July 29, 2009 –
Larry Smarr creatively explains CALIT2’s current state of affairs.
The CALIT2 Advisory Board welcomed new members last week when the group came together for its semi-annual meeting. The 16-person board meets by way of teleconference in January and in person at the end of July, alternating between the two division locations. This year’s meeting was held at the UCI building and focused on the state of CALIT2 and its future challenges and goals.
Utilizing a new zooming presentation tool, Director Larry Smarr creatively displayed CALIT2’s past research activities in a forward-thinking perspective. Four theme areas were discussed: health, energy, environment and culture. Board members were apprised of the activities underway in each area, ranging from academic and industry participation to technology developments to research success stories.
“We don’t consider these to be themes in isolation,” Smarr explained. “There are many activities that cross into more than one, if not all, of the areas.” To further emphasize his point, Smarr spread himself across the projected image and told the group to “think of one big ameba whose shape is constantly changing as it freely flows from one concept to another.”
Advisory Board learns more about research projects in the Zeiss Center
Complementary to the application themes are four core technology strengths the two campuses bring to the multidisciplinary institute. They include work in wireless, photonics, nano/MEMs technologies and cyberspace.
The two division directors shared progress made in their respective core strengths. G.P. Li explained UCI’s efforts in nanotechnology and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMs); while UCSD’s Ramesh Rao presented research advances in the wireless arena.
Board members weighed in on the presentation, with most indicating that the framing ideally matched the nation’s economic stimulus plan.
Visualization Lab
“I encourage the directors to be thinking in terms of what the top three challenges are in the four application areas that CALIT2 wants to solve,” said board member Duane Roth, CEO of CONNECT. “Consider what the real technical challenges are that CALIT2 can solve, and then dig in.”
Added MIT’s Joe Sussman, “Look at those four theme areas from an economic development perspective, from a micro to a macro level.”
On the first night of the two-day meeting, board members were joined by deans and senior administrators from both campuses to tour the CALIT2 Irvine building, stopping at several labs to view research demonstrations. The group learned about efforts underway in e-health, environment, and game culture and education. In the visualization lab, HIPerWall at UCI was connected live to its sister project HIPerSpace at UCSD, allowing researchers from both divisions to share their collaborative efforts via virtual real-time presence.
Board members discuss the four application areas economic impact.
“I’ve really learned a lot in two days about CALIT2,” said new board member David Schramm, CEO of Maxwell Technologies. “I found this a very productive meeting and encourage the institute to consider its value proposition …who can you jump in front of and get them to say, ‘I need what you are doing.’”
The CALIT2 Advisory Board comprises representatives from industry, venture capital, policy and academia. Current members include:
Mark Anderson, chief executive officer, Strategic News Service;
Vinton G. Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist, Google;
Robert W Conn, president, The Kavli Foundation;
Deborah Estrin, professor of computer science & director of the Center for Embedded
Network Systems, University of California, Los Angeles;
Raouf Y. Halim, chief executive officer, Mindspeed Technologies, Inc.;
Dennis Lettenmaier, professor of civil and environmental engineering, University of Washington;
Roberto Padovani, executive vice president and chief technology officer, QUALCOMM;
Anne Peterson, deputy director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University;
Duane Roth, chief executive officer, CONNECT;
Stanton Rowe, corporate vice president for advanced technology, Edwards Lifesciences;
David Schramm, president and chief executive officer, Maxwell Technologies;
Joesph Sussman, professor of engineering systems and civil and environmental engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Andrew Viterbi, president, The Viterbi Group, professor emeritus, University of California, San Diego;
Telle Whitney, president and CEO, Anita Borg Institute.
