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Posting from the UCI Graduate Division & Graduate Resource Center 💛💙
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Thinking about grad school or actively applying?
Come check out 105 graduate school programs on Ring Road!

Week 5
Tuesday, Oct 27
11 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Here’s your chance to meet admissions representatives, learn about a wide variety of programs, and get your questions answered all in one place! Come out and explore your options!

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Next up in our grad spotlight series is Clara Bradley, logic & philosophy of science Ph.D. ’24. The universe presents physicists with enough problems of its own; Clara studies the ones physicists create for themselves. When scientists develop a theory, what exactly have they discovered? When two theories appear different but make the same predictions, are they describing the same reality? And when physicists claim to understand the world, what kind of understanding have they achieved?⁠
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As a philosopher of science whose research sits at the intersection of physics, mathematics and philosophy, these are the kinds of questions Clara explores. They are also the questions that first captured her imagination as a teenager and eventually led her from England to @ucirvine, home to one of the world’s top five programs in both philosophy of physics and mathematics before joining the faculty at University College London.⁠
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To understand Clara’s work, it helps to understand the discipline she chose to pursue. For most people, philosophy and physics seem worlds apart. One discipline brings to mind images of laboratories and equations; the other, abstract debates about knowledge and truth. Clara’s work exists where those worlds meet.⁠
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"Philosophy of science seeks to understand how science works, why scientific knowledge is trustworthy and how scientific practice can be improved," she says.⁠
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The field steps back from scientific discoveries themselves to examine the processes that produce them. It asks how theories are developed, how evidence functions and what scientists mean when they claim to know something about the world. Yet these questions touch on how human beings make sense of reality. For Clara, they have been a lifelong fascination.⁠
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More at our link in bio. ⁠

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Considering grad school 🎓 or currently applying? This series is for ALL MAJORS to get insights into the application process and expert tips on how you can create a strong application.

Join us Oct 26- Nov 9! Register for all events on Handshake 🤝

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Our next grad spotlight features Temitope Famodu, global studies Ph.D. ’26. After receiving their undergraduate degree, Temi worked in nonprofit organizations serving refugees and students in Chicago. The work was meaningful, but they found themself preoccupied by larger structural questions. They wanted to understand the forces shaping displacement, migration and inequality. Why were people moving to the U.S.? How did global politics shape local experiences? What could organizations realistically accomplish within larger systems?⁠
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One of their undergraduate mentors encouraged them to consider graduate school and pointed them toward the relatively new doctoral program in global studies at @ucirvine.⁠
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"What I love about it is that it's transdisciplinary," they say. "I think that is the best way to approach learning about anything, especially in a time of multiple crises. I wish that global studies was a standard pedagogical orientation because I think it helps to deepen understanding in any line of educational inquiry," they add.⁠
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Temi successfully defended their dissertation in May and graduated in June. They plan to pursue academic positions while transforming their dissertation into a book-length manuscript. The foundation and expertise they have gained as a Ph.D. student at UC Irvine are unlikely to lose their urgency.⁠
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"My skill set will always be relevant, no matter what industry or place I end up in," they say. "I think we will always need to examine how power operates on a global scale by centering the lived-experiences of people who have been structurally dispossessed."⁠
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Link in bio. Temi in Budapest.

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MECPS on the move! 🧭
Yesterday, we joined Graduate Student Affairs at @calpolypomona. Today, we're at @callutheran!

Come say hi! 💬
Fall 2027 applications are open! 🎓

Up next: @ucdavis and @santaclarauniversity!

#UCIrvine #UCIMECPS #GraduateSchool #Drones #Engineering #ComputerEngineering #IoT #AutonomousNavigation #CalPolyPomona #CPP #CalLutheran

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Next up in our grad spotlight series is Jiaxuan Li. She chose to attend @ucirvine because she saw a rare intellectual culture. "The department really fosters an atmosphere of intellectual conversation,” she says. “Everyone is so interested in research and so willing to share their expertise and interests." ⁠
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Jiaxuan earned her Ph.D. in language science from UC Irvine in March after spending the last five years studying what happens when the brain encounters moments of confusion. Her dissertation examined what are called “hallucinations” in language comprehension, or moments when people mentally fix errors in a sentence without even noticing.⁠
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“Our brains are so good at predicting what is plausible,” Jiaxuan says. “Sometimes they give a good-enough answer rather than a perfect answer because this is more efficient.” ⁠
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This, she argues, is not a flaw but a feature of human cognition. Our brains rely on shortcuts, or what scientists call heuristics, to process language quickly and efficiently. She used EEG recordings, which measure electrical activity in the brain, along with computer modeling to study how the brain responds to language. Rather than simply tracking when people mentally correct errors, Jiaxuan wanted to better understand the hidden cognitive processes that make those corrections possible.⁠
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The same questions that guided Jiaxuan’s dissertation are now shaping her work in artificial intelligence. After graduating from UC Irvine, Jiaxuan is bringing those ideas into industry with jobs at Amazon and Apple. ⁠
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Learn how at our link in bio.⁠
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Of her UCI experience, she adds: “I benefited enormously from my time at UCI because it gave me the confidence to take on new challenges. As long as you’re asking meaningful questions and using the best tools available to answer them, you can feel confident that you’re doing good science.” Jiaxuan Li at Big Bear Lake in 2022.

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Next up in our grad spotlight series: Leah Ruppanner sociology M.A. ’06, Ph.D. ’09. An internationally renowned sociologist and @ucirvine alum, Leah wants to help people to understand, measure and manage the emotional thinking that’s zapping their energy. She’s turned years of research on gender, work and family into a practical guide for the exhausted and overwhelmed – and readers are eating it up. Her first book for general audiences, Drained: Reduce Your Mental Load to Do Less and Be More (@penguinrandomhouse) has been internationally distributed, and is now being translated into Spanish. ⁠
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“When you’re doomscrolling on TikTok or Instagram, you’re burning through your mental load, and the result is that you feel immobilized,” Leah says. “My concept can help you understand why this is a waste, and how to move toward action.”⁠
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As a professor of sociology at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and founding director of The Future of Work Lab and the Gender Equity Initiative, Leah studies “gender at the intersection of everything,” including technology, politics, the workplace and homelife. She traces many elements of her successful international career as a scholar, author and podcaster back to her time as a graduate student at UC Irvine, where she earned her master’s in demography and population studies in 2006 and her doctorate in sociology in 2009.⁠
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“It’s really about the people,” she says. “The people I was with at UC Irvine showed me a wider blueprint of pathways that I could take.”⁠
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More at our link in bio. Leah Ruppanner

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Our MECPS team is at the @loyolamarymount Fall 2026 Career and Graduate School Expo today! 👋📍

Thinking about what comes next? Stop by, tell us what you are working toward, and let’s talk about MECPS💡

Next stop: @syracuseu, October 2! 🚀

#UCIrvine #UCIMECPS #GraduateSchool #GraduatePrograms #EmbeddedSystems #CyberPhysicalSystems #CareerDevelopment #Drones #Engineering #ComputerEngineering #IoT

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And just like that, the new academic year is underway! 🎓✨

Yesterday, we welcomed our MECPS 2026–27 cohort at New Graduate Student Orientation. Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make the day such a great start to the year! 💙💛

Welcome to MECPS! We are so excited to have you here.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Fall 2026 quarter! 🚀

#UCIrvine #UCIMECPS #GraduateSchool #NewStudents #StudentExperience #EmbeddedSystems #CyberPhysicalSystems #IoT #Engineering #ComputerScience #Lidar #AutonomousNavigation #IEEE

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We had an amazing time at the Great Minds in STEM 2026 Career and Graduate School Fair! ✨

Thank you to everyone who stopped by! It was wonderful meeting you and hearing about your goals.

Next up: welcoming our MECPS 2026–27 cohort and heading to San José State! 🎓🚀

Thinking about your next step? Come talk to us and let’s see where MECPS can take you.

#UCIrvine #UCIMECPS #GraduateSchool #GradSchool #EmbeddedSystems #CyberPhysicalSystems #CareerDevelopment #GreatMindsInSTEM #IoT

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Have you added the GFH Community Event to your calendar yet?!

All Graduate and Family Housing residents are invited to attend.

Wednesday, September 30th
5-7 p.m.
Verano Community Center lawn!

Come spend an evening of celebration as we kick off the academic year together with staff and residents.

🍴Food from Panini Kabob Grill
🎶Music
🍧Kona Ice truck
🏘️ Housing and Campus Resources
🎉 Giveaways
📸 Take photos with Peter the Anteater

Register on ZotSpot today— don’t wait to RSVP!

Link in bio

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