Honoring Patrick Orozco Luncheon
2025-11-05 12:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Hay Barn, 94 Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
Amah-Ka-Tura: “People of the Land”
We gather in recognition of Amah-Ka-Tura, a symbol of the enduring legacy and successful efforts of Patrick Orozco and the Pajaro Valley Ohlone Indian Council. Today, we honor Patrick’s unwavering commitment to protecting the sacred lands along Lee Road, a site of deep cultural and spiritual significance.
This event marks the 50th anniversary of what has come to be known as “Wounded Lee” — a pivotal moment in the struggle to preserve Ohlone heritage. Patrick Orozco’s dedication to the protection, remembrance, and revitalization of the cultural traditions of the Ohlone People, the Chumash People and other Indigenous People continues to inspire generations.
We gather in gratitude and remembrance, acknowledging his role as a cultural bearer, a protector of the land, and a voice for the ancestors.

Road Trip! Light in the American West, from Baja to the Yukon
2025-11-05 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-06 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-07 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-08 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-10 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-11 12:00 - 17:00 | Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, 11 Cowell Service Rd, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The photographs in this exhibition, made between 2004 and 2025, span across the American West from the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico to The Yukon territory in Canada. Paul Schoellhamer’s (Cowell ‘69) color photographs invite us to travel with him and reflect on our relationship to land, the light that shapes it, and the freedom – contested but essential – to move across it.
The exhibition draws on voices across time and perspective that frame the American landscape as more than a stage for beauty and awe. For Chief Satanta of the Kiowa Nation, to roam the land freely was life itself. For N. Scott Momaday, land must be “believed to be seen.” For Eliot Porter, light and reflection imparted magic to Glen Canyon’s waters. For Wallace Stegner, saving natural places meant saving fragments of our collective sanity. For Brook M. Thompson, the Klamath River is recognized with personhood. Alongside these perspectives, Paul’s images press us to see public land not as scenery to extract or aestheticize, but as sustenance and history. Land is alive and contested. To see closely is not to linger on a romanticized vision of the American landscape, but to reckon with responsibility: how we safeguard access, how we imagine “wildness,” and how we hold space for futures beyond our own. For Paul, this exhibition is a call for students to encounter land and light firsthand and let those encounters be their teachers.
Opening Reception
October 4, 2025
1-4pm
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Join us every Friday for Art Fridays.
No experience necessary. Supplies and snacks provided.

Sep 26 Snail Mail/Postcards
Oct 3 Souvenir Keychains
Oct 10 Stamp Magnets
Oct 17 Cyanotype Totebags/Pouches/Pencil cases
Oct 24 Candy Around The World Linocuts
Oct 31 Abstract Felt Collages
Nov 7 Phone Photos/Buttons
Nov 14 Travel Related Patches With Upcycled Materials
Nov 21 Thanksgiving Break! No Art Friday
Nov 28 Unexpected Landscape Surrealist Collage

Please note that the date and the project is subject to change.

Joint Senate/Admin Forum — Development of Achievement Relative to Opportunity (ARO) Guidelines for UC Santa Cruz Personnel Review
2025-11-05 15:00 - 17:00 | https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IUD4vjdJHS6XDiBo5hTVE9iS3oCmJubXTY2xkYhffwg/edit?tab=t.0
The Committee on Academic Personnel (CAP), VPAA Ravelo, and iCP/EVC Koch will host a working Forum on the Development of Achievement Relative to Opportunity (ARO) Guidelines for UC Santa Cruz Personnel Review on November 5, 2025 from 3:00pm to 5:00pm via Zoom. Please see this document for history, context, and draft proposals for ARO guidelines.
With stakeholder feedback from this forum, CAP, the VPAA, and the iCP/EVC aim to develop comprehensive guidelines for ARO in the personnel review process that consider disruptive, external impacts on academic advancement. This online Senate forum will gather broad input from Senate faculty on a preliminary proposal for ARO guidelines with the goal of implementing the guidelines in review cycles beginning fall quarter 2026. Please join us for this working forum to share your valuable input and feedback, and assist us in creating a set of guidelines that best serves our campus and faculty. We hope you will bring examples of impacts and thoughts on how we can best assess impacted work.

American Agitators Screening at Cabrillo
2025-11-05 16:30 - 19:00 | Cabrillo College, 6500 Soquel Dr., Aptos, CA, 95003, United States
American Agitators comes to Santa Cruz! We cordially invite you to the screening of American Agitators with a discussion and a Free Dinner! Spaces are limited, so RSVP today!
Sponsored by Santa Cruz Local, Cabrillo College, COPA, UCSC Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas, UCSC Center for Labor and Community, and UCSC Institute for Social Transformation.
AMERICAN AGITATORS captures the remarkable story of organizing for social change in the U.S. through the work Fred Ross Sr. and many others such as iconic organizers Dolores Huerta and Fred Ross Jr. as well as current ones, all of whom have devoted their lives to the pursuit of justice and equality.
For over 50 years Ross led a groundbreaking organizing approach that improved the lives of thousands and reverberates in organizing strategies today. From organizing Dust Bowl refugees to helping Japanese-Americans find jobs and housing after release from the internment camps to challenging KKK activity by organizing civil unity leagues in California that led to the integration of local school boards across California’s Citrus Belt, Ross’ work with the Mendez case laid the foundation for the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown vs Board of Education and his mentorship of legendary organizers Cesar Chavez and Huerta led to the success of the United Farmworkers.
Generations of organizers and activists, many of whom are featured in AMERICAN AGITATORS, stand on the shoulders of Ross and his innovative organizing tactics. Evidence of Ross’ impact is illustrated in the case examples the film explores: in Atlanta, where Fight For 15 organizers demand an increased minimum wage and the unionization of workers across the Southern states; in Las Vegas where hotel workers organize for fair wages and to get out the vote; in Oakland, where teachers, families and community members forged a fair contract with the Oakland school district.
The documentary demonstrates the efficacy of member-led movements built through patience and by listening.
Award-winning filmmaker Raymond Telles has made American Agitators to illustrate how collective action can create long term, positive change especially at a critical moment in American history.
“Bringing Fred’s life to the screen is the medicine our society needs right now. He empowered people to be engaged in the democratic process.”
-Dolores Huerta, February 2022
View: American Agitators Premier Trailer
Check us out: American Agitators

The UC Santa Cruz Kraw Lecture Series presents: Stars to Soil: A Journey from the Big Bang to Planet Earth
2025-11-05 17:30 - 19:30 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
In this Kraw lecture, Professor Alexie Leauthaud will present the latest results on the nature of our universe, including groundbreaking and prize-winning new results on the nature of dark energy. Leauthaud will discuss our current understanding of the basic ingredients of our Universe and will explain why recent results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Collaboration (DESI) collaboration made international headline news earlier this year. She will speculate on what this might mean for the future of our Universe. Zooming into planet Earth, Professor Leauthaud will then explain why astronomers are increasingly becoming involved in the fight against climate change. She will discuss her own journey in recognizing the predicament of life on this blue planet will conclude with a big picture view of the challenges that lie ahead.

In-Person Reception: 5:30 p.m.
Lecture: 6–7 p.m.

Register Now

A Joyful Noise—video, music, panel discussion, and fellowship
2025-11-05 19:30 - 21:30 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Audiences are invited to listen, share, and express ideas and feelings about individual and collective struggles in this interdisciplinary event featuring music, arts, science, and creative videography:

Video screening (Art)
Musical interlude
Video screening (STEM)
Panel discussion with Q&A
Light refreshments with continued conversation/fellowship in the lobby

This event features live performances—Karlton Hester (tenor sax and composer of electronic score), akua naru (word), Tammy Hall (piano), Pierpaolo Polzonetti (clarinet; guest professor from UC Davis), and Jing Zhou (Guzheng)—and videography by Patricia Saucedo, Katarina Fink, and Nanaiya Hester. Video participants include Karlton Hester (electronic music score and tenor saxophone), Fahima Ife and Renaldo Wilson (UCSC Critical Race & Ethnic Studies), akua naru (UCSC Music Department), Mandjou Kone (UCSC Department of Performance, Play & Design), Angel Riotutor (director of the American Indian Resource Center and People of Color Sustainability Collective), and Chari Glogovac-Smith (UCSC Film and Digital Media Department).
This event is presented as a collaboration between Arts Division and STEM Associate Deans of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), including: Marcella Gomez, associate professor/associate dean for DEI with the Jack Baskin School of Engineering; Pedro Morales-Almazan, associate teaching professor/associate dean for DEI with the Division of Physical and Biological Sciences (PBSci); Karlton Hester, professor/associate dean for DEI with the Arts Division; and Anju Reejhsinghani, vice chancellor and chief diversity officer at UC Santa Cruz.
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ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time
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VISITOR PARKING
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $5 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– Arts Lot #126 is the closest parking lot to the event
– Visitors with DMV placards or plates may park for free in DMV spaces, Medical spaces, or ParkMobile spaces without additional payment, or in timed zones for longer than the posted time.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS)
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

BME 280B Seminar: Anne Nakamoto, Alan Zhang, Shelbi Russell
2025-11-06 11:40 - 13:15 | Physical Sciences Building, Physical Sciences Building, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Presenter 1: Anne Nakamoto, BME PhD Candidate, Corbett-Detig Lab, UC Santa Cruz
Talk: Investigating deleterious mutation burden across populations and landscapes in the California Conservation Genomics Project
Description: Biodiversity is being lost at an accelerated rate due in part to anthropogenic forces, posing a threat to the sustainability of Earth’s ecosystems as well as to human health. A major goal of conservation genomics is to use genomic data to understand population health, which can inform management decisions for the preservation of biodiversity. The California Conservation Genomics Project (CCGP) is an extensive dataset containing species of conservation interest sampled across California, allowing a landscape genomics approach to conservation. Among the many metrics that can be used to assess population health is genetic load, which refers to the reduction in fitness imposed by deleterious mutations. In this work, we construct a bioinformatic analysis framework to identify deleterious genomic variants in CCGP species based on evolutionary constraint. This allows us to investigate patterns in genetic burden across populations and the landscape of California.
Presenter 2: Alan Zhang, BME PhD Candidate, Corbett-Detig Lab, UC Santa Cruz
Talk: Scalable Strain-Level Metagenomic Deconvolution and Assembly Using Pangenome Mutation-Annotated Networks
Description: Strain-level deconvolution of metagenomic samples is essential for pathogen surveillance, mixed infection diagnosis, and evolutionary genomics, yet remains computationally challenging as genomic databases expand. Existing methods scale poorly with database size or rely exclusively on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) information. SNP-based approaches rely on mutation-annotated trees and thus require well-established reference genomes, limiting their applicability to divergent species that lack alignable root references. We present panMAMA (panMAN Metagenomic Assignment and Metagenomic Assembly), a method that leverages the pangenome Mutation-Annotated Network (panMAN) data structure to enable accurate strain-level quantification across both closely related and divergent genomes. By employing k-min-mer-based pseudo-chaining with a seed-annotated tree index, panMAMA achieves substantial computational speedup compared to existing k-mer-based tools while maintaining high accuracy. We demonstrate that panMAMA accurately deconvolves both closely related SARS-CoV-2 genomes and divergent HIV and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) genomes, outperforming existing tools including Freyja on simulated wastewater samples. Through a hybrid heuristic and maximum likelihood approach for read assignment and consensus calling, panMAMA effectively recovers variant genomes from low-heterogeneity samples of divergent species. These results establish panMAMA as a scalable and accurate platform that extends strain-level metagenomic analysis to previously intractable highly divergent species.
Presenter 3: Shelbi Russell, PhD, UC Santa Cruz, Ph.D., Organismic & Evol Bio, Harvard, PostDoc MCDB, UC Santa Cruz
Description: Many animals harbor bacterial symbionts that manipulate host reproduction to enhance bacterial survival and transmission. Obligate intracellular symbionts, such as Wolbachia pipientis, are particularly adept at host manipulation, influencing reproductive biology and even blocking viral replication. These bacterially induced traits have been harnessed in field studies to control mosquito populations and limit the spread of human pathogens like Dengue and Zika viruses. Despite these promising applications, the molecular mechanisms underlying Wolbachia’s interactions with host cells remain poorly understood. Furthermore, even less is known about the implications of these symbionts spreading to non-target hosts in the ecosystem. Previous work from my lab tackled these questions in vivo: we discovered that the wMel strain of Wolbachia can enhance host fertility and we discovered that even extremely low rates of horizontal symbiont transmission among hosts can influence bacterial genome evolution. However, in vivo systems offer limited resolution to identify the precise cellular mechanisms of fertility enhancement and the real-time genomic impacts of horizontal transmission. Here, we use an in vitro Drosophila system to 1) identify the cell type-specific impacts of Wolbachia infection on host-microbe interactions and 2) characterize how strains interact within host tissues during mixed infections. This simplified, easy to sample system enabled us to concentrate the effects of host cell type on Wolbachia gene expression and to control de novo strain infections and mixtures. Through these experiments, we discovered that different host cell types induce differential Wolbachia gene expression that feeds back to alter host gene expression and epigenetic silencing. These findings have motivated on-going single cell RNAseq work to resolve the process at the single cell level, during de novo infections. Results from the experimental mixed infections revealed highly reproducible strain and cell type-specific dynamics. We will leverage these discoveries to understand strain-specific tissue tropisms and how multiple strains can co-exist as superinfections in nature, which will inform future biocontrol strategies.
Bio: Shelbi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering at UCSC. She started her lab in 2022, after completing her PhD at Harvard University in 2016 and performing her postdoctoral work at UCSC. Her passion for studying symbiotic systems began as an undergraduate researcher at the University of Kansas describing new tapeworm species. She transitioned to studying the evolutionary genomics of bacterial-animal mutualisms in her PhD and was awarded the UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship and the NIH Career Development Award (K99) to test genomic hypotheses in the Wolbachia-Drosophila model system during her postdoc. As faculty, she is working to learn how hosts and microbes function and evolve so we can engineer associations for biological control. She has authored 24 papers and obtained $2.75 million in funding. Her interdisciplinary training makes her uniquely qualified to lead these investigations and has enabled novel breakthroughs in our understanding of symbiont evolution and microbe-induced host phenotypes.
Hosted by: Professor Josh Stuart, BME Department
Room: PSB-240

Campus to Career: Job Talk with Rebecca Hernandez, Community Archivist
2025-11-06 12:00 - 13:00 | https://events.ucsc.edu/event/campus-to-career-job-talk-with-rebecca-hernandez-community-archivist/
Wondering what you can do with your Arts or Humanities degree? Come hear from a real professional on our campus with a background in both. Rebecca Hernandez is the inaugural Community Archivist at the UCSC University Library. In this job talk, she will tell us about her educational journey as a first-generation transfer student and share insights and reflections from her professional path. If you are interested in careers in higher education, museums, or archives, this event is for you!
Register on Handshake here
Learn more about Rebecca:
Rebecca Hernandez earned a PhD in American Studies, specializing in American Indian art and material culture. She also holds an MA in American Indian Studies and an MFA in Exhibition Design and Museum Studies. With a wealth of experience in higher education, Rebecca has worked as both an administrator and a student affairs professional. Currently serving as the inaugural Community Archivist at the UC Santa Cruz University Library, she collaborates with community members to preserve the rich history and cultural heritage of Santa Cruz County.
Hosted by UCSC Humanities Division and UCSC Arts Division

Applied Microeconomics and Trade Seminar Series presents: Matt Pecenco
2025-11-06 13:40 - 15:00 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Applied Microeconomics and Trade Seminar
Date: Thursday, November 6, 2025
Time: 1:40-3:00 p.m.
Location: E2-499

Speaker: Matt Pecenco
Title: Orlando Bravo Assistant Professor of Economics
Affiliation: Brown University
Host: Ariel Zucker

Seminar title: Conviction, Incarceration, and Policy Effects in the Criminal Justice System

ABSTRACT: The criminal justice system affects millions of Americans through criminal convictions and incarceration. In this paper, we introduce a new method for credibly estimating the effects of both conviction and incarceration using randomly assigned judges as instruments for treatment. Misdemeanor convictions, especially for defendants with a shorter criminal record, cause an increase in the number of new offenses committed over the following five years. Incarceration on more serious felony charges, in contrast, reduces recidivism during the period of incapacitation, but has no effect after release. Our method allows the researcher to isolate specific treatment effects of interest as well as estimate the effect of broader policies; we find that courts could reduce crime by dismissing marginal charges against defendants accused of misdemeanors, with larger reductions among first-time defendants and those facing more serious charges.

Successful Slug Workshop: Time Management
2025-11-06 14:00 - 15:00 | Academic Resources Center (ARC), 408 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Time Management
Thursday, November 6, 2:05 p.m.–2:50 p.m.
Location: ARCenter 203
Learn the ways you can manage your time and avoid procrastination/burnout.
Successful Slug Workshop Series
Join Learning Support Services (LSS) for Successful Slug Workshops on Mondays at 11:40 a.m. and Wednesdays at 2:05 p.m.
These 45-minute workshops are open to all UCSC students and offer tools and strategies to support your academic success. Each session highlights best practices for effective, long-lasting learning and is led by LSS professional staff.
To get first priority, sign up on TutorHub or simply drop in. You can also sign up on TutorHub to receive email reminders.
Learn more and sign up: learningsupport.ucsc.edu/programs/workshops/

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.

Artist Talk for "Sculptures by Doyle Foreman: A Retrospective"
2025-11-06 15:00 - 16:00 | Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join Doyle Foreman for a talk with the artist as part of the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery’s fall exhibition, Sculptures by Doyle Foreman: A Retrospective, which celebrates the career of metal sculptor and UC Santa Cruz Professor Emeritus Doyle Foreman. Throughout his seven-decade career, Foreman sculpted visceral reflections of his experiences with metal and the American landscape, forging a unique path in American Black sculpture.
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ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Exhibition: September 25–December 7, 2024
Opening Celebration: Wednesday, October 9, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
Artist Talk: Wednesday, November 6, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Guided Public Tours: Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. starting November 24
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PARKING
Lot 124 & 125 are the closest parking lots to the gallery
Parking is $5 via ParkMobile or online permit
TAPS provides additional parking information
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Indignant Liberalism: Political Protest and Generational Change in El Salvador
2025-11-06 15:00 - 17:00 | Bay Tree Building, Student Union, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
In 2013 anthropologist Ellen Moodie embedded with indignados—young middle-class protestors demanding that the government live up to its liberal commitments—to better understand the course of political change since the civil war. In this talk she discusses her forthcoming book, which starts with her work with urban activists of what she calls the “post-postwar” generation. She argues that theirs is only the latest demographic disappointed with liberalism in practice. Moodie looks back not only to the 1992 United Nations-brokered peace accords, which ended El Salvador’s twelve-year civil war, but also to a nineteenth-century “racial liberalism” that saw descendants of colonists “civilizing” Indigenous people while dispossessing them of lands and mobilizing them for labor. Today, the failure to make good on the promises of postwar liberalism has inspired robust support for strongman Nayib Bukele. Moodie argues that El Salvador’s case, though inflected by local concerns, is not unique. Rather, it is another stark demonstration of how liberalism’s imaginary social contract gives rise to populist authoritarianism.
Ellen Moodie is Associate Professor of Anthropology and director of the Global Studies program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has been carrying our research in El Salvador for more than 30 years. Her publications include El Salvador in the Aftermath of Peace: Crime, Uncertainty, and the Transition to Democracy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010) and the co-edited volume Central America in the New Millennium: Living Transition Reimagining Democracy (Berghahn/CEDLA, 2013).

59th Faculty Research Lecture Featuring Professor Natalie Batalha
2025-11-06 18:30 - 20:00 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The UC Santa Cruz Academic Senate is delighted to invite you to the 59th Faculty Research Lecture
Featuring Natalie Batalha Professor, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics Director of Astrobiology & UC Presidential Chair
Thursday, November 6, 2025
6:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Reception to follow
This event is free and open to the public. Seating will begin at 6:00 p.m
Parking permits will be available for purchase for $5 in the Performing Arts lot 126, ”A” permits are required during the week until 8pm. Park Mobile options are available in this same lot. Please follow the event signage at the base of campus and a parking attendant will assist you.

Register to attend here
The lecture will be held in person and also available to view via livestream.
Thirty Years of Exoplanet Discovery
The first exoplanet orbiting a normal sun-like star was announced in October 1995. Discoveries have been trickling in at an accelerating pace ever since, with the roster of new worlds surpassing 6000 just this year. Due to a confluence of lucky events, I’ve been afforded a front row seat to exoplanet discovery over those last three decades. The science has taken me from humble mountaintops like Lick Observatory to the most powerful space telescopes like Kepler, TESS, and Webb. As the story unfolds, so to does my human perspective. I will share the view from this front row seat — how the story started and where it’s going, what we know and don’t know, and what the next generation can look forward to as we search for evidence of living worlds beyond the Solar System.
Natalie Batalha is a Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics and Director of Astrobiology at UC Santa Cruz. She uses ground and space-based telescopes to find and characterize planets orbiting other stars in the galaxy, with the ultimate goal of searching for evidence of life beyond the Solar System. Prior to UCSC, Dr. Batalha was a research scientist at NASA Ames where she served as Science Team Lead and Project Scientist for NASA’s Kepler mission. She led the team that discovered the first confirmed rocky exoplanet (Kepler-10b). Over the next decade, she played a central role in expanding the Kepler catalog of discoveries and guiding the team through the statistical analyses that demonstrated the prevalence of potentially habitable planets in our Galaxy. For her work on Kepler, Batalha was awarded a NASA Public Service Medal (2011) and the Smithsonian Ingenuity Award (2017). Most recently, Batalha led the team that achieved the first definitive detection of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet (WASP-39b), a breakthrough that showcased the James Webb Space Telescope’s extraordinary power to probe alien skies and ushered in a new era of atmospheric exploration. At UCSC, she is working to grow an Astrobiology program that will place UCSC at the center of the search for life beyond Earth.

United Nations Reboot the Earth Hackathon
2025-11-07 00:00 - 2025-11-08 23:59 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
The United Nations (UN) and the Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are collaborating to bring the “Reboot the Earth” hackathon to the West Coast for the first time.
This is a social event bringing together aspiring developers to create open source software solutions that address the climate crisis, including wildfire response. It’s a chance to collaborate with peers, use open data, and apply your coding skills to real-world climate challenges!

Date: November 7-8, 2025
Location: UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Center.
Register here for the event.

Organized by the UN Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT), the 2025 Reboot the Earth hackathons are focused on agriculture and artificial intelligence (AI). The California event will focus on the locally relevant challenges of wildfire detection, response, and impact. Participants can leverage open source, AI, and open data sets, along with local expertise on the environment and emergency preparedness and response. The goal is to build solutions that can become a digital public good, serving local community needs.
UC Santa Cruz students interested in attending the event can take advantage of the Silicon Valley Connector shuttle, which will be running on Saturday, November 8, in addition to the regular Friday schedule.
To learn more about the Reboot the Earth initiative, visit: https://unite.un.org/en/reboot-earth.

Hot Cocoa & Advising @ Merrill College
2025-11-07 11:00 - 14:00 | CA
Come join Merrill Peer Advisors for Hot Cocoa and advising!

Family Weekend 2025
2025-11-07 13:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-08 08:00 - 20:00, 2025-11-09 09:00 - 11:00 | CA
We’re excited to announce Nov. 7-9 as the dates for UCSC’s second annual Family Weekend, bringing families together to experience UC Santa Cruz’s vibrant campus life and community spirit. The weekend will offer engaging activities, informative sessions, and opportunities to connect with faculty, staff, and fellow families.
For more details, visit the Family Weekend webpage.

Wang, S. (CSE) - Learned Hashing and Overlay Networks for AI-native Retrieval and Serving at Scale
2025-11-07 14:00 - 16:00 | https://events.ucsc.edu/event/wang-s-cse-learned-hashing-and-overlay-networks-for-ai-native-retrieval-and-serving-at-scale/
Modern AI systems demand low-latency high-quality retrieval and serving over billion-scale keys and vectors. This proposal studies learned hashing and overlay networks to co-locate semantically related items and steer queries with minimal coordination. We first present LEAD, to our knowledge the first use of order-preserving learned hash functions in distributed key-value overlays, enabling efficient range queries and cutting hops/messages by 80–90% in prototypes while retaining balance and churn resilience. Second, Vortex applies learned hashing to approximate nearest-neighbor retrieval: a self-organizing overlay binding learned keys to distributed HNSW indexes to achieve high recall at low fan-out. Third, PlanetServe introduces onion-style path setup with multi-path dispersal and cache-aware forwarding for open LLM serving, reducing TTFT and latency while preserving privacy. Planned work generalizes learned hashing to embedding partitions, token/KV caches, programmable switches, and storage tiers, and provides formal convergence, load-balancing, and monotonic-progress guarantees under skew and churn. We are also working to design the first knowledge delivery network for LLM serving: an overlay that unifies data placement, retrieval, and policy-aware routing across clusters and providers with tunable cost, privacy, and quality. Evaluation on real workloads at scale will measure recall, tail latency, cost, and robustness, targeting a predictable, elastic, scalable AI-native retrieval and serving stack.
Event Host: Shengze Wang, Ph.D. Student, Computer Science & Engineering
Advisor: Chen Qian

Zoom: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/5455463199?pwd=[REDACTED]
Passcode: [REDACTED]

"Bring Them Home" Screening
2025-11-07 18:00 | Namaste Lounge, 615 College Nine Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The American Indian Resource Center will be screening "Bring Them Home" at the Namaste Lounge this November 7th.
"Bring Them Home" is more than a film; it is a movement aimed at raising awareness around the Blackfeet's buffalo program, a cornerstone in their fight against the lingering shadows of colonization, oppression, and trauma. Through this campaign, we aspire to amplify the tribe's rewilding efforts, support the sustainability of their buffalo program, and convey the critical message of living in harmony with animals and the land.
The narrative of the Blackfeet and bison is intertwined with themes of survival, resilience, and rebirth. These majestic creatures are integral to every face of the Blackfeet culture, playing a vital role in ceremonies and symbolizing the community's cultural, spiritual, and economic healing. The recent release of the Elk Island Herd into the wild marks a significant step in this journey, despite the numerous challenges encountered along the way.

Bring Them Home: Film Screening
2025-11-07 18:00 - 20:00 | Namaste Lounge, 615 College Nine Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join us for a special screening of Bring Them Home—a powerful documentary by Thunderheart Films about the Blackfeet Nation’s buffalo program and its role in restoring culture, healing generational trauma, and reconnecting people, animals, and the land.
Enjoy free food and beverages, a raffle, and community conversation following the film.
RSVP in advance.
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.

Welcome to the City: Sacramento
2025-11-08 09:00 - 13:00 | Camp Pollock, 1501 Northgate Blvd, Sacramento, CA, 95815, United States
Join us for Welcome to the City in Sacramento, hosted in partnership with Sacramento Valley Conservancy. The project will be held Saturday, November 8 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at Camp Pollock (1501 Northgate Blvd Sacramento, CA 95815). Please register in advance to help us and our non-profit partner plan accordingly.
Project Description:
Tasks vary depending on property needs, and may include planting, weed eradication, construction, cleaning, painting, digging, fence building, mopping, window washing, outreach, native plant propagation/maintenance, and more.
Welcome to the City is an annual series of regional events which help alumni connect with their local UCSC community. While the program is designed with recent grads in mind, all are welcome to participate.
Please contact alumni@ucsc.edu with questions.

Nguyen, R. (BMEB) - Development of Computational Methods for Reliable Genetic Identification of Forensic Samples
2025-11-10 13:00 - 15:00
Advances in sequencing technologies have enabled the recovery of genetic data from minimal, contaminated, and highly degraded samples, overcoming long-standing barriers in forensic analysis. Nevertheless, many evidentiary samples still yield poor-quality DNA that is unconducive to PCR amplification of short tandem repeats (STRs), microarray genotyping, or deep sequencing necessary for accurate, complete genotype calls.
This dissertation addresses these challenges through the development of computational methods for reliable identity analysis of forensic samples. First, I present IBDGem, a fast and robust computational procedure for detecting identity-by-descent (IBD) regions by comparing low-coverage sequence data from an unknown sample against SNP genotype calls from a known individual. Using data from the 1000 Genomes Project and a panel of 8 rootless hairs, I demonstrate that IBDGem can detect relatedness segments at 1x coverage and achieve high-confidence identifications with as little as 0.01x coverage.
The next part of my thesis examines the characteristics of DNA derived from single, rootless hairs and evaluates their potential as a source of forensic genetic information. Analyses of 80 rootless hair samples reveal DNA fragmentation patterns associated with endonuclease-mediated degradation and nucleosome positioning. This chapter also shows that even short segments of rootless hair shafts can yield adequate sequence data to generate statistical support for or against identity.
Finally, I present a comprehensive analysis of IBDGem’s performance across a range of data conditions and program settings. I find that IBDGem is robust to moderate input errors and can identify the major contributor in two-person mixtures. The method also reliably distinguishes self-comparisons from close-relative comparisons, and remains effective even when limited to 94 target SNPs in the ForenSeq assay. Overall, these findings establish IBDGem as a practical tool for analyzing trace DNA evidence when conventional methods are unsuccessful.
Event Host: Remy Nguyen, Ph.D. Candidate, Biomolecular Engineering & Bioinformatics
Advisor: Ed Green

Zoom- https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/91522009894?pwd=[REDACTED]
Passcode- 854645

AM Seminar: Structure-Preserving Discretizations and their Applications
2025-11-10 16:00 - 17:00 | Jack Baskin Engineering, Baskin Engineering 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Presenter: Andy Wan, Assistant Professor, University of California, Merced

Description: Many models from science and engineering possess fundamental structures which are important to preserve in order for accurate and stable long-term predictions. For instance, preserving conserved quantities, such as energy, mass and momentum, are fundamental in many physical systems. Moreover, preserving dissipative quantities, such as entropy or Lyapunov functions, are also essential for predicting correct asymptotic limits. In this talk, we will survey a recent new class of conservative and dissipation-preserving integrators, called the Discrete Multiplier Method (DMM). We will discuss various applications to many-body systems, geodesic flow, and particle methods in fluids and kinetic models. Moreover, we will introduce Conservative Hamiltonian Monte Carlo, which utilizes DMM to improve sampling efficacy of Hamiltonian Monte Carlo for high dimensional target distributions. If time permits, we will also discuss how structure-preservation in scientific machine learning can improve long-term predictions and be amenable to error analysis on accuracy bounds.

Bio: Andy Wan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced). Prior to joining UC Merced in 2024, he received his Ph.D. from Polytechnique Montreal, and was a postdoctoral fellow at McGill University and later an assistant professor at the University of Northern British Columbia. His research interests are in numerical analysis, scientific computing, and scientific machine learning. He focuses on structure-preserving discretizations, specifically in the theory and development of conservative and dissipation-preserving integrators, as well as their applications to mathematical sciences, computational statistics and scientific machine learning. He is currently a co-investigator of the 2024-2027 Collaborative Research Group on “Structure-Preserving Discretizations and their Applications”, supported by the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences (PIMS). He has also recently co-organized a summer school and hackathon event on “Structure-Preserving Scientific Computing and Machine Learning”, supported by NSF and PIMS.

Hosted by: Professor Julie Simons

CANCELLED - November Slugs and Steins with Associate Professor Mircea Teodorescu
2025-11-10 18:30 - 20:00
Slugs & Steins is a monthly series of informal discussions highlighting UC Santa Cruz’s amazing faculty members. Talks are held on the 2nd Monday of each month with topics ranging from organic artichokes to endangered zebras, self-driving cars to Shakespeare.
All are welcome, and audience participation is encouraged. We encourage you to share the link far and wide as slugs and friends from around the world may join us.
This month, we welcome Associate Professor Mircea Teodorescu.
