Family Weekend 2025
2025-11-07 13:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-08 08:00 - 20:00, 2025-11-09 09:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 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.

Road Trip! Light in the American West, from Baja to the Yukon
2025-11-08 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-10 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-11 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-12 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-13 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.

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.

Drop-In Figure Drawing
2025-11-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Elena Baskin Visual Arts Center, Baskin Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Drop-In Draw provides a live model and room monitor. There is no formal lesson and only dry media is allowed (no paints).
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ADVISORIES
– These events contain mature content and nudity.
– Drop-In Draw is subject to the possibility of last-minute cancellation without notification, and sessions are not guaranteed.
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ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
– UCSC Art Department Room L-101
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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
This series occurs weekly on Tuesday evenings during fall quarter, including the following:
– Tue., Sep. 30, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
– Tue., Oct. 7, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
– Tue., Oct. 14, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
– Tue., Oct. 21, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
– Tue., Oct. 28, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
– Tue., Nov. 4, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
– Tue., Nov. 18, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
– Tue., Nov. 25, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Additional dates to be announced for winter and spring quarter.
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PARKING
– Parking by permit or ParkMobile.
– 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.

Visual & Media Cultures Colloquium (VMCC) Series
2025-11-12 00:00 | Porter College, D-Building, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The Visual & Media Cultures Colloquium (VMCC) is an annual lecture series that brings cutting-edge scholars to speak on a broad range of subjects related to visual and media culture. The series is co-sponsored with the graduate programs in the History of Art & Visual Culture (HAVC) and the Film & Digital Media departments. Each year, the students and a faculty coordinator are responsible for selecting, inviting and hosting speakers from a list of suggested names submitted by their peers and HAVC faculty. Together they share the unique challenge and opportunity of creating a program that brings to campus an array of cutting-edge scholars to speak on a broad spectrum of subjects.
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ADMISSION
– Open seating/admission (no ticket or registration required)
– FREE and open to the public.
– Refer to individual event listings for more information.
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
– Wed., Nov 12, 4:00 p.m.: Book Talk with Winnie Wong
– Additional event dates to be announced
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

CSE Colloquium - Neurosymbolic AI: from research to industry
2025-11-12 11:00 - 12:15 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Presenter: Luis Lamb, Catholic Institute of Technology

Abstract:
Neurosymbolic AI brings together the statistical nature of machine learning with the formal reasoning capabilities of symbolic AI. It seeks to offer a balanced approach to contemporary AI technologies, by combining the ability to learn from data, with the capacity to reason upon knowledge acquired from an environment. The main criticism of neural machine learning lies in its lack of explainability and semantics, which are key requirements in safety-critical applications, yet inherent strengths of logic-based methods. Recently, several corporations have publicly announced products and technologies grounded in neurosymbolic AI methodologies. This talk provided a concise review of the foundations, frameworks and tools underlying neurosymbolic AI, along with illustrative applications. It concludes by highlighting current trends and research directions in the field.

Bio:
Luis Lamb is Professor of Computer Science and Vice President of Research at the Catholic Institute of Technology. His research interests include: Artificial Intelligence, Neurosymbolic AI, Innovation Strategies, and Applied Logics. Lamb has co-authored two research monographs, including Neural-Symbolic Cognitive Reasoning, with d’Avila Garcez and Gabbay (Springer 2009). He organized two Dagstuhl Seminars on Neursymbolic AI, published widely in AI, and has worked in the area for over 20 years. Lamb also has extensive experience leading research planning, strategy, and university wide research & infrastructure grant applications, and strategic academic-industry partnerships. He has been a Professor in Brazil and has experience in industry as a former Senior Manager of AI and Machine Learning at Boeing. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Imperial College London and an MBA from MIT.

Hosted by: Professor Mohsen Lesani

Location: Engineering 2, E2-180

*Refreshments such as coffee and pastries will be provided.

Zoom: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/93445911992?pwd=[REDACTED]

Research Lunch & Learn: Research Development Explained, or How to Get Grants Funded
2025-11-12 12:00 | CA
Join members of the UCSC Research Development (RD) team as they discuss how they work in advance and alongside their colleagues in the Office of Sponsored Projects to ensure PIs submit the most compelling and competitive proposals.
Engage early with RD to develop long-term fundraising strategies, build interdisciplinary teams, interact with sponsors, and project manage large grant submissions. As sponsor deadlines approach, RD can help with templates fo
r proposal components, sharing successful proposals, aligning proposal content with solicitations, and reviewing drafts. We will review our services, timelines, and how best to work with the RD team.
Presenters: Molly McCarthy (RD Director); Mark Snyder, Eva Hrabeta-Robinson, Nick Sizemore (RD Specialists); and Cindy Ziker (Education Grants & Evaluation Specialist)

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/96141024228?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 961 4102 4228
Passcode: [REDACTED]
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One tap mobile
+16694449171,,96141024228#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US
+16699006833,,96141024228#,,,,*[REDACTED]# US (San Jose)

Engineering Teaching Community (Faculty)
2025-11-12 12:00 - 13:00 | Jack Baskin Engineering, Baskin Engineering 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
During the chaos of a quarter, is it hard to find time to reflect and improve as an instructor? Would you like to be a part of an inclusive, supportive group of engineering instructors who do this in community? ETC is for sharing teaching experiences, classroom ideas, research on learning, and methods that support instructors and students. All are welcome, and lunch is provided. Please reach out to Jenny Quynn with questions.

Work for California - Your State Career
2025-11-12 12:00 - 13:00 | CA
The Work for California — Your State Career presentation will give you an opportunity to learn about the benefits of California state service, the range of career opportunities with the State of California, and the process for searching and applying for state jobs. We will provide resources and be here to answer your questions. Join this session to learn why you should work for California’s largest employer and make an impact. The session will be led by Anthony Bonilla, a Recruitment Analyst from the CA State Parks.

Hosted by UC Alumni Career Network, and open to UC alumni at all career stages.

Neolithic by Sea: the social ecology of the spread of farming in the Adriatic - a view from Dalmatia
2025-11-12 12:00 - 13:00 | Social Sciences 1, Social Sciences 1, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Prof. Sarah B. McClure (UC Santa Barbara) will present Neolithic by Sea: the social ecology of the spread of farming in the Adriatic – a view from Dalmatia at the Archaeology and Biological Anthropology (Arch/BioAnth) Lunch Talk on Wednesday, November 12th at noon in 261, Social Sciences 1.
Presentation Abstract: The last 20 years of research have provided new insights on Mesolithic foragers and early Neolithic farmers in the Adriatic. Excavations, material analyses, and the application of new methodologies have characterized a diversity of late Mesolithic and early Neolithic lifeways and the role of trans-Adriatic interactions for the spread of farming. Discoveries of underwater sites have also highlighted some of the taphonomic challenges for Mesolithic and Neolithic sites presented by post-glacial environmental change. This presentation highlights our current understanding of the Mesolithic to Neolithic transition in the Adriatic and the roles played by foraging populations, social interactions, and environment for the spread of farming beginning 8,000 years ago. Our research on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia seeks to characterize Neolithic farming societies and ultimately explore the processes underlying the eventual dominance of domestic plant and animal-based subsistence in the region.
About the Presenter: Sarah B. McClure is a Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Mediterranean Prehistory and Paleoecology Laboratory, and Associate Dean in the Division of Undergraduate Education at UC Santa Barbara. She is also a National Geographic Explorer and Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project and UCSB.

Words That Impress: Creating a Great Résumé & Cover Letter
2025-11-12 12:15 - 13:15 | 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.

Visiting Theater Artists 2-Day Residency with Torange Yeghiazarian and Evren Odcikin from MENA
2025-11-12 15:00 - 16:30 | Digital Arts Research Center, 407 McHenry Rd, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Visiting theater artists from MENA Theater Makers Alliance—Torange Yeghiazarian and Evren Odcikin—and the Department of Performance, Play & Design’s IRIS LAB invite attendees to participate in the 2-day residency, including a conversation with the artists and a workshop. MENA’s mission is to amplify the voices of Middle Eastern and North African theater makers and expand how stories from and about these communities are told on U.S. stages.
Wed. Nov. 12, 3:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
DARC 108 (Digital Arts Research Center at UC Santa Cruz)
“MENA Theater Makers Modeling Possibility and Resistance”
– An Intergenerational conversation with Playwright, Director, Arts Leader Torange Yeghiazarian and Director, Playwright, and Arts Leader Evren Odcikin
– Moderated by Lisa Marie Rollins, Assistant Professor of Playwriting & Black Drama, Department of Performance Play and Design and Artistic Director of The Iris Lab
– This event will be live streamed for those who would prefer to attend online.
Thur. Nov 13, 1:30–3:30 p.m.
DARC 108 (Digital Arts Research Center at UC Santa Cruz)
“Master Class: Theatrical Play, Staging Language and Poetry Creative workshop”
– for theater makers and interdisciplinary performance researchers with Torange Yeghiazarian and Evren Odcikin .
ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
– Donations to the IRIS LAB are welcomed and appreciated
– Registration required
– Wed. Nov 12: live streamed on Howlround Theater Commons; use THIS LINK to stream and join online.
– Thu. Nov 13: registration is required for the Master Class/Workshop; Register online here
PARKING
– Parking by permit or ParkMobile
– 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.

Book Talk with Winnie Wong—VMCC Series
2025-11-12 16:00 - 17:30 | Porter College, D-Building, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
In this public talk, Winnie Wong presents and discusses her most recent book, The Many Names of Anonymity: Portraitists of the Canton Trade. She explores two countervailing urgencies in contemporary cultural politics: the drive to recognize all individuals as artists so that they may be granted the rights and privileges of authorship; and, at the same time, the inadequacy of the modern figure of “the artist” to contain the ingenuity, imagination, and originality of anonymous workers. It does so by focusing on a long marginalized but ubiquitous genre of painting: portraits produced by Chinese artisans in the port of Guangzhou for European merchants at the height of the Qing dynasty. In this relationship, makers are anonymized, while merchants’ lives are preserved in vivid detail, but portraiture occasions the empirical scene of their encounter. This book charts a framework for understanding visual production and trade across overlapping imperial spaces, and demonstrates how contemporary art historical inquiry can yet decouple authorial names from authorial works, a step necessary to looking anew at anonymity, multiplicity, and the ingenuity of nameless artisans.
Winnie Wong is a professor of rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. She is an art historian with a special interest in fakes, forgeries and counterfeits.
This event is presented as part of the Visual & Media Cultures Colloquium (VMCC) series.
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ADMISSION
– Open seating/admission (no ticket or registration required)
– FREE and open to the public.
– Located at Porter College D245
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
– Wed., Nov 12: Book Talk with Winnie Wong
– Additional dates to be announced
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PARKING
– Lot 124 & 125 are the closest parking lots to the event
– Parking by permit or ParkMobile
– TAPS provides additional parking information
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ABOUT THE SERIES
This event is presented as part of the Visual & Media Cultures Colloquium (VMCC), an annual lecture series that brings cutting-edge scholars to speak on a broad range of subjects related to visual and media culture. The series is co-sponsored with the graduate programs in the History of Art & Visual Culture (HAVC) and the Film & Digital Media departments. Each year, the students and a faculty coordinator are responsible for selecting, inviting and hosting speakers from a list of suggested names submitted by their peers and HAVC faculty. Together they share the unique challenge and opportunity of creating a program that brings to campus an array of cutting-edge scholars to speak on a broad spectrum of subjects.
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Image Credit: Peabody Essex Museum
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This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.

Women In Academia
2025-11-12 16:00 - 18:00 | Rachel Carson College Red Room
Join the UCSC Women’s Center for Women in Academia featuring Dr. Cindy Wong (Global & Community Health, Merrill College). This event highlights Dr. Wong’s journey as a woman of color into academia, her path to becoming a lecturer, and her ongoing research in planetary health, sustainability, and community-based public health. Through her story, students will gain insight into nontraditional academic pathways and the impact of women scholars shaping inclusive and applied research.
RSVP By: November 10th
Please email: srostami@ucsc.edu for accommodations and questions.

Plenary Session for Crown Students: Chatbots on the Couch: AI, Mental Health, and the Ethics of Digital Empathy
2025-11-12 19:15 - 20:45 | Merrill Cultural Center, 200 McLaughlin Dr, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Location: Merrill/Crown Auditorium
Event Type: Panel Discussion / Plenary Session
Sponsor: Crown College
Open to: UCSC Students, Faculty, and Staff

Event Description:
As artificial intelligence increasingly shapes mental healthcare—from chatbots offering therapeutic support to algorithms detecting early signs of distress—we face urgent ethical questions about trust, privacy, bias, and the future of human connection in care.
Join us for a compelling panel discussion featuring three distinguished experts who will explore the promises and perils of AI in mental health:
Panelists:
Dr. Lisa A. Berkley – Director of Crown Resiliency Program and Founder Executive Director of the Center for Applied Values & Ethics in Advancing Technology (CAVEAT) at UCSC; Founder and President of the Institute for Inner Economy
Alka Roy – Technology and product leader with deep expertise in Machine Learning/AI, privacy, and trust frameworks. Ms. Roy founded the Responsible Innovation Project, serves on multiple open-source Responsible and Trusted AI committees, and holds multiple patents for policy and security frameworks. She has received national recognition as a Rising Star and National Women of Color in Technology honoree. With degrees in both Electrical Engineering/Computer Science and an MFA in Creative Writing, Ms. Roy brings a unique interdisciplinary perspective to questions of technology ethics and innovation.
Linda MacDonald Glenn, JD, LLM, Faculty at Crown College and co-founder of the Center for Applied Values and Ethics in Advancing Technologies (CAVEAT.UCSC.EDU)
What We’ll Explore:

When does AI complement human care, and when does it replace it dangerously?
How do we address algorithmic bias in mental health interventions?
What ethical guardrails are needed when bots mimic empathy?
Who is accountable when AI-driven mental health tools cause harm?

This panel brings together perspectives from bioethics, clinical practice, student well-being, and technology leadership to examine the real-world ethical challenges of AI deployment in mental healthcare—a topic of profound relevance given recent concerns about chatbot safety, algorithmic bias, and the commercialization of mental health technologies.
This event connects directly to critical questions about responsibility, justice, and the sociopolitical implications of emerging technologies. Come prepared to think critically about innovation that claims to heal—and to question whose interests are truly being served.
Admission: Free and open to the UCSC community

Petety, A. (CSE) - New Algorithmic Methods for Uncertain Inputs
2025-11-13 10:00 - 12:00 | CA
This dissertation focuses on designing and proving performance guarantees on algorithms when there is uncertainty in the input. The uncertainty could be from the user being unsure or future inputs that have not arrived yet. We look at different methods in which algorithms can be designed to be competitive against the optimal. One of the assumptions that helps in this is to assume that the input arrival order is completely random. We study the online load/graph balancing problem when the input arrival order is uniformly random. We show lower bounds for the greedy algorithm and the general case. In the next part, we study the online scheduling problem under the assumption that the online algorithm has an additional ϵ speed compared to the machines in offline optimal. We show a meta algorithm generalizing Shortest Remaining Processing Time that gives a scalable algorithm for minimizing total weighted flow time. We show that it achieves scalability for minimizing total weighted flow time when the residual optimum exhibits supermodularity. In the final part we look at the online caching problem when the algorithm has access to ML-augmented predictions. We propose an algorithm that achieves a O(logb k) competitive ratio even when using just b predictions per cache miss. We also prove its robustness and consistency.
Event Host: Aditya Petety, Ph.D. Student, Computer Science and Engineering
Advisor: Sungjin Im

Haunting Interruptions: Race, Infrastructural Violence, and Spatial Memory in Ferguson, Missouri
2025-11-13 12:00 - 13:15 | Rachel Carson College, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
On Thursday, November 13th from 12:00-1:15pm, join the Sociology Department together with the Center for Critical Urban & Environmental Studies (CUES), The Black Geographies Lab, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, and History in the Rachel Carson College Red Room, to welcome speaker Rashad Timmons (UC PPFP) for a discussion on Race, Infrastructural Violence, and Spatial Memory in Ferguson, Missouri moderated by Camilla Hawthorne (UC Santa Cruz).
This presentation engages the racial politics of infrastructural violence and spatial memory in Ferguson, Missouri—the historically-white suburb of St. Louis and site of the tragic police killing of Black, 18-year-old Michael Brown, Jr. in August 2014. It critically examines the use of blockades, space-based protests, and other forms of infrastructural disruption by Black subjects in Ferguson before and after Michael Brown Jr.’s execution, paying specific attention to the mnemonic work these practices perform. It argues that Black subjects in Ferguson deploy these tactics of spatial intervention not only to claim space in Ferguson’s suburban landscape but to haunt its collective memory. These disruptive practices—what I call “haunting interruptions”—disturb or interfere with the normative function of infrastructures such as roads and highways to reveal, indict, and account for the historical racist logics underlying (sub)urban life. The presentation grounds haunting interruptions in an examination of historical and contemporary protests in the notorious apartment complex where Michael Brown Jr. perished and finds that Black subjects use protest and blockage as spatial tactics not simply to force state, institutional, or corporate entities to act but to surface the memory of persistent racial suffering that exceeds reparation and is acutely sedimented in the suburban geography.
Rashad Arman Timmons (he/him) is a community builder, musician, writer, scholar, and educator from Detroit, Michigan, the ancestral and present homelands of the Anishinaabeg. The proud son of factory workers, he teaches and writes broadly about race, urban infrastructure, mobility, and power in the midwestern United States, es Black people’s longstanding use of the built environment to imagine a freer and more just world. Rashad earned his Ph.D. in African American and African Diaspora Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, where he researched the violent and racist history of infrastructural development (e.g., railways, roads, telecommunications) and policing in Ferguson, Missouri. Rashad is currently a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Black Studies at UC Santa Barbara, where he is writing a book about the plunder and persistence of Black geographies in Ferguson.
Alongside his scholarly work, Rashad serves and organizes with the Michael Brown Sr. Chosen for Change Organization to uplift the life and legacy of Michael “Mike Mike” Brown Jr. In this role, Rashad leads public history and community engagement projects dedicated to uncovering and preserving Black history in Ferguson and St. Louis. He also writes grants to support the Brown family’s healing and racial justice efforts throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area. As lead grant writer, Rashad has secured more than a half a million dollars of direct funding to the family’s non-profit organization.
Rashad currently lives in Oakland, California—the unceded lands of the Lisjan Ohlone—where he delivers political education to Bay Area youth and supports organizations working to end police terrorism in the U.S. and abroad.
This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Critical Urban & Environmental Studies (CUES) together with The Black Geographies Lab, the Sociology Department, Critical Race and Ethic Studies, and History.

Campus to Career: Job Talk with Kim Angulo, Assistant Public Defender
2025-11-13 12:30 - 13:30 | Humanities 1 Building, 257 Cowell-Stevenson Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
Interested in an impact-driven career in law, public policy, or politics? Come hear from UCSC Humanities alum Kim Angulo, an Assistant Public Defender with experience in both law and public policy work. You’ll gain insights into how to enter these fields, considerations for knowing whether they’re a good fit for you, and ideas for how to put your humanistic training to work for public service.
This is a hybrid event and will be hosted both in-person in Humanities 1, Room 210 and on Zoom. All attendees will enter a raffle for a Humanities tumbler, and pizza will be provided for those joining in person!
Register on Handshake here
Learn more about Kim:
Kim Angulo (she/her) graduated from UCSC in 2013 with her BA in Feminist Studies. She worked in the California State Capitol on public policy and politics for three years, focusing on courts, criminal justice, and human services. Kim attended UC Davis Law School from 2016 to 2019, gaining experience in Public Defense, Workers’ Rights, and Civil Rights. Kim has been an Assistant Public Defender representing people who cannot afford to hire an attorney for six years. She has represented hundreds of clients facing criminal charges and conducted misdemeanor and felony jury trials. She currently works in Mental Health Diversion.
