High-Tech Institute at UCSD to Showcase Research, Demonstrate New Technologies

News Releases

August 25, 2003
Media Contact: Doug Ramsey, (858) 822-5825

High-Tech Institute at UCSD to Showcase Research, Demonstrate New Technologies

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology [Cal-(IT)2] will showcase its current research projects and focus on future technologies at a conference and open house in late September. Cal-(IT)²Day@UCSD will be a “day of technology demonstrations and discussions,” including a conference at which more than two dozen UCSD faculty will make presentations. Attendees will also tour facilities, and view research posters of Cal-(IT)² graduate Fellows and undergraduate Scholars.

The event will take place September 24, 2003, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the Price Center on the UCSD campus in La Jolla, California. “This event will provide a glimpse at how our world will change as a result of emerging telecommunications and information technologies,” said Ramesh Rao, Cal-(IT)² division director at UCSD and professor in the Jacobs School of Engineering. “This is a chance for professionals, executives, lawmakers and others to experience the future. We will be demonstrating research, development, and deployment projects, including technologies that do not exist anywhere else.”

Cal-(IT)²

San Diego Telecom Council

San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce

BIOCOM

San Diego Software Industry Council

Those technologies include the CyberShuttle. Visitors will be able to ride the world's first regular bus service to offer broadband Web access -- even with the bus traveling at 65 miles per hour. Attendees will also be able to tour the Cal-(IT)²-funded Visualization Center at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, a three-million pixel wide-screen display, for viewing 3D computer images in an "immersive" environment that is hooked up to a similar facility at San Diego State University. They will also have the chance to visit the construction site of the emerging 215,000-gross-square-foot building funded by the State of California.

Among the topics to be discussed during the conference: sensors, new materials and devices; medical technologies and bioinformatics; automotive telematics; networking; wireless and optical communications; new media arts and visualization; culture, art and technology in education; and geosciences. The conference will also feature a panel of senior officials from state and federal agencies that are funding Cal-(IT)² projects.

Organizers have also arranged the day’s events to permit maximum interaction between Cal-(IT)² participants, partners and visitors from corporations, local government, and funding agencies. The afternoon session will end with a roundtable discussion among UCSD deans, moderated by Cal-(IT)² director Larry Smarr, about the future of the research university – and the role that interdisciplinary institutes such as Cal-(IT)² will play. Added Rao: “This event will provide an opportunity to share with current and potential UCSD industry sponsors our success in leveraging corporate support to obtain additional funding.”

There is no fee to participate in Cal-(IT)²Day@UCSD, and the public is invited. Attendees are asked to pre-register online at www.calit2.net/calit2day. For more information about the institute, go to www.calit2.net.

Association Sponsors for this event include the San Diego Telecom Council, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, BIOCOM, and San Diego Software Industry Council