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SUMMARY:Santa Cruz Pickwick Club presents: Christie Mysteries
DESCRIPTION:Over the coming year\, Dickens Universe readers and Pickwick Club members will meet for discussions focused on these novels and their lasting influence on the mystery genre. This year’s reading series brings together four landmark works of crime fiction: The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens (Penguin Classics\, 2002)\, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (William Morrow\, 2021)\, The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (William Morrow\, 2025)\, and The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (William Morrow\, 2011). Join Dickens enthusiasts and Pickwick Club members on Zoom for a series of discussions about these beloved books. \nRegister via Zoom \nReading Schedule:  \n\nSept 27: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd\nOct 25: The Pale Horse\nNov 22: The Murder at the Vicarage\nDec 27: The Mystery of Edwin Drood\nJan 24: The Mystery of Edwin Drood\nFeb 28: The Mystery of Edwin Drood\nMar 28: The Mystery of Edwin Drood\nApr 25: TBD\nMay 23: TBD\nJun 27: TBD\n\nRecommended Edition: We recommend the Penguin Classics edition of the novels for its appendices and notes\, but other versions are fine. First-time readers should avoid the Introduction if they don’t want spoilers. Download the novels to read at Gutenburg.org or listen at LibriVox.org. \nThe Santa Cruz Pickwick (Book) Club\, a branch of the Dickens Fellowship\, is a community of local bookworms\, students\, and teachers who meet monthly to discuss a nineteenth-century novel. The Santa Cruz Public Libraries provide support for the reading group.
URL:https://events.ucsc.edu/event/santa-cruz-pickwick-club-presents-christie-mysteries/2026-09-27/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Lectures & Presentations
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261025T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20270725T150000
DTSTAMP:20260910T220505Z
CREATED:20260910T220505Z
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SUMMARY:Santa Cruz Pickwick Club presents: Christie Mysteries
DESCRIPTION:Over the coming year\, Dickens Universe readers and Pickwick Club members will meet for discussions focused on these novels and their lasting influence on the mystery genre. This year’s reading series brings together four landmark works of crime fiction: The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens (Penguin Classics\, 2002)\, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (William Morrow\, 2021)\, The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (William Morrow\, 2025)\, and The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (William Morrow\, 2011). Join Dickens enthusiasts and Pickwick Club members on Zoom for a series of discussions about these beloved books. \nRegister via Zoom \nReading Schedule:  \n\nSept 27: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd\nOct 25: The Pale Horse\nNov 22: The Murder at the Vicarage\nDec 27: The Mystery of Edwin Drood\nJan 24: The Mystery of Edwin Drood\nFeb 28: The Mystery of Edwin Drood\nMar 28: The Mystery of Edwin Drood\nApr 25: TBD\nMay 23: TBD\nJun 27: TBD\n\nRecommended Edition: We recommend the Penguin Classics edition of the novels for its appendices and notes\, but other versions are fine. First-time readers should avoid the Introduction if they don’t want spoilers. Download the novels to read at Gutenburg.org or listen at LibriVox.org. \nThe Santa Cruz Pickwick (Book) Club\, a branch of the Dickens Fellowship\, is a community of local bookworms\, students\, and teachers who meet monthly to discuss a nineteenth-century novel. The Santa Cruz Public Libraries provide support for the reading group.
URL:https://events.ucsc.edu/event/santa-cruz-pickwick-club-presents-christie-mysteries/2026-10-25/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Lectures & Presentations
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261026T132500
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261026T143000
DTSTAMP:20261007T210239Z
CREATED:20260916T144214Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20261007T210239Z
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SUMMARY:Environmental Studies Seminar Series | Morgan Gilmour and James D. Jacobson\, NASA Ames Earth Science
DESCRIPTION:In person and via Zoom (Meeting ID: 978 5545 8946\, Passcode: 454736).  \nIf you are unable to stream the talk live and need to access a recorded version\, please contact Stacy Philpott at sphilpot@ucsc.edu. A UC Santa Cruz email address is required to access the recording. \nHost: Bo Yang \nSpeaker:  Morgan Gilmour\, NASA Ames Earth Science \nTitle: NASA’s Internet of Animals project: Biologging reveals global insights \nAbstract: NASA’s Internet of Animals project uses biologging to study Earth system processes and inform biodiversity. Working with a team of scientists and engineers\, we aim to create a forward-looking approach to improve our ability to monitor the Earth\, animal ecology\, and remote environments. I will highlight case studies in which we used biologgers to quantify protections of a marine protected area\, estimate tuna-fisheries interactions\, and develop sensors that contribute to the validation of satellite measurements.  \nSpeaker:  James D. Jacobson\, NASA Ames Earth Science \nTitle: Introduction to EPIC Lab & Using MASTER over Wildfires in the Continental US \nAbstract: This seminar will introduce the Earth and Planetary Instrument and Calibration (EPIC) Lab at NASA Ames Research Center and highlight its role in advancing airborne remote. I will first provide an overview of the laboratory’s research activities\, instrumentation\, and capabilities\, with an emphasis on how airborne imaging systems are used to investigate environmental processes at spatial and spectral scales that complement satellite observations at home and beyond. \nThe second part of the seminar will focus on the MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER)\, an airborne imaging spectrometer that measures reflected and emitted radiation across the visible\, near-infrared\, shortwave infrared\, midwave infrared\, and longwave infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. I will discuss how MASTER observations can be used to detect and characterize active fires\, quantify their thermal and spectral properties\, and map fire impacts across the landscape. \nExamples from the recent NASA INjected Smoke and PYRocumulonimbus Experiment (INSPYRE) mission will illustrate MASTER’s capabilities for observing wildfire behavior and its interaction with the atmosphere. These observations provide a unique perspective on intense fire events and demonstrate how airborne measurements can connect processes occurring at the fire and landscape scales to their broader atmospheric impacts. \n 
URL:https://events.ucsc.edu/event/environmental-studies-seminar-series-morgan-gilmour-james-d-jacobson/
LOCATION:Interdisciplinary Sciences Building\, 7487 Red Hill Road\, Santa Cruz\, CA\, 95064
CATEGORIES:Lectures & Presentations
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261028T173000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261028T190000
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SUMMARY:Reshaping representation: Midterm elections and emerging district map battles
DESCRIPTION:Congressional elections are central to American democratic representation. Their importance underpins recent concerns about partisan gerrymandering in the states and makes civic participation even more critical given the narrow majorities in Congress. Indeed\, the outcome of congressional elections has significant consequences for whose voices are reflected in state and federal policymaking\, especially when both parties have used redistricting strategically to improve their electoral prospects. In advance of the 2026 midterm elections\, this event will contextualize past redistricting efforts and explore some of the most pressing threats to today’s electoral process. Our panel will discuss the long history of redistricting in the United States\, differentiate between racial gerrymandering and partisan gerrymandering\, discuss the intersection of race and partisan objectives\, highlight the role of recent state independent redistricting commissions and California’s Prop 50\, along with exclusionary changes to the Voting Rights Act and recent actions taken by the Supreme Court. You will not want to miss this informative discussion as you prepare to participate in these important elections. \nThis event is the first in a series of 2026-27 Resilient Democracy events brought to you by the Institute for Social Transformation. \nFree and open to the public with registration: RSVP HERE to attend in-person or virtually. Questions? Contact transform@ucsc.edu. \nModerator \n\nMelanie Springer\, Associate Professor of Politics (UC Santa Cruz)\n\nPanelists \n\nSonal Shah\, Board Chair of Consumer Reports and Senior Advisor for Results Prism Advisory\nElspeth Wilson\, Assistant Teaching Professor in Politics/Legal Studies (UC Santa Cruz)\nErik J. Engstrom\, Professor of Political Science (UC Davis)\n\nStudent Q&A Moderators \n\nAngela Navarro\, double major in Legal Studies and Politics (Stevenson College ’28). Angela interned for THE-TEAM as a Social Impact Intern\, and founded Women in Law\, the first women-focused pre-law organization at UCSC.\nNidhi Bhat\, politics major (Cowell College ’28). Nidhi interned with the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage this past spring and summer and participated in the UC Washington DC (UCDC) Program.\n\nCo-sponsored by: UC Santa Cruz Institute for Social Transformation\, Politics Department\, Legal Studies Program\, Chancellor’s Office\, Merrill College\, Office for Diversity\, Equity\, and Inclusion\, and The Humanities Institute. \nRegister to vote! On November 3\, 2026 there will be a General Election. Make sure you are registered to vote. You can get more information on the California Secretary of State website or the Santa Cruz County Elections Department. UCSC students\, click here for information on how to vote on campus.
URL:https://events.ucsc.edu/event/reshaping-representation-midterm-elections-and-emerging-district-map-battles/
LOCATION:Namaste Lounge\, 615 College Nine Road\, Santa Cruz\, CA\, 95064
CATEGORIES:Lectures & Presentations
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261029T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261029T203000
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SUMMARY:The science of life in the neighborhood—and beyond
DESCRIPTION:UC Santa Cruz is bringing Science in the Neighborhood to South County! Join us for our first event in Aptos.\nAre we alone in the universe? Answering that question begins surprisingly close to home. Earth has been many different planets over its long history\, offering clues about how life begins\, evolves\, and ultimately transforms the world around it.  Beyond Earth\, the question leads us to the icy moons of the solar system where hidden oceans may harbor environments suitable for life. And if alien moons weren’t enticing enough\, the galaxy beckons with billions of planets orbiting other stars. For the first time in human history\, we are developing tools that could search nearby worlds for signs of life. Connecting these questions—how life begins and where else we might find it—is the science of astrobiology. In this talk\, we’ll explore these questions and meet the researchers at UC Santa Cruz turning age-old speculation about alien life into a scientific search for evidence. \n  \nNatalie Batalha is a professor of astronomy & astrophysics and the director of the Santa Cruz Center for Astrobiology\, which aims to advance interdisciplinary research and academic opportunities focused on the origin\, evolution\, and distribution of life in the universe. \nThe presentation will be followed by a live Q&A. Free and open to the public. The event is in-person only.  \nRegister to attend. \nLocation:\nCommunity Foundation Santa Cruz County\n7807 Soquel Dr\, Aptos\, CA 95003 \nParking and capacity:\nArrive early for best seating. Seating is available for 50 guests\, with additional standing room. Carpooling is recommended\, as there are only 30 parking spaces in the main lot. Overflow parking is available at the Rancho Del Mar Shopping Center across the street. \n  \nScience In the Neighborhood is a public lecture series hosted quarterly by the UC Santa Cruz Science Division.\nJoin the mailing list to be notified about upcoming Science in the Neighborhood speakers\, dates\, and event details.
URL:https://events.ucsc.edu/event/science-in-the-neighborhood-and-beyond/
LOCATION:CA
CATEGORIES:Lectures & Presentations
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DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261030T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20261030T120000
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SUMMARY:ECE Special Seminar: "Bilevel Optimization for Agentic AI: From Theory to Retrieval-augmented Agentic Reinforcement Learning"
DESCRIPTION:Presented by: Quan Xiao\, PhD Candidate @ Cornell University \nDescription: “Agentic AI systems combine large language models with system-level design choices such as post-training data selection\, retrieval\, tool use\, and memory management in augmented inference. Training these systems involves multiple coupled objectives beyond task success\, including safety\, retrieval quality\, and adaptation efficiency. Sequential tuning can cause catastrophic forgetting\, while direct objective mixing training can introduce unit mismatch and obscure credit assignments across components. \nIn this talk\, I will present bilevel optimization as a framework for jointly learning LLM parameters and agentic-system design variables. I will introduce an efficient first-order penalty formulation that replaces lower-level optimality with a merit constraint\, avoiding Hessian inverses and differentiation through full inner trajectories. By turning the bilevel problem into a penalized objective with analyzable structure\, this formulation enables landscape analysis that leads to global convergence guarantees. \nI will conclude with an application to bilevel retrieval optimization for tool-using agents\, where retrieval enables LLMs to access up-to-date information and manage external memory. In this setting\, landscape analysis also guides the design of memory-efficient variants of the penalty method tailored to the application. Experiments on multi-hop and medical question-answering tasks demonstrate the effectiveness of jointly optimizing retrieval and the LLM. Using only a 3B LLM backbone\, the proposed approach outperforms direct inference with GPT-5.6 Luna\, as well as methods based solely on agentic reinforcement learning or retrieval optimization.” \nBio: Quan Xiao (https://jenniferquanxiao.github.io) is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University. She received her M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2023\, and her B.S. in statistics from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2020. Her research focuses on the theoretical foundations of bilevel and multi-objective optimization\, as well as their applications to generative\, agentic AI and hardware-algorithm co-design. Her work has appeared in leading machine learning and signal processing venues\, including NeurIPS\, ICML\, and IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing\, with papers selected for oral and spotlight presentations. \nQuan has received several awards\, including the IEEE Signal Processing Society Scholarship in 2024 and the Belsky Award for Computational Sciences and Engineering in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2023. Her research has also received supports from industries\, including Google and Lambda Research. \n  \nHosted by: Professor Yu Zhang\, Electrical & Computer Engineering Department \nWhen: Friday\, October 30th from 10:30AM to 12:00PM \nLocation: Engineering 2\, Room 506
URL:https://events.ucsc.edu/event/ece-special-seminar-bilevel-optimization-for-agentic-ai-from-theory-to-retrieval-augmented-agentic-reinforcement-learning/
LOCATION:Engineering 2\, Engineering 2 1156 High Street\, Santa Cruz\, CA\, 95064
CATEGORIES:Seminars
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