20-years Undergraduate Research Time Capsule

Leave your mark on UC Merced research history!

As UC Merced celebrates its first 20 years and its growth as an R1 research university, help tell the story of undergraduate research through an artifact only you can create. Contribute something small and meaningful that captures your research, your curiosity, and your experience as a scholar in 2026.

When the capsule is opened in 2046, future Bobcats will see not only what we studied, but also how we imagined, created, questioned, and collaborated.

Have you done faculty-mentored research at UC Merced? Contribute an artifact and help make UC Merced history.

Why contribute?

The Time Capsule is a campus-wide initiative that captures the spirit, practices, and impact of undergraduate research across disciplines and communities. This project commemorates a milestone in our institutional history while inviting us to imagine the scholars, collaborations, and community we hope to become over the next twenty years.

• Show what research looked like in your field
• Highlight the questions, tools, and ideas that shaped your work
• Share how undergraduate researchers contributed to discovery and community
• Inspire future students who will open the capsule in 2046

This is not about perfection. It is about preserving the curiosity, creativity, and meaning behind undergraduate research today.

How to participate

1. Reflect on your research. Think about what question, method, object, or moment best represents your research journey.
2. Choose an artifact. Select a small item, model, sketch, material, image, or written piece that captures something meaningful.
3. Develop your idea. Talk with a research assistant or faculty contact if you would like help brainstorming or refining your contribution.
4. Bring it to the ceremony. Join the event and deposit your artifact into the capsule.

What could you place in the capsule?

Think small. Think meaningful. Think creative.

• a research question that drives your curiosity
• a tool or method you use
• a model, sketch, image, or material connected to your project
• a symbol of discovery in your field
• a short reflection or message to the students who will open the capsule in 2046
• a page from your research notebook
• a visualization that represents your project

You do not need a perfect artifact. You only need something that helps tell the story of your research.

Prompts to inspire your artifact

• What object could help someone in 2046 understand the research you are doing today?
• What small item represents the question that drives your curiosity?
• What tool, image, or symbol captures how you approach discovery?
• If you had to explain your research to a student twenty years from now using only one object, what would you place in the capsule?
• What piece of your work would you want future UC Merced researchers to see and say, “This is how research looked in 2026”?
• What do you hope research at UC Merced will look like when the capsule is opened in 2046?

Examples across disciplines

Join the ceremony

Bring your artifact and be part of a campus-wide moment that honors undergraduate research at UC Merced.

Thursday, April 16
4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Common area between ACS and SRE buildings

Need help developing your idea?

Leave something meaningful for 2046

Create an artifact. Share your curiosity.

Help future Bobcats understand what undergraduate research

looked like, felt like, and meant at UC Merced in 2026.