Baskin School of Engineering Projects

Giving Day is here! You can search the projects and make your gift here. 

Rocket Team at UCSC

Our team competes in the Spaceport America Cup. A global competitive collegiate rocketry event that challenges student teams to fully design, build, and launch their own vehicle with a scientific payload embedded within.

Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE)

Help us promote equity and inclusion in STEM! The goal of WiSE at UC Santa Cruz is to advance women and historically excluded groups in STEM fields both in percentage and position, in the face of historical, present, and future challenges. Your donation supports the many programs and activities organized by WiSE, including events for K-12 students, for UCSC undergraduate and graduate students, and for the greater Santa Cruz community. These include STEM education, professional development workshops and mentoring opportunities, social gatherings, and more. Visit our website at https://wiseucsc.wixsite.com/wise to learn more about what we do and sign up for our weekly newsletter!

AutoSlug

AutoSlug is a Baskin-affiliated organization focusing on the implementation of AI, machine learning, and computer vision in practical applications. Our goal is to create opportunities for students to learn how to use these tools in an applicable real-world environment; to ultimately expand beyond just the theoretical side of these advanced concepts and explore their intersection with humans, data, and other forms of hardware.

UCSC Bioinformatics Club

Expand our impact on this campus by hosting large-scale events such as a job or internship fair dedicated to Bioinformatics students. Support our members who have expressed interest in attending field-related conferences and touring biotechnology companies in the Bay Area. Create and uphold the community through various social events throughout the year.

Formula Slug

Formula Slug is a club designing and building a formula style EV race car to compete at an international engineering competition FSAE EV Michigan. Formula Slug is dedicated to giving students real world hands-on experience in engineering, leadership, and project management in order to create the best and most successful car possible. We work in a 1-year design process designing, manufacturing, assembling, and testing our parts and car and give students the opportunity to learn outside of the classroom or lecture hall in a team setting.

SHPE Funding for Nationals

Our project aims to secure funding to send a group of dedicated students to the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) National Convention. This event provides invaluable networking opportunities, professional development sessions, and exposure to cutting-edge technology and industry trends. By attending, students will enhance their skills, expand their professional networks, and bring back knowledge and experiences that will benefit our entire community.

Tech4Good Student Programs

We do research in social computing, exploring the intersection of computational systems and social interaction. Our mission is to develop systems--integrating design, modeling, and algorithms--to support individual and societal flourishing in work, education, community engagement, and governance.

Computer Networking Student Association

The UCSC Computer Networking Student Association is dedicated to providing insightful perspectives from industry professionals, hands-on labs, and comprehensive topic reviews. Our lab sessions, conducted under the guidance of UCSC's Computer Networking Professor, teach students essential networking skills. We also organize trips to tech companies and host guest speakers to connect students with the industry. This project will fund these activities, covering costs like transportation and event fees. Your support will create invaluable learning opportunities and help students build a strong foundation in networking.

Giving Day for the GIOD's Research Mentoring Internship program!

Your Giving Day donation will provide funds for additional scholarships for first-generation, underrepresented, and underserved students in STEM majors (STEM = science, technology, engineering, and math). RMI is a diverse and inclusive community of scholars who will become the next generation of genomic scientists and change agents. RMI Scholars spend 10 hours per week in research labs and receive mentored training that prepares them for cutting-edge careers in genomic and genetic science.

Slug Linux User Group

The Slug Linux User Group is a community of students passionate about Linux and associated software's. Our mission is to develop a community around Linux, educate people about Linux and open-source software, and develop skills for use in academia, personal lives, and careers. We are open to all backgrounds and experiences. We are hoping to provide better resources to our community and are looking to raise funds to do so.

Treehouse Childhood Cancer Initiative

The dream of UCSC Treehouse is to defeat childhood cancer by using computation to find better treatment options. 

We lead the Treehouse Undergraduate Bioinformatics Immersion (TUBI) program, which has trained multiple cohorts on bioinformatic projects that contribute to the search for these new treatments. Students experience being a part of a research team while learning key bioinformatics concepts and soft skills that they can translate into successful careers. 

Your gift to TUBI will help train a member of the next generation of computational genomic scientists to join us in our mission of defeating childhood cancer.

IGC Game Showcase

Independent Gamedev Coalition is a community of devoted game developers who have spent the quarter working together in teams to create a variety of different games, ranging from clicker games, platformers, horror games, and more. As a team of officers guide these teams to schedule different meetings to update their progress, teams will showcase their game at the end of the quarter to show what they have. Join us at the end of the quarter to see what our teams have worked on for the last 10 weeks together.

Baskin Day

Baskin Day is an event dedicated to celebrating UCSC's Baskin School of Engineering (BSOE). From the development of the UCSC Genome Browser in 2000 to the founding of the Center for Research in Open-Source Software (CROSS) in 2015, the past 26 years have shown the dedication of our faculty, the curiosity of our students, and the sheer commitment of our school to solve the world's greatest challenges for the betterment of society. We hope to share this energy at our event that will feature speakers, presentations, workshops, and other exciting events to foster student success and community, and to recognize the hard work and dedication of our department.

Support SCAI Is No Limit, UCSC’s AI Competition!

Since 2022, every quarter we hold SCAI Is No Limit, a quarter-long AI competition at UC Santa Cruz, where students develop AI projects based on a theme, supported by weekly workshops and judged presentations for prizes. These workshops are integral as they promote accessibility by covering everything needed to build a Neural Network from scratch, making the competition accessible even to those with little prior knowledge in the field. By equipping participants with comprehensive skills from the ground up, these sessions not only level the playing field but also empower students to effectively utilize this powerful tool in their future endeavors. Most of our winners are new to learning AI, highlighting that this initiative not only addresses the industry relevance of AI but also underscores the importance of accessible education at UCSC, fostering innovation among its diverse student body. Your donation supports prizes, technology, and a collaborative environment, aiming to establish  SCAI Is No Limit  as a premier collegiate competition that champions both learning and practical application in artificial intelligence.

Changing the Face and World of Engineering

Imagine what learning would be like if engineering instructors knew as much about how people learn, motivation, and formative assessment as they do about physics and math? Within the Engineering Teaching Community (ETC) of Baskin, we do more than we imagine. We are building a new teaching and learning environment. Using data and first account experiences of our students and instructors, we work to understand teaching dilemmas and innovate solutions that support every student.

ETC brings Baskin faculty, graduate and undergraduate students together to safely explore and translate learning theory into practical actions. The ETC community shares this new vision for engineering, one of diversity and acceptance, a profession where supporting one another is the norm. 

Your contribution to ETC will help us expand the work. Your donation will be used to invite others to gatherings and trainings and promote this work. With your support, we can increase and incentivize participation in ETC and reshape engineering education to be inclusive, student-centered, diverse, and welcoming for all. 

Slugbotics, UCSC Robotics

Slugbotics is a place for students to collaborate on building robotic systems. In essence, we try to be a true student-run organization, hence we have multiple projects that students can work on (Six sub-teams with completely different goals and applications!). We can really use your help, especially to jumpstart our very new ROVER team which hopes to compete in the 2025 University Rover Challenge, a challenge where students are tasked with building a rover that would be of use to early explorers on Mars. 

These are our other projects! 

SOMARS: Aviation research with an emphasis on drones

Combat Robotics: Building mini battle bots that fight each other (safely)

Cruz Control: Autonomous driving / AI research 

ARM: Building a functional robotic arm for various applications

MATE: Underwater robotics for the 2025 MATE competition

UCSC Blueprint

UCSC Blueprint is a student-led organization that partners with nonprofit organizations to develop a tech solution uniquely suited for their needs with no cost to the nonprofit. Our projects typically include creating a mobile app or a website to best serve the goals of the nonprofit. In addition to developing tech solutions for nonprofits, we also aim to build a strong community among students passionate about this mission. Your gift will help us to offset developmental costs that occur during the development process, and to help facilitate quarterly events to encourage community within our organization. Consider supporting UCSC Blueprint if you would like to help the development of tech for social good!

Girls in Engineering

Girls in Engineering is an interactive engineering camp for middle school girls* designed to build confidence and spark a lifelong passion for engineering and problem solving. The program inspires and demystifies pathways that lead to the study of engineering and careers in STEM. 

Girls in Engineering is offered at no cost to participants and seeks to serve local middle school girls from schools with large percentages of students who are low-income, first generation, or underrepresented in higher education. To further remove barriers to participation, Girls in Engineering offers free daily shuttle transportation to and from camp, free lunch, free snacks, and provides all materials. Each year, we have to turn away eager students because the camp fills so quickly. Your support will help us add additional camp sessions to serve more students in Summer 2025 and beyond. 

During the program, students create their own robots, tinker with circuit boards, program their first computer-controlled video game, envision themselves as computer scientists and engineers, visit state-of-the-art research labs, and explore the careers and educational opportunities available to them in STEM.

Girls in Engineering relies on funding from donors like you to offer the program at no cost to participants. To date, GiE has served more than 650 girls. It is our goal to increase the number of camp sessions to meet the great need for high-quality, tuition-free, STEM enrichment programs. Please help us to educate, inspire and open new doors for students that otherwise might not have the opportunity. 

Help Launch UCSC's Cyber Range

Support Slug Security, the premier cybersecurity club at UCSC, in launching its first Cyber Range. This initiative will offer students practical, hands-on experience in cybersecurity and ethical hacking. It will provide a safe environment where students can set up various scenarios to both attack and defend alongside other members fostering not only collaboration and skill development but also an engaging and immersive learning experience in the growing field of cybersecurity. Your support will help shape the future of cybersecurity education and prepare the next generation of experts.

SlugSat

SlugSat at the Jack Baskin School of Engineering, a student-run organization building and launching small satellites known as CubeSats into low Earth orbit. We are furthering our education across several disciplines including (but not limited to): Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics Engineering, and other disciplines that aren’t offered as programs at UCSC such as Radio Frequency (RF) Engineering and Aerospace Engineering. Our successful NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) proposal means that we will be launching our satellite around spring 2025 aboard a NASA contracted launch vehicle. With this in mind, your funding would pay for off-the-shelf hardware for our flight satellite and engineering models, as well as travel costs incurred by going to industry conferences and to watch the satellite launch. If you wish to help UC Santa Cruz and Basking Engineering become an extraterrestrial institution, donate today!

AI Explainability and Accountability (AIEA) Lab Student Funding

We are the AI Explainability and Accountability (AIEA) Lab at UCSC, where our mission is to conduct cutting-edge interpretable and explainable AI research that inspires curiosity, while actively explaining systemic injustices within and outside computer science through expanded empowerment, alongside fun and stimulating collaborators. We are raising funds for 60+ undergrads and 20+ master's students in the lab that volunteer on projects like the explainable autograder, robustifying autonomous vehicles, and logical large language models. Our lab provides hands-on opportunities for students, and our goal is to make AI more trustworthy, auditable and explainable. Funds will be used directly for students: transportation and lodging for conferences, to fund undergraduate student research, and to supply students with the computation they need to do their best computing research work.

SlugWorks

Can you imagine a state-of-the-art experiential learning facility where students collaborate, innovate, and problem solve in an inclusive and supportive environment? 

We can too! Help us create this important hub at Baskin Engineering where our students will gather, connect, and create. 

Donations to SlugWorks support purchase of equipment and raw materials used by students advancing their hands-on projects. Baskin Engineering students are passionate about solving real world problems through engineering -- Help us provide the facility, tools, and resources they need to take their dreams to the next level. An experiential learning facility will provide materials, a staff person who is a tinker-guru and equipment expert, and a much-needed home-base for organizations such as #Slugbotics, #FormulaSlug, #SWE, #IEEE, #SASE, #NSBE, #SHPE, and more. 

First Generation Engineering Scholarships

Support the success of students who will be the first in their families to graduate from college by giving to the First-Generation Engineering Scholarship fund. This undergraduate scholarship allows students to reduce or eliminate loans, as well as the time they spend on non-career-advancing jobs necessary to pay for housing, meals, and tuition. Reducing outside work obligations opens up time for students to study, participate in an engineering club or lab, and experience the full range of Baskin Engineering opportunities while building their future professional network. The more time a student devotes to their major and related programs, the more likely they are to complete their degree and to finish it within a realistic timeline. By donating to this scholarship, you are creating the opportunity for a student to better focus on their academic efforts and graduate with less debt. This, in turn, sets the stage for more career choices and greater economic mobility.

Baskin Engineering: Dean's Opportunity Fund

By investing in the Dean’s Opportunity Fund, you enable us to use unrestricted funds to meet compelling needs and help promising projects and programs come to fruition. Gifts to this fund help achieve significant dividends for Baskin Engineering: our faculty and students accomplish dynamic, ground-breaking research and our graduates leave the campus with skills that prepare them to make a difference in the world. The Dean’s Opportunity Fund plays a key role in this. We encourage you to help us build on 25 years of excellence and innovation!

UCSC ACM

We are UCSC ACM, the largest computer science club on campus! We a student run organization that strives to create a supportive and inclusive community for people of all backgrounds and skill levels who are passionate about computer science to learn and network. We run workshops, large-scale events like hackathons, and community-driven events to ensure our community

CruzHacks: the 2025 hackathon

CruzHacks brings together a diverse and inclusive group of students and professionals to develop innovative solutions to solve real world challenges.

Girls Who Code: Code to Conference

We are the Girls Who Code club at UC Santa Cruz, part of an international non-profit organization dedicated to closing the gender gap in technology by empowering young women. Our current project, the Girls Who Code: Code to Conference, focuses on sending our members to the Women in Tech DC Conference. This initiative provides hands-on learning experiences, industry insights, and professional networking opportunities, fostering the growth of future tech leaders. Funds raised will cover transportation, conference registration, and accommodation costs for attendees. By supporting this project, you are helping to create a more inclusive and innovative tech industry.

Slug Gaming

Slug Gaming, founded in 2014, is UC Santa Cruz's student-run gaming and esports organization with a mission to unite the gaming community by providing a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere regardless of background or skill level. We host a range of events and competitions for games like League of Legends, Overwatch, Valorant, and more, aiming to expand the presence of gaming and esports not only at the collegiate level, but in the broader UCSC community as well.

This Giving Day, funds will go toward:

- Jerseys for our esports athletes and coaches

- Tournament entry fees and travel costs

- Peripherals and supplies for intramural tournaments

UCSC NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS (NSBE)

The UCSC chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) is dedicated to increasing the number of culturally responsible Black Engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally, and positively impact the community.  By fostering a supportive environment, NSBE helps Black engineers develop professional skills, create networking opportunities, and maintain academic excellence and confidence. Your support can drive significant change, promoting a more inclusive and innovative future in engineering and technology. Contributions help bridge the diversity gap and expand career development opportunities such as career fairs, workshops, and conferences, empowering students to succeed in their engineering careers.

ACM-W Grace Hopper Conference Scholarship

We are ACM-W, the Association for Computing Machinery's Council on Women in Computing, a club on campus at UC Santa Cruz that provides a support system and resources for women pursuing computer science.

We are raising funds to provide scholarships for students to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, also known as GHC. This conference is the world’s largest gathering of women technologists and offers many resources to help women in tech succeed, such as networking, educational talks, internship opportunities, and more. 

To make this opportunity more accessible to our community, we are providing scholarships to fully pay for virtual/in-person virtual tickets. With the help of Giving Day, last year we were able to send 8 students to GHC! 

UCSC RNA Center Student Success

Scientists at the UC Santa Cruz RNA Center are pushing the boundaries of molecular biology's central dogma- the theory explaining how genetic information flows from DNA to RNA to produce proteins and regulate other functions of living cells. The Center encompasses 20 RNA faculty laboratories across departments of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology; Chemistry and Biochemistry; Biomedical Engineering; and Computer Science and Engineering.

A core mission of the Center is to train RNA scientists of the future. Funds raised through this UCSC Giving Day Drive will help support RNA Center Student Success by supporting undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers. 

UCSC STEM Postdoc Association (USPA) Annual Symposium

The UCSC STEM Postdoc Symposium is an annual research symposium dedicated to highlighting research from early career researchers at UCSC. Your donation will help us bring Nobel Laureates, CEOs and distinguished scientific leaders to this event and provide a vibrant and engaging venue for Santa Cruz researchers to present and receive feedback on their work.

UCSC iGEM

International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) is an international competition dedicated to education and the advancement of synthetic biology. Each year, we assemble an interdisciplinary group of undergraduates with the common goal of creating a better world through science and engineering. The annual competition draws together student teams from around the globe to present their synthetic biology projects that aim to address 21st century grand challenges.