Events

Kickstart your Internship Search
2025-09-16 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | CA
Are you looking to land an internship for the Summer of 2026? Believe it or not, now is the time to start preparing! Join us for a practical webinar designed to help you kick start your search with confidence.
Whether you’re gearing up for your first application cycle or looking for new tips, this session will walk you through the essential first steps:

Building a strong resume
Where to look
How to apply

You’ll come away with insider tips on what employers are really looking for, how to leverage your existing skills and projects, and where to focus your energy to be as efficient as possible in this process.
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.

Mental Health First Aid Certification
2025-09-16 10:00 | CA
Be prepared to support those around you by getting certified in Mental Health First Aid. Mental Health First Aid teaches the skills needed to recognize and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges, as well as how to provide someone with initial support until they are connected with appropriate professional help. In the course, you learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies to help someone in crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help.
We encourage all staff and faculty to take advantage of this opportunity. Whether you work directly with students or behind the scenes, your participation in MHFA training is a crucial step in building a resilient and supportive campus community.
To register, please fill out the registration link.
For more information, please visit the Occupational Health Training website.
For questions or to schedule a training for your team, please contact Occupational Health Specialist, Elizabeth Tomlinson, at ektomlin@ucsc.edu.

Communicating Climate Solutions Symposium
2025-09-15 17:00 | Seymour Marine Discovery Center, 100 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060
Timely, effective and culturally appropriate communication is needed to encourage development and adoption of sustainable climate actions that mitigate the impacts of climate change. Toward this effort, our symposium will bring together journalists, researchers, community leaders, local officials and politicians to identify opportunities and best practices for developing and communicating climate change solutions with diverse communities. Our goal is to build networks, share knowledge, and broaden opportunities for effective climate solution communication through a California lens. This event is free for students but space is limited.
Hosted by the UCSC Science Communication Program and the UCSC Center for Coastal Climate Resilience

Lei, K. (CM) - Designing for meaningful large-scale online communication, connection, and collective insight
2025-09-15 14:30 | CA
Digital technologies have made large-scale online interaction a central part of how people communicate, connect, and work together. Yet scaling often comes at the cost of depth, and interactions can become superficial and chaotic, drifting away from the richer interactional contexts of small-scale or in-person settings that support trust and meaningful exchange, and that make it possible for participants to respond to and build constructively on one another’s ideas. Although recent advances such as large language models have opened new possibilities for shaping online interaction, there has been relatively little exploration of how to design interaction mechanisms that take advantage of large-scale engagement while fostering interactions that are engaged, authentic, connected, and generative.
In this dissertation, I explore how large-scale online systems can be designed to support engaged and meaningful interaction at scale from three distinct angles: 1) creating few-to-many conversation structures that enable broad participation while maintaining coherence and a high level of engagement; 2) fostering authentic self-expression in ways that build connection; and 3) designing mechanisms that allow participants to interpret and constructively build on one another’s contributions to generate collective insight. I begin by designing a chat-based interface that organizes conversations through multi-person conversational units, enabling one or a few mentors to effectively mentor a large-group of students. I then examine how to design a gratitude-focused online community that supports authentic and positive expressions of gratitude, cultivating positive cycles of reflection and connection. Finally, I introduce a large language model–powered survey platform that blends qualitative depth, quantitative structure, and collaborative interaction, enabling respondents to engage with and build on each other’s ideas while providing survey creators with richer and more interpretable results. My work demonstrates how technological affordances and large-scale participation can be combined to create interaction mechanisms that support the move from isolated contributions toward shared understanding, offering unique forms of engagement that small-scale or in-person settings cannot provide.
Event Host: Kehua Lei, Ph.D. Candidate, Computational Media
Advisor: David Lee

Van Duker, N. (AM) - A Random Choice Hybrid Method for Resolving Shock Placement Errors in 1D Relativistic Hydrodynamics with Transverse Velocities
2025-09-15 10:00 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
This report presents a one-dimensional Random Choice-based hybrid method for simulating special relativistic hydrodynamics (SRHD) flow problems. The proposed scheme combines a high-order accurate method and a random choice method, selectively applying the first to smooth flows and the second to shocks and discontinuities. This hybrid approach addresses the issue of incorrect wave placements in the presence of significant transverse velocity, commonly encountered in one-dimensional SRHD shock tube tests. In support of this development, we present a modified shock/contact detection switch, specifically tuned for relativistic flows. We find that our method improves both the accuracy and computational performance when compared against existing methods on a well-known family of pathological shock tube problems. Our analysis of these pathological problems provides a path forward for further improving existing higher-dimensional methods.
Event Host: Nathan Van Duker, Ph.D Student, Applied Mathematics
Advisor: Dongwook Lee

Get Certified in CPR, First Aid, and AED!
2025-09-12 12:00 | Scotts Valley Center
This Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED blended learning course equips you to recognize and care for various first aid breathing and cardiac emergencies involving adults, children, and infants. It is designed for individuals who need a certification that satisfies OSHA workplace or other regulatory requirements.
This class is taught in a blended learning format and the online portion must be completed before attending the Instructor-led skills session. A valid 2-year digital certificate for Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED is issued upon completion.
This training will be held on-site at the Scotts Valley Center. To register, please fill out the registration link.
For more information, please visit the Occupational Health Training website.
For questions or to schedule a training for your team, please contact Occupational Health Specialist, Elizabeth Tomlinson, at ektomlin@ucsc.edu.

Lydon, S. (SciCAM) - Magnetic Buoyancy Instabilities in Deep, Twisted Magnetic Layers
2025-09-12 11:00 | CA
In observing the solar magnetic field, possibly the most prominent features visible on the surface are sunspots, which emerge at different latitudes as the solar cycle progresses. Sunspot pairs are believed to be formed by concentrated bundles of mainly toroidal magnetic field (flux tubes) looping through the surface. These regions exhibit surprisingly ordered patterns of behavior such as the Hale's Polarity Law, Joy’s Law, and the Solar Hemispherical Helicity Rule (SHHR). The latter states that emerging flux in the Northern hemisphere generally has left-handed current helicity, whereas the Southern hemisphere has right handed. While there is magnetic field at all scales on the sun, the origins of these active regions and the connection between large-scale dynamo generated fields and active region scales is a long standing and difficult question. The flux tubes that form sunspots most likely originate from magnetic buoyancy instabilities that occur in the solar tachocline and then subsequently rise through the convective zone. Although there are many theories of the origin of the SHHR, the helicity content in the emerging flux is often claimed to be a direct result of the helicity (or angulation) in the originating dynamo field.
Magnetic buoyancy instabilities and their non-linear evolution have been studied and simulated by others in 2D and 3D, generally using magnetic slabs that possess infinite gradients at their interfaces, which guarantees that said instability occurs. In this work, we extend these ideas, allowing the initial conditions to have a gently varying interface between magnetic and non-magnetic layers with variable width (while still satisfying criteria to initiate the instability). We look for differences in the evolution of the instabilities in this new scenario. This setup allows us to then add a horizontal poloidal field component to the previous horizontal toroidal component, thereby creating a horizontal field that varies in direction over the depth of the magnetic interface. We study the instabilities of this setup and examine the emerging flux tubes for any resultant helicity in order to explore the relationship between helicity in emerging magnetic structures and that in the originating field.
Overall, we found that when the magnetic interface was wider, the instability proceeded in a distinctly different fashion depending on the particular aspects of the originating layer. In our setup, the fluid generally went unstable lower down in the transition layer and created different geometries of the magnetic structures and secondary instabilities due, at least in part to, the stronger buoyancy forces deeper in the layer and to the necessity of deformation of overlaying field. The instabilities are rapid and mix efficiently, reaching a stable end-state much faster in the deep layer cases than the shallow layer version.
Furthermore, when adding twist to the originating fields, we found that the resultant helicity in the emerging magnetic structures does indeed depend on the initial profile of the field. In general, a dominant outer helical layer of the flux tube is found, the chirality of which is directly dependent on the angle of poloidal and toroidal field at the point of maximum instability in the layer, even if the structure rose through field of the opposite angulation.
Event Host: Sean Lydon, M.S. Candidate, Scientific Computing & Applied Mathematics
Advisor: Nicholas Brummell

California Earthworkers Summit
2025-09-11 16:30 | CA
The California Earthworkers Summit (CES) is a statewide gathering that brings together earthworkers to build regenerative futures through land-based collaboration, education, and innovation.
Through keynote sessions, panels, hands-on workshops, youth programming, and healing spaces, CES creates space for intergenerational learning, community care, and cross-sector exchange rooted in earth stewardship.
All are welcome and encouraged to attend—whether you're a gardener, artist, herbalist, teacher, student, community member, healer, entrepreneur, data analyst, water/air/fire/land steward, cowboy/cowgirl, horseperson, rancher, or beyond. Your role in shaping the future of our planet matters.
Dates: September 11–12, 2025
Location: UC Santa Cruz
Registration is required — visit www.earthworkerssummit.org to reserve your spot.
️ Hurry! Tickets are limited.
Follow us on Instagram: @EarthworkersSummit for updates, speaker announcements, and more!

Mavrogiannakis, A. (CSE) - Scalable Oblivious Databases and Systems
2025-09-10 14:00 | Engineering 2, Engineering 2 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
Modern applications are increasingly designed with a strong emphasis on scalability and performance, as systems are expected to process ever-growing volumes of data and deliver results with minimal latency. Techniques such as distributed architectures, in-memory computation, and optimized data structures are routinely adopted to meet these performance-driven demands. However, in the pursuit of speed and efficiency, security is often treated as a secondary concern or an afterthought. This oversight can lead to critical vulnerabilities, as even the most performant systems remain fundamentally insecure if sensitive information can be leaked or exploited. As data becomes more valuable and privacy regulations grow stricter, ensuring robust security measures is not merely desirable but strictly necessary—an essential requirement that must stand alongside scalability and performance as a first-class design goal.
To meet security requirements, many applications adopt end-to-end encryption to protect data stored in the cloud. While this prevents external adversaries from accessing sensitive information, prior work [CITE] has demonstrated that encryption alone is insufficient: an untrusted server can still exploit execution patterns and access behaviors to gradually reconstruct the underlying database in plaintext. As an alternative, other applications rely on Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), which offer strong guarantees through memory encryption, isolation, and integrity checks. TEEs are particularly appealing due to their ease of use and high performance, often approaching that of non-encrypted systems. However, TEEs are not without limitations [CITE]. They remain vulnerable to leakage-abuse attacks and side-channel vulnerabilities [CITE], which can undermine their security guarantees in practice.
In my research, I combine TEEs with oblivious computation to achieve stronger security guarantees without sacrificing practicality. Specifically, my work focuses on designing, analyzing, and implementing oblivious algorithms for databases and systems. A central theme of my research is bridging the gap between security and performance, developing scalable algorithms that approach the efficiency of plaintext execution. For example, in our first project, Obliviator (to appear at USENIX Security ’25), we introduced oblivious implementations of fundamental database operators—such as filtering, aggregation, and joins—in a shared-memory setting, achieving efficiency at scale on datasets up to hundreds of gigabytes. Building on this foundation, our subsequent work extends these operators to distributed environments, addressing challenges such as secure execution under weaker trust assumptions and reducing communication overhead, both in terms of rounds and data exchanged. We also introduced frameworks that enable parallelism in oblivious computation, further enhancing performance. My current work focuses on extending these techniques to multi-way joins, where combining multiple tables introduces new challenges in both efficiency and security. In parallel, I am exploring query optimization strategies tailored to the oblivious setting, with the goal of pushing oblivious database systems closer to the performance of traditional plaintext systems.
Event Host: Apostolos Mavrogiannakis, Ph.D Student, Computer Science & Engineering

Research Lunch & Learn - Budgeting and Budget Management 101
2025-09-10 12:00 | CA
Comprehensive, timely, and accurate financial management is foundational for effective research portfolio support and decision-making. In this session, Office of Research and divisional experts will focus on ways to identify commonly missed budget items and how to better track variances from the budget. Join Jen Huber, OR Senior Research Accountant, Melissa DiOrio, Manager of Proposal Administration, and a divisional research accountant on September 10, 12-1 p.m., for a discussion about projection sandboxes that can be shared with PIs, as well as PI-centered ways to discuss spending.

Doganyigit, K. (BMEB) - Reimagining the petri dish, automated incubator-free organoid culture system for long term organoid maintenance and disease modeling
2025-09-10 11:00 | CA
Organoids offer strong in vitro models for studying development and disease; however, traditional incubator-based culture methods hinder environmental regulation, elevate evaporation rates, and limit imaging and instrumentation access—restricting their effectiveness for prolonged, physiologically relevant research. To address these challenges, we created a compact, automated culture system that eliminates the need for an incubator by integrating microfluidic recirculation with gas exchange inspired by artificial lungs in intensive care medicine. The system employs a fluid impermeable gas-exchange membrane along with an aqueous buffer to passively stabilize oxygen, pH, and osmolarity. Automated media transfer and integrated sensing enable consistent, multi-week live imaging and accurate environmental control.

The First Aim of this proposal addresses the creation and execution of this organoid culture platform that does not require an incubator. In Aim 2, I validate the system utilizing mouse cerebral cortex organoids grown in the system, evaluating metabolic viability, tissue structure, and electrophysiological activity in comparison to shaker-incubator controls. I will also employ RNA sequencing to further analyze cell-type composition and transcriptional stress profiles. In Aim 3, I will modify the platform to simulate the prenatal stroke penumbra by incorporating spatially localized hypoxia and hypoglycemia through pressure-modulated perfusion. Combining real-time hypoxia imaging with transcriptomic analysis to facilitate investigation of ischemic damage and recovery within a regulated organoid model. Overall, this research seeks to create a flexible, and physiologically appropriate culture system that enhances experimental access and facilitates a better environment for new models of organoid development and disease research.
Event Host: Kivilcim Doganyigit, Ph.D Student, Biomolecular Engineering & Bioinformatics
Advisor: David Haussler

Professional Certificates for International Students
2025-09-10 08:00 | CA
Interested in a professional certificate at UCSC Silicon Valley Extension?
A professional certificate is a fantastic way to develop your career, learn from industry experts, and experience Silicon Valley. We offer numerous exciting programs in technology and business.
Visit our International site for more information.
Prospective international students
Please click here to schedule an online meeting with an advisor.

Mondays, 5-7 p.m. (PT)
Wednesdays, 8–10 a.m. (PT)

Current international students
Already studying with us? Please email us: extensioninternational@ucsc.edu to meet with an international advisor in person or online.
Call: +1 (408) 450-4945 | extensioninternational@ucsc.edu

AI Business Practices Fall Info Session
2025-09-09 18:00 | CA
Practical AI for workplace automation
Discover how nontechnical professionals can harness the power of AI in everyday work. Join program chair Hien Luu for an inside look at AI Business Practices—a hands-on specialization designed to help you boost efficiency with free, easy-to-use AI tools and smart prompt strategies.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Learn how to streamline tasks like presentations, reports, and project planning while gaining practical skills in prompt engineering, AI agent setup, and ethical AI use. This program is built for real-world impact—no coding required.
This fall info session is sponsored by the AI Business Practices Specialization.

Transfer Scholars Pathways (TSP) Majors and Career Exploration
2025-09-09 14:00 | CA
During this event, participants will have the opportunity to connect with academic advisors, faculty, and peer advisors to discuss:

major requirements
tips on how to smoothly transfer into the respective major
various career pathways alumni from their department have pursued

Managing Your Time and Increasing Your Productivity Webinar
2025-09-09 12:00 | CA
It seems we always have too much to do at work in too little time. Join us as we explore innovative approaches to thinking and operating, while also engaging with proven best practices in time management and productivity. You’ll come away from this knowing how to prioritize competing tasks, minimize interruptions, communicate boundaries to colleagues, and maintain your sanity. Be ready to share your winning strategies with others and learn new ones in this fast-paced, practical course.
About the Speaker:
Holly Hoeksema is a Career Engagement Specialist at UC Santa Cruz and the Owner of Ignite Consulting. With over 25 years of experience in leadership development, team building, and executive coaching, she has guided thousands nationwide—from extensive training sessions to one-on-one coaching—in helping them find their “why” to ignite purpose and excellence. Certified in life coaching, course management, and servant leadership, Holly is also skilled in personality assessments and vocational tools. Her background as a culinary instructor and wellness advisor adds a unique lens rooted in plant-based nutrition and holistic growth.

Narcan Training for Faculty and Staff
2025-09-09 10:00 | CA
Narcan is a life-saving opioid overdose reversal drug. Join us in this workshop as we learn the following:

How to use Narcan

When to use Narcan

Narcan FAQs

Where to find Narcan locally

To register, click on the following registration link.
To learn more, please visit the Narcan wellness initiative webpage.

September Slugs and Steins with Professor Javier González-Rocha
2025-09-08 18:30 | CA
How can flying robots help us track the air we breathe—and the pollutants we can't see? In this talk, I’ll share how our team uses aerial robotic systems—commonly known as drones—to measure wind patterns and detect airborne pollutants in places that are hard to reach with traditional monitoring equipment. These systems are helping us better understand how toxic and climate pollutants move through the atmosphere, and how they affect both human health and the environment.
From wildfire smoke drifting across communities to methane leaks from dairy farms and oil fields, these emissions are often poorly monitored—especially in rural or overburdened areas. Our low-cost, adaptable drone systems offer a new way to fill that gap. By combining real-time flight data, environmental sensors, and advanced modeling, we can generate targeted, on-demand measurements that inform air quality assessments and improve emissions tracking.
This work sits at the intersection of engineering, environmental science, and community collaboration—with the goal of building tools that empower people and support climate resilience from the ground up.

Silicon Chip Design & Semiconductor Engineering– Free info session
2025-09-08 17:00 | CA
Design the Future of Semiconductors with Arvind Vidyarthi
Curious about where a career in chip design can take you? Join Program Chair Arvind Vidyarthi for an inside look at our Silicon Chip Design & Semiconductor Engineering certificate—a program built for engineers who want to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving industry.
Whether you're drawn to Front-End logic and verification or the Back-End world of physical design, this program offers hands-on training with industry-standard EDA tools and a curriculum shaped by real Silicon Valley demand. Get the skills employers are looking for—and the confidence to step into your next big opportunity.
Hosted by the Silicon Chip Design and Semiconductor Engineering Program at UCSC Silicon Valley Extension.

19th Conference on Neurosymbolic Learning and Reasoning (NeSy 2025)
2025-09-08 09:30 | Jack Baskin Auditorium, 191 Baskin Cir, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The NeSy series is the longest standing gathering for the presentation and discussion of cutting-edge research in neurosymbolic AI. NeSy is the annual meeting of the Neurosymbolic Learning and Reasoning Association, which has organised NeSy since 2005, back then as a workshop.

Farm to Fork Benefit Dinner
2025-09-06 16:00 | UCSC Farm, 152 Farm Rd, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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 four-course, family-style dinner on the farm provided by Feel Good Foods. As the sun sets, head down to the Hay Barn for music, dancing, and dessert.
Want to skip dinner and join us for dancing and dessert in the Hay Barn only? Tickets for the barn dance portion only are available for $30.
Wine and beer provided by local winemakers and breweries. Vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options will be available.
The evening’s program:
4:00pm: Reception and farm tours followed by dinner
7:00pm: Dancing in th﻿e Hay Barn

Using AI in UX: Explore the latest tools
2025-09-05 18:00 | CA
Creating the Experience: UX, AI, and Responsive Design
Join us for a dynamic UX info session that blends creativity, technology, and collaboration. Discover how UX and AI work together, explore the principles of user-centered design, and see how advanced CSS brings responsive, visually stunning interfaces to life.
We’ll highlight 3 engaging courses

Collaborative Design: Enhancing UX with AI
an introduction to tools like Figma and Miro in agile team settings
User Experience Design Fundamentals
a look at design thinking and strategies for creating impactful products
Designing with Cascading Style Sheets, Advanced
showcasing techniques for sleek, mobile-ready websites.

Whether you’re exploring UX for the first time or expanding your knowledge, this event will spark new ideas and possibilities.
This virtual info session series event is sponsored by the User Experience and Web Design Certificate program at UCSC Silicon Valley Extension.

Marketing Management Info Session
2025-09-04 18:00 | CA
Customer-Driven Marketing: Build the Skills Today’s Marketers Need
In a world where buyers expect personalization, speed, and relevance, staying ahead means mastering modern, AI-enhanced marketing strategies. Explore how UCSC Silicon Valley’s Marketing Management certificate helps you align marketing and sales, harness the power of social selling, and launch data-driven, multi-channel campaigns that truly connect with your audience.
Shape Your Career, Your Way
With electives in digital marketing and strategy, you can tailor your learning to sharpen skills in campaign execution, data analysis, and brand communication. Discover how to integrate cutting-edge tools and programmatic approaches to increase your marketing impact in an ever-evolving landscape.
Marketing Management program chair Ly Pham, a seasoned marketing executive with deep insight into what today’s professionals need to succeed will lead this fall info session.

Human Resource Management Info Session
2025-09-03 18:00 | CA
Build Stronger Teams and a Smarter HR Strategy

What does it take to grow and lead high-performing teams in today’s AI-enhanced workplace? Hear from Philip Ziman, chair of the Human Resource Management certificate program at UCSC Silicon Valley Extension. Learn about the practical, people-focused program designed for current and aspiring HR professionals.
Topics

Connect HR strategy with business outcomes
Use people analytics to inform decision-making
Sharpen your skills in talent acquisition, leadership development, and employee engagement.

Earn HRCI and SHRM recertification credit + PDUs in a program that is both career-ready and future-focused.
This fall info session is hosted by the at UCSC Silicon Valley Extension.

What to Expect as a Science Student in Your First Year
2025-09-03 17:00 | CA
This comprehensive session covers what you need to know to feel prepared for your first year in the sciences. We’ll explore course formats (lectures, labs, tutorials), academic expectations, time management strategies, and support systems. Learn how to navigate challenges and make the most of your university experience, both inside and outside the classroom. To receive a Zoom link, register here.

Seminar Featuring Dr. Robert Blasiak, Sept 3 at 11 am
2025-09-03 11:00 | Coastal Biology Building, 130 McAllister Way, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060
Please join us for a special seminar with Dr. Robert Blasiak on Wednesday, Sept 3 at 11 am. Dr. Blasiak is an Associate Professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University. The seminar will be held in person at CBB Rm 110 and on Zoom (details below).
Talk Title:
The peacebuilding potential of international ocean science cooperation
Abstract:
A historical perspective provides a rich catalogue of examples of ocean science collaboration flourishing even in parts of the world facing a perfect storm of geopolitical tensions, overlapping and rapidly expanding ocean uses, unresolved maritime boundaries, and outright conflict. How do these collaborations emerge? How do they persist? And how can we understand their capacity to mitigate conflict? This talk will draw on environmental peacebuilding literature to suggest that such collaborations are a meaningful contribution to a more peaceful world, and will open into a discussion of how to build and foster collaboration in a polarized world.
To join by Zoom, please register here: https://ucsc.zoom.us/meeting/register/fQ8g_axCRX6gff7DUtP3aA

Community Day: Free Admission at the Arboretum
2025-09-02 09:00 - 17:00 | Arboretum, 122 Arboretum Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
The first Tuesday of each month, the Arboretum is open without charge to visitors. See dates and times UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden is open. NOTE: Due to limited parking at the Arboretum and the popularity of Community Day, we greatly encourage visitors to carpool, bike, walk or use public transportation as much as possible.

[SOLD OUT] Avocado Production Workshop: From Planting to Harvest
2025-08-30 10:00 | CA
Join us for a workshop focused on successfully growing avocados in the greater Santa Cruz area. We'll cover the particulars of avocado care, with an emphasis on variety selection for the Central Coast, A-B flowering types, pollination demystification, soils and site selection, irrigation, fertilizers, pruning, and seasonal care. There will also be a troubleshooting / Q&A segment to provide all levels of the avocado-obsessed with the information necessary to set you on your way toward monstrous avocado harvests, as well as a seasonal tasting of around a half dozen varieties to help find which variety might be perfect for you.

AI Workshop: Model Context Protocol
2025-08-29 10:00 | Silicon Valley Campus, 3175 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara, CA, 95054, United States
Welcome to our immersive AI technology workshop series. During these sessions you will be introduced to new and established AI tools that will help you create and manipulate content in new and powerful ways. Each session is led by an industry expert who will guide you through the material and share its real-world implications.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this hybrid-style workshop, you'll be able to:

Explain the core principles and motivations behind the Model Context Protocol (MCP), including its role in AI Agentic system communication and AI model integration.
Identify the structure and components of an MCP message and understand how context is preserved and passed across tasks or AI agents.
Implement simple MCP interactions in a controlled setting using real-world tools and libraries.
Evaluate the strengths and limitations of MCP in current AI Agentic system architectures, including scalability and interoperability.

Topics Include

MCP Basics: What is Model Context Protocol and why does it matter in AI pipelines and agent interoperability?
Message Anatomy: Structure, metadata, tokens, and temporal context.
Live Demo: Walking through an MCP message lifecycle-create, modify, pass, and interpret.
Hands-On Lab: Building a mini MCP-based interaction (e.g., agent-to-agent communication or contextual memory pass).
Challenges & Use Cases: Real-world applications, common pitfalls, and current limitations.

Prerequisites: Knowledge of LLM and AI Agents.
Note: Please bring a laptop and have Google, GitHub and Hugging Face accounts to participate in hands-on exercises.

Data Science and Data Analytics – Fall Info Session
2025-08-28 18:00 | CA
Master Data with Instructor Partha Padmanabhan
Join us for a conversation with Partha Padmanabhan, Chair of our Data Science and Data Analytics programs, and discover how our DSDA certificate is built to help professionals translate data into smart, strategic business decisions. Get an inside look at the tools, techniques, and real-world AI applications shaping today's fast-moving analytics landscape.
Choose Your Path: Science or Engineering
Whether you're analyzing data or building the systems behind it, you can specialize in Data Science or Data Engineering and earn a digital badge. This program prepares analysts, scientists, and IT professionals to thrive in a data-driven world.
Speaker
Meet Parthasarathy Padmanabhan, M.B.A., principal software engineer at one of Silicon Valley’s leading technology companies, and get your questions answered. Parthasarathy brings more than 25 years of experience in information technology to his role and has worked in data modeling for more than 10 years. He teaches "Data Analysis" and "Business Intelligence Solutions," and began serving as chair of the Data Science and Data Analytics Advisory Board in 2020.
This fall info session is sponsored by the Data Science and Data Analytics Program.

Networking Tools for Your Career
2025-08-28 17:30 | CA
Learn how to grow your professional connections using the UCSC Silicon Valley Extension LinkedIn Alumni Tool. In this interactive session, you’ll discover smart strategies for expanding your network, reaching out with confidence, and asking for informational interviews that lead to real insights—and real opportunities.
This session is open exclusively to UCSC and UCSC Extension students.
Learn more career tips.
