UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Campus Grand Opening, Reception & Talks | Santa Clara

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Will sea level rise sink the Silicon Valley? Can games be socially relevant? Will we decode cancer? Those questions and more will be explored during the grand opening of the new UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Campus. The celebration, showcasing the multidisciplinary teaching and research hub, will feature an open house, a ribbon cutting, a small bites reception and a handful of engaging talks by leading campus thinkers.

Free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required.

The evening program, beginning at 7 p.m., will feature talks by experts in space, humanity and technology, coastal sustainability, social-relevant gaming, and the quest to decode cancer.

The 15-minute talks, free and open to the public, will be from 7 to 9 p.m. They are:

• How do stars turn into gold? Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, professor and chair of astronomy and astrophysics
• Can we teach computers to say what we feel? Pranav Anand, associate professor of linguistics, and Marilyn Walker, professor of computer science and graduate program director, computational media
• Will sea level rise sink Silicon Valley? Gary Griggs, distinguished professor of Earth and planetary sciences and director of the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz
• Can Games be Socially Relevant? Erin Swink, creative director of the master’s degree program in games and playable media
• Can we decode cancer? David Haussler, professor of biomolecular engineering and scientific director at the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute

UC Santa Cruz has long had a presence in the Silicon Valley, a 45-minute drive from the main campus. Earlier this year, the campus purchased a 90,000 square-foot building in Santa Clara to support its ambitious growth plans for the region.

The Silicon Valley Campus is home to a professional master’s program in Games and Playable Media, and students can also pursue a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. New programs in Serious Games and Human-Computer Interaction are planned to launch in 2017 and in 2018, respectively.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.