UC Davis discoveries
in engineering

Our engineers have built the future. We helped to pioneer the plug-in hybrid car and invent broadband communications.

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A woodcut illustration of a compass and several other engineering and drafting tools

Reducing reliance
on fossil fuels

Widely known as the “father of the plug-in hybrid,” Professor Andrew Frank has championed this approach to fuel-efficient vehicles that combines gasoline engines with electric motors running on rechargeable batteries.

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A yellow electric car charges via an electric chargin station

Laying the groundwork
for the internet

In 1997, when broadband communications and the “World Wide Web” were both in their infancy, two UC Davis professors and a graduate student came up with a better way to route data in fiber optic networks.

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A fiber optic cable cut open to show all of the nested cables within

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