• Yang, J. (CSE) – Towards Controllable and Compositional Generative Vision

    Virtual Event

    Diffusion-based text-to-image models can generate impressive images, but they largely treat an image as a single, flat output, which makes precise editing of individual elements difficult. This proposal studies layered generative representations that align with professional editing workflows, enabling users to manipulate foreground objects while preserving the rest of the scene. A central focus is […]

  • First Saturday Tour at the Arboretum

    Arboretum 122 Arboretum Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    First Saturday Tours are a wonderful way to introduce yourself to the Arboretum or to deepen your knowledge of the Arboretum’s plant collections. Each tour is a little different depending on the time of year, the interests of the tour guide, and the people who join in. For example, you might learn about the birds […]

  • ECE Seminar: Integrated Micro- and Nanosystems for Biosensing, Neural Therapy, and Nanotoxicity

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA

    Presenter: Dr. Ke Du, Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside Description: Miniaturized micro- and nanofluidic systems, integrated with biochemistry, microscopy, nanomaterials, and computer vision algorithms, provide powerful platforms for diverse biomedical applications, including molecular diagnostics, biophysics, and optogenetics. In this presentation, we introduce a pneumatically controlled nano-sieve device with nanolithography-defined […]

  • CM Seminar – “The ‘Social’ Side of Social Virtual Reality”

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA

    Presented by: Bree McEwan Description: One of the potential use cases of virtual reality is to create spaces where humans can interact with each other or virtual agents across distances. However, despite many of the technological challenges of social VR being solved, social VR does not see poised for widespread adoption. Multi-user social VR needs to […]

  • Li, X. (CSE) – Compute-Efficient Scaling of Fully-Open Visual Encoders

    Virtual Event

    Vision encoders have demonstrated significant performance gains in visual generation and multimodal reasoning. These improvements are primarily attributed to the scaling of data, model capacity, and compute. However, this progress is becoming less accessible due to a lack of transparency in data curation and training recipes. In combination with the high compute requirements of foundation-scale […]

  • AM Seminar: Data Driven Modeling for Scientific Discovery and Digital Twins

    Presenter: Dongbin Xiu, Professor, Ohio State University Description:We present a data-driven modeling framework for scientific discovery, termed Flow Map Learning (FML). This framework enables the construction of accurate predictive models for complex systems that are not amenable to traditional modeling approaches. By leveraging data and the expressiveness of deep neural networks (DNNs), FML facilitates long-term […]

  • February Slugs and Steins with Distinguished Professor Emeritus John Brown Childs

    Virtual Event

    Kings of Infinite Space: Courageous Compassion Among Men in Soledad Prison “I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself king of infinite space…” –Hamlet When I reflect on the expansively creative, compassionate, and transformational minds and actions of the incarcerated men with whom I have worked as a volunteer teacher of what I […]

  • CSE Colloquium: Incentivized Alignment for Strategic Agents (Human and Otherwise)

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA

    Presenter: Grant Schoenebeck, University of Michigan Abstract: Advances in machine learning enable new forms of human-AI collaboration, but collaborative settings typically involve agents with divergent objectives and private information. This will become increasingly critical in the emerging world of agentic AI, where ML-powered agents act on behalf of individuals or institutions with conflicting goals. I use the […]

    Free
  • Centering the Experiences of Undocumented Transfer Students at HSIs: A Brown Bag Presentation by Valeria Alonso Blanco

    Huerta Center Conference Room (Casa Latina) 641 Merrill Rd, Santa Cruz,, CA

      The Huerta Center is proud to present a brown bag presentation by Graduate Student Research Awardee Valeria Alonso Blanco. She will present on a qualitative study that explores how undocumented Latinx transfer students navigate institutional support, belonging, and barriers at a four-year Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Findings reveal gaps between institutional commitments and student […]

  • EOP Students – “Words That Impress: Creating a Great Résumé & Cover Letter”

    Career Success Student Lounge (125 Hahn) 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, United States

    Crafting a fantastic Resume and Cover Letter are the key to getting an interview and landing a job!  Join us for this informative workshop that will cover best practices for resume and cover letter development.  You’ll gain understanding about the perfect format, navigating AI filters, and how to write captivating resume bullet points and engaging […]

  • AI Application Development – A monthly conversation with the Chair

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Lead Innovation as a Machine Learning Engineer. As AI becomes central to products and services across industries, there’s a growing demand for professionals who can design, build and deploy intelligent services & systems. Learn how you can preprocess data, develop Machine Learning models, apply Deep Learning techniques, and create AI solutions that solve real‑world problems. […]

  • California Firefighter Cancer Research Study Panel

    Intersections of Climate Change
    Institute of the Arts and Sciences 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States

    In the month of February, The intersections of Climate Change lecture series will host a panel discussion with Dr. Shehnaz Hussain and Fire Captain Jamie Gabriel. They will discuss ongoing research in cancer being the leading cause of death among California firefighters and why preventative interventions remain elusive. The Intersections of Climate Change Series is […]

    FREE and open to the public
  • “The Eternal Song” Film Screening

    Merrill Cultural Center 200 McLaughlin Dr, Santa Cruz, CA

    The Eternal Song is a cinematic journey through timeless lands and Indigenous cultures. Voices from across generations and traditions invite us to witness the enduring scars of colonization on lands and peoples, and the healing pathways carried through ancestral wisdom. Entrusted with medicine stories, the film grapples with colonial legacies, intergenerational trauma, and the culture […]

  • Virtual Resume Review

    Virtual Event

    Meet with actual recruiters for this virtual resume review! You’ll get a chance to show them your resume and get feedback from professionals.

    Get career ready with Career Success!

  • Sambamurthy, A. (AM) – Lazy Diffusion: Resolving Spectral Collapse in Generative Models for Turbulence

    Engineering 2 Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA
    Hybrid Event

    Diffusion-based generative models offer a principled framework for probabilistic forecasting, but we show they suffer from a fundamental spectral collapse when applied to turbulent flows. A Fourier-space analysis of the forward SDE reveals that the mode-wise signal-to-noise ratio decays monotonically in wavenumber for power-law spectra, rendering high-wavenumber content indistinguishable from noise. We reinterpret the noise […]

  • Hard truths about soft skills

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    As AI reshapes jobs and automates almost everything we do, the skills that matter most for professionals are increasingly human ones. AI can mimic much of what we do. What can’t it do that we can do better? What soft skills really matter in the new workforce? In this discussion with PK Agarwal, dean of […]

  • Your path to medical school starts here.

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Are you considering medical school and seeking a clear, supportive path forward? Join the University of California, Santa Cruz, for a free online informational session to learn more about our Summer 2026 Premed Postbacc Cohort Programs. This session is designed for students and graduates who are serious about pursuing a career in health care and […]

  • Reframing the STEM Classroom: Justice as Pedagogical Practice

    Namaste Lounge 615 College Nine Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    In this conversation, Jabari Jones, Emily Murai, and Kriti Sharma reflect on their experiences integrating justice into teaching and curriculum design. They discuss why this work is critical for STEM fields and share lessons learned, concrete approaches, and the institutional and disciplinary transformations needed for justice to become core pedagogy across fields. Click here for additional […]