Events

AI Frontier Summit - Intelligence at Scale: Agents, Physical AI & Chips #SFTechWeek
2026-10-09 10:30 - 16:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | 3175 Bowers Avenue Santa Clara, CA 95054, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
AI Frontier Summit 2026 brings together AI founders, researchers, investors, and industry leaders to examine how the next generation of intelligent systems is being built—from autonomous agents and physical AI to infrastructure innovations integrating GPUs, memory, photonics, and interconnect technologies. The summit connects technical breakthroughs with real-world deployment, business strategy, and investment opportunities.
What You’ll Explore
• Chips, infrastructure, memory, photonics, interconnect, security, and the AI supply chain
• Agentic AI moving toward reliable production systems and self-improved systems
• Physical AI, Robotics, embodied intelligence development
• Curated startup demonstrations and high-value ecosystem connections
• A panel on raising VC funding or being acquired
This event is a part of #SFTechWeek—a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem.

Min Jin Lee - American Hagwon
2026-10-11 14:00 - 15:00 | Rio Theater, 1205 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz, 95062, United States
Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes Min Jin Lee, the National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, who returns with American Hagwon—a breathtaking contemporary epic, by turns sweeping and intimate, that reckons with ambition and moderation, lust and loyalty, personal dreams and familial duty. This event is cosponsored by The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz.
“With her gift for wonderfully empathetic storytelling, this is a profoundly generous and humane novel about duty, family, and the dream of a better life…. I was fully absorbed by the fates of the Koh family and, as the novel worked its cumulative magic, deeply moved by this masterful tale of sacrifice, familial devotion, and, ultimately, acceptance.” —Douglas Stuart, author of John of John and Shuggie Bain, winner of the Booker Prize

“Min Jin Lee brings grand ambition, fierce heart, and the tenderest hope to a novel I didn’t want to end.” —Roxane Gay, bestselling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger
In schools and churches, hotel rooms and nail salons, law firms and fried-fish shops; in cramped, dingy apartments and luxury, gated communities, the men, women, and children in American Hagwon struggle to find satisfaction and meaning in a world that seems to grow less forgiving with each passing year. Once comfortably middle class in Korea, John and Helen Koh and their three children—Bo, DH, and Mido—find their lives upended, first by a shocking betrayal by John’s oldest friend, then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Desperately striving to regain their footing, they leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in Southern California—where new vistas of opportunity open up for the children as their parents, strangers in a strange land, must adjust to a new life in which their experience and education mean little, and they set their sights on whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures. The Kohs, their friends, relatives, and even their foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they navigate new courses across the years, always nursing the almost all-consuming faith that education will lead the next generation to success and security.
In American Hagwon, Min Jin Lee has crafted an unforgettable, panoramic novel where the smallest of gestures can have enormous repercussions, where the bonds of family and of memory twist and fray but rarely break, and where willful self-sacrifice—for the benefit of loved ones and even strangers—is a kind of prayer.

Min Jin Lee is the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award, runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and a New York Times “100 Best Books of the Century.” She serves as the New York State Author Laureate from 2025 through 2027. She is the 2024 recipient of The Fitzgerald Prize for Literary Excellence. Lee has received the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Bucheon Diaspora Literary Award, and the Samsung Happiness for Tomorrow Award for Creativity from South Korea. She is the recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Lee is an inductee of the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. She lives in Harlem with her family.

Race the Flame – A Wildfire Preparedness Run/Walk
2026-10-17 08:00 - 10:00 | Upper East Field
Race Details

Date: Oct. 17, 2026
Start Time: 8:00 AM
Location: East Upper Field, UCSC
Entry Fee: Adults are $20 and kids 12 and under are $15
Register for the race today!

In an effort to increase public awareness and preparedness for wildfire season, University of California, Santa Cruz has partnered with the City of Santa Cruz to host the first Race the Flame taking place on Oct. 17, 2026.
Join the award-winning emergency preparedness run/walk at UC Santa Cruz! Last year the City of Santa Cruz’s Race the Wave earned a CAPIO Award for Excellence—and this year we’re putting a new emergency scenario to the test. If you had to escape a wildfire in Santa Cruz how long would it take you to run or walk to reach safety? Would you know which way to go? Here’s your chance to test yourself and gain knowledge about wildfires and their impact on our community.
Register for the race today!
Click to learn more about Race the Flame.

Harvest Festival
2026-10-17 11:00 - 15:00 | UCSC Farm, 152 Farm Rd, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Connect with community on the campus farm at the annual Harvest Festival! Harvest Fest will have activities for all ages including face painting, flower pressing, pumpkin painting, cider pressing, tractor rides, live music, and more! Plus, enjoy food and treats from local food trucks, participate in an apple pie bake-off (more info coming soon), connect with local organizations, and enjoy the campus farm. Full list of activities coming soon.

Cost: $5 for general public; free entry for current students of UCSC, Hartnell and Cabrillo College, Friends of the UCSC Farm & Garden members, and children under 12. Cash preferred at the entrance gate.

Transportation and parking: We encourage carpooling, walking, biking, or taking the bus if you are able to! Parking info coming soon. Logistics: Please do not harvest any of the crops on the farm during your visit. The crops grown on the farm feed students in need and support our research and programming. We encourage you to bring a reusable water bottle to save plastic and stay hydrated! Pets are not allowed on the UC Santa Cruz campus (with the exception of service animals). The Harvest Festival is presented by the UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology, the Food Systems Working Group, Measure 43 and Life Lab.

The UCSC Farm has moderately steep slopes and uneven terrain. If you require accommodations to fully participate, contact agroecology@ucsc.edu.

Photo-Jim Clark

Dance Masterclasses with NBA Dancers Caroleen Chang (Golden State Warriors) & EJ Aban (Sacramento Kings)
2026-10-17 12:00 - 16:30 | West Field House, Rachel Carson College Service Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Come train with the UCSC Spirit Squad and our incredible masterclass teachers at our Fall Clinic on October 17th!
We are hosting classes in contemporary with Caroleen Chang and hip hop with Emil “EJ” Aban! You won’t want to miss the opportunity to learn from these talented NBA dancers!
Secure your spot!
Find the registration form on our Linktree here or by visiting our Instagram (@ucsc_spirit).
You can sign up for one or both of these classes.
#ucscspiritsquad

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.

Lineages of Workers Inquiry in the U.S.
2026-10-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Hay Barn, 94 Ranch View Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, United States
The 1970s saw a burst of working-class struggle in the United States. In a moment of crisis, workers responded with courage and determination to fight back. A wave of strikes and rank-and-file rebellion led a number of feminist scholars and activists to investigate, contextualize, and broadcast this activity. Some engaged in oral history, others in participant observation by obtaining jobs in different industries. They asked crucial questions about what the meaning of class relationships, the connection between historical memory and ongoing struggles, and the significance of social reproduction in analyzing exploitation and resistance.
In our present, as younger generations enter the labor movement through union drives, salting, strike support, and other paths, this body of research and action offers valuable lessons.
With: Ann Bookman, Gail Hershatter, Vicki Ruiz, Pat Zavella
Moderator: Patrick King
OCTOBER 20, 2026 | 6 PM-8 PM
COWELL RANCH HAY BARN
94 RANCH VIEW RD, SANTA CRUZ, CA 95064

Taking Charge of Change: Five Fundamental Truths for Mastering the Chaos of Life
2026-10-21 12:00 - 13:00
Taking Charge of Change: Five Fundamental Truths for Mastering the Chaos of Life With Jim Hjort
Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026 | Noon PT
Virtual via Zoom
Hosted by the UCLA Alumni Association, open to all UC alumni
Change is the only constant in life, and every day we are called to reckon with this. Today, it may be most apparent to you in national or global tumult, a career pivot you’re contemplating, or relationship dynamics you’re struggling to tweak or adapt to.
However it shows up, you can count on the rug continuing to shift beneath your feet. And your brain really doesn’t like that, at least by default. In its frenzy to find stability today, it will leap to ways of thinking and behaving that will leave you feeling even more stuck, stifled, and afraid tomorrow. Yet, if you are inclined toward personal growth, you can use the tidal forces of change to propel you to ever-greater wisdom, inner stability, and even growth.
LEARN MORE & REGISTER

Seymour Center Homeschool Day: Spectacular Science
2026-10-30 10:00 - 12:30 | Seymour Marine Discovery Center, 100 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060
Calling all homeschool families! Join the Seymour Center on Friday, October 30, at 10 a.m. for a morning of hands-on science investigations, aquarium feeds, a scavenger hunt, and lots more.
• Enjoy hands-on science investigations, crafts, and a scavenger hunt.
• Make an enormous whale skeleton appear in front of your eyes, then walk inside it with our special virtual reality experience.
• Touch live bat stars and crabs, and learn about bone-eating zombie worms and hagfish.
• Marvel at Ms. Blue, a massive blue whale skeleton, and discover how science and engineering innovations helped us restore this beloved Santa Cruz icon.
Admission fees apply. Special activities are included at no additional cost.
RSVP here by October 15 to receive details and activities.

23rd Annual Graduate Research Symposium
2026-11-06 13:00 - 17:00 | Physical Sciences Building, Physical Sciences Building, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
This event celebrates and highlights the work of UCSC graduate students in all academic divisions. Any enrolled graduate student is welcome to present either a poster, talk, or mixed media presentation. The event is free and open to the public.

Social Justice in Climate Finance Symposium
2026-12-04 08:00 - 18:00 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
December 4, 2026 at UC Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley Campus
The Social Justice in Climate Finance Symposium brings together global communities within and beyond academia to envision how to mobilize climate financing for the benefit of frontline communities. To meet our collective climate challenges, we must reimagine how billions of dollars are invested into building resilient societies. We welcome climate and environmental justice leaders across sectors to propose their priorities and approaches for inclusive climate investments from public, private, and individual sources. The goal of the symposium is to identify pathways for adaptation and mitigation funding to protect and empower those experiencing the most acute climate impacts by aligning investment strategies with academic approaches and governmental policies, while centering community voices.
The in-person, one-day symposium will include two keynote addresses from our community keynote speaker, Silvia Paz, Founder and Executive Director, Alianza Coachella Valley, and Dave Jones, former California Insurance Commissioner.
We will also feature presenters, including local and global leaders from CBOs, Environmental Justice (EJ) and Climate Justice (CJ) practitioners, policymakers, and academics.
Participation will be limited to 50 people to ensure a meaningful discussion as a large group. Apply to attend or to host a breakout room discussion.
Visit our website to learn more
Sponsored by University of California Santa Cruz: Center for Analytical Finance (CAFIN), Institute for Social Transformation, Center for Coastal Climate Resilience, and Center for Reimagining Leadership.

Summer Live in the Schedule of Classes
2027-03-15 00:00 - 23:59
The Summer Session Schedule of Classes goes live today. Explore course descriptions, prerequisites, and meeting times to start planning early for summer enrollment. Email summer@ucsc.edu with questions or call 831-459-5373.
