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  • Abstract digital illustration featuring gears and interconnected technology elements.

    Lucas, J. (BMEB) – Enabling Population-Scale Analysis of Human Centromere Diversity

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

    Centromeric DNA is critical for accurate chromosome segregation and genome stability, but due to its repetitive nature, it was only recently fully included in a human reference. Rapid evolution and sequence diversity in these regions limit the utility of one reference sequence, however. Integrating centromeric and pericentromeric satellite DNA – which together constitute over 5% […]

  • Baskin Engineering logo

    CSE Colloquium – Safety Alignment of LMs via Non-cooperative Games

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

    Presenter: Arman Zharmagambetov, Meta Abstract: Ensuring the safety of language models (LMs) while maintaining their usefulness remains a critical challenge in AI alignment. Current approaches rely on sequential adversarial training: generating adversarial (harmful) prompts and fine-tuning LMs to defend against them. We introduce a different paradigm: framing safety alignment as a non-zero-sum game between an […]

    Free
  • A Caucasian woman with brown hair, red glasses, and a white shirt stands in front of four brown trees.

    BME80G Seminar – Ann Mc Cartney, “The Why, What and How of Indigenous Data Sovereignty”

    Presenter: Dr. Ann Mc Cartney Location: Virtual. Please register here: https://ucsc.zoom.us/meeting/register/ciShTZsyRViYxMDjCc_cAQ#/registration Abstract: In 2007 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) that supports Indigenous Peoples’ inherent rights to self-determination and governance over Indigenous Peoples, territories and resources. This codification in an international treaty led to the […]

  • Digital flyer for an “HSI Equity Talk.” The background is beige with subtle tree silhouettes and an orange border along the top and bottom. Large orange text reads: “IT TAKES AN ECOSYSTEM: STAFF AND FACULTY LEADERS DRIVING EQUITY AT UCSC.” On the left are four logos stacked: “UCSC HSI Initiatives,” “El Centro Chicanx Latinx Resource Center UC Santa Cruz,” “Collaborative Research for Equity in Action (CREA), University of California, Santa Cruz,” and a “YOU BELONG HERE – All are welcome to attend – Division of Student Affairs and Success” banner. On the right are two circular headshots: Rebecca Covarrubias, smiling and wearing a white blouse, and Xiomara López, smiling and wearing a dark blouse. Beneath their photos are captions: “Rebecca Covarrubias, Professor of Psychology, and Faculty Director of the Collaborative Research for Equity in Action (CREA)” and “Xiomara López, El Centro and Latiné Student Success Director.”

    It Takes an Ecosystem: Staff and Faculty Perspectives on Collaboration at UC Santa Cruz

    HSI Equity Talks
    Virtual Event

    Funded through a Department of Education Title V grant, a team at UC Santa Cruz launched CULTURA (Centering Undergraduate Latine Thriving with University Racial-Equity Action) in 2024 as a bold, campus-wide effort to reimagine how we can collectively advance student success and equity. At its core, CULTURA asks: What becomes possible when we intentionally invest […]

  • Donna Haraway

    The Helene Moglen Lecture in Feminism and Humanities: Donna Haraway

    Merrill Cultural Center 200 McLaughlin Dr, Santa Cruz, CA

    Donna Haraway, “Staying with the Trouble for Still Possible Times” Wednesday May 20, 2026, 5:30 p.m. There will be refreshments from 5– 5:30 p.m., the talk at 5:30 – 7 p.m., and a reception at the very end. Merrill Cultural Center In-person only The sky has not fallen – yet. In troubled times, this lecture […]

  • Tulip in front of kid soldiers

    VMCC Talk with Salar Mameni—Blood of Tulips

    Porter College D-Building, Santa Cruz, CA

    What counts as life in the midst of war, genocide, and planetary destruction? What is death and how do ideas around martyrdom and sacrifice contribute to our understanding of sacred ecologies? In this talk, Mameni engages these questions based on research for his second book project focusing on ecologies of war and martyrdom in the […]

    FREE and open to the public

  • Tripoli: A Tale of Three Cities—reception, screening, and discussion with the filmmmaker

    Communications Building 7487 Red Hill Road, Santa Cruz, CA

    While living abroad, a filmmaker returns to Tripoli, Lebanon, to confront a hometown that once rejected him as a queer child. With a microphone in hand, he walks around coffee shops, public squares, and a park to ask the city’s inhabitants about their cultural and social beliefs and their embrace of new ideas. Gradually, he […]

    FREE and open to UCSC affiliates
  • Student presents research in the BE courtyard

    Annual BE Student Project Showcase

    The annual BE Student Project Showcase celebrates the innovative work and accomplishments of undergraduate engineers in capstone courses and research pathways.

  • BME 280B Seminar 5/21/26

    BME 280B Seminar: Speaker Dylan Shropshire – “How did Wolbachia become Earth’s most pervasive animal symbiont?”

    Biomedical Sciences Building 575 McLaughlin Drive

    Presenter: Dylan Shropshire, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, Lehigh University Description: Maternally transmitted Wolbachia bacteria inhabit roughly half of all arthropod species, making them likely the most common animal-associated microbe on Earth. Wolbachia alter host reproduction, persist across deep evolutionary timescales, and move into new host species in ways that we are only beginning to resolve. Wolbachia’s […]

  • Ronaldo and Terri

    Something held by poetry

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

    In this intimate workshop, UC Santa Cruz students, faculty, and staff are invited into conversation with poets Ronaldo V. Wilson and Terri Witek. Something held by poetry is programmed for Wilson’s multimedia exhibition, there are no words, but melodies, currently on view at the IAS. RSVP is required. Ronaldo V. Wilson is a poet, interdisciplinary artist, […]

  • Three silhouetted figures talking, overlaid with graphics of digital data, charts, and technology interfaces.

    Chou, Y. (CM) – Exploring Future AI-Mediated Health Creator–Audience Interactions on Social Media: Transparency, Care, and Accountability

    Virtual Event

    Health and wellness content creators play an important role in shaping how people receive and engage with health information on social media. Beyond delivering information, they also convey care, build trust, and sustain relationships with audiences. As generative AI (GenAI) becomes increasingly integrated into creator work, existing research has examined AI disclosure, AI-mediated communication, and […]

  • Close-up abstract image of a circuit board with glowing lines and interconnected pathways.

    Weber, Z. (ECE) – Sustainable Bioinspired Polymer–Mineral Composites for Adaptable Repair in Conservation Applications

    Jack Baskin Engineering Baskin Engineering 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA
    Hybrid Event

    Every year, tens of thousands of tons of plaster-based materials are used in restoration and conservation applications, many of which are derived from non-renewable sources and discarded at the end of their service life. Here, we introduce a biodegradable, bio-derived composite based on chitosan and calcium carbonate that is composed of simple, widely available constituents […]

  • Hamid Jafarbiglu

    ECE Seminar: Advanced Sensing and AI Technologies for Food Safety and Precision Agriculture

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

    Presenter: Hamid Jafarbiglu, Agricultural Technology Evaluator, Big Idea Ventures Description: California agriculture is increasingly adopting organic and regenerative production systems, creating a growing need for technologies capable of monitoring complex agricultural environments, assessing food safety risks, and supporting data-driven management decisions. Emerging tools such as drones, hyperspectral scanning, environmental sensors, and artificial intelligence provide new […]

  • Three silhouetted figures talking, overlaid with graphics of digital data, charts, and technology interfaces.

    Harsh, B. (CSE) – SUPERSCALAR, MULTIPLE TAKEN BRANCH PREDICTOR

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

    This work addresses improvements in branch prediction mechanism to support high perfor- mance processors. The state of the art aims to balance the prediction latency and prediction accuracy using multi level correcting predictors . Prior published work focusses on scalar designs and prediction accuracy improvement for hard to predict branches employing tailor made, non generic […]

  • Abstract digital illustration featuring gears and interconnected technology elements.

    Castro, S. (CSE) – Agentic AI for Security: Adversarial Foundations for Autonomous Cyber Operations

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

    Autonomous Cyber Operations (ACO) agents promise effective security automation with minimal human intervention, yet their deployment raises three interconnected challenges: agents must be realistic (reproducing diverse attacker sophistication), secure (preventing autonomy from becoming an attack surface), and feasible (safely replicating human behavior at full autonomy). We argue that these three properties are requirements for ACO […]

  • Close-up abstract image of a circuit board with glowing lines and interconnected pathways.

    Liu, P. (CM) – Reimagining Workplace Concern Reporting: From Emotional Harm to Co-Designed Futures

    Virtual Event

    Workplace concern reporting infrastructure, including human resources (HR) portals, grievance procedures, and whistleblower hotlines, is the formal channel through which employees in most organizations raise concerns about harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. Yet existing research consistently finds that these systems fail the employees they are meant to protect: reports stall, concerns get filtered, retaliation occurs, and […]

  • Three silhouetted figures talking, overlaid with graphics of digital data, charts, and technology interfaces.

    Baskaran, D. (CM) – More than Just Fun: Exploring Meaningful Play, Communities of Play, and Relatedness of Play

    Virtual Event

    Play is often seen as a form of entertainment, leisure, or childhood development. However, it also acts as a meaningful experience that shapes how people connect with others and interact with the world around them throughout their lives. Prior work on meaningful play and communities of play has mainly focused on individual experiences and participation, […]

  • Abstract digital illustration featuring gears and interconnected technology elements.

    Tu, H. (CSE) – From Evaluation to Adaptation: Building Reliable Multimodal Intelligence

    Virtual Event

    Multimodal large language models (MLLMs) are rapidly becoming general-purpose AI systems, yet their capabilities are advancing faster than our ability to evaluate, improve, and validate their reliability in realistic use. Standard benchmarks mainly measure in-distribution final-answer accuracy, leaving critical gaps in safety, robustness, fine-grained reasoning evaluation, and reliability in real-world agentic settings. My research proposes […]

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    FINS: Fisheries Insights Narratives and Stories seminar series featuring Lisa Uttal

    Ocean Health Building McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA

    Please join us for the final talk in the FINS: Fisheries Insights Narratives and Stories seminar series featuring Lisa Uttal giving her talk, “Science Unlocked: Translating Research into Public Stewardship”.

    Preceding the talk please join us for a networking coffee hour (snacks provided) and a student-only lunch after the talk.

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    CSE Colloquium – Learning to Image: Computational Microscopy for Dynamic Systems

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

    Presenter: Laura Waller, UC Berkeley Abstract: Computational imaging jointly designs hardware and algorithms to push beyond the classical limits of imaging, enabling measurement of new quantities (e.g. 3D, phase, and super-resolution) with simple, inexpensive hardware. These approaches have already transformed consumer photography; our goal is to achieve a similar transformation in scientific microscopy. In this […]

    Free