Dear Members and Friends of CITRIS,
Dear members and friends of CITRIS,
Summer may be coming to an end, but here at CITRIS, it is a time of new
beginnings. With the plans completed and the budget approved,
construction on the new CITRIS headquarters building has begun. Our
first newsletter feature focuses on one especially exciting portion of
the new building: the CITRIS Nanolab Center. Building upon Berkeley's
proud tradition of university-based microfabrication facilities, this
state-of-the-art facility will facilitate future breakthroughs in
nanoscale technologies and further our collaborations among CITRIS
campuses and with industry.
Among
the important research we expect to happen at the lab is in the area of
health care. Our second newsletter feature discusses CITRIS's work to
harness the best of information and communication technologies for the
delivery of health care. Reducing the costs and improving the quality
of our health care is, I believe, one of the most urgent societal
problems our nation faces.
Thank you for your
continued interest and support of CITRIS. We here are excited about all
the excellent work our researchers and partners are doing, and hope you
are as well. As always, we welcome your comments and ideas.
Professor Shankar Sastry
Director
Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society
UC Santa Cruz creates new major in computer game design
The University of California, Santa Cruz, has approved a new major in
computer game design, the first of its kind in the UC system. The new
major, leading to a B.S. degree, provides students with a rigorous
background in the technical, artistic, and narrative elements of
creating interactive computer games.
SmartMeters for California approved
A recent vote by the California's Public Utilities Commission paved the
way for a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. plan to upgrade all of the
company's residential electricity and natural gas meters, to
SmartMeters, which are based on CITRIS research through the Demand
Response project. An ABC news segment highlighted the work as well.
Distinguished Speaker Series
There will be one CITRIS Distinguished talk on the UC Berkeley campus
in September. On September 25, Dr. Peter Norvig from Google will speak
in the HP Auditorium in Soda Hall at 4:00 p.m. This talk will be
broadcast live online and archived on our website. Please see CDS-Sept-25-2006 for more information.
CITRIS Research Exchange
The fall schedule for the popular CITRIS Research Exchange series is
now out. These talks are held every Wednesday at noon in 290 Hearst
Memorial Mining Building on the UC Berkeley campus, and lunch is
provided. These talks are all free, open to the general public,
broadcast live online and archived on our website. Please see the flyer
for a complete list of speakers and topics at RE-fall2006.