Registration now open for the 17th annual Graduate Research Symposium

The Division of Graduate Studies is now accepting graduate student registration for the 17th annual UC Santa Cruz Graduate Research Symposium. Registration is on a first-come basis. There is no selection process but a limit (100) to number of presenters, so register early!

For complete information about the Graduate Research Symposium, click here.
For video recording and other instructions, click here.
For the judging rubric, click here.

Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and campus shutdown, this year’s symposium, like last year’s, will be virtual. Unlike last year’s, however, this year graduate student participants will record their presentations. These will be available on the Division of Graduate Studies YouTube channel and/or will livestream throughout Alumni Week, April 19-24.

DEADLINE to Submit Online Registration and upload your presentation video file to your personal UCSC Google Drive symposium folder:

Friday, APRIL 16, 2021, 5:00:00 p.m. Pacific Time

You may register prior to recording and uploading your presentation video.

The judging period will be April 17-22. VPDGS Quentin Williams will announce the winners via Zoom webinar:

Friday, April 23, 2021
4:00 to 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time


Recording your presentation gives great flexibility. You may opt for any visual aid accompaniment, such as slides, taking the audience through a poster, showing a video clip or game snippet, and so on. You may opt to have no visual aid accompaniment and give a speaking presentation only. If you opt to include visual aid accompaniment, be sure to make the visual aid screen time supplemental (not more than 50%) compared to your appearance in the video. Because of the remote and virtual nature of the symposium, the Graduate Division recommends you prepare a video with you as the sole presenter. If you want to have co-presenters (one to three), please contact Sonya Newlyn (snewlyn@ucsc.edu) to discuss.

  • The time limit for the video is five minutes.
  • Do not add a title screen to your video. ITS-Learning Technologies will add uniform title screens to all videos with presenter names, programs, and presentation titles.
  • Do not start a slide presentation with a title slide, as this information will appear on the title screen of your video.
  • Do not begin your presentation talk by introducing yourself, as this information will appear on the title screen of your video. Start immediately with your presentation content.

Registration is limited to 100 presenters.

Only one presentation is permitted per presenter. Presenters must be enrolled UC Santa Cruz graduate students to present at the Graduate Research Symposium.