Every year the Undergrad Affairs Committee organizes an informational session about graduate school. This year the panel was moderated by Sierra Schwellenbach, a member of the undergraduate affairs committee and included Dr. Aishwarya Thiruvengadam, Professor William Wang, Jack Alexander and Maddie Foster.

Dr. Thiruvengadam and Professor Wang spoke about what research is, their experiences conducting current original research and how undergrads can get involved. Jack Alexander, currently a graduate student in the 5-year BS-MS degree program spoke encouraged students to be persistent in searching for research opportunities, even when it seems discouraging. He also spoke about how undergraduates can gain more domain expertise by taking graduate electives. Maddie Foster is a counselor at UCSB's Career Services and offered her professional insight gained from advising STEM students about all post-graduation tracks. Over 40 undergraduate students attended and had many valuable discussions with the panelists. This year, the event is organized by Dr. Diba Mirza, and we welcome your thoughts about future panels on undergraduate research and graduate school.