May 19, 2025

Students race adult-sized tricycles during Thursday’s WhimCycle Festival of Bikes. (Photo by Steve Zylius/UC Irvine)

UC IRVINE NEWS

UCI Health CFO joins healthcare leaders for congressional briefing

Randolph Siwabessy, chief financial officer and senior vice president of UCI Health and the School of Medicine (far left), joined national healthcare leaders last week for a congressional briefing to discuss the financial pressures facing hospitals. Hosted by Vizient, the event focused on how hospitals are managing an increasingly fragile financial environment shaped by delayed reimbursements, labor shortages and rising care demands, particularly for patients covered by Medicaid and Medicare.

School of Law announces first alumni-established scholarship

Hannah and Jeffrey Wachs have established, through a generous $50,000 gift, the first alumni-named scholarship endowment in the School of Law. “I am forever grateful to have been a part of the inaugural class at UC Irvine School of Law. I wouldn’t be where I am without UC Irvine Law, and I am humbled by the ability to endow a scholarship to enable future students to meet founding Dean [Erwin] Chemerinsky’s charge to ‘practice law at the highest levels,’” Jeffrey Wachs said.

Humanities students foster exchange of ideas through UTeach

In classrooms across campus, undergraduate instructors channel their academic interests into engaging learning environments as part of the UTeach program. It’s an initiative where undergraduates design, develop and teach their own lower-division seminar courses to peers. Humanities students are consistently at the forefront, comprising nearly half of the 2025 UTeach cohort. “These students bring their experiences in humanities classrooms with them to UTeach, and make humanities-based approaches to learning and teaching an important part of the program,” said Theodore Martin, current UTeach faculty director and associate professor of English.

Campus a capella groups sing their way to success

A cappella groups Morse Coda and VocaLotus achieved remarkable success during their competition season, representing UC Irvine at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. Both groups advanced to semifinals, where Morse Coda took third place, becoming the first UC Irvine group to place at semifinals. “Every time we perform, we tell a story,” said second-year philosophy major Eunice Lau, president of Morse Coda. “The creativity that comes with a cappella allows us to create something truly thought-provoking through our songs and choreography.”

UC NEWS

Perfecting the quantum computer

In recent decades, UC researchers helped show how certain aspects of quantum theory can revolutionize computing to do the job of conventional computers much faster while using far less energy. The quest is to figure out which technologies offer the best combination of reliability and practicality to bring quantum computers to consumers. Luis A. Jauregui, professor of physics at UC Irvine – director of the Quantum Materials and Devices Laboratory, and a member of the Eddleman Quantum Institute – is helping to develop materials that can maintain their quantum states in less rarified environments. “Our hope is that this new research helps make the promise of quantum computers more of a reality,” he said.

#UCIconnected

Mentoring the next generation

Alumni Michelle Lauron and Michael Fermin have dedicated their careers to seeking justice for victims as deputy district attorneys and now, for Lauron, as a newly enrobed Superior Court Judge – all while maintaining a connection to the School of Social Sciences. The couple is supporting the next generation of Anteaters through mentorship and active participation in the Dean’s Leadership Society. “We’re really thrilled to be able to help in any way we can,” Lauron said. “We might not have all the millions and millions that some people have, but we can certainly contribute – and every bit helps. We’re grateful to be able to do that, and to feel a part of all the innovative things happening here.”

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