BSOE Graduate Student Newsletter
Announcements
Writing Resources for Graduate Students
Whether you're writing your dissertation or working on a homework assignment, there are a number of writing support resources available to you as a UCSC graduate student. For a full list of these resources, please check out the Graduate Division's website.
UCSC Career Success - Winter Quarter
Students can access our upcoming events on the Career Success student event calendar or Handshake! We will continue to partner with Handshake to host our virtual career fairs.
For students who need help with job applications, we are offering written resume and cover letter feedback. Click here for more information: https://careers.ucsc.edu/
We will continue to send our weekly undergraduate, graduate and jobs newsletters throughout the quarter. If you are hosting a program related to career development and would like it to be featured in the newsletter, please submit the information here.
Link to infographic: ay-infographic_47932088_1.pdf
RCA Winter Quarter Initiatives to Support Graduate Students
- Talking Mental Health in the Academy, in a Pandemic
- What Grad Students Need To Hear
- For Grad Students Only: Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job
- Women and the Academic Career: What Works, What Doesn’t
*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.
Monday, January 25th Deadline to Add/Drop/Swap Courses
This is your last day to add, drop and swap courses. Please remember there is a 48 business hour turnaround for any enrollment codes once received. You will not be able to drop or withdraw from courses after this deadline has passed. More information on how to add, drop, and swap classes is available on the registrar website.
Monday, January 25th 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.
Tuesday, February 16th 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.
Friday, March 19th Leave of Absence Winter Deadline
Deadline to petition for leave of absence (LOA) beginning the next quarter. LOA forms must be approved/signed by your faculty advisor and submitted to the BSOE Graduate Advising office by the posted deadline. LOA application forms are available on the Graduate Division's website.
Resources for Remote/Online Teaching - For Graduate Students
- Sign up for the newsletter here: Navigate to the bottom of the webpage to see the sign-up information.
- Teaching with Zoom
- Getting Started in Canvas
- Introductions to YuJa, Gradescope, and Hypothesis
- Supporting Student Resilience & Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies
- Supporting Student Learning in Remote Environments
- Facilitating Timely Conversations about Race & Racism (hosted by the Office for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and CITL)
- Remote Assessments & Academic Integrity
- ...and more
- Online Education Slack: Join this digital space to ask questions and get answers about remote/online teaching.
- Online Education Drop-in Hours: For questions related to remote/online instruction, especially questions related to navigating Zoom, Canvas, YuJa, and more, drop in to Online Ed's open virtual office hours at 2:00-3:00 on weekdays. (Zoom link here)
- CITL Consultations: We're available by appointment to discuss your questions related to teaching practices and course/assessment design. Email CITL at citl@ucsc.edu to schedule a virtual meeting.
- Canvas Readiness Checks: If you're an instructor of record and would like someone to check your course in Canvas to make sure everything is working correctly, request a course readiness check with an email to online@ucsc.edu.
TA Application for Spring 2021 - Opens January 11
For the TA Application/Preference form and detailed information regarding TAships please see:
You can select up to 7 preferences and they can be from any of the BSOE departments. However, please note - departments will give priority to students in their own department so select wisely.
Please review this link for an unofficial course listing for Spring 2021 (dates/times may change). Before listing a course as a preference to TA, please check with course listing to make sure there will be no time conflict between your courses and the course you would like to TA. Please access the document using your @UCSC email address.
New Grads please note the following: If you were guaranteed a TAship as part of your admission offer, please complete the application/preference form found on the websites listed above. Only include courses from the department you were admitted to as courses in other departments are not guaranteed.
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If you do not hear from our office by February 19, 2021, you can assume that you were not selected and we encourage you to apply again for Fall 2021.
We are only accepting applications
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Basic Eligibility:
1. Full-time graduate student enrollment (10+ units).
2. Unfunded, has not been offered or accepted another TA, GSI (TF or Assoc-In), or GSR position already for the same quarter.
3. Does not have other employment that would require exception for >50% employment.
4. For international students - meet at least one of the following minimum requirements used to measure English fluency to determine eligibility for TAships:
- 89 overall and 26+ on the speaking portion of the internet-based TOEFL, or 8+ overall for IELTS;
- 71+ on the Versant exam;
- Successful completion of LAAD 210 or the Grad Prep Program, if required; or
- Waiver on file for exemption from language exam (this does not include TOEFL waiver for admission purposes).
- Unfortunately, if you do not meet any of the minimum requirements, we are unable to consider you for the current openings.
2021 CCC Registry Virtual Career Event
2021 CCC Registry Virtual Career Event for graduate students and any others who are interested in jobs with the California Community College system. The virtual event will run for four weeks and includes all jobs at the CCC’s, not just faculty. We will also have several informative workshops available.
Flyer: CCCReg2021%20Flyers.pdf
Tutors wanted in various CSE topics ($30-40/hour)
Graduate Students:
An important opportunity has arisen to contribute to efforts to diversify the
graduate student population in Computer Science & Engineering while getting paid!
Some of you may be aware
of the Cal-Bridge program ( https://www.cpp.edu/calbridge/ ), which knits together
Physics and Astronomy and now Computer Science departments
in the California Community Colleges, and the Cal State and UC systems, to
identify promising students from diverse backgrounds and bring them into strong
mentoring and professional development settings, and then help them get into
Ph.D. programs. A number of these "Cal-Bridge Scholars" find themselves facing
challenges in specific courses, creating a need for tutoring. The Cal-Bridge
program is looking for graduate students that would be interested in joining
a pool of paid tutors that could be called upon when need arises. Tutoring pays $30-40 per hour depending on tutor qualifications.
We hope you will consider this opportunity to engage and contribute to
this promising program. More than ever, drawing the full community together
in support of diversity and inclusion in our field is of paramount importance,
and contributions to these efforts are increasingly recognized as central to the
health of our field.
If you would be interested in joining the Cal-Bridge volunteer tutor pool,
please fill out the fields of this Google form ( https://forms.gle/
Thanks for considering this, and we look forward to hearing from you!
Let me know if you have any questions.
Matthew Guthaus
UC Co-Director, Cal-Bridge
Phi Beta Kappa Graduate Student Scholarships
Are you a Phi Beta Kappa member? If so, you are eligible to apply for a fellowship from the Northern California Association of Phi Beta Kappa. Awards are $7,500 each and will be distributed in May. Every year at least one – and often two or three – UCSC graduate students receives one of these fellowships to support their dissertation studies and research, so this is a terrific opportunity!
Eligibility:
To be eligible, a student must belong to PBK at the national level. This means that you must have paid your dues to the national organization and you must include your PBK number (available from national) on the application.
Application Instructions:
Applications must be submitted to the UCSC Upsilon chapter of Phi Beta Kappa for preliminary screening. We will then forward applications to the Northern California Association.
Application forms and instructions are available for downloading at the website for the Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association site:
https://www.pbknca.org/
Please keep to the specified word limits – especially for the writing sample! Do not send entire chapters or articles.
Submission Deadline: The campus deadline is Wednesday, February 17, 2021, at 5 pm. Please submit your application to ugrdhnrs@ucsc.edu. Your referees should send their letters directly to ugrdhnrs@ucsc.edu by the deadline.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the UCSC PBK office at ugrdhnrs@ucsc.edu.
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.