Audience: Prospective Students
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Mavrogiannakis, A. (CSE) – Scalable Oblivious Databases and Systems
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…
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Rakshit, G. (CSE) -Improving Question Answering through Figurativeness Understanding, Semantic Representation and Multi-Agent Conflict Resolution
Open-domain question answering (ODQA) systems come with diverse challenges — ranging from resolving conflicting information to interpreting figurative expressions and representing meaning in a human-understandable form. This dissertation presents three complementary contributions toward building more robust and interpretable QA systems. First, we investigate QA model performance on figurative language. Introducing FigurativeQA, a benchmark of yes/no…
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Honoring Patrick Orozco Luncheon
Amah-Ka-Tura: “People of the Land” We gather in recognition of Amah-Ka-Tura, a symbol of the enduring legacy and successful efforts of Patrick Orozco and the Pajaro Valley Ohlone Indian Council. Today, we honor Patrick’s unwavering commitment to protecting the sacred lands along Lee Road, a site of deep cultural and spiritual significance. This event marks…
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Silicon Valley – Building a Sustainable Talent Acquisition Function and Strategy
Join Extension partner, the National Human Resources Association, as they explore how to build a talent acquisition function grounded in capacity, capability, and technology, with a focus on how AI can serve as a complement to the recruiter’s role rather than a replacement. The session will also cover how to build and equip a talent…
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Fall Harvest Welcome
Join the American Indian Resource Center, People of Color Sustainability Collective, UCSC Agroecology, and the Sustainability Office for a day of fun at the Farm Center! This Fall Harvest Welcome will be all about community building, learning about flora/fauna indigenous to Santa Cruz County, Native storytelling, and will feature a land blessing.
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Shanks, C. (BMEB) – Development and Application of Local Ancestry Methods for Population Genomics
Local ancestry methods classify the segments of DNA inherited from a specific ancestry (e.g., African, East Asian, European), improving analyses of admixed populations. Aim 1 applies ancestry-specific analysis to more than 1000 whole genome sequences across Polynesia, revealing strong bottlenecks in the voyagers who settled both Hawaiʻi and Rapa Nui, and confirming frequencies of Mendelian…
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PMI Silicon Valley Symposium
Project managers today are navigating more change than ever—new technologies, evolving teams, and rising complexity. To lead effectively, PMs must blend emotional intelligence with digital fluency, balancing human connection with AI-driven insights. Join UCSC Silicon Valley partner, the Project Management Institute Silicon Valley Chapter (PMISV), at this year’s symposium as industry leaders explore how modern…
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Hawthorne, N. (ECE) – An Out-of-the-Incubator Platform for Fluorescent Neural Monitoring and Stimulation Experiments
Live-cell fluorescence microscopy enables high-resolution, non-invasive imaging and optical stimulation of biological processes, yet existing systems are often prohibitively expensive, mechanically complex, and poorly suited for wide field-of-view, high-speed, multi-channel experiments—particularly those involving optogenetics. To address these limitations, I developed a low-cost, modular fluorescence microscope constructed from 3D-printed mechanical components and off-the-shelf optics. I also…
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Leavitt, J. (BMEB) – Evolutionary Dynamics, Functional Adaptations in Stress Response, and Direct Detection of tRNA modifications in Archaea
Transfer RNA (tRNA) modifications are essential for structural integrity, decoding fidelity, and stress adaptation, yet their dynamics across phylogenetically distinct archaeal species and their functional roles during stress remain incompletely understood. This dissertation aims to address some of these gaps through a multi-scale investigation that spans the evolutionary dynamics, stress-responsive functions, and direct detection of…
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Fundraiser: Film Screening of “The Last Class”
The UC Santa Cruz Education Department is hosting a screening of the film “The Last Class” at the Del Mar on September 30th. The Last Class documents Robert Reich’s last time teaching his UC Berkeley class on wealth and poverty and has been called Reich’s “love letter to education.” This is currently the only local…