Freshman Seminars 2025 Fall

WebReg registration begins each quarter on Monday of the 8th week of instruction. Windows open from 7 a.m. through 7 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.

University Studies

Enrollment in Uni Stu 3 will be restricted to freshmen until the day the 18-unit enrollment limit is lifted. After this date, enrollment in Uni Stu 3 will be open to all lower-division undergraduates.

For more information on the Freshman Seminars, please visit Freshman Seminar website or call the Undergraduate/Undeclared Advising Office at 949-824-6987. Students may enroll in a maximum of three freshman seminars during their entire time at UCI.

Unlocking the Leader Within: Leadership Principles for Pre-Health Students

How do you find a great mentor in the healthcare field? What should you do to optimize your shadowing experience? How can you avoid burnout while pursuing your professional goals? What are the best practices for leading a student organization? Leadership principles can help you successfully optimize your experience as a student and future healthcare trainee. This course is an introduction to important leadership principles such as emotional intelligence, finding your why, position-less leadership and conflict resolution.

A Gentle Introduction to Robot Motion Planning

The objective of this seminar series is to introduce UCI freshman students to the world of robot motion planning. A robot’s ability to plan its movement without explicit human guidance is a basic prerequisite for robotic autonomy. The objective of motion planning algorithms is to enable an autonomous mobile robot to determine its movements in a cluttered environment to achieve various goals while avoiding collisions. This seminar series cover deterministic classical motion planning algorithms, including sensor-based planning, decomposition and search-based planning. The course intends to expose undergraduate students (Engineering and Computer Science) to solution approaches to problems that they may encounter in emerging technologies and disciplines such as autonomous driving and transportation, smart manufacturing, and general mechanical and aerospace robotic applications.

Drugs

The majority of individuals in modern society will use drugs at some point in their lives. Most drugs will be taken for legitimate medical purposes, while some are used recreationally. In a very basic manner, this course will introduce students to human physiology, how drugs work and where they come from, some common health issues and the drugs used to treat them, and some well-known recreational drugs.

Crafting Software: Opportunities and Challenges in Software Engineering

Embark on a 10-week exploration in “Crafting Software,” a dynamic course delving into the ever-evolving landscape of software engineering. Uncover historical foundations, unravel the mysteries of AI, and understand the human dimensions in collaborative coding. Navigate the intricate balance between software and business, learn about modular design, software testing, and requirements engineering. Traverse privacy and security concerns, ethical dilemmas, and gain insights into future trends. Conclude with stimulating discussions, reflecting on innovations, challenges, and opportunities in the field. Join us in “Crafting Software,” an immersive journey exploring the art and science of software engineering with a keen focus on innovation and the future.

How to stop blaming your brain

Short: Neurodivergence, ADHD, and addiction—how “neuro-narratives” are used to blame the individual for society’s problems, and what you can do to cut through the junk.

Long: Is everyone really “neurodivergent?” Is the “attention crisis” a problem of people, culture, or marketing? Is addiction a “brain disease?” Across ten meetings, we will learn how to separate fact from fiction in these and other common _neuro-narratives_: descriptions of the way people act that place ultimate responsibility on the brain. We will examine examples of these kinds of explanations in news articles, popular media, and works of fiction. We will see how a focus on the brain often makes it more difficult to address the real issues that people are facing. Students will leave the course armed to dispel common myths and help themselves and others resist this modern method of individualizing social problems.

Pathophysiology of Human Vision

This series of discussions include summaries of eye evolution, eye embryology and common ocular anomalies, normal adult ocular anatomy and physiology and histopathology of common ocular diseases including refractive errors, color vision, stereopsis and visual perception. This information should be valuable for any career in health sciences including nursing, medical technology, dentistry and medicine.

Photography Techniques

This seminar will discuss the physics of modern-day digital cameras and lenses and will discuss different photography composition techniques for portrait, landscape, and other types of photos. The seminar will also explore analysis methods including software such as Lightroom. This seminar is part technology and part creative applications. A genuine interest in photography and an access to at least an entry level DSLR is essential to get the most out of this seminar series.

O-Chem Edge

Who Are You?: Negotiating Sociality Across Gender, Ethnic, Cultural, and Class Differences

If there is a “you” there, what is it? And how do you know? Put differently, ever wonder why it is easier to communicate with some people more than others, to be “yourself” in some sociocultural contexts more than others? This course seeks to explain issues related to social identity, including cultural, gender, and ethnic variables, that directly inform our ability to communicate and perform in social, working, and creative environments. We will look at sociocultural structures and their processes for meaning-making and societal consolidation, but also to research in social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, neurochemistry, and performance studies that helps us to contextualize and analyze the structures through a truly interdisciplinary approach. For instance, we will explore how people foster interiority and exclusivity in the interest of learning how established societal boundaries can be crossed with facility and felicity. Comprehension of the means by which people are socialized and inculcated into a particular ideology, sensibility, and aesthetics can be vital to developing rapport and liking between people and groups that occupy different demographics and might even be programmed in oppositional ways, such as between, generally speaking, men and woman, white and nonwhite, national and immigrant, western and eastern, class differences, and so on. This course will provide students with not only a richer understanding of sociality and the cultural constructions on which it mutually depends, but also tools with which to access, negotiate, and even benefit from them.

The reading for the course will be limited to a short essay for each meeting, and the emphasis will be on classroom discussion. A short reflection paper will be due at the end of the course, in which students will discuss a topic that was especially meaningful to them.

Amazing Inventors in Communications and Computing

One proved he invented the radio prior to G. Marconi. Two claim they invented the telephone prior to A. G. Bell; the US congress passed a resolution declaring one of them as the true inventor of the telephone. One was a genius who invented most of today’s radio technology. One was a famous actress who invented and patented a secret communications system. After his subordinates showed a working prototype of the transistor, one established the theory of another kind of transistor which became the most frequently used one. Two built the first popular microcomputer and then the first user-friendly computer. One wrote the first compiler for the first microcomputer kit, dropped out of college, then formed the largest software company in the world. Two envisioned and invented the protocol that built the Internet. Major inventions in communications and computing have changed our lives in substantial ways. Their inventors are highly driven and dedicated people who often risk everything to make their inventions work and get adopted. This seminar will study a number of these amazing people’s stories in depth. Students will understand how those inventions were made and how they transformed our lives as well as those of who invented them. The seminar will use a number of lectures, videos, and Internet research.

Into the Wild

Discover the Great Outdoors at your doorstep. Put the book (phone) down and climb a rock, take a hike, kayak the Back Bay, and make some friends. While (re-)discovering your love for nature with your fellow anteaters, meet Earth System scientists who study the causes, consequences, and solutions for climate change and how we can live more sustainably on our amazing planet. Insta-worthy pics. No experience required.

Authentic Health Career Exploration

Ready to embark on a fulfilling health career that resonates with your values and goals? Our course, tailored for first-generation and marginalized students, offers a unique journey of self-discovery. It’s designed to bridge pathway gaps and provide essential resources, empowering you to unlock and explore genuine health career potentials. Embrace an empowering path towards becoming a future healthcare leader, where critical assessment meets personal aspirations. Discover and align your career with your identity and goals. Your authentic path in the health professions awaits!

Animal models for drug discovery

Why do scientists study fruit flies, zebrafish, or mice? This seminar will explore how and why animal models are used to understand human biology and disease. Students will learn about major discoveries made through model organisms, ethical considerations in animal research, and how these systems contribute to drug development and genetics. No prior lab or biology experience is required—just curiosity and a willingness to explore!

Introduction to AI in Software Engineering: Foundations, Applications, and Future Trends

This course offers an introductory exploration of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the field of software engineering. Students will learn the foundational principles of Software Engineering, AI and discover how these AI technologies are applied across various software development stages. Topics include AI-driven code generation, bug detection, testing, optimization, and natural language processing (NLP) in software documentation, future trends of AI in software engineering. The course will conclude with stimulating discussions, reflecting on innovations, challenges, and opportunities in the field.

Controlling the World with Your Mind – Brain-Computer Interfaces for Communication and Control

Neuroscience research has rapidly evolved through the development of brain-computer interface systems. Through the use of noninvasive brain measurements, such as electroencephalogram (EEG), patients are now able to communicate, regain motor function, and control their world around them. This series will provide insight into the neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and computer science concepts behind brain-computer interfaces and their applications.

Unaffiliated

DROP: The deadline to drop courses is the end of Week 2 by 5:00PM. Drops can be made in WebReg.
CHANGE: The deadline to change grade option or variable units is the end of Week 2 by 5:00PM. Changes can be made in WebReg.
ADD: The deadline to add courses is the end of Week 2 by 5:00PM. Adds can be made in WebReg.