneurship is a central focus on UC Merced's campus, and its faculty are constantly looking for new opportunities to encourage entrepreneurial spirit. Innovation stems from our research labs, student run projects and registered club organizations.</span>

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= Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship =

=== E&J Gallo Management Program ===

<span id="docs-internal-guid-0b27bb3c-c405-2639-d255-e414b09f0a72"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no formal emphasis, major, or minor available at UC Merced in the field of entrepreneurship. However, UC Merced offers a course in Entrepreneurship (MGMT 180) under the E&J Gallo Management Program which encourages students to experience the creative process behind creating new products, crafting business plans, and delivering pitches. Starting in spring semester 2014, management and economics students from this program have begun collaborating with engineering students in the Capstone program. They will help Capstone groups to monetize and market their products.</span></span>

=== Mobile App Challenge - CITRIS ===

<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Mobile App Challenge is a competition hosted by CITRIS, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society. CITRIS is an institution at UC campuses that helps groundbreaking research obtain funding and helps to incubate research into startups. Students form teams to develop mobile apps that can solve a variety of issues to their choosing. The Software Engineering course (CSE 120) in the School of Engineering is required to participate in the challenge. Teams compete for a cash prize in front of a panelist of judges--the top 5 teams of the Mobile App Challenge then move on to compete in Innovate to Grow.</span>

== Center for Information Technology in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) ==

<span id="docs-internal-guid-0b27bb3c-c45d-bc68-bd79-75b76ccbfd90"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CITRIS is a program that is headquartered at Berkeley, but has centers at Davis, Merced, and Santa Cruz campuses. CITRIS is an institution at UC campuses that helps groundbreaking research obtain funding and helps to incubate research into startups. CITRIS has four primary initiatives: Energy, Democracy, Infrastructure, and Health. Its mission is to benefit each initiative with further integration with information technology by helping to fund research related to its initiatives. Through these four initiatives, CITRIS provides the support necessary to help provide solutions for California and the global community at large. CITRIS is also responsible for sponsoring the Mobile App Challenge, where the top 5 teams move on to the Innovate to Grow competition.</span></span>

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-59cfac67-c91c-5310-6c4e-917db34bf48b"><span style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(64, 64, 64); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The MESA Lab host various events throughout the year to showcase its progress in innovative breakthroughs. Headed by Professor YangQuan Chen, student Lab Technician Interns and Undergraduate researchers work collaboratively with Graduate students to produce the most efficient and reliable systems possible. &nbsp;The entrepreneurial spirit which guides the lab can be summed up by the following: &nbsp;“Try to be the first to test and solve new problems; if your work is not the first of its kind, make sure that your solutions/research are the best.”</span></span></span>

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= University Technology Transfer Functions&nbsp; =

== Blum Center - Global California: The World at Home ==

<span id="docs-internal-guid-0b27bb3c-c476-1868-88eb-861b95649127"><span style="font-size: 13px; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Blum Center at UC Merced is an extension of the original Blum Center from Berkeley, only recently founded from a seed grant. There are also centers at UC Davis, and UCLA. The Blum Center will have a specific focus on the Central Valley’s future prosperity. By utilizing interdisciplinary expertise from students with all different backgrounds, the Blum Center will be able to exercise a wide variety of projects in both Engineering Service Learning and Capstone projects. The Blum Center provides a unique perspective because of its location and high concentration of first generation college students.</span></span>

[https://mechatronics.ucmerced.edu https://mechatronics.ucmerced.edu]

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