For the full class schedule, descriptions, and to register, please visit the UConn Recreation website (https://recreation.uconn.edu/group-fitness-schedule/).

Opera Outreach & Scenes provides many performing opportunities for students involved. Those enrolled stage several junior operas and visit various local schools to perform for children and teach them about opera. This course is also comprised of a robust scenes program. A scenes recital occurs each semester in which students perform scenes and excerpts from various operas, operettas, and musicals.

Prospective Holster Scholars Program applicants are invited to an application workshop/writing retreat in advance of the fall application deadline. The Holster Scholars Program will provide light refreshments. Program coordinator Dr. Vin Moscardelli and past Holster Scholars will be on hand to answer questions and provide feedback. This is a "drop in" writing retreat designed to provide a quiet, dedicated space for prospective applicants to make progress on their applications ahead of the deadline. There will not be a formal program or presentation, nor do you have to stay the entire time.   Preregistration not required.

The Connecticut Writing Project (CWP) sponsors Connecticut Student Writers (CSW), a magazine established in 1987 by the CWP to honor excellence in writing by students from kindergarten through high school. The highlight of the publication process is the Student Recognition Night, a celebration hosted by the CWP on the UConn campus. For more details on how to submit, visit the CWP website linked below.

Enjoy this unique exhibition of rock music memorabilia from the archive of editor, journalist, and radio disc jockey Ken Best. This personal collection features decades worth of iconic photos, album covers, posters and promotional materials that Best has amassed while writing about music for newspapers in New Jersey and Connecticut and interviewing musicians and authors on the radio at WPKN in Bridgeport and WHUS in Storrs. Highlighted will be 50 photos of major rock 'n' roll figures by Connecticut photographer Joseph Sia, including his famous image of Jimi Hendrix at Woolsey Hall in New Haven in 1968, known as "The Shadow," from Best and Sia's 1992 book,Eight Days a Week: An Illustrated Record of Rock 'n' Roll (Pomegranate Books).

UConn and UConn Health faculty, staff, and students from all disciplines are invited to submit striking research images, graphics, or artwork. Winning entries will be displayed in OVPR spaces, transforming our walls into a gallery that celebrates the creativity and diversity of UConn research.  Showcase the beauty of your research – from stunning microscopy images and bold data visualizations to fieldwork photos and original research-inspired art. Share your work with the UConn community Celebrate the creativity that drives discovery Click here (https://research.uconn.edu/frame-contest/) for contest details and entry form. Deadline: November 10, 2025 Questions: Contact research@uconn.edu (mailto:research@uconn.edu).FRAME: A creative, engaging forum showcasing UConn research.

We are excited to announce that we will be hosting a series of information sessions to provide detailed insights into our Master of Public Health program. During these sessions, you will have the opportunity to explore the diverse field of public health and engage directly with the program director. You'll also be able to ask questions, participate in discussions, and gain a deeper understanding of the unique advantages of UConn's curriculum. This is for anyone curious about public health! We will be holding three virtual info sessions on the following dates: Monday, November 10th, 2025, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST Wednesday, November 19th, 2025, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST Wednesday, December 10th, 2025, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EST Register for dates here. SAVE the DATES and JOIN us for these sessions and take the first step toward an exciting journey with UConn's Master of Public Health program.

Entries open on October 1, 2025 at 10:00 AM EST and the deadline for entries for the Connecticut region is Tuesday, December 24, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST. For returning students, click here to upload entries for the Connecticut region for 2025-26. For new students, follow the directions in the Three Easy Steps to Enter below. We invite you to check out the entry process videos designed to help guide students through creating accounts, uploading original works, and completing their entries. Below you will find the information you need to enter the Connecticut Scholastic Art & Writing Awards: Three Easy Steps to Enter Sign up! Create an account at Scholastic How to Enter to enter your work to the 2025 Scholastic Awards. Note you will need the email address of a parent or guardian. Create and Upload Your Work. The Scholastic Awards looks for work that demonstrates originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. After you create your work, you can upload it to your Scholastic Awards Account. Once you have logged in, follow the instructions to upload all of your entries into the system. Every category has specific requirements so please read the Copyright & Plagiarism Guidelines and Category Descriptions carefully. Note that you will need your educator's email address. Pay for Your Work. After uploading your work, you will be prompted to pay for your entry through Stripe. The cost for an individual entry is $10 and a portfolio is $30. Please note fee waivers are available for teens who express that the fee poses a barrier to participation.

Opening reception will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6 at the gallery.

Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. and Pi Delta Psi Fraternity, Inc. are partnering to host a Thanksgiving Food Drive in support of the Covenant Soup Kitchen. Over the course of two weeks, we will collect non-perishable food donations from students, faculty, and community members to help provide meals for families in need during the holiday season. Donation boxes will be placed throughout campus, including at cultural centers, Rowe, Wilbur Cross, and other central locations. This initiative aims to foster community engagement, promote service, and highlight the importance of giving back. By working together, we hope to make a meaningful impact and ensure that more families can enjoy a warm meal this Thanksgiving!

This course consists of eight online modules that the student can complete independently. An instructor will meet virtually with the students weekly to review each module topic and answer questions. Expect to spend study time reviewing each module topic outside of the review class. A student who completes all the modules, works through the quizzes, and studies the resource materials independently should be able to pass both the written and oral state exam successfully.

All workshops are held for 6 hours virtually (on Teams), and open to all (both affiliates and non-affiliates of UConn). Topics and Dates: * Intro to R (November 13th) * Intro to Statistics in R (November 11th) * Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models (October 24th) * Mixed Effects Models (December 15th) $75/workshop for UConn affiliates and $90/workshop. These workshops are geared to providing practical instruction on these topics, allowing users to leave with skill they could use in their own research. All data and code that will be needed for the workshop or generated in the workshop will be made available to all participants so they will be able to revisit the material at any time on their own. See https://statsconsulting.uconn.edu/#workshops for more information.

All workshops are held for 6 hours virtually (on Teams), and open to all (both affiliates and non-affiliates of UConn). Topics and Dates: * Intro to R (November 13th) * Intro to Statistics in R (November 11th) * Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models (October 24th) * Mixed Effects Models (December 15th) $75/workshop for UConn affiliates and $90/workshop. These workshops are geared to providing practical instruction on these topics, allowing users to leave with skill they could use in their own research. All data and code that will be needed for the workshop or generated in the workshop will be made available to all participants so they will be able to revisit the material at any time on their own. See https://statsconsulting.uconn.edu/#workshops for more information.

All workshops are held for 6 hours virtually (on Teams), and open to all (both affiliates and non-affiliates of UConn). Topics and Dates: * Intro to R (November 13th) * Intro to Statistics in R (November 11th) * Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models (October 24th) * Mixed Effects Models (December 15th) $75/workshop for UConn affiliates and $90/workshop. These workshops are geared to providing practical instruction on these topics, allowing users to leave with skill they could use in their own research. All data and code that will be needed for the workshop or generated in the workshop will be made available to all participants so they will be able to revisit the material at any time on their own. See https://statsconsulting.uconn.edu/#workshops for more information.

For the full class schedule, descriptions, and to register, please visit the UConn Recreation website (https://recreation.uconn.edu/group-fitness-schedule/).

For the full class schedule, descriptions, and to register, please visit the UConn Recreation website (https://recreation.uconn.edu/group-fitness-schedule/).

Need advice, support, or tips to stay on track? Meet with a Peer Leader for a personalized consultation to: ✅ Create a study routine that works for you ✅ Get advice on recovering after midterms ✅ Learn tips to stay balanced, motivated, and focused 💡 No appointment needed—just drop in! 🕘 Walk-In Hours (CASE, Room 260): • Mondays 9:00 – 11:00 AM • Tuesdays 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM 💻 Remote / Virtual Hours: • Fridays 9:00 – 11:00 AM Link to join: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OTBjNjY4YTItNGFjNi00YmJkLWJkZGItYjY5NzhkNzg0MWNj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%2217f1a87e-2a25-4eaa-b9df-9d439034b080%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%227508f8ce-361f-42fe-9fdf-7599658ad547%22%7d Let's finish the semester strong—together! 💪🌟

Microbial communities profoundly impact host biology by influencing immune development, metabolic processes, and therapeutic outcomes. However, accurately profiling these communities at sufficient resolution to capture subtle, biologically meaningful differences remains challenging. Variability in microbiome composition—even among genetically identical laboratory animals under controlled conditions—can confound experimental results and hinder reproducibility. Addressing this challenge requires methods capable of experimentally standardizing microbiomes and computationally profiling them with strain-level resolution. First, I will present a bioinformatics workflow capable of handling large-scale microbiome datasets with high resolution. This workflow was used to demonstrate that a single antibiotic-free cecal microbiome transplantation (CMT) effectively standardizes gut microbiomes across genetically diverse mouse populations, reducing unwanted variability without promoting antibiotic-resistant pathogens. I will then introduce AmpliconHunter, a tool developed to facilitate precise identification and tracking of these microbiomes. AmpliconHunter is a highly scalable computational tool for accurate PCR amplicon sequence prediction using degenerate primers. Its performance enables efficient strain-level profiling and evaluation of primer pairs with similar accuracy and significantly improved speed when compared to existing methods. I will also detail my work creating AmpliconHunter2: a SIMD-accelerated update to the original that completes analysis for V1V9 primers on the ~2.4M genomes from the AllTheBacteria project in 38.73 minutes, compared to 419.45 minutes for AmpliconHunter (~10.8x speedup). Finally, I will introduce another tool: Microbiome HiFi Amplicon Sequence Simulator (MHASS) creates realistic synthetic PacBio HiFi amplicon sequencing datasets for microbiome studies, by integrating genome-aware abundance modeling, realistic dual-barcoding strategies, and empirically derived pass-number distributions from actual sequencing runs. MHASS generates datasets tailored for rigorous benchmarking and validation of long-read microbiome analysis workflows, including ASV clustering and taxonomic assignment. Together, these innovations will provide practical, robust and scalable methods to address microbiome variability, improving reproducibility and translational potential in microbiome-focused biomedical research. All tools are made available on GitHub under an MIT license. AmpliconHunter and AmpliconHunter2 are also made available as freely accessible web servers at https://ah1.engr.uconn.edu and https://ah2.engr.uconn.edu/.

Abstract: Microbial communities profoundly impact host biology by influencing immune development, metabolic processes, and therapeutic outcomes. However, accurately profiling these communities at sufficient resolution to capture subtle, biologically meaningful differences remains challenging. Variability in microbiome composition—even among genetically identical laboratory animals under controlled conditions—can confound experimental results and hinder reproducibility. Addressing this challenge requires methods capable of experimentally standardizing microbiomes and computationally profiling them with strain-level resolution. First, I will present a bioinformatics workflow capable of handling large-scale microbiome datasets with high resolution. This workflow was used to demonstrate that a single antibiotic-free cecal microbiome transplantation (CMT) effectively standardizes gut microbiomes across genetically diverse mouse populations, reducing unwanted variability without promoting antibiotic-resistant pathogens. I will then introduce AmpliconHunter, a tool developed to facilitate precise identification and tracking of these microbiomes. AmpliconHunter is a highly scalable computational tool for accurate PCR amplicon sequence prediction using degenerate primers. Its performance enables efficient strain-level profiling and evaluation of primer pairs with similar accuracy and significantly improved speed when compared to existing methods. I will also detail my work creating AmpliconHunter2: a SIMD-accelerated update to the original that completes analysis for V1V9 primers on the ~2.4M genomes from the AllTheBacteria project in 38.73 minutes, compared to 419.45 minutes for AmpliconHunter (~10.8x speedup). Finally, I will introduce another tool: Microbiome HiFi Amplicon Sequence Simulator (MHASS) creates realistic synthetic PacBio HiFi amplicon sequencing datasets for microbiome studies, by integrating genome-aware abundance modeling, realistic dual-barcoding strategies, and empirically derived pass-number distributions from actual sequencing runs. MHASS generates datasets tailored for rigorous benchmarking and validation of long-read microbiome analysis workflows, including ASV clustering and taxonomic assignment. Together, these innovations will provide practical, robust and scalable methods to address microbiome variability, improving reproducibility and translational potential in microbiome-focused biomedical research. All tools are made available on GitHub under an MIT license. AmpliconHunter and AmpliconHunter2 are also made available as freely accessible web servers at ah1.engr.uconn.edu (https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fah2.engr.uconn.edu%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cscott.cathcart%40uconn.edu%7Ced715e9889ed453f1e3508de1702a046%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638973497307282439%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=t8y8O3Bp7PLzt%2B2n%2FbU%2BphngUK7fDCsi0bfQ62np2F0%3D&reserved=0) and ah2.engr.uconn.edu (https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fah2.engr.uconn.edu%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cscott.cathcart%40uconn.edu%7Ced715e9889ed453f1e3508de1702a046%7C17f1a87e2a254eaab9df9d439034b080%7C0%7C0%7C638973497307308204%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Ndsyhc4WFLKZw0r3MmHs7ZFwzlmHjWTxofTSdKGlRC4%3D&reserved=0).

For the full class schedule, descriptions, and to register, please visit the UConn Recreation website (https://recreation.uconn.edu/group-fitness-schedule/).