Events

Carl Deppe Memorial Lecture with Dr. Kara Cooney
2026-02-05 17:30 - 19:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hay Barn, 94 Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
The UCSC Ancient Studies Program presents the Carl Deppe Memorial Lecture, taking place February 5th at the Cowell Ranch Hay Barn (reception to follow). Kara Cooney will present her lecture “When Women Ruled the World”. Doors open at 5:30pm, program begins at 5:45pm.

Kara Cooney is a professor of ancient Egyptian art and architecture and chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles. Specializing in social history, gender studies, and economies of the ancient world, she received her PhD in Egyptology from Johns Hopkins University. Her books include The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt, When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt, and The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World. Her latest books include Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches, Ancient Egyptian Society: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Approaches, and Coffin Commerce.

Climate Justice and the Moss Landing Battery Fire Panel
2026-02-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, United States
As part of the Intersections of Climate Change Lecture series there will be a panel discussion including marine geologist Ivano Aiello and environmental studies scholars J. Mijin Cha and Dustin Mulvaney focused on the climate justice issues raised by the Moss Landing Battery Storage System fire.
The Intersections of Climate Change Series is organized with the Friedlaender Lab in conjunction with Weather and the Whale.
—
ADDITIONAL SERIES EVENTS
– Thurs. Feb. 5, 6:00 p.m: Intersections of Climate Change Lecture: Climate Justice and the Moss Landing Battery Fire
– Wed. Feb. 11, 6:00 p.m: The California Firefighter Cancer Research Study with Shehnaz Hussain and Fire Captain Jamie Gabriel
– Thurs. Feb. 26, 6:00 p.m: Intersections of Climate Change Performance: Electroacoustic Performance and Artist Talk with the Whale Liberation Front
– Wed. March 4, 6:00 p.m: Unexpected Returns: The Historic Entanglements of Fire, Settlement, and Stewardship in the Santa Cruz Mountains
—
ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
—
PARKING
– The entrance to the Institute of the Arts and Sciences Galleries is on Delaware Street and has an accessibility ramp.
– Convenient and free self-parking is available on Panetta Avenue and High Road, immediately adjacent to the galleries.
– Accessible parking is on High Road.
—
This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Science in the Neighborhood: Innovations for building coastal resilience locally, nationally, and globally
2026-02-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Seymour Marine Discovery Center, 100 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060
Science In the Neighborhood
A public lecture series hosted quarterly by the UC Santa Cruz Science Division
Innovations for building coastal resilience locally, nationally, and globally
Presentation by Mike Beck, Director, UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience
Q&A with Stefano Profumo, Professor, UC Santa Cruz
Coastal risks are growing from climate change, development, and habitat loss. The Center for Coastal Climate Resilience assesses coastal risks, promotes nature-based adaptations, and identifies innovative solutions to reduce risks to people, property, and the environment. Dr. Beck will describe recent successes in bridging ecology, engineering, and economics to develop solutions at the intersection of science, policy, and finance.
He will show some of the latest innovations, presenting examples from Santa Cruz, across the country, and internationally. These include new policies that open funding for nature as natural infrastructure; the development of nature-positive insurance; and the use of game-engine technology to communicate the cost effectiveness of nature-based solutions.
The event is in-person only. Register here.
Thursday, February 5, 2026 | 6-7:30 p.m.
Seymour Marine Discovery Center, La Feliz Room
100 McAllister Way
Santa Cruz 95060

Johnstone, J. (AM) - The Effects of Asymmetry on Overshooting and Magnetic Pumping from Compressible Convection Zones
2026-02-06 11:00 - 12:00 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
We present a comprehensive numerical investigation examining how vertical asymmetry in compressible convection affects overshooting and the transport of large-scale magnetic fields from convective to stably stratified regions. Using three-dimensional direct numerical simulations, we systematically vary the superadiabaticity and stratification of a convective layer to control the vertical asymmetry of the flow and analyze its influence on overshooting depth and magnetic pumping efficiency. We extend previous work by Tobias et al. (2001) and draw guidance from the asymmetry regimes identified by John & Schumacher (2023), investigating whether similar asymmetric convecting regimes emerge in our overshooting model that incorporates a stably stratified region below. We find that vertical asymmetry increases significantly with stratification at a moderate, fixed Rayleigh number, while superadiabaticity contributes primarily through enhanced downflow velocities, with both combined leading to increasing overshooting depths reaching approximately 0.46 − 0.7 pressure scale heights. Magnetic pumping efficiency initially increases with stratification but unexpectedly decreases at higher stratification, despite increasing overshooting depths. We find that this behavior arises from the increasing thermal and magnetic diffusivities that result from increasing stratification at fixed Ra. When instead either holding these diffusivities constant or increasing Ra sufficiently, we find that then both overshooting and magnetic pumping depths both decrease with increasing stratification. This behavior is explained by a change of dynamical state from one of laminar downflows to one of turbulent downflowing plumes leading to a high degree of turbulent mixing and entrainment. We thus find two distinct regimes that might be described as a microscopically diffusive regime and a turbulently diffusive one. These results suggest that, in the highly turbulent regime expected in the Sun, magnetic pumping efficiency may decrease with increasing stratification due to enhanced turbulent entrainment, with important implications for solar dynamo theory and the transport of large-scale magnetic fields in the solar interior.

Event Host: Jason Johnstone, Ph.D. Student, Applied Mathematics
Advisor: Nic Brummell
Zoom- https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/5428987373?pwd=[REDACTED]
Passcode- 778899

GDAC Portfolio Workshop
2026-02-06 12:15 - 13:00 | Cultural Center – Merrill College, 641 Merrill Rd, Santa Cruz, 95064, United States
Workshop

Part of the GDA Conference on campus – come and learn best practices for creating a portfolio to use in the gaming industry!

KNOW OUR POLICIES
Job postings and employer announcements are made without endorsement, direct or implied, by Career Success or UCSC. Career Success educates students about various opportunities and ensures equity of access to campus recruiting activities for all employers who abide by our Employer Policies. Individual students are encouraged to determine which employers align with their diverse talents, values, and interests.

YOU BELONG HERE
Programs and services are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities. To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.
Online Safety Tips
UC Santa Cruz Career Success〡Hahn 125
Email Career Success: csuccess@ucsc.edu
Visit Career Success Website: https://careers.ucsc.edu

Yang, J. (CSE) - Towards Controllable and Compositional Generative Vision
2026-02-06 16:00 - 18:00
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 visual effects such as shadows and reflections, which are essential for realistic composition yet are often missing or inconsistent in current generative pipelines. This proposal outlines a research program toward controllable, compositional image generation that supports practical, edit-ready content creation.
Event Host: Jinrui Yang, Ph.D. Student, Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Yuyin Zhou
Zoom- https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/91510964517?pwd=[REDACTED]
Passcode- 544143

First Saturday Tour at the Arboretum
2026-02-07 11:00 - 12:00 | Arboretum, 122 Arboretum Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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 and mammals that make this land their home or about the amazing physical adaptations that plants have evolved to better deal with our extreme weather and climate conditions. Tours are free with paid admission.

ECE Seminar: Integrated Micro- and Nanosystems for Biosensing, Neural Therapy, and Nanotoxicity
2026-02-09 10:40 - 23:45 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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 microstructures designed to enhance target capture efficiency in bodily fluids. This system incorporates sheath flow configurations, surface-enhanced Raman probes, and CRISPR reactions for the sensitive and multiplexed detection of drug-resistant bacteria in nanoconfined environments. We also highlight our recent advancements in implantable devices for adeno-associated virus (AAV) delivery and the treatment of neurological disorders in mouse models. These devices, fabricated via high-resolution 3D printing, utilize total internal reflection at the liquid–air–microstructure interface to efficiently stimulate neurons. Finally, we integrate experimental approaches with molecular dynamics simulations to study the interactions between arbitrary nanoparticles and living cells—advancing our understanding of nanotoxicity and guiding the design of next-generation drug delivery systems.
Bio: Dr. Ke Du is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Riverside. He established his independent research lab in 2018 following postdoctoral training with Richard Mathies at the University of California, Berkeley, and Holger Schmidt at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research team focuses on molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases such as sepsis, in vivo bioimaging, and nanotoxicology. Dr. Du has received numerous honors, including the EIPBN Inaugural Early Career Award (2024) and the NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (2021). He was recognized as an Emerging Investigator by Lab on a Chip (2024) and Nanoscale (2025), and named a Global Rising Star in Sensing by ACS Sensors. His research is supported by federal agencies and industry partners, including NIH NIGMS, NIH NIAID, NSF CBET, NSF CMMI, USDA, DOE, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Mammoth Biosciences, and Biological Mimetics. Beyond his research activities, Dr. Du serves as an Early Career Editorial Advisory Board member for Biomicrofluidics (AIP Publishing) and Sensors and Actuators Reports (Elsevier).
Hosted by: Professor Soumya Bose, ECE Department
Zoom Link: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/97975378707?pwd=[REDACTED]

CM Seminar - “The ‘Social’ Side of Social Virtual Reality”
2026-02-09 12:30 - 13:30 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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 be perceived not just as a technology to be solved but an emerging communication channel. Social science approaches, particularly from communication scholars, are needed to truly understand the way that humans engage with VR and each other in these new environments. McEwan’s talk will outline a program of research using qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand communication processes, effects, and user perceptions of VR design to deepen our understanding of how people engage with environments and each other in social VR.
Bio: Bree McEwan is a Professor in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology, an associate director of the Data Sciences Institute, and a faculty affiliate of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto. She is a co- organizer and founder of the Questioning Reality conference, a social VR research incubator. McEwan authored Navigating New Media Networks and co-authored Interpersonal Encounters. She directs the McEwan Mediated Communication Lab which researches the intersection of technology and social interaction. McEwan has published on relational maintenance on social network sites, perceived social affordances of communication channels, linguistic patterns in online communities, and the diffusion of information through social media. In addition, McEwan has metascience interests focused on transparency and replication in the social sciences. Current studies of the McMC Lab focus on affordances of social virtual environments, cognition and heuristics related to learning in VR spaces, and nonverbal communication patterns of avatars and agents.
Hosted by: Professor Katherine Isbister
When: Monday, February 9, 2026 from 12:30PM to 1:30PM
Location:
IN-PERSON @ UCSC Main Campus, E2-280.
Viewing room @ SVC 3212.
LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED AT BOTH LOCATIONS! Faculty and students are highly encouraged to attend.
Zoom info:
https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/91469785121?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 914 6978 5121
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Li, X. (CSE) - Compute-Efficient Scaling of Fully-Open Visual Encoders
2026-02-09 13:00 - 14:30
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 pre-training, these factors hinder independent reproducibility.
In this dissertation, we democratize large-scale visual encoder training by developing compute-efficient, reproducible training recipes for video encoders, vision-language models (VLMs), and multimodal large language models (MLLMs). First, we challenge the common belief that scaling necessarily requires proportionally more resources. Specifically, we show that decoupled pre-training separates key factors such as space/time and token length, and learns strong priors first. This design yields dramatic efficiency gains across image, video, and generative modeling. Next, we address the challenge of undisclosed or inaccessible training data by releasing and systematically studying the curation of high-quality, large-scale datasets. We demonstrate that high-quality synthetic captions at scale enable vision-language models to learn stronger visual representations, especially when paired with training frameworks that unify contrastive and generative objectives. Lastly, building on these findings, we develop fully open vision encoders with complete training data, recipes, and checkpoints, and show that transparency can enable rather than hinder state-of-the-art performance as an MLLMs’ visual backbone.
Together, these contributions establish that openness and efficiency are mutually reinforcing, providing a reproducible foundation for the next generation of visual intelligence.
Event Host: Xianhang Li, Ph.D. Candidate, Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Cihang Xie
Zoom- https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/95801462664?pwd=[REDACTED]
Passcode- 782017

AM Seminar: Data Driven Modeling for Scientific Discovery and Digital Twins
2026-02-09 16:00 - 17:00
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 system modeling and prediction even when governing equations are unavailable. FML is particularly powerful in the context of Digital Twins, an emerging concept in digital transformation. With sufficient offline learning, FML enables the construction of simulation models for key quantities of interest (QoIs) in complex Digital Twins, when direct mathematical modeling of the QoIs is infeasible. During the online execution of a Digital Twin, the learned FML model can simulate the QoIs without reverting to the computationally intensive Digital Twin simulation model. As a result, FML serves as an enabling methodology for real-time control and optimization for complex systems.
Bio: Dongbin Xiu received his Ph.D degree from the Division of Applied Mathematics of Brown University in 2004. He joined the Department of Mathematics of Purdue University in 2005 and moved to the University of Utah in 2013. In 2016, He joined The Ohio State University as Professor of Mathematics and Ohio Eminent Scholar. He received NSF CAREER award in 2007 and was elected to SIAM Fellow in 2023. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Computational Physics and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Machine Learning for Modeling and Computing (JMLMC). His current research focuses on developing efficient numerical methods for scientific machine learning, data driven discovery and digital twins.
Hosted by: Daniele Venturi, Applied Mathematics

February Slugs and Steins with Distinguished Professor Emeritus John Brown Childs
2026-02-09 18:30 - 20:00
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 call “transcommunal peace and cooperation,” for some twenty years first in DVI Prison, and mostly Soledad Prison, the central image that strikes me is the first part of Hamlet’s statement, in the Shakespeare play, wherein he says, “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself king of infinite space….” The men with whom I work, despite their incarceration in narrow, constraining, routinized circumstances, are nonetheless able to reach out to, and draw from a wide and deep universe of humane love for all. Their organizing group, Cemanahuac (an Indigenous Nahuatl word meaning “One World”-all races, cultures, faiths, regions, and perspectives); is the foundation for the success of transcommunality. My book Transcommunality, from the Politics of Conversion to the Ethics of Respect, (Temple University Press, 2003), that is the basis for my teaching in Soledad and elsewhere, emphasizes ways of achieving mutual respect among diverse, even opposing vantage points, with an emphasis on being able to disagree over key matters while still working together. The concept of “transcommunality” is rooted in the brilliant, ancient Indigenous philosophy of the Haudenosauunee (“Iroquois”) Peacemaker, Deganawidah. Similarly, rather than being simple stereotyped negatives; these Soledad men are positives, who are providing important foundations for building bridges in a time of overall societal division, and emphasizing, in the midst of the national cauldron of hate, the healing power of love.
REGISTER

CSE Colloquium: Incentivized Alignment for Strategic Agents (Human and Otherwise)
2026-02-11 11:00 - 12:15 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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 term incentivized alignment to describe the approach of combining both machine learning and incentive design to achieve alignment of system outcomes despite misaligned agents. This talk presents two case studies of incentivized alignment showing how machine learning can make mechanism design scalable and practical, and how mechanism design can make machine learning strategically robust. First, I examine the use of LLMs as judges for rating subjective responses. While LLMs perform well on existing datasets, they are highly susceptible to manipulation. I propose adapting peer-prediction mechanisms to create strategically-robust scoring mechanisms that incentivize honest reporting. Beyond ensuring high-quality inputs to AI systems, these mechanisms can potentially eliminate reward hacking in ML training pipelines. Second, I consider collective decision-making where agents hold different objectives and private information. The goal is to design mechanisms that incentivize strategic agents to select outcomes that would be optimal under full information sharing, according to certain criteria. Both case studies demonstrate solutions for incentivized alignment in multi-agent systems employing the combination of incentive design and machine learning, a theme likely to be central to the future of collaborative AI.
Bio: Grant Schoenebeck is an associate professor at the University of Michigan in the School of Information. His work has recently focused on developing and analyzing systems for eliciting and aggregating information from a diverse group of agents with varying information, interests, and abilities by combining ideas from machine learning and economics (e.g. game theory, mechanism design, and information design). More generally, his recent work has been about incentives and (machine) learning in a variety of contexts. His research is supported by multiple NSF grants including a CAREER award and spans publications in top venues including NeurIPS, ICLR, EC, WINE, the Web Conference, STOC, and FOCS. His former PhD students and postdocs now hold tenure-track positions at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Peking University, George Mason University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He recently served as Program Committee Co-chair for WINE, Theory Track Co-chair for EC, and Economics and Computation Track co-chair at the Web Conference. Grant received his PhD at UC Berkeley, studied theology at Oxford University, and received his BA in mathematics and computer science from Harvard.
Hosted by: Professor Nikos Tziavelis
Location: Engineering 2, Room E2-180
*Light refreshments such as coffee, pastries, and fruit will be available.
Zoom: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/93445911992?pwd=[REDACTED]

On the Margins of Empire: The Archaeology of Social Complexities in Lower Akinyele, Southwest Nigeria Ca. 18th- 20th centuries
2026-02-11 12:00 - 13:00 | Social Sciences 1, Social Sciences 1, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Presentation Abstract: My research examines the materiality of everyday life in non-urban spaces between the 18th and 20th centuries. I seek to articulate the nature of social complexities that may have characterized these spaces, with particular attention to the domestic domain. In my study at Lower Akinyele, I aim to investigate how social agents negotiated their daily lives within complex historical processes such as imperial control, conflict, migration, and resettlement, and how these dynamics shape their lived experience and are reflected in the archaeological record over this extended period.
Combining an interdisciplinary approach, my research employs ethnography, archaeological field survey with geospatial analysis, and material science-based analysis. Drawing on theories of agency, practice, and feminist perspectives, I move beyond a monolithic view that privileges urban centers as the primary sites for studying social complexity. Instead, my work advocates for a more nuanced understanding that captures the varied scales of human interactions within these communities.
About the Presenter: Boluwaji Ajayi is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at UCSC. Ajayi’s research examines the social complexities that shaped the everyday lives of settlements located on the peripheries of early cities and empires in the Yoruba-Edo region of Southwestern Nigeria from the precolonial era to the twentieth century.

Centering the Experiences of Undocumented Transfer Students at HSIs: A Brown Bag Presentation by Valeria Alonso Blanco
2026-02-11 12:00 - 13:00 | Huerta Center Conference Room (Casa Latina), 641 Merrill Rd, Santa Cruz,, CA, 95064
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 realities, and she offers actionable recommendations for more equitable, transfer-receptive practices.

EOP Students - "Words That Impress: Creating a Great Résumé & Cover Letter"
2026-02-11 15:00 - 16:00 | Career Success Student Lounge (125 Hahn), 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, 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 cover letter paragraphs. The presentation will be 30 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of optional worktime here in our office with coaches to give you brief input.
We will provide captions for the presentation. If you have disability-related needs, please contact the Career Success office at csuccess@ucsc.edu or (831) 459-4420 as soon as possible.
YOU BELONG HERE
Programs and services are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities. To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.

AI Application Development – A monthly conversation with the Chair
2026-02-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, 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.
Speaker
Join Praveen Krishna, Chair of the Artificial Intelligence Application Development program, for this new monthly conversation series designed to spark discussion and dialogue. Get an inside look at how our courses deliver hands-on learning, industry-driven projects, and the technical foundation needed to advance your career as an ML Engineer, MLOps Engineer, or Applied AI Researcher.
Learn more.
Visit our program page for a closer look at our AI App Development courses and offerings.
Register today.

California Firefighter Cancer Research Study Panel
2026-02-11 18:00 - 19:30 | 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 organized with the Friedlaender Lab in conjunction with Weather and the Whale.
—
ADDITIONAL SERIES EVENTS
– Thurs. Feb. 5, 6:00 p.m: Intersections of Climate Change Lecture: Climate Justice and the Moss Landing Battery Fire
– Wed. Feb. 11, 6:00 p.m: The California Firefighter Cancer Research Study with Shehnaz Hussain and Fire Captain Jamie Gabriel
– Thurs. Feb. 26, 6:00 p.m: Intersections of Climate Change Performance: Electroacoustic Performance and Artist Talk with the Whale Liberation Front
– Wed. March 4, 6:00 p.m: Unexpected Returns: The Historic Entanglements of Fire, Settlement, and Stewardship in the Santa Cruz Mountains
—
ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
—
PARKING
– The entrance to the Institute of the Arts and Sciences Galleries is on Delaware Street and has an accessibility ramp.
– Convenient and free self-parking is available on Panetta Avenue and High Road, immediately adjacent to the galleries.
– Accessible parking is on High Road.
—
This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

"The Eternal Song" Film Screening
2026-02-11 18:30 - 21:00 | Merrill Cultural Center, 200 McLaughlin Dr, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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 of separation that fragments our lives.

Virtual Resume Review
2026-02-12 10:00 - 14:00
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!
You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities.
To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.
Handshake is committed to building an accessible product, as well as an ongoing, sustainable process for maintaining accessibility. Please contact slugtalent@ucsc.edu if you need accessibility support at least 5 days prior to the event date.
Questions? Email slugtalent@ucsc.edu

BME Seminar: Population Genetics in an Era of Genomic Health
2026-02-12 11:40 - 13:30 | Physical Sciences Building, Physical Sciences Building, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Presenter: Dr. Eimear Kenny, Founding Director of the Institute for Genomic Health and a Endowed Chair and Professor for Genomic Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Description: The overarching goal of my work is to advance genomics in medicine and research through diversity and innovation. The work of my group seeks to enrich our understanding of human genomic diversity by focusing on populations underrepresented in genomics, developing and disseminating computational genomic tools to enhance precision and accuracy in diverse populations, unveiling genetic architectures of diseases that can track with demographic history, and advancing diversity large-scale genomic databases. We also work to integrate new paradigms of genomic medicine into routine clinical practice, ensuring genomic insights are appropriately applied in real-world healthcare settings and lead to improved patient care and health equity. I will discuss aspects of this work with emphasis on why we should promote inclusivity, innovate methodologies, and harness the potential of diverse populations in genomic health.
Bio: Eimear Kenny, PhD, is the Founding Director of the Institute for Genomic Health, building resources for integrating genomic information and AI in routine clinical care, and supporting the sequencing and return of results to a diverse patients in the Mount Sinai Health System. She also the Founding Director of the Center for Translational Genomics and a Endowed Chair and Professor of Genomic Health, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, working on computational and translational genomic research. She is Principal Investigator in many large NIH-funded international consortium focused on computational genomics and genomic medicine, including eMERGE, PRIMED, CSER, GSP, TOPMed, PAGE, and HPRC. She is a strong advocate for the importance of diversity in genomic research, is improving the accessibility of genetics to global populations, and has led multiple genetics-based clinical trials. Her exceptional contributions to the field earned her the prestigious Early Career Award from the American Society of Human Genetics in 2022. In addition to her academic and research roles, Dr. Kenny serves as a scientific advisor to various genomic medicine initiatives in government, non-profit, and industry sectors.
Hosted by: Professor Karen Miga, BME Department

Sambamurthy, A. (AM) - Lazy Diffusion: Resolving Spectral Collapse in Generative Models for Turbulence
2026-02-12 16:30 - 17:30 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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 schedule as a spectral regularizer and introduce power-law schedules that preserve fine-scale structure deeper into diffusion time. We further propose Lazy Diffusion, a one-step distillation method that leverages the learned score geometry to bypass long reverse trajectories and prevent high-wavenumber degradation. Applied to high-Reynolds-number 2D Kolmogorov turbulence and ocean reanalysis data, these methods resolve spectral collapse and enable stable long-horizon autoregressive emulation.
Event Host: Anish Sambamurthy, Ph.D. Student, Applied Mathematics
Advisor: Ashesh Chattopadhyay
Zoom- https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/5144530307?pwd=[REDACTED]
Passcode- 55555

El Centro, SASA, LALS, MEChA presents: Understanding Venezuela: History, Power, and Multiple Perspectives
2026-02-12 17:00 - 18:30 | Stevenson Fireside Lounge, 101 McLaughlin Dr, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
There is no single Venezuelan experience. Stories from Venezuela and the Venezuelan diaspora are shaped by history, politics, migration, and personal circumstances, and they often differ from one another in meaningful ways.
This panel invites students and community members to learn about the historical and present-day realities shaping Venezuela, including U.S. foreign policy, political power, natural resources, and migration. The discussion also acknowledges that Venezuelans hold a wide range of political views, including differing perspectives on the Maduro government, perspectives that are often missing from the U.S.-centered conversations.vnzla postervnzla poster
Our goal is to create a respectful space for learning, listening, and understanding. By centering multiple viewpoints and lived experiences, this program encourages thoughtful dialogue and a deeper understanding of Venezuela beyond simplified narratives.

Your path to medical school starts here.
2026-02-12 18:00 - 19:00 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, 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 want expert guidance through the medical school preparation and application process.
During this session, you’ll learn how the UCSC Premed Postbacc Program provides a structured, cohort-based experience—offered in Silicon Valley and Marina on the Central Coast—to help students strengthen their academic foundation, prepare for medical school, and apply with confidence.
Register here.

OLLI at UCSC Sunday Speaker Meeting
2026-02-15 10:00 - 12:00 | Colleges Nine and John R. Lewis College Multi-purpose Room, 615 College Nine Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
OLLI at UCSC Hosts Benjamin Storm, UCSC Psychology Professor
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UC Santa Cruz invites the public to an in-person presentation from 10:00 to noon on Sunday, February 15th, in the Colleges Nine/Lewis Multipurpose Room at UCSC.
Join us for a social hour and a presentation titled “Remembering and Forgetting in the Digital Age.” Professor Storm will discuss how new technologies have the potential to greatly enhance and expand the functioning of human memory, but they can also carry unintended consequences.
OLLI at UCSC is a community of adults from diverse educational, occupational, and geographic backgrounds who are devoted to the pursuit of learning. This event is free and open to the public. Bring a friend. Coffee and nibbles will be served.
For directions and free parking information, visit: https://olli.ucsc.edu/monthly-gatherings/location-directions-and-parking/
Free and open to the public

Presented by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at UC Santa Cruz.

CSE Colloquium - Query Optimization: How to design a Meta-Algorithm that designs Algorithms?
2026-02-18 11:00 - 12:15 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Presenter: Mahmoud Abo Khamis, RelationalAI
Abstract:
Database systems have evolved from simple bookkeeping tools to comprehensive data analytics platforms capable of learning from the data and making business decisions. As a result, database queries expanded in their expressive power and applications to include tensor computations, constraint satisfaction problems, graph analytics, scientific computing, SAT solving, among others. This puts a lot of pressure on modern query optimizers to rise up to the occasion and produce efficient query plans for a wide variety of very complex queries that describe problems in different domains. The ultimate goal of query optimization is for the query optimizer to become a “meta-algorithm” where you can feed in any problem definition and get back an efficient algorithm for this particular problem.
In this talk, we describe two related frameworks for query optimization that aim to take us one step in the direction of the above goal. The first framework is based on information theory. It uses information theory to get provably accurate cost estimates for query plans and to find the best query plan. Among other applications, this framework currently achieves the best known complexity for graph pattern matching problems, thus subsuming and generalizing known results in this area, where, for decades, algorithms used to be designed by hand for specific graph patterns. The second framework is based on algebra. It uses algebraic abstractions to unify and generalize algorithms across different domains, in the same way template programming allows for reusing code across different applications.
Bio:
Mahmoud Abo Khamis is a Senior Computer Scientist at RelationalAI, where he has worked since 2017. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2016. Prior to joining RelationalAI, he was a Senior Database Engineer at Infor from 2015 to 2017. His research interests include database systems and theory, in-database machine learning, query optimization and evaluation, information theory, and beyond worst-case analysis. His work has been recognized with two Test-of-Time Awards at ACM PODS 2025 and 2026, three Best Paper Awards at ACM SIGMOD 2025 and ACM PODS 2022 and 2016, three ACM SIGMOD Research Highlight Awards, and the 2016 Best CSE Dissertation Award from SUNY Buffalo. His work has also received multiple invitations to the Journal of the ACM, ACM STOC, and ACM TODS. He is on the Editorial Board of ACM TODS, and serves on the program committees of ACM PODS, ICDT, and ICALP among others.
Hosted by: Professor Nikos Tziavelis
Location: Engineering 2, Room E2-180 (*Refreshments such as coffee, tea, pastries, and fresh fruit will be provided in-person.)
Zoom: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/93445911992?pwd=[REDACTED]

Creative Interventions: "Empathy in the Archives" with Irene Lusztig
2026-02-18 16:00 - 17:35
Across a range of projects, filmmaker/artist, archival researcher, and UC Santa Cruz Film + Digital Media Professor Irene Lusztig discusses her creative practice working with archival materials to reanimate hidden, forgotten, and unsettled histories in this talk, organized as part of the Creative Interventions speaker series.
—
ADMISSION
– Attend online
– FREE and open to UCSC affiliates only
– Advance registration required here
—
FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
– Event dates to be announced throughout the 2025-26 academic year.
– Learn more about the Creative Intervention Series here.
—
ABOUT THE SERIES
Creative Interventions addresses the interconnected work of artists, designers, activists, and knowledge workers—and the intrinsic and transformative capacity of that work to cultivate a just society. The speaker series raises questions of import to contemporary creative workers in media and technology. How do creative workers address their most challenging problems? How does creative labor intersect with other forms of labor to nurture the world views and cultural practices of democracy?
—
This program is open to all UC Santa Cruz affiliates consistent with state and federal law.

Reframing the STEM Classroom: Justice as Pedagogical Practice
2026-02-19 10:15 - 12:00 | Namaste Lounge, 615 College Nine Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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 details.

Jabari Jones is an Assistant Professor of Earth and Oceanographic Sciences at Bowdoin College. His research is centered around the role of humans as a geologic agent on Earth and how rivers change through time.
Emily Murai is a Lecturer in UCSC’s Environmental Studies Department and Director of the Emerging Leaders Fellowship program at the Center for Reimagining Leadership. She explores interdisciplinary writing, critical environmentalism, and belonging in higher education.
Kriti Sharma is an Associate Professor of Critical Race Science & Technology Studies and Climate Justice Fellow with the Center for Reimagining Leadership at UCSC. She works at the intersection of science, philosophy, poetics and justice.

The Center for Reimagining Leadership (CRL) is dedicated to establishing workplaces and learning environments that reflect our equity-forward values and allow the full human diversity of our nation and the world to meaningfully contribute to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
The Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) at UC Santa Cruz supports all members of the teaching community by using research- and equity-minded practices to strengthen the culture of teaching, advance innovative and accessible pedagogy, and promote student success through collaboration with educators and campus partners within our minority-serving research university.

Networking Skills 101
2026-02-19 12:00 - 13:00 | Career Success Student Lounge (125 Hahn), 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
Does the concept of “networking” leave you feeling a little mystified? Everyone says this is an essential skill for career development, but how do we do it effectively? Join us for this fast-paced and informative workshop led by UCSC Career Success Student Coaches who will share best practices, insider tips, and relevant steps that you can take to network with confidence and success!

All students are welcome. The presentation will last 45 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A.
We will provide captions for the presentation. If you have disability-related needs, please contact the Career Success office at csuccess@ucsc.edu or (831) 459-4420 as soon as possible.

YOU BELONG HERE
Programs and services are open to all, consistent with state and federal law, as well as the University of California’s nondiscrimination policies. Every initiative—whether a student service, faculty program, or community event—is designed to be accessible, inclusive, and respectful of all identities. To learn more, please visit UC Nondiscrimination Statement or Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications.

Slugs at Sundown: Strengthening Your Professional Brand
2026-02-19 17:30 - 19:30 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
In a constantly evolving job market, having a clear and authentic professional brand can open doors at any career stage. Join fellow Banana Slugs for a practical, engaging conversation focused on how to show up—and stand out—professionally. We’ll explore how AI-powered tools can help you efficiently tailor your resume for specific opportunities, along with best practices for sharpening your LinkedIn presence and building meaningful, genuine connections online. Whether you’re exploring a new direction, preparing for your next move, or simply refreshing your professional story, this session offers actionable takeaways you can put to use right away.
New: Complimentary headshots will be available on-site for attendees.
Thursday, February 19
5:30 – 5:45 p.m. | Check-in
5:45 – 6:45 p.m. | Welcome, Presentation, Q&A
6:45 – 7:30 p.m. | Networking
The workshop will be presented by COOP Careers, in partnership with UCSC Career Success.
Professional headshot photography by Cherlyn Wagner (Merrill, ’99).
Please register to confirm your attendance.
