CITRIS and the Banatao Institute

Creating information technology solutions for society's most pressing challenges

UC Santa Cruz

Proximity to Silicon Valley makes UC Santa Cruz a natural place to engage the world’s industrial leaders and put new technology solutions to work. CITRIS Santa Cruz explores the design of new systems for immersive video and augmented reality, intelligent media for social good, and exploring the intersection of computing approaches from artificial intelligence, computer graphics, and software engineering with art and design. Creating new forms of interactive media with autonomous, generative, and dynamic responses to interaction has broad applications to fields from education, health, and entertainment to security and safety.

CITRIS Santa Cruz also examines the societal impact of CPS and IoT. Just as desktop computers and personal computing became commonplace decades ago, consumers are now acclimating to the idea that the objects they handle, the media they use, and the services they employ to process information are embedded with intelligence to improve everyday life.

Contact CITRIS and the Banatao Institute, Santa Cruz

Visit the CITRIS Santa Cruz website

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i4Energy Seminar: Electrical Efficiency Trends of Computation over Time

This talk will describe long-term trends in the electrical efficiency of computation that enabled the development of laptops and other mobile computing devices. If these trends continue, they presage continued further improvements in battery powered computers, sensors, and controls.

Research Exchange: Security For and From GPS

These days, GPS is used by all of us, and our application space is partially spanned by the following far-flung examples. Several hundred million GPS chip sets were shipped as part of cell phones last year, where they added about $2 to the bill or materials. These will support consumer applications like location specific advertising.

i4Energy Seminar: Smart Grid – What is it and Why is it Necessary?

While there has been significant press attention towards the “smart grid”, there has been little public discussion of what a smart grid is, and the follow on question of why is it necessary. To many, smart grid means smart meters; however, meters are the tip of iceberg. Unravel the mystery as SDG&E, one of the leading utilities in the smart grid arena nationwide, provides a definition of the smart grid and, more importantly why it is imperative, particularly in California.

Research Exchange: Meta Mouse

Enabling computer-based education in the developing world requires addressing significant resource limitations. Students often sit with two or more peers at a computer, and learning in this environment can be a challenge. For this reason, the idea of multiple-mouse interfaces has gained traction, allowing each student to directly interact with educational applications. However, major roadblocks exist to adoption and use of these technologies.

CITRIS / BSAC Workshop Sensors: Power Distribution: Operation, Fault Detection, and Maintenance

This workshop aims at bringing together researcher and presentations related to diagnostic methods and sensors for enhancing the reliability and improving fault detection for the power distribution grid. Among other, our goal is to stimulate the discussion on how such sensors and diagnostics/fault information can be integrated into the upcoming “Smart Grid” infrastructure.

CITRIS/CSE talk on Science and the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

How can science support efforts to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons and strengthen non-proliferation? Science and scientists have been engaged in support of many security building and arms control and disarmament efforts within different political and administrative frames.

Noah Wardrip-Fruin

Noah Wardrip-Fruin is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he co-directs the Expressive Intelligence Studio, one of the world’s largest technical research groups focused on games. He also directs the Playable Media group in UCSC’s Digital Arts and New Media program. Noah’s research areas include new models of storytelling in games, how games express ideas through play, and how games can help broaden understanding of the power of computation.

Matthew Guthaus

Matthew Guthaus received his BSE in Computer Engineering in 1998, MSE in 2000, and PhD in 2006 in Electrical Engineering from The University of Michigan (UM). Matthew is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the Computer Engineering department. His research interests are in high-performance and low-power clock distribution; design for variability and reliability; and computer-aided design of Integrated Circuits.

Christopher Wilmers

Large predators often have disproportionately large impacts on ecosystems relative to other organisms, yet they have been vastly understudied relative to other taxonomic groups. With most large predators now in decline worldwide, our lab group’s focus is to better understand the physiology, behavior and ecology of predators so as to better inform their management and conservation. Our interests within this space are broad, however our current focus is on three main questions:

1. How do consumers influence population through community response to climate change?

DASH to the Next Gen of Robots: Small, Cheap, and Feral

The Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod is a micro-robot made of paperboard and off-the-shelf electronics that could assist in recovery from natural disasters by crawling into spaces too dangerous for rescue workers to enter.

February Newsletter is online

The latest CITRIS newsletter is now online, witha story about a micro-robot made of paperboard and off-the-shelf electronics that could assist in recovery from natural disasters, and an interview with Greg Niemeyer, who creates games that can help engage people with serious issues, particularly that of climate change.

CITRIS Faculty Weigh in on COP15

On December 7, 2009, representatives of the world’s governments convene
in Copenhagen, Denmark, seeking agreement between nations to regulate
and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions after 2012, when the current
treaty, known as the Kyoto Protocol, expires.