Newsletter for 03/05/2023

Announcements

New Course this Spring! BME118/ 218: Mathematics of the Mind

Join David Haussler this Spring Quarter for BME 118/218: Mathematics of the Mind! This course counts for the graduate Neuroscience Designated Emphasis.

It will explore mathematical theories of brain circuits, knowledge representation, and learning in animals. As a highlight, students build Jupyter notebooks that interact with lab-grown human cerebral organoids to explore adaptive processes in neural circuits.

Winter 2023 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.

Graduate Student Tax Preparer Workshops

2023 NASA Planetary Science Summer School Applications Due March 27, 2023

Offered by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, PSSS is a 3-month long career development experience to learn the development of a hypothesis-driven robotic space mission in a concurrent engineering environment while getting an in-depth, first-hand look at mission design, life cycle, costs, schedule & the inherent trade-offs.

Science and engineering doctoral candidates, recent Ph.D.s, postdocs, junior faculty, and certain master’s degree students, who are U.S. Citizens or legal permanent residents (and a very limited number of Foreign Nationals from non-designated counties), are eligible. There is no charge to attend, travel stipends are available, and applicants from diverse backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply.  Diversity, equity and inclusion are important to us, and we strive to create a welcoming environment where participants’ contributions and unique perspectives are valued. 

Session 1: Preparatory Sessions May 11-July 28.  Culminating Week with JPL’s Team X July 31-August 4

Session 2: Preparatory Sessions May 25-August 11.  Culminating Week with JPL’s Team X August 14-18

With workload of a rigorous 3-credit graduate-level course, participants act as a planetary science mission team during the first 12 weeks of preparatory webinars, with the final culminating week mentored by JPL’s Advance Project Design Team for refining the mission concept design & presenting it to a mock expert review board.  The culminating week is planned to be at JPL.

Applications are due March 27, 2023.  Register now for informational session February 14 11:00 am ET.

GANAS VOCES Drafting Stages Workshop

UCSC Graduate Student Conference: Politics of Care | Open Call

We are writing to share with you our open call to our first-ever Graduate Student Conference - Politics of Care at UC Santa Cruz. This conference will take place from May 17th - May 19th, 2023. 

Conference Description:

The Graduate Student Conference hosted by El Centro: Chicanx Latinx Resource Center at UCSC is an event that intends to foster community and scholarship amongst graduate students. The conference planning committee invites abstracts from graduate and postdoc students inside and outside UC Santa Cruz, including global scholars, and from various disciplines whose work relates to the overarching conference theme. Scholars might pull from fields including but not limited to Latin American and Latino Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Feminist Studies, and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. 

This year’s theme of the conference will be The Politics of Care.

We hope the presentations during this conference will shed light on the often unseen, under-valued, and under-theorized labor involved in “care” and its associated social and political dynamics and conditions. We suggest adopting a care-centered lens to interpret the social, political, and economic challenges that different communities have faced across times and geographies, as well as forms of social justice organizing, political resistance, and mutual aid that are rooted in radical care. Through the rise of neoliberalism in the past 50 years, societal well-being has been centered on financial capital and market interests, at the same time forging a neoliberal logic that rewards individual self-enhancement, self-sufficiency, and competition. Inspired by The Care Manifesto (2020), we open this space to ask and discuss, what would society look like if we centered care?

While remaining open to many definitions of care, we envision care as, most broadly, a form of social relations that enables interdependent subjects to repair and sustain survival and resilience (Malatino, 2020). Foregrounding the power dynamics resulting in an uneven distribution of care, “care webs” cohere through collective practices of mutual aid that attend to respective needs and capacities (Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2018). Care practices can prefigure the radically anti-oppressive worlds of our dreams, but they can also be colonized, commodified, and co-opted to advance state and imperial control. At this critical fulcrum, we are soliciting innovative and inter/transdisciplinary, intellectual dialogue to happen in the following four tracks:

• Neoliberalism, Capitalism, and Care

• Global Politics, Citizen-making, and Care

• Environmental Crisis and Care

• Care as Radical Healing

Abstract applications are now open. Those who are interested in submitting an abstract should apply at tinyurl.com/politicsofcare by March 17th by 11:59 pm (PST).  If you have issues with your submission, please contact the conference committee before the submission date at elcentro@ucsc.edu.  

Special thanks to our Graduate Conference Committee:

Betania Santos (PhD Candidate, SOC & El Centro Graduate Intern)

Brittney Jimenez (PhD Student, LALS)

Boyeong Kim (PhD Candidate, LALS)

Graciela Sierra-Moreno (PhD Student, Literature & AIRC Graduate Intern) 

Koda Sokol (PhD Candidate, SOC & Cantu Center Graduate Intern)

El Centro: Chicanx Latinx Resource Center at UC Santa Cruz

For a full conference call, details, and a shareable flyer please see attached documents. Please share widely with your networks.

Science Internship Program (SIP) 2023 - Call for Mentors (All fields welcome)

It’s that time of year again; the Science Internship Program (SIP) is recruiting graduate students, postdocs, research staff, and faculty to serve as mentors for the summer 2023 intern cohort. As you start to plan for this summer, please consider including a pair of high school students in your summer research project. More information on the program is listed below. 

• 2023 SIP program dates: Sunday June 25, 2023 through Saturday, August 19, 2023

  • Sunday, June 25, 2023: Kickoff and orientation

  • Saturday, August 19, 2023: Presentation Day

  • Mentors must be available for a minimum of 6 weeks to participate

• Ideally, please submit your research project(s) by: Friday, March 24, 2023 

• Mentor Application: Please fill out the SIP 2023 Mentor Application to submit your project for consideration for the 2023 SIP program. All 2023 SIP mentors will need to create an account and password to login (even if you were a SIP mentor in a previous summer). Please make sure to save your login credentials! If you cannot remember your login credentials, please use the “Forgot password” option in the mentor portal or contact us at ucsc-sip@ucsc.edu; 

• Number of interns: SIP mentors are expected to take on a minimum of three (3) high school SIP interns per research project. This will allow high school students to work collaboratively and problem-solve between themselves before bringing issues to their mentor. Feedback from past mentors indicates that having two interns reduces the pressure on the mentor to be the sole sounding board / point of contact.

• Mentor agreement form: After your SIP research project is approved, a personalized agreement will be emailed to you with your specific hiring information and stipend amount, as well as the mentor responsibilities associated with the mentor position. 

• Live Scan requirement: In order to comply with UCSC’s rules for working with minors, non-faculty primary SIP mentors will be required to undergo a Live Scan involving fingerprinting and a background check. SIP will pay for these Live Scans. Returning SIP mentors from 2022 will likely not need an updated Live Scan.

• Tracking intern whereabouts: SIP mentors will be requested to assist the SIP staff in keeping track of their interns’ daily whereabouts (whether they are working from campus, whether they took/will take the shuttle, whether they are in housing, etc.).

• Stipends: The stipends for 2023 are $4,000 for graduate students (up to 100% summer salary in the combination of all UCSC summer appointments) and $2,200 for postdocs and research staff (in lieu of PTO). Questions about mentor stipends should be directed to SIP staff <ucsc-sip@ucsc.edu>.

• Your summer schedule: To submit a research project via the SIP mentor portal you will need to indicate your availability over the summer. SIP will run for 8 weeks this summer; interns and mentors must be available for a minimum of 6 weeks of full-time work. Please input your summer schedule to the best of your knowledge at this time, and update it by Monday, April 1, 2023 if there are any changes in your summer schedule between now and then. We will hold you to the research project schedule you submit. If anything changes and you are no longer available during a time you indicated the project is on, it is your responsibility to find a secondary mentor to supervise your interns on the research project in your absence.

• Under-resourced high school students: We are working hard to increase the diversity of the intern pool, and we expect a diverse intern pool again this year. In addition to building partnerships with specific local high schools and organizations that serve under-resourced student populations, we are planning to provide support during the summer program to support the student interns as they navigate the world of research. There will be an option for mentors to be included in these scaffolding opportunities on the mentor portal.

• Involving UCSC undergraduates: UCSC’s divisional deans are keen to see greater involvement of UCSC undergraduates in STEAM research on campus. We are therefore asking all SIP mentors to please consider including an undergraduate student on the research project in addition to the high school interns. The undergraduate’s involvement in the research project could certainly extend into the academic year, not just the summer. It may also be possible for the undergraduate to serve as a secondary mentor.

For more information, please visit the SIP website. The SIP mentor FAQ page is also an excellent resource for additional information. We will send notice about upcoming SIP mentor info sessions once they are confirmed.

If you have any questions, concerns, or need clarification, please feel free to reach out to the SIP staff at <ucsc-sip@ucsc.edu>.

Robert “Bob” Moses Scholarship

The inaugural scholarship is named in honor of the late Bob Moses, a pioneering civil rights leader and educator who founded The Algebra Project, a national U.S. mathematics literacy program aimed at helping low-income students and students of color achieve the mathematical skills in high school that are a prerequisite for success in college and beyond. The application deadline is April 3, 2023. More information is listed below:

Scholarship Award: $15,000

Who Is Eligible to Apply?

Any student who:
        • is enrolled as a master’s or doctoral student in good standing at a public or private U.S. university during the 2022–2023 academic school year
        • demonstrates leadership abilities and commitment to community service
        • demonstrates financial need
        • is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident with a valid permanent resident card or passport stamped I-551

How To Apply

To apply for the scholarship, you must provide: 
        • a one-page statement outlining financial need
        • the official transcript for your most recently completed academic term; this should include your Fall 2022 grades and cumulative GPA
        • two recommendation letters (one should be from a school advisor or the chair of the dissertation committee)
        • two original essays, answering the following essay questions (maximum of 500 words per question):
               – Describe how your approach to learning is aligned with the work of Bob Moses.
               – Tell us a bit about yourself, your background, why you should be awarded the Robert (Bob) Moses Scholarship and how this scholarship will help you support underserved communities.

Timeline:  Application Portal Open: February 1, 2023
                Application Deadline: April 3, 2023
                Winner Notified: May 15, 2023

For more information, contact: ETSScholarships@ets.org

Call for Papers: UCLA Q Grad

UCLA QGrad

Conference 2023

New Coalitions

Call for Papers

Queerness is where we can expand, rather than limit, the spaces of possibility for self
and collective expression and engagement with the world.
- Dr. Sa’ed Atshan, Keynote Speaker

UCLA LGBT Studies’ 26th QGrad Conference is seeking graduate student papers that speak to the theme: “New Coalitions.” We hope that this year's conference will generate rich discussions about past, present, and future solidarities between queer and other social justice movements across the world. We wish to foster intellectual and activist commitments that are intersectional, global, and anti-imperialist, and we encourage submissions from all fields of study. Possible submission topics include, but are not limited to, past, emerging, and potential connections between Queer/LGBTQIA+ theory/movements and one or more of the following:

• decolonization, anti-war, and non-violence movements.
• racial justice and prison abolition.
• economic equality and mutual aid.
• health, disability, and neurodivergence.
• reproductive rights.
• transgender and gender equality.
• climate and food security.

We also welcome submissions that consider:

• comparative modalities of activism, political engagement, and agency.
• thinking with, through, against, and beyond human rights frameworks.
• solidarities made possible or hindered by digital, transnational technologies.
• collaborations between theorists, activists, and artists.
• the affective contours of coalition building and sustaining.
• Intersections and disjunctures between humanist and posthuman discourses.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but as you consider your submission, keep in mind the overall theme of past, emerging, and potential connections across boundaries that have conventionally been kept or considered separate.

Apply here (Google Form):

https://forms.gle/sfkXmW17EcHV8noU8

The last day to submit to the CFP is Wednesday, March 15th, at 11:59pm PST. Contributions are welcomed from all disciplines and should be in alignment with the theme. Interested students should submit 500-word abstracts along with their CV and a short 150-word bio.

This year’s conference will be held on Friday, May 19, 2023 at UCLA, a land grant institution whose formation rests upon the dispossession of the Gabrielino and Tongva/Kizh peoples, the traditional caretakers of this land, whose history and presence resonates through this event and our every day.

The conference will be held entirely in person, and this year we are happy to offer conference participants from outside of UCLA partially subsidized accommodations at the UCLA Guest House (more information about this will be shared upon acceptance to present at the conference).

Please direct questions to uclalgbtq@gmail.com 

More about the Keynote

Upon his graduation from Swarthmore College, our distinguished Keynote speaker, Dr. Sa’ed Atshan, received an award the institution named that year—the Edward Said/Audre Lorde Scholar-Activist Award. The critical legacy memorialized in this honorary title aptly captures Professor Atshan’s commitments, and is evident across his work: from his efforts to work with Israelis and Germans to repair the wretched reality in Palestine/Israel; to his current research about the parallels and disjunctures between African-American and Palestinian Quakers; to his ongoing study about LGBTQ movements across North Africa and the Middle East. The UCLA LGBT Studies program shares professor Atshan’s conviction that new coalitions are the way forward.

Interested in Volunteering?

LGBTQ Studies is currently seeking volunteers who are interested in supporting this year’s conference on Friday, May 19^th. Volunteer activities include registration support, reception set up, room management, and other general activities. For those interested, please reach out to the conference organizers at UCLALGBTQ@gmail.com.

Notice Regarding UC’s Native American Opportunity Plan

UC’s Native American Opportunity Plan (NAOP) ensures that in-state systemwide Tuition and Student Services Fees are fully covered for California resident students who are also enrolled in federally recognized Native American, American Indian, and Alaska Native tribes. This plan applies to undergraduate and graduate students. Graduate students will have the opportunity to apply for this program every quarter.

If you are eligible for the Native American Opportunity Plan, your in-state systemwide Tuition and Student Services Fees will be fully covered by either UC financial aid or another federal, state or other financial aid program.

To be eligible, students must use this form to submit supporting documentation verifying their membership with a federally recognized tribe and meet all additional eligibility requirements. At that time, the Graduate Division will review your documentation. If approved, we will work with your Graduate Program Coordinator/Advisor to ensure that your tuition and Student Services fees are covered.

When you submit your tribal documentation, please contact Lorato Anderson directly at lorato@ucsc.edu.

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for the Native American Opportunity Plan, students must meet all of the following criteria:

• Must be a current or newly admitted University of California undergraduate, graduate or professional school student.
• Must be a California Resident.
• Must be an enrolled member in a federally recognized Native American, American Indian and/or Alaska Native tribe.
• Must be enrolled in a qualifying UC degree program.

Documentation of tribal enrollment may include any of the following:

• Certification of tribal enrollment on tribal letterhead.
• Enrollment/membership card that contains the tribal seal and/or official signature of a tribal leader.
• Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) if the CDIB includes tribal enrollment information.
• Tribal identification card with an enrollment number. You must also submit tribal contact information (address, phone, and email) if it is not evident on submitted documentation.

If you have questions about the Native American Opportunity Plan, please visit the University of California’s NAOP website for further information. You can also contact me at lorato@ucsc.edu for help.

STEM: DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research Awards

Last week, the Department of Energy announced that the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program is now accepting applications for the 2023 Solicitation 1 cycle. Applications are due 5:00pm Eastern Time on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.

The SCGSR program provides supplemental awards to outstanding U.S. graduate students to conduct part of their graduate theses research at a DOE national laboratory or facility in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist — with the goal of preparing graduate students for scientific and technical careers critically important to the DOE Office of Science mission. The research opportunity is expected to advance the graduate students’ overall doctoral theses while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the host DOE laboratories

SCGSR application assistance workshops will be held on March 9, 2023, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM ET and April 20, 2023, 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM ET. The first workshop will provide a general overview of the program and the application requirements and will include a time for discussing potential research topics with the program managers; register here. The second workshop will guide attendees through the application process, answer general questions, provide guidance on proposal writing and feature discussions with scientists and former awardees; register here.

UC Berkeley Microbiology Symposium

The Microbiology Student Group at UC Berkeley would like to invite you to
our 22nd Annual Microbiology Student Symposium on April 15 at Clark Kerr
Campus. We are excited to welcome Dr. Nicholas Shikuma
<https://www.shikumalab.com/> from San Diego State University and Dr. David
Booth <https://www.biobooth.org/> from UC San Francisco as our keynote
speakers. Join us for a day of research presentations, poster sessions,
networking with local biotech companies, connecting with microbiology
colleagues around the Bay Area, free food, and more!

We are committed to ensuring that the symposium is* free and accessible*
for all attendees, and are offering need-based travel grants upon request.
Postdocs, students (graduate & undergraduate!), and lab scientists can register
now <https://forms.gle/bwNC63zhGS3YZH3CA> to reserve attendance and submit
abstracts for poster and oral presentations. If you would like to submit an
abstract, but don’t have one ready yet, don’t fret! The form allows you to
register for the conference now, and later edit your registration to submit
an abstract. Both registration and abstract submission will close on March
24th, and oral presentation speakers will be selected and notified by March
31st.

Jobs

CXL Memory or SSD Storage Architecture InternGroup Description

The Storage Memory Architecture team in Marvell’s Storage Business Unit is
looking for a summer intern. Marvell is the industry's leading supplier of
SSD and memory controller solutions. The intern will join a team of experts
in researching new architectures and modeling techniques for SSD storage
and CXL memory applications. The ideal candidate will have prior experience
in at least one of these subjects: SSDs, NAND flash, DRAM memories, PCIe,
NVMe, CXL, storage architectures, and performance modeling.

*Requirements*
Minimum Qualifications:

Candidate MUST be currently pursuing a MS or PhD degree (PhD preferred) in
CS/EE or related technical field(s)
Previous experience in industry is not required
Preferred Qualifications:

Courses and research experience related to computer architecture, hardware
design, programming, modeling techniques.
Prior experience with SSD technologies, PCIe, NVMe or CXL interface
technologies, NAND flash, DRAM and persistent memories
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
Very good verbal and written communication skills
Strong Programming skills in C/C++ and Python
Experience in modeling computer architectures and storage systems
Experience in machine learning algorithms is a plus

Contact: Erich Haratsch <eharatsch@marvell.com>

Tenure-track Assistant/Associate Professor Position Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Find more information on the flyer here: ECE_Citadel.pdf