The Graduate Students Association at UCLA is expanding its presence as a resource center for employment opportunities with new initiatives this year. The agenda includes revamping student outreach and launching an interdepartmental employment program called the TA Marketplace, said GSA President Michael Skiles. That idea first emerged in spring, amid complaints of teaching assistant shortages […]
Author Archives: Allison Ong
Shorter life sciences core series to debut in fall with video lectures
A new life sciences series will begin replacing the current Life Sciences Core Curriculum with video-based lectures in fall 2016. The new series will shorten the existing course sequence by one quarter. The Department of Life Sciences Core Education designed the Life Sciences 7 series to increase student retention and reduce the time needed to […]
Architecture programs build on an interdisciplinary approach
Robots may soon be an architect’s newest hammer and nails. Two large blue robotic arms perch on tracks in the back of a local industrial building leased by UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design. The 330-pound machines – the largest industrial robots used by an American college – can be found in the newly-relocated IDEAS […]
Students improve Wikipedia’s science, build skills and benefit all
In Heather Tienson’s biochemistry advanced honors seminar, students don’t cite Wikipedia articles for their research assignments: they rewrite them. Tienson’s Chemistry 189 students this quarter edited scientific Wikipedia articles as part the Year of Science, a program launched by the Wiki Education Foundation to expand reliable science content on Wikipedia. Multiple teachers at UCLA have […]
Volunteers seek to improve patient safety at UCLA medical centers
During a typical volunteer shift at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Melinda Ng patrols the clinic floors to ensure nurses, physicians and surgeons wash their hands with soap for at least 15 seconds before rinsing. Ng, a fourth-year biochemistry student, is a leader of Measuring to Achieve Patient Safety, or MAPS, a student organization that […]
UCLA team of scientists explores Mojave Desert for meteorites
The Mojave Desert’s dusty red plains constitute a vast landscape of sand, creosote bush and cinder-cone mountains – sparse, uninhabited and dry. But on certain days, a team of UCLA geologists, cosmochemists and planetary scientists scours acres of the desert landscape for meteorites, chunks of rock that have fallen from space. Next month, when temperatures […]
UCLA class cultivates awareness of Mesoamerican languages, history
Eduardo de la Cruz intones a ritual prayer to bless seeds of corn in a UCLA professor’s backyard one Friday afternoon. Earlier that day, a group of UCLA students dug little holes in a patch of soft dirt in preparation for the blessing. One by one, they offer food to a ceremonial altar decked with […]