Join visionary entrepreneurs, investors, and sustainability experts for an interactive panel exploring the intersection of environmental stewardship and cutting-edge innovation. Stay after for a networking reception to connect with industry leaders and fellow changemakers. Hosted in partnership with the UCSC Innovation & Business Engagement Hub. Virtual attendance available — panel begins at 4:45 PM.

UC Santa Cruz has named its 2025 Chancellor's Innovation Impact Award recipients — honoring breakthroughs in coastal climate resilience, brain-computer interfaces, forensic genomics, and regional entrepreneurship. Among the honorees is Bud Colligan, a founding board member of Santa Cruz Works.

Join us for an afternoon at the cutting edge of conservation genomics as we explore everything from de-extinction to searching water samples for viral genomes, with researchers from the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute who are turning DNA into a tool for protecting life on Earth.

UC Santa Cruz is among the world’s leading research institutions identified in Clarivate’s latest analysis of the 70 organizations most frequently home to Highly Cited Researchers for 2025.

UCSC’s presence in the world of entrepreneurship expands day by day. Most recently they have been propelled forward by two students, onto the world stage.

Subsense is a modular brain interface built on two classes of functional nanoparticles and a wearable wireless device. Together, they form a bidirectional bridge between neural activity and computation.

UC Santa Cruz is broadening access to hands-on career experience for humanities students after receiving a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation in support of its Employing Humanities initiative.

Flip helps local businesses grow by building simple systems that connect social media, customer data, and automation — turning everyday online attention into steady, trackable revenue without paid ads.

UC Santa Cruz researchers connected lab-grown neural tissue to a Cartpole simulation and showed it can learn through adaptive electrical feedback. Performance improved with targeted stimulation, depended on synaptic signaling, and revealed short-term, circuit-level learning in living systems.

UCSC students, supported by CIED, earned third place at the 2026 VCIC West Regional in Provo on February 7. Their best finish yet reflects a growing, repeatable investor-training pipeline, rigorous selection, coaching, and due diligence.

Santa Cruz County’s 2026 watch list marks a shift from invention to execution. These companies are scaling with real organizational maturity, durable advantages, and clear catalysts, while staying anchored locally. From aviation and fintech to climate systems and biotech delivery, Santa Cruz is proving it can build globally and keep value here.

Fall 2025 Startup Demo Day brings together UCSC’s most promising student founders for an evening of live pitches, innovation, and community. Hosted by CIED, Startup Club, Pie Fi, and Santa Cruz Works, the event showcases 10–12 emerging ventures, networking, food, and fresh ideas.

A tiny Santa Cruz startup, Light Links, is replacing Wi-Fi with invisible laser-based wireless. After joining Santa Cruz Launchpad, then Santa Cruz Accelerates, Light Links landed Wayne Fenton as president, and secured a multi-million-dollar contract. The company is now shaping the future of robotics and ultra-fast connectivity.

UC Santa Cruz’s Karen Miga helped unlock the final 8% of our DNA, transforming research on health and human evolution.

With NSF support, UCSC’s Jenny Reardon will study how scientists and ethicists collaborate to guide responsible innovation in genomics, neuroscience, and AI.

UC Santa Cruz Assistant Professor Alexander Ioannidis is uncovering how genome variation shapes disease risk, drug response, and ancestral history.

UC Santa Cruz scientists Benedict Paten and Karen Miga lead breakthroughs in computational genomics, using AI and algorithms to decode genomes, advancing understanding of cancer, rare diseases, and dementias.

UC Santa Cruz’s 2024 Chancellor’s Innovation Impact Awards celebrate groundbreaking research and community-driven change. From sustainable AI to youth empowerment and personalized medicine, these honorees exemplify innovation with purpose. Watch their inspiring stories—and remember, in 2022, Santa Cruz Works proudly received the Community Changemaker Award for Transformative Impact.

UCSC’s iconic blue whale skeleton, Ms. Blue, is undergoing a sustainable restoration using innovative materials and technology.

EcoViz, co-developed by UCSC’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience, uses advanced visualization to help communities and policymakers tackle climate change and natural disasters.