Dear Members and Friends of CITRIS,
I
am pleased to announce the appointment of Thomas Nesbitt as CITRIS
Chief Scientist at UC Davis. This appointment further highlights the
central role telemedicine and remote health care have in the CITRIS
mandate. Dr. Nesbitt has been a key contributor to the evolution of
telemedicine since the first video-conferencing consultations between
doctors at UC Davis Medical College and those at remote hospitals and
clinics in the early 1990s. His work at Davis developing a thriving and
innovative program has already led to a more equitable distribution of
medical care and expertise throughout the state. However, and I think
he would agree, we have only begun to see the revolutionary influence
that new imaging, remote manipulation, and communication technologies
will have on how medicine is practiced in California and beyond. For
our part, some CITRIS scientists are developing inexpensive diagnostic
field tools that will allow for the quick evaluation of patients in
remote locations, while others are forging best practices for medical
centers that are trying to make their concentrated expertise and
information available to those who need it, regardless of location.
Other projects include the development of image recognition software
that may help hospitals triage emergency patients before they even
arrive in the ER and the design of ways to protect the security and
privacy of patients as their images and other sensitive data are passed
between different institutions.
This month’s
newsletter also looks at another potential revolution, one taking place
in UC Merced’s classrooms and computer laboratories. Jeffrey Wright,
Merced’s Dean of Engineering and the CITRIS Director at Merced, is
determined to cultivate open source software both as a practical
alternative to relatively costly and rigid proprietary software, and as
a metaphor for rigorous, cooperative, creative, and open pedagogy. In
an open source environment, Wright believes, students will master the
theoretical and programming skills they need while working on
real-world projects that matter.
Speaking of global outreach,
CITRIS is holding its annual European Research Symposium: Innovative
Technologies in the Service of Society in London on July 11 and 12.
This event, generously sponsored by BT and Microsoft, and supported by
University of California Trust (UK), University College London, and
Imperial College London, will feature CITRIS faculty members presenting
findings and holding discussion sessions on such topics as wireless
sensors and telecommunications, energy and the environment, future
network architectures and their impact, and services in the global
society. Please feel welcome to join us in London at the Wellcome Trust
Building on July 11 and at the Imperial College London on July 12.
Online registration is at http://citris-london.eventbrite.com/. I hope to see you there.
Professor Shankar Sastry
Director
Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society
Thomas Nesbitt named CITRIS Chief Scientist at Davis
Thomas Nesbitt has been named CITRIS Chief Scientist at UC Davis. He is
currently the Executive Associate Dean for Administration and Clinical
Outreach and is a professor in the Department of Family and Community
Medicine who specializes in rural health and the use of advanced
telecommunications technologies to improve access to medical education
and care.
Healthcare wins big at the CITRIS White Paper competition
The co-winners of this year's student competition both focused on IT
solutions for healthcare issues in developing regions: Telemicroscopy
for Disease Diagnosis, and Coupling Output-based Aid and Mobile
Technologies. These proposals were each awarded $8500. More information
is online about these and all of the winners.
http://www.citris-uc.org/event/citris_white_paper_competition_awards
CITRIS Workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems and Beyond: Edinburgh, July 10
This year’s EU-US Workshop on Wirelessly Networked Embedded Systems in
Edinburgh, Scotland will focus on the sensor-actuator networks that
sense and affect the physical world under program control.
http://www.citris-uc.org/EUUS-Edinburgh-2007
CITRIS Europe Research Symposium: London, July 11-12
CITRIS holds an annual research symposium/workshop in Europe each
summer to update and inform our European corporate sponsors on what has
been accomplished over the previous year. This year’s two-day event
will take place at the Wellcome Trust Building on July 11th, followed
by parallel workshops at Imperial College London on July 12th.
http://www.citris-uc.org/event/citris_in_london_july_11_12_2007
Paul Wright honored
Paul Wright, CITRIS Chief Scientist at UC Berkeley, has been awarded
the North American Manufacturing Research Institution/Society of
Manufacturing Engineers (NAMRI/SME) S.M. Wu Research Implementation
Award.
http://www.citris-uc.org/article/paul_wright_honored
Radio interview with CITRIS researcher on the safety of the repaired MacArthur Maze
On May 30, Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl, Professor in UC Berkeley’s
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, was a guest of
Capital Public Radio in Sacramento, where he discussed his
CITRIS-sponsored study on the safety of the recently repaired MacArthur
Maze freeway project
http://www.capradio.org/programs/insight/default.aspx?showid=3298
Improving maternal health in Mongolia
CITRIS researcher Jaspal Sandhu is working to decrease the maternal
death rate in Mongolia using personal digital assistants to help
nurses. He was recently profiled on CNET.
http://www.citris-uc.org/article/improving_maternal_health_in_mongolia