Newsletter for 10/18/2020

New Announcements

Announcements

*PLEASE NOTE THE UPCOMING UNIVERSITY DEADLINES*

Please note the following upcoming university deadlines, and ALWAYS check the Academic and Administrative Calendar for important dates and deadlines. Bookmark this year's Academic and Administrative Calendar and refer to it regularly.

Wednesday, October 21st Deadline to Add/Drop/Swap Courses
This is your last day to add, drop and swap courses.  You will not be able to drop or withdraw from courses after this deadline has passed. If you are enrolled in a placeholder class, you MUST drop it by this deadline. More information on how to add, drop, and swap classes is available on the registrar website.

Wednesday, October 21st Grade Option
This is your last day to change your grading option for any courses you are enrolled in.

IMPORTANT: The system defaults to Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grading.  Instructions for how to change your grading option to letter grades (ABC) can be found here.

Thursday, November 12th Late Add with Fee Deadline

The Add by Petition form requires the signatures of both the instructor and the department adviser and needs to be submitted to the Office of the Registrar.

Resources for Remote/Online Teaching - For Graduate Students

STEM Scholarship and Fellowship Deadlines | PathwaysToScience.org

Although it may seem early, fellowship deadlines are right around the corner – with many deadlines in October and early November for funding for the 2021/2022 academic year. Below are links to our database of STEM funding opportunities.

Graduate fellowships and tips on applying: https://pathwaystoscience.org/Grad.aspx                                                                    

Video tutorial on how to use our advanced search page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKsAGk8dAw&t=16s

If you have questions, I’d be happy to help. Please email me at ldetrick@ibparticipation.org

Diversity in Technology Scholarship Programs Now Open | Cadence Design Systems

We are excited to announce the opening of several Cadence scholarship applications for the 2020-2021 academic year. In addition to our annual Cadence Women in Technology Scholarship, for the first time this year we are offering a Black Students in Technology Scholarship and a Latinx Students in Technology Scholarship. As part of our mission to foster a culture of diversity and inclusion, we're offering a $5,000 scholarship to students in each of these groups currently pursuing a bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, electronic engineering, or a closely related technical field.

Students should review each scholarship page and submit an application online by Thursday, November 5. Applicants should carefully read the Application Requirements and Questionnaire section before applying. Email the contacts listed on the page with any questions. Winners will be selected based on their academic merits, letters of recommendation, and passion for supporting diversity in technology. Share the scholarship pages today:

• Women in Technology Scholarship
• Black Students in Technology Scholarship
• Latinx Students in Technology Scholarship

STEM Solutions in Public Policy Award

UC Center Sacramento is pleased to announce the STEM Solutions in Public Policy Award.

This award will recognize one or more outstanding proposals for new California legislation from UC STEM graduate students. The winner(s) will receive $1,000 for research support and -- should their bill advance through the legislative process –travel expenses covering a trip to Sacramento to convene with Legislators and/or legislative staff.

Submissions will be accepted until midnight Pacific time on October 23^rd, 2020 and applicants will be notified of their status in March 2021. Further information is available at UCCS STEM Solutions or on the UCCS website (uccs.ucdavis.edu).

UCSC Career Success 2020-2021

Career Success is excited to announce our academic year plan! 

We are grouping events and support for students into six Industry Clusters! Our fairs, events and outreach will correlate to these groups:

• Arts, Entertainment, & Media
• Business & Financial Services
• Education, Legal & Human Services
• Environmental, Biotech & Life Sciences
• Health 
• Computer Science, Engineering & Information Management  

Banana slugs will be able to opt-in to a newsletter(s) pertaining to their area(s) of interest and will receive communication about upcoming events, job postings, and helpful resources! Stay tuned for the link to the newsletter sign up.

1. Fall Quarter Poster (summarizing our services for Fall) 
2. Academic Year Infographic (summarizing our services for the year) 

Students can access our upcoming events on the Career Success student event calendar or Handshake! We are excited to partner with Handshake to host our virtual career fairs. We will send students information on how to plan and prepare, but we will need your support in spreading the word. 

For students who need help with job applications, we are now offering written resume and cover letter feedback! Click here for more information: https://careers.ucsc.edu/student/coaching/drop-in-advising.html

If you are hosting a program related to career development and would like it to be featured in our weekly newsletter, please submit the information here.

Thank you. 

UCSC Career Success

Slug Support Pantry Fall Hours

Graduate students will have access during all the open hours. The Basic Needs team has designated grad only pantry hours specifically on Tuesdays 3:45 - 6:00 pm. Grads should enter via the patio so that we can keep the front door of the coffee shop closed to avoid other students trickling in. 
 

eBay's Machine Learning Competition for Students

For the second year, eBay is running a ML Challenge. The prize of the competition is an internship at eBay for the winning student or team.

The announcement attached describes the competition in more detail, but in a nutshell:

The question we invite you to address is how to identify two or more listings as being for the same product by putting them into the same group. We call this Purchase Level Equivalency (PLE). That is, if a buyer purchased two items from two different listings in a single group, they would assess that they had obtained two instances of the same product.

The competition started August 24. It is being hosted on EvalAI.

Please feel free to ask any questions. We have set up a mailbox dedicated to this competition at MLChallenge@ebay.com.

Global and Community Health Wellbeing Awards

The UCSC Division of Social Sciences Global and Community Health (GCH) Wellbeing Awards program enables undergraduate and graduate students to complete a research project that addresses Global and Community Health in collaboration with a community organization. The program is offered through the Institute for Social Transformation, who supports and facilitates the wellbeing awards. 

Global and Community Health constitutes an urgent area of research, study, and practice. Our interdisciplinary program prioritizes the improvement of health and well-being in communities worldwide. Building upon collaborations across departments, divisions and the community here in Santa Cruz, we seek to address forces affecting health outcomes that range from the molecular, ecological and genomic to the global, political and economic. Ultimately our goal is to support the sustainability of communities and climates for health both locally and globally, doing so in ways that cultivate a new generation of global and community health leaders.

Please, direct questions to Nancy Chen nchen@ucsc.edu or the Institute for Social Transformation at transform@ucsc.edu. 

Please visit this website for more information.

Deadline is October 30, 2020

Up to 10 awards of up to $1,000 each will be awarded.

Application:

Eligibility: Funding is offered to highly motivated undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled through Spring 2021 and in good standing at UC Santa Cruz. Funded students must participate in a public or virtual event highlighting their work. We encourage all students at UCSC to apply, but undergraduates in the Social Sciences will be prioritized. During COVID-19 restrictions all research projects will need to be conducted in a manner that is safe and consistent with current guidelines.

Award: Student awards are limited to a maximum of $1,000 for community-based research during the academic year 2020-21. If students are applying for a group project, the award will be shared amongst the group members. The award is paid as a fellowship to help cover expenses such as: mileage, food, research supplies, data collection, equipment, software, hardware, survey incentives, etc.

Information Workshop: An information session will be offered on Wednesday, October 14, 12-1 PM.

Events

Workshop: International Graduate Student Finances

Global Programming is teaming with SlugCents in presenting a special Financial Literacy workshop for international graduate students, on TUES October 20 at 7:00 PM (PDT) via Zoom.

This workshop will provide tips and tricks for forming a budget, and how to balance expenses while on a fellowship or TA-ship. 

_______

Workshop: International Graduate Student Finances

TUES October 20

7:00 - 8:00 PM (PDT)

Do you need help creating a budget or managing a limited amount of money over the course of the year? Victoria Lipscomb from SBS will teach you different strategies to manage your money during your time at UCSC. 

Register here to receive the Zoom link.

Jobs

Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Computer Science: San Francisco State University

San Francisco State University, Department of Computer Science offers an exciting opportunity for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position beginning August 2021. We seek a colleague whose teaching and research interests include Database/HCI/Distributed Computing; other areas will also be considered. We are especially interested in qualified candidates who can contribute, through their research, teaching, and/or service, through diversity, to the excellence of the academic community.

More information is available at:
 https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/17140

Samsung Semiconductor Inc. - VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE invitation

Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. would like to invite your students to our first series of Virtual Open House Info Sessions!

At these events, students will learn about Samsung Semiconductor's (SSI) Intern Program and the opportunities we have available for summer 2021. The events focus around five different functional areas and each day, we will feature a speaker from one of our R&D labs. At SSI, students have the opportunity to work with the teams that create new computing system architectures needed to support emerging machine learning applications, internet of things (IoT) and edge computing that benefit millions of users. Our program will give students the opportunity to work on unique solutions that address some of the world’s most complex technological challenges.

Below is the full event schedule, we encourage you to share this invite.

Website: careers.samsungatfirst.com/students/

*All attendees must register through the Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. employer page on Handshake.*

Pixar Studio Support Engineer, RenderMan

As a member of the RenderMan team, you’ll be part of a team of people contributing to the development and support of Pixar’s industry-leading rendering software. A Studio Support Engineer has the specific goal of providing front-line support for users of RenderMan at Pixar. In that role, you’ll directly help Pixar’s artists, making it possible for them to achieve new looks and deliver outstanding content by providing fixes, features, and information about how to get the most out of RenderMan. The feedback you collect will directly help improve the RenderMan product for all users.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Investigating, triaging, and resolving RenderMan issues reported by Pixar's artistic or technical teams
• Investigating, describing, and estimating work for feature requests from movies in production
• Communicating with production and technical teams within the studio about their needs, and answering questions about how RenderMan works
• Implementing and testing fixes and new features in RenderMan for studio use, and collaborating with other engineers to improve the product
• Organizing and releasing new internal builds of RenderMan
• Providing periodic presentations on new or changed RenderMan features
• Training users in system operation and application use
• Producing documentation for use either in training sessions or for standalone use

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience writing software in high-level programming languages like C++ or Python
• An understanding of physically-based rendering and experience working with renderers
• Extensive analytic, debugging, and problem-solving skills
• Experience working in a Linux environment
• Bachelor's Degree in computer science or equivalent experience

PREFERRED SKILLS:

• Attention to detail, curiosity, and a desire to learn
• A customer-centric mentality and a collaborative approach to solving problems
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to prioritize and multitask
• Ability to work well independently and prioritize tasks for the greatest impact
• Ability to communicate highly technical information to a variety of people, in both verbal and written forms
• Experience working with shading languages (such as OSL) is a plus
• Experience with popular modeling and animation packages such as Blender, Maya, Houdini, or Katana is a plus
• Experience working in an animation or VFX studio is a plus

https://pixar.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Pixar_External_Career_Site/job/Emeryville/Studio-Support-Engineer--RenderMan_R-02531

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tracks at Sea Challenge

Announcing the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tracks at Sea Challenge conducted by the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific (NIWC PAC) and the Naval Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Coordination Office, managed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). 

The goal of this challenge is to engage with the workforce of tomorrow on relevant Naval problems. The need here is to augment unmanned surface vehicles’ (USVs’) maritime contact tracking capability.  The technology developed for this prize challenge will solve this problem by developing a computer vision system that will plot the tracks of shipping traffic exclusively using the passive sensing capability of onboard cameras. This technology would also be applicable for the Navy to document vessels performing unsafe navigation on the high seas.

NIWC PAC has established $200,000 as the total amount set aside for cash prizes under this challenge. Prizes will be awarded for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th places in the amounts of $55,000, $45,000, $35,000, $30,000, $20,000, $10,000, and $5000 respectively. Prizes will be disbursed to the respective teams’ department, college, laboratory, or other eligible university component as specified by the consensus of the team.

The challenge kicks off on Oct. 1 and is open to students at accredited higher education institutions.

For more information, please visit the following link: https://www.challenge.gov/challenge/AI-tracks-at-sea/

DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program accepting applications

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science is pleased to announce that the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is now accepting applications for the 2020 Solicitation 2.  Applications are due 5:00pm Eastern Time on Thursday, November 12, 2020. 

We would like to bring to your attention 4 new transdisciplinary research areas for encouraging graduate training activities at the convergence of multiple disciplines and communities, including Microelectronics, Data Science, Conservation Laws and Symmetries, and Accelerator Science. We strongly encourage applications in these areas.  Detailed information about the program, including eligibility requirements and access to the online application system, can be found at: https://science.osti.gov/wdts/scgsr/.  

The SCGSR program supports supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students to conduct part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE national laboratory/facility in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist for a period of 3 to 12 consecutive months—with the goal of preparing graduate students for scientific and technical careers critically important to the DOE Office of Science mission.

The SCGSR program is open to current Ph.D. students in qualified graduate programs at accredited U.S. academic institutions, who are conducting their graduate thesis research in targeted areas of importance to the DOE Office of Science. The research opportunity is expected to advance the graduate students’ overall doctoral thesis/dissertation while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the host DOE laboratories/facilities. The supplemental award provides for additional, incremental costs for living and travel expenses directly associated with conducting the SCGSR research project at the DOE host laboratory/facility during the award period.

The Office of Science expects to make approximately 95 awards in 2020 Solicitation 2 cycle, for project periods beginning anytime between June 14, 2021 and October 4, 2021. 

Since its inception in 2014, the SCGSR program has provided support to over 580 graduate awardees from 141 different U.S. universities to conduct thesis research at 18 DOE national laboratories/facilities across the nation.

The SCGSR program is sponsored and managed by the DOE Office of Science’s Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS), in collaboration with the six Office of Science research programs offices and the DOE national laboratories/facilities, and program administration support is provided by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE).

For any questions, please contact the SCGSR Program Manager, Dr. Ping Ge, at sc.scgsr@science.doe.gov.