Alumni
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Team of researchers win the public benchmark phase of new Alexa Prize competition
UC Santa Cruz’s team of computer science and engineering (CSE) Ph.D. students came out victorious by a generous margin during the public benchmark phase of the first-ever Amazon Alexa Prize SimBot Challenge, far surpassing other teams in the university competition focused on advancing virtual assistant technology.
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Deep Read welcomes author Yaa Gyasi to UC Santa Cruz
The annual program of The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz has brought together students, faculty, alumni, and other curious minds from across the globe to unpack and discuss Transcendent Kingdom, the most recent novel by Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi.
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Wisdom Cole: Paving the way for a new generation of Black leaders
National Director of the NAACP Youth & College Division and UCSC alumnus Wisdom Cole (Oakes ’15, chemistry) will be a keynote speaker at the John R. Lewis College dedication ceremony on May 6.
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Afrofuturism takes center stage in the Institute of the Arts and Sciences’ Surge series
UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences offers a month-long series of performances and discussions on Afrofuturism, a global artistic and social movement, utilizing the arts, science, and technology to imagine—and create— a world where African-descended peoples and cultures can live and flourish.
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Unlocking a cure for carbon monoxide poisoning
UCSC researcher Tim Johnstone has designed small molecules that can bind CO, sequester CO that is already bonded to hemoglobin, and rescue red blood cells exposed to CO, all promising signs for a future antidote for carbon monoxide poisoning.
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Linguist Sandra Chung elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Sandra Chung, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Linguistics, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.
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Hybrid Alumni Week festivities highlight Slug ingenuity, camaraderie, and social consciousness
Drones soared in the sky, familiar places and faces were rediscovered, cocktail glasses clinked, and old friendships were renewed during the hybrid Alumni Week festivities, which blended analog fun with virtual symposiums.
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CITRIS drone program lands $1 million grant from James Irvine Foundation
The UC Santa Cruz CITRIS Initiative for Drone Education and Research (CIDER) along with several partners has received a $1 million, 15-month planning grant to support regional drone education and workforce development from The James Irvine Foundation.



