• Pawar, M. (CSE) – Understanding Representations, Reasoning, and Decision-Making in Autonomous Driving Models

    Virtual Event

    Modern autonomous-driving models increasingly rely on learned representations and generated reasoning to interpret complex scenes and produce predictions or actions. However, it remains unclear what information these models encode, how that information is exposed through common interpretation methods, and whether their stated reasoning meaningfully influences their behavior. This research investigates these questions across motion-forecasting and vision-language-action models. Event Host: Manasi Pawar, Ph.D. Student, Computer Science & Engineering  Advisor: Leilani Gilpin Zoom: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/92653015420?pwd=xEyOcy5ZuTcHN04La9w2KP1cmVY1ao.1 Passcode: 309299

  • Empowering humans through AI

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Join us for an inside look at how our AI Application Development courses provide hands‑on experience, industry‑driven projects, and the technical foundation you need to advance your career as an ML Engineer, MLOps Engineer, or Applied AI Researcher. Your speaker Kavitha Velusamy, Ph.D., brings more than 20 years of experience developing cutting-edge technologies at Amazon, NVIDIA, Cisco, Leia Inc., and Robust.AI. Kavitha currently serves as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Robust.AI and teaches Humanoid Robotics (Sept. 19) and Artificial Intelligence for Robotics (Sept. 26). Keep learning See our course page for a closer look at all upcoming offerings. CLAIM YOUR SEAT TODAY. 

  • Gomez, J. (CSE) – Toward Sustainable and Secure Open Source Software: Discovery, Measurement, and Defense

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

    In March 2024, a backdoor was discovered in xz Utils, a widely used open source data compression library present in nearly every major Linux distribution. The attack was discovered days before merging into major distributions, and if this had happened, it would have allowed attackers to execute arbitrary code on millions of systems worldwide via SSH. The success of this backdoor was enabled by two failures. The first was technical: weaknesses in the software supply chain allowed a malicious actor to inject code into a widely trusted release. The second was human: the project’s only maintainer, overwhelmed and burned out after […]

  • Getting Involved in Your Campus Community

    Successful Slug Workshops
    Virtual Event

    In this workshop, you will: Learn how to get involved with the campus community and how it supports student success. The Successful Slug Workshop series, hosted by Learning Support Services Peer Coaches, are open to all UCSC undergraduate students and focus on academic skills and tools to support your success as a student. At each workshop, you will be introduced to a topic, engage in active learning, be given resources to begin implementing the same day, and have an opportunity to learn more if you are interested. You Belong Here: The programs and services described here are open to all, consistent with state […]

  • Designing for Today’s Digital World

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Design digital experiences people love to use. In today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, organizations need professionals who can combine empathy, usability, and aesthetics to create interfaces that engage and delight users. Learn how UX and web design specialists use research‑driven methods, prototyping tools, and inclusive design principles to build seamless digital experiences across platforms. Speaker Join Nicole Sharratt, chair of the UCSC Silicon Valley Extension User Experience & Web Design program, for an inside look at how our courses equip you with the skills to lead user‑centered design projects—whether you’re shaping websites, apps or digital products. Keep learning See our course page for a closer look at all […]

  • From Idea to Income: How to Validate Your Next Business Idea Before Investing More Time and Money

    From Idea to Income: How to Validate Your Next Business Idea Before Investing More Time and Money With Sami Toussi Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026 | Noon PT Virtual via Zoom Hosted by the UCLA Alumni Association, open to all UC alumni Most entrepreneurs don’t fail because they lack passion. They fail because they build something customers don’t actually want. In this interactive workshop, UCLA alumna and Business Strategist Sami Toussi will introduce the Lean Canvas framework and walk through the key questions every founder should answer to build a stronger business. You’ll learn how to identify your ideal customer, uncover unmet needs, […]

    Free
  • Bioinformatics: Lead the next wave of innovation

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Where biology meets Big Data Join us for an inside look at how our Bioinformatics courses can help you strengthen your skills in data analysis, genomics, and software tools—preparing you to contribute to advances in biotech, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. We’ll provide an overview of the curriculum, discuss current industry trends and workforce demand, highlight career opportunities, and answer your questions about getting started. Your speaker Darryl A. León, Ph.D., director, Software Portfolio Strategy at Agilent Technologies, has over 10 years of experience leading product management teams, launching customer-focused products, and partnering with R&D groups to deliver high-quality software, hardware, and cloud-based […]

  • Bioinformatics: Lead the next wave of innovation

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Where biology meets Big Data Join us for an inside look at how our Bioinformatics courses can help you strengthen your skills in data analysis, genomics, and software tools—preparing you to contribute to advances in biotech, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare. We’ll provide an overview of the curriculum, discuss current industry trends and workforce demand, highlight career opportunities, and answer your questions about getting started. Your speaker Darryl A. León, Ph.D., has over 10 years of experience leading product management teams, launching customer-focused products, and partnering with R&D groups to deliver high-quality software, hardware, and cloud-based solutions that support academic, biopharma, and clinical […]

  • Where Hardware Meets Intelligence

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Embedded Systems: Build the Intelligence Behind the Hardware Join Juergen Kienhoefer to explore the foundations of embedded systems and how firmware powers the devices we use every day—plus get an introduction to how AI is transforming the field. Learn how our UCSC Silicon Valley Extension Embedded Systems courses prepare you to develop low-level software, interface with hardware components, and build reliable real-time applications for microcontrollers and embedded platforms, while gaining insight into emerging trends like AI at the edge. Discover how the hands-on courses can help advance your career in embedded systems engineering. Your speaker Juergen Kienhoefer, instructor of the AI-Driven Embedded Systems course, also […]

  • Advance your Career in Medical Device Design & Quality

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    From discovery to market Join Kiran Gulati, chair of the UCSC Silicon Valley Extension Medical Device Quality and Design program, for an inside look at how our courses provide hands-on training, practical case studies, and industry-relevant skills that prepare you for roles in quality engineering, regulatory compliance, and design assurance. Sponsor This info session is sponsored by the UCSC Silicon Valley Extension Medical Device Quality and Design program. CLAIM YOUR SEAT TODAY. 

  • Kramer, A. (BMEB) – Scalable phylo-pangenomics

    Biomedical Sciences Building 575 McLaughlin Drive
    Hybrid Event

    The COVID-19 pandemic generated genomic data at unprecedented scale, with tens of millions of SARS-CoV-2 genomes deposited in public repositories and thousands of new sequences added each day. This dissertation develops methods for analyzing genomic datasets at this scale, unified by the idea that encoding genomes according to their evolutionary relationships can make otherwise intractable computations practical. First, I evaluate online phylogenetic inference, in which new genomes are continuously added to an existing tree, and compare parsimony-based methods with maximum-likelihood approaches under pandemic time constraints. For densely sampled SARS-CoV-2 genomes, online inference with UShER and matOptimize produces trees comparable to established […]

  • Educational Therapy Program Info Session

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Transform learning Join Diana Black Kennedy, chair of UCSC Silicon Valley’s Educational Therapy program, to learn how this distinctive program prepares educators and professionals to create meaningful, lasting impact. As one of the few programs approved by the Association of Educational Therapists (AET), it equips you with the skills to assess learning differences and implement research-based, effective interventions with confidence. Empower students and build your practice Gain skills to support students with learning differences like dyslexia, ADHD, and autism using therapeutic and educational strategies. Whether you’re working in schools or starting a private practice, this program helps you create individualized plans that foster meaningful […]

  • Nag, S. (BMEB) – Personalized Diploid Genome Graphs for Accurate Somatic Variant Discovery

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

    Many somatic variant-calling pipelines begin by aligning tumor and matched-normal sequencing reads to a single linear reference genome, such as GRCh38. Because every individual differs substantially from this reference, this approach can introduce reference bias, causing reads to map incorrectly or not at all and potentially leading to missed somatic variants or germline variants being misclassified as somatic. I propose replacing the generic reference with a personalized diploid genome graph constructed from a donor-specific assembly (DSA), which represents both inherited haplotypes of the individual. I will develop this framework by (1) generating haplotype-resolved, telomere-to-telomere DSAs for cancer reference cell lines, (2) […]

  • Farm to Fork 2026

    UCSC Farm 152 Farm Rd, Santa Cruz, CA +1 more

    Join the Center for Agroecology for an evening at the Farm Enjoy a reception and benefit dinner on the UCSC Farm followed by dancing in the Hay Barn! This event will feature music, appetizers, tours, and local wine followed by a seasonally-focused, locally-sourced meal featuring produce from the UCSC Farm and local partners. As the sun sets, head down to the Hay Barn for music, dancing, and dessert. The evening’s program: 4:00pm: Reception and farm tours followed by dinner 7:00pm: Dancing in the Hay Barn Individual Registration: $225.00 Table of Six: $1,300.00 Individual Registration Dance Portion Only: $30.00

  • What’s new in clinical research careers?

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Building safety into innovation In this information session, you’ll gain insight into current industry trends, emerging skills, and career opportunities. We’ll dive into how our Clinical Trials Design and Management program is designed to help professionals build expertise, stay competitive, and achieve their educational and career goals. Whether you’re looking to advance in your current role, transition into a new field, or expand your knowledge, this session is a great place to start. Your speaker Karim Sajwani, M.P.H., CCRA, executive director and head of clinical operations at Henlius USA, Inc., has more than 25 years of experience in clinical drug development in the […]

  • Shen, J. (STAT) – Bayesian Modeling and Uncertainty Quantification for Verbal Autopsy Data

    Virtual Event

    Verbal autopsy (VA) is a well developed tool to collect information describing deaths outside of hospitals by conducting surveys to the relatives and caregivers of the deceased person. It is routinely-implemented in low and middle income countries, where it often lacks sufficient resources to conduct the autopsy. The main task is to estimate both individual level cause-of-death probabilities and population level cause-specific mortality fractions. In this document, we present three projects dealing with challenges current VA modeling faces. In the first project, we build a shared latent class model for verbal autopsy, which allows causes to share common symptom patterns. A […]

  • Dry Farm Tomato Field Day

    Hay Barn 94 Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz, CA, United States

    Climate change models predict increasingly hot and dry conditions, raising concerns about impacts on agricultural production and food security. Answering this challenge is organic dry farming, a sustainable practice that allows growers to produce crops under arid conditions with little irrigation. Researchers from UC Santa Cruz and the University of Oregon are studying the environmental conditions and plant traits that support successful dry-farmed tomato production on 10 different varieties. Join us for a Field Day focused on research that aims to help small-scale organic farmers adapt to our changing climate. RSVP

    Free
  • Transform your workplace with practical AI skills.

    Silicon Valley Campus 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, United States

    Explore how to lead with AI—whether you want to build it or apply it. In this information session, discover two dynamic pathways: AI Business Practices, for professionals seeking practical AI tools to boost productivity without coding, and AI Engineer, for those ready to design and deploy production-ready AI systems. Learn how generative AI, automation, and intelligent agents are transforming today’s workplace—and how you can be part of that change. Speaker Join Hien Luu, Program Chair and Head of Machine Learning Infrastructure at Zoox, for an inside look at how our courses help you build prompt‑engineering know‑how, ethical AI awareness, and productivity‑boosting workflows—so you can […]

  • Elimination of Duration of Status: Final Town Hall

    Virtual Event

    Changes to the “duration of status” for F and J visa holders are now in effect. Immigration rules are complex, and Global Engagement wants to make sure you have accurate information. We invite you to join us for a comprehensive update and a Q&A session for F and J visa-holding students and scholars. Click here to register for the Zoom link Can’t make it? This update and future guidance will be posted on the Global Engagement Immigration Updates and Guidance Webpage. We recommend bookmarking this page. Questions? Please visit our advising webpage to schedule an appointment with an international advisor or email us at […]

  • Ensuring Your Professional Longevity

    There are many things that can derail our ability to advance in our careers while maintaining long-term sustainability and health.  Join us as we discuss the 4 key factors that […]

    Free