Echoes on the Hill
2025-10-26 20:30 - 21:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Colleges Nine and John R. Lewis College Multi-purpose Room, 615 College Nine Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join us for a night of live music and campus energy at the JRL MPR Stage! This recurring showcase celebrates the incredible talent of UC Santa Cruz’s student-led bands, bringing the community together through sound, creativity, and Slug spirit.
This edition features Empire Grade, a high-energy punk band making waves in the UCSC music scene. Come out to support your fellow Slugs, discover new artists, and enjoy an evening of authentic student talent and connection.

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.

ECE 290 Seminar: Performance Bounds and Bottlenecks for Neuromorphic ML Accelerators
2025-10-27 10:40 - 11:45 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Presenter: Jason Yik, PhD Candidate, Harvard SEAS
Description: Recent research on neuromorphic accelerators has investigated their efficiency and performance benefits for machine learning (ML) inference at the edge. This talk will focus on the performance implications of the fully-on-chip, manycore-distributed memory architecture used by current neuromorphic accelerators. In conventional architectures, the roofline model is a well-known performance model for denoting performance bounds and bottlenecks. For neuromorphics, we show that bounds create a different shape, a floorline, and we demonstrate how to optimize ML deployment using the floorline as a performance guide.
Bio: Jason Yik is a PhD candidate at Harvard SEAS, with a research focus in neuromorphic computing architectures. His prior work includes designing benchmark frameworks and tools for neuromorphic research, and modeling and optimizing neuromorphic system performance. Currently, he is an intern with the ASIC architecture team at Cerebras Systems.
Hosted by: Professor Soumya Bose, ECE Department
Zoom Link: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/97975378707?pwd=[REDACTED]
Room: E2-192

BIPOC Outdoors: Fall Garden Tour
2025-10-27 12:00 | Stevenson Community Garden, Stevenson College, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join the People of Color Sustainability Collective for our annual Fall Garden Tour! This event was created to give students of color an opportunity to explore green spaces around campus and be in community with one another. The first part of the day will consist of students taking a walking tour through several campus gardens, beginning at Stevenson Garden and ending the tour at Oakes College, where we will eat free food, play games, listen to music, and get to know one another in the sunshine. This supports the PoCSC's goal of providing students of color with community building opportunities, and representing BIPOC sustainability practices.

Road Trip! Light in the American West, from Baja to the Yukon
2025-10-27 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-10-28 12:00 - 17:00, 2025-10-29 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.

Statistics Seminar: Sampling Depth Trade-Off in Function Estimation Under a Two-Level Design
2025-10-27 16:00 - 17:00
Presenter: Akira Horiguchi, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of California, Davis
Description: Many modern statistical applications involve a two-level sampling scheme that first samples subjects from a population and then samples observations on each subject. These schemes often are designed to learn both the population-level functional structures shared by the subjects and the functional characteristics specific to individual subjects. Common wisdom suggests that learning population-level structures benefits from sampling more subjects whereas learning subject-specific structures benefits from deeper sampling within each subject. Oftentimes these two objectives compete for limited sampling resources, which raises the question of how to optimally sample at the two levels. We quantify such sampling-depth trade-offs by establishing the L_2 minimax risk rates for learning the population-level and subject-specific structures under a hierarchical Gaussian process model framework where we consider a Bayesian and a frequentist perspective on the unknown population-level structure. These rates provide general lessons for designing two-level sampling schemes given a fixed sampling budget. Interestingly, they show that subject-specific learning occasionally benefits more by sampling more subjects than by deeper within-subject sampling. We show that the corresponding minimax rates can be readily achieved in practice through simple adaptive estimators without assuming prior knowledge on the underlying variability at the two sampling levels. We validate our theory and illustrate the sampling trade-off in practice through both simulation experiments and two real datasets. While we carry out all the theoretical analysis in the context of Gaussian process models for analytical tractability, the results provide insights on effective two-level sampling designs more broadly.
Bio: Akira Horiguchi is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of California, Davis. He was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Statistical Science at Duke University, advised by Professors Li Ma and Cliburn Chan. He completed his Ph.D. in Statistics at The Ohio State University, advised by Professors Matthew T. Pratola and Thomas J. Santner. His research interests include improving nonparametric inference for flow cytometry data, developing sensitivity analysis tools for regression trees, and developing tree-based methods for tensor regression.
Hosted by: Professor Paul Parker

AM Seminar: Why do we care about inertial waves on the Sun?
2025-10-27 16:00 - 17:00
Presenter: Ms. Catherine Blume, University of Colorado-Boulder
Description: Recent observations of Rossby waves and other inertial oscillations in the Sun’s convection zone have kindled the hope that such waves might be used as a seismic probe of the Sun’s interior. Here, we present a 3D numerical simulation in spherical geometry that models the Sun’s convection zone and upper radiative interior. This model features a wide variety of inertial oscillations, including both sectoral and tesseral Rossby waves, retrograde mixed inertial modes, prograde thermal Rossby waves, and the recently observed high-frequency retrograde (HFR) vorticity modes. In this talk, we’ll explore these different waves, their physical impact, and their potential helioseismic utility.
Bio: Catherine Blume is an astrophysics PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she works with Brad Hindman studying solar inertial waves.
Hosted by: Professor Julie Simons

Julian Brave NoiseCat - We Survived the Night
2025-10-27 19:00 - 20:00 | London Nelson Community Center, 301 Center St., Santa Cruz, United States
Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes Julian Brave NoiseCat who will share his stunning debut We Survived the Night. Drawing from five years of on-the-ground reporting, We Survived the Night paints a profound and unforgettable portrait of contemporary Indigenous life, alongside an intimate and deeply powerful reckoning between a father and a son. Soulful, formally daring, indelible work from an important new voice.
This event is cosponsored by the American Indian Resource Center and The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz. It will take place at the London Nelson Community Center.

“Written in gorgeous, sparse prose, We Survived the Night reads like a novel. Told with a blistering honesty, the truth and grit create a beautifully woven coyote story we haven’t heard before. This is a love letter to Oakland, to the Canim Lake Band Tsq’secen of the Secwepemc Nation, to a father from his son, to the act of being a Native person in the twenty first century finding ways to love even through all that wounds have opened and wrought. With this, Julian Brave NoiseCat has written a book I’ve been waiting my whole life to read.” —Tommy Orange
A stunning narrative from one of the most powerful young writers at work today—We Survived the Night (Knopf) interweaves oral history with hard-hitting journalism and a deeply personal father-son journey into a searing portrait of Indigenous survival, love, and resurgence.
Julian Brave NoiseCat’s childhood was rich with culture and contradictions. When his Secwépemc and St’at’imc father, an artist haunted by a turbulent past, abandoned the family, he and his non-Native mother were embraced by the urban Native community in Oakland, California, as well as by family on the Canim Lake Indian Reserve in British Columbia. In his father’s absence, NoiseCat immersed himself in Native history and culture to understand the man he seldom saw—his past, his story, where he came from—and, by extension, himself.
Years later, NoiseCat sets out across the continent to correct the erasure, invisibility, and misconceptions surrounding the First Peoples of this land, as he develops his voice as a storyteller and artist in his own right.
Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, champion powwow dancer, and student of Salish art and history. His writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker. NoiseCat has been recognized with numerous awards including the 2022 American Mosaic Journalism Prize and many National Native Media Awards. He was a finalist for the Livingston Award and multiple Canadian National Magazine Awards, and was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2021. His first documentary, Sugarcane, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. Directed alongside Emily Kassie, Sugarcane premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where NoiseCat and Kassie won the Directing Award in U.S. Documentary. NoiseCat is a proud member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq̓éscen̓ and descendant of the Líl̓wat Nation of Mount Currie. We Survived the Night is his first book.

Alatawi, A. (ECE) - Learning-Based Channel Estimation for Next-Generation Wireless Communications
2025-10-28 10:00 - 12:00
Accurate Channel State Information (CSI) is critical for coherent detection, equalization, and adaptive resource allocation in modern wireless systems. Traditional estimators rely on stationary statistical models, and many learning-based methods assume training and deployment conditions are matched. In practice, these assumptions break down under user mobility and environmental dynamics, leading to degraded performance. This proposal explores machine-learning approaches for channel estimation that address two complementary challenges.
First, we develop an adaptive deep neural network (ADNN) for single-input single-output links over slowly time-varying channels. The method converts readily available physical-layer feedback—cyclic redundancy check (CRC) and automatic repeat request (ARQ)—into reliable self-supervision. Specifically, packets decoded without errors are re-estimated using least squares (LS) across all symbols to generate high-quality labels, and the DNN weights are periodically updated online. This design eliminates the need for ground-truth labels at deployment and enables continual learning. Simulations show that the ADNN tracks distributional shifts and recovers near–linear minimum mean-square error (LMMSE) performance in both mean-square error (MSE) and symbol error rate (SER), whereas a fixed offline-trained DNN degrades as channel statistics change.
Second, we propose a sequence-to-sequence LSTM estimator for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). The model exploits both temporal and frequency correlation by taking LS pilot estimates from several previous OFDM blocks as input and reconstructing the full channel frequency response of the current block. Trained on realistic time-selective channels such as WINNER II, the LSTM outperforms LS interpolation and recent super-resolution–based methods across a wide range of SNRs, pilot densities, and temporal window sizes.
Finally, the proposal outlines future research on semantic-aware channel estimation using CSI timeliness, and enhanced sequence models with DNN-refined pilots, whole-block inputs, and efficient GRU architectures.
Event Host: Abdulaziz Alatawi, Ph.D. Student, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Advisor: Hamid Sadjadpour & Zouheir Rezki
Zoom- https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/94895993579?pwd=[REDACTED]
Passcode- 884927

CSE Colloquium: A Journey from Programming Systems Research to AI Agents
2025-10-28 11:00 - 12:15 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Speaker: Koushik Sen, UC Berkeley and Google DeepMind
Abstract: Coding has emerged as an important application area for large language models (LLMs), with a proliferation of code-specific models and their applications across various domains and tasks such as program repair, performance optimization, debugging, test generation, documentation, and security hardening. In this talk, I will describe how we built powerful coding agents such as R2E-Gym and DeepSWE using test-driven methodology for solving various kinds of coding tasks, such as repair, optimization, security vulnerability detection, and refactoring. I will also discuss a novel technique, called GEPA, for domain-specific optimization of AI agent systems, which has shown a significant advantage over reinforcement learning.
Bio: Koushik Sen is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interest lies in Software Engineering, Programming Languages, and AI. He is interested in developing software tools and methodologies that improve programmer productivity and software quality. He is known for his work on “DART: Directed Automated Random Testing,” concolic testing, and LiveCodeBench. He has received a NSF CAREER Award in 2008, a Haifa Verification Conference (HVC) Award in 2009, a IFIP TC2 Manfred Paul Award for Excellence in Software: Theory and Practice in 2010, a Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 2011, a Professor R. Narasimhan Lecture Award in 2014, an Okawa Foundation Research Grant in 2015, and an ACM SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award in 2019. He has won several ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Awards. He received the C.L. and Jane W-S. Liu Award in 2004, the C. W. Gear Outstanding Graduate Award in 2005, and the David J. Kuck Outstanding Ph.D. Thesis Award in 2007, and a Distinguished Alumni Educator Award in 2014 from the UIUC Department of Computer Science. He holds a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in CS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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]

2025 Graduate & Professional School Fair (DAY 1)
2025-10-28 11:00 - 14:00 | Stevenson Event Center, Stevenson Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
You’re invited to join us, open to all majors!
Undergraduate and graduate students and recent alumni interested in pursuing continuing education opportunities are invited to attend. Get the chance to meet admission representatives seeking to share insight into their respective graduate and professional school programs and discuss ways in which to stand out in the application process.
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.
You will receive registration and additional information to your email from Career Success via Handshake. Please make sure to check your junk/spam folder if you are not receiving any communication.
Questions? Send to csuccess@ucsc.edu or visit Career Success at Hahn 125 East Entrance
Need accessibility support? Let us know at slugtalent@ucsc.edu at least two weeks prior to the fair date.

Macroeconomics & International Finance Seminar Series Presents: Zhiguo He
2025-10-28 13:40 - 15:00 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Macroeconomics and International Finance Seminar
Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Time: 1:40-3:00 p.m.
Location: E2-499

Speaker: Zhiguo He
Title: James Irvin Miller Professor of Finance
Affiliation: Stanford University
Host: Michael Leung

Seminar title: Household Migration and Collateral Constraint: Cash-based Housing Resettlement in China

ABSTRACT: Collateral constraints reduce household migration to expensive locations by restricting financing for home purchases. This endogenous location choice can amplify the impact of relaxing borrowing constraints. Using China’s cash-based shantytown renovation program (2015-2018) as a natural experiment, we provide evidence that cash resettlement– by converting illiquid shanty houses into cash– facilitated household location upgrading and raised house prices in more expensive locations. A dynamic spatial model with collateral constraints confirms that endogenous location upgrading amplified the effect of cash transfer, raising lifetime housing expenditures by nearly 50%, and house price growth in low-tier cities by 9% in 2016-2020.

Genomics Rooftop Mixer
2025-10-28 16:00 - 19:00 | Anton Pacific Apartments rooftop, 800 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, United States
On October 28, the rooftop will come alive with the energy of science, entrepreneurship, and community as the Genomics Rooftop Mixer brings together leaders from genomics and biotechnology to shape the future of health, science, and technology. Hosted in collaboration with UC Santa Cruz researchers, this event is a rare opportunity to experience the cutting edge of discovery in one of the fastest-moving fields in the world.
The evening is designed as more than just another networking reception. Guests will hear lightning talks that distill complex science into compelling insights, while table demonstrations will provide the chance to ask questions directly to the researchers breaking new ground. For entrepreneurs, investors, and city leaders, this is a chance to glimpse the innovations that could become tomorrow’s breakthrough companies or public health solutions. For community members, it’s a moment to see how science being developed locally is poised to transform lives globally.
Learn more and get tickets

College Night: Over the Merrill Hill
2025-10-28 17:00 - 20:00 | Cowell/Stevenson Dining Hall, 520 Cowell-Stevenson Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
Merrill College, in collaboration with UCSC Dining, present Over the Merrill Hill! Join us Tuesday, October 28, from 5–8 p.m. at the Crown/Merrill Dining Hall for a night of activities, fun, community, and a special themed menu. Standard dining hall entry pricing applies, and all students, faculty, and staff are invited.
Please note: The dining hall will be closed from 2–5 p.m. for event preparation.
Learn more about College Nights at dining.ucsc.edu/events.
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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.How to Use the Statement Across Communication Channels

Mark Primack: The Truth in Drawing
2025-10-28 17:20 - 18:55 | Media Theater, Experimental Theater, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join ART 10D: 2D Foundations for a Lecture by Mark Primack where he will present “Truth in Drawing,” a talk on his recent drawing practice and experiences. Mark Primack (b.1951) is a Situationist who at times engages in drawing, writing, designing, building, critiquing and politicking. He holds degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and the Architectural Association of London. He resides in Santa Cruz, California, where he has maintained an architectural practice for forty years while serving on various commission and the City Council. In 1978 he was awarded a special projects grant from the California Arts Council to document the World Famous Tree Circus, but has supported his own work ever since. He lives, works, draws and gardens in spaces of his own design, which he shares with landscape architect and artist Janet Pollock.
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ADMISSION
– FREE and open to the public
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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.

Yoga as Healing Series
2025-10-28 17:30 - 19:15 | Health Center (Student Health Center), 525 McLaughlin Drive, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Yoga as Healing is an offering for students at UC Santa Cruz who identify as survivors of interpersonal violence. Together, we will practice gentle body movement, breathwork, meditation, and more—all from a trauma-informed lens.
This 7-week program is limited to 8–10 participants in each cohort and is intended to provide a safe and predictable environment for survivors to build community.
At the beginning of each session, participants will have time to share their progress and personal experiences with the class. This will be followed by asana practice (physical postures), and the class will close with journaling, art, and reflection.
CARE will provide yoga mats, blocks, and a blanket for each participant. You are encouraged to wear comfortable clothing and bring a water bottle for hydration.
Participants are welcome to join Yoga as Healing for any of the sessions; attendance at the orientation is not required. The sessions run from October 7 through November 25, with no session on November 11.
This event is open to all UC Santa Cruz students. Fill out an interest form to sign up.

Drop-In Figure Drawing
2025-10-28 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.

Emeriti Faculty Lecture, Fall 2025
2025-10-28 19:00 - 21:00 | Music Center Recital Hall, 400 McHenry Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Kicking the Prow: Reflections on a Life in Conversation with Past and Present People and Other Creatures
In this lecture, Distinguished Research Professor Diane Gifford-Gonzalez reflects on fifty-five years of zooarchaeology work, studying animal remains from archaeological sites to explore how past people and their kin interacted. While varying in geographical and theoretical foci, a common thread runs through what she believes are her most influential contributions to archaeology. Starting with a true story, Professor Gifford-Gonzalez will outline how these have “kicked the prow” of wider conversations in archaeology and share a few of her creative works.
Register to attend in-person or virtual
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for guests attending in-person
Lecture: 7 p.m.
Followed by a reception for in-person guests
Free and open to the public

Presented by the UC Santa Cruz Emeriti Association

Global Learning Opportunities Fair
2025-10-29 10:00 - 14:00 | Quarry Plaza, Student Union, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join us in an encouraging space to chat with Global Learning advisors, UCSC peer advisors, and other study abroad providers! Learn about the many global learning opportunities and funding resources available to help you study, explore, and engage with cultures in the U.S. and abroad.
Sign up to receive reminders about the event!

2025 Graduate & Professional School Fair (DAY 2)
2025-10-29 11:00 - 14:00 | Stevenson Event Center, Stevenson Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064

Healthy Relationships Workshop Series
2025-10-29 11:30 - 13:00
In honor of Relationship, Dating, and Domestic Violence Awareness/Action Month (RDDVAM), join CARE for a workshop series all about relationships and boundaries. We’ll practice identifying aspects of healthy and unhealthy relationships and talk about the importance of setting boundaries with ourselves and in our relationships. Snacks and refreshments provided!
Workshop 1 | Green, Yellow, Red: Wednesday, October 15th from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. at Kerr Hall, Room 160
Workshop 2 | Boundaries & Beyond!: Wednesday, October 29th from 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m at Kerr Hall, Room 160
All UCSC students are welcome! You can attend either or both workshops – attendance at one is not required for attendance in the other. For any questions, accessibility needs, or accommodations, please email care_pec@ucsc.edu.
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. Nondiscrimination Policy for UC Publications

Engineering Teaching Community (Faculty)
2025-10-29 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.

In-person Info Session – Japan Research Fellowships (JSPS)
2025-10-29 13:30 - 14:30 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Are you interested in funding for research, collaboration, and travel opportunities in Japan? Representatives from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) will be on campus for an in-person info session:

When: Wednesday, October 29, 2025 | 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Where: Engineering Building 2, Room 180 (E2-180)
Light refreshments provided.

Please RSVP here
Who should attend?
Faculty, researchers/postdocs, students in ALL disciplines. This information session is particularly relevant for:

Faculty fellowships at junior, mid, and senior levels (short and long term)
Postdocs (summer, short, and long-term fellowships)
Pre-PhD students (summer and short-term fellowships)

Learn more about JSPS here. Questions? Email gsabo@ucsc.edu.

Academic Senate Forum: Systemwide UCAD Work Group Interim Report
2025-10-29 14:30 - 17:00 | https://www.google.com/url?q=https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/92116175167?pwd%3D8GzPi58g1dddt2aebnPpNEaWQDAwUF.1&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1761590334348990&usg=AOvVaw0IE4jxtMvpYKIH0XD9WgWm
Senate faculty forum for discussion of the UCAD Interim Report (July, 2025) to understand the implications of the systemwide planning framework, UCAD part 2, and plan for divisional and individual feedback via the provided form.

Creative Interventions (CI) Series
2025-10-29 16:00 - 17:35
Creative Interventions (CI) is a community colloquium in contemporary creativity and creative practices that addresses the interconnected work of artists, designers, activists, and knowledge workers—and the intrinsic and transformative capacity of that work to cultivate a just society.
The CI Speaker Series raises questions of import to contemporary creative workers in media and technology:
– How do creative workers address their most challenging problems?
– How does creative labor intersect with other forms of labor to nurture the world views and cultural practices of our democracy?
The Creative Interventions (CI) Series is co-sponsored by the Arts Division’s Creative Technologies program and Porter College at UC Santa Cruz.
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ADMISSION
– Free and open to UCSC affiliates.
– All events in the series are presented online with registration required.
– Refer to the individual event listings for more information and a link to register.
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
– Wed., Oct 15, 4:00 p.m.: “Expensive-Sounding Sounds” with Catherine Provenzano
– Wed., Oct 29, 4:00 p.m.: “Asymptote: Computation, Disillusion, and Enchantment” with Nora Khan
– Additional event dates to be announced on the Creative Interventions events page here
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This program is open to all UC Santa Cruz affiliates consistent with state and federal law.

Creative Interventions: "Asymptote" with Nora Khan
2025-10-29 16:00 - 17:35
Nora Khan explores our personal relationships with computational systems through moments spanning from childhood gaming experiences to contemporary AI. The central metaphor of the “asymptote”—a curve endlessly approaching but never reaching a line—describes both humanity’s pursuit of technological mastery, and the incomputable aspects of experience that resist capture by algorithms and surveillance. Through encounters with drones, machine learning systems, and glitched game worlds, this talk argues for maintaining space for the mystical, ineffable, and offscreen in an era of relentless quantification and prediction. The talk ultimately calls for preserving doubt, acknowledging what cannot be computed, and remembering the personal “why” that precedes professional identity in navigating our algorithmic present.
This event is presented as part of the Creative Interventions (CI) Series and is co-sponsored by the Arts Division’s Creative Technologies program and Porter College at UC Santa Cruz.
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ADMISSION
– Free and open to UCSC affiliates.
– This is an online event.
– Registration is required here.
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
– Event dates to be announced throughout the 2025-26 academic year.
– Learn more about the Creative Intervention Series here.
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ABOUT THE SERIES
Creative Interventions addresses the interconnected work of artists, designers, activists, and knowledge workers—and the intrinsic and transformative capacity of that work to cultivate a just society. More information about the Creative Technologies program.
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This program is open to all UC Santa Cruz affiliates consistent with state and federal law.

Pokémon Makers Market
2025-10-29 16:00 - 19:00 | Porter College Quad
Catch the Pokémon Makers’ Market at Porter Quad! Shop student vendors, enjoy performances, join a cosplay contest, trade Pokémon cards, and compete in tournaments. Celebrate creativity and community with food, activities, and prizes.
Presented by: UCSC Women’s Center, Cantu Queer Center, and Jack Baskin Engineering
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.

Humanities Grad School 101
2025-10-29 17:00 - 18:30 | https://events.ucsc.edu/event/humanities-grad-school-101/
Are you curious about graduate school in the humanities? Join this Humanities Grad School 101 session, where we’ll hear from Associate Dean of Research Pranav Anand and stellar UCSC graduate students in History, Linguistics, Literature, and Philosophy. We’ll discuss important considerations for deciding to pursue graduate school and what to look for in an academic program and advisor. You’ll leave knowing how to decide whether grad school is right for you and what you can do now to prepare.
This is a hybrid event and will be hosted both in-person in Humanities 1, Room 210 and on Zoom. Dinner will be provided for those joining in person.
Register on Handshake here

Queer Emergent: Scandalous Stories from Twilight of AIDS in Peru: Book Celebration and Conversation with Professor Justin Perez
2025-10-29 17:30 - 19:00 | Charles E. Merrill Lounge, Rutherford House, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Join us as Huerta Center Faculty Awardee Professor Justin Perez (Latin America and Latino Studies Department) presents his new book, Queer Emergent: Scandalous Stories from Twilight of AIDS in Peru. In Queer Emergent, Justin Perez explores how advances in HIV prevention work alongside broader economic and political shifts in global health to shape queer subjectivities. Drawing on ethnographic research among gay and transgender communities in urban Amazonian Peru, Perez describes how queer social worlds emerge through scandalous storytelling—a practice of exaggerating and embellishing stories about everyday life that transgresses social norms and hierarchies. Perez shows that through such storytelling, gay and transgender communities contested the assumptions of global HIV prevention’s shift from the provision of costly antiretrovirals to the mitigation of social conditions like discrimination and stigma. He argues that the global ambition to “End AIDS” by 2030 is not just a technical project oriented at ending the epidemic, but also a project of sexual subjectification and ongoing social transformation. By taking seriously the scandalous stories that gay and transgender Peruvians circulated as they responded to new forms of HIV prevention, Perez reveals how they imagine possibilities of what could be as the effort to end AIDS continues to play out in the present.
There will be a short reception following the discussion. We look forward to seeing you there!
