Calit2 Celebrates 15 Years

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The past and future of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) will converge on Dec. 7, 2015 as the institutes commemorates 15 years of innovation and world-class research in fields such as telecommunications, digital health and virtual reality. Image: Calit2's 10th anniversary in 2010 QI Director Ramesh Rao, former California Gov. Gray Davis and Calit2 Director Larry Smarr celebrate Calit2's 10th anniversary in 2010. The event will be held at the Qualcomm Institute, Calit2’s division at the University of California, San Diego. Former California Governor Gray Davis, who spearheaded the founding of Calit2 during his term in office, will speak during the event’s plenary session. Qualcomm Institute Director Ramesh Rao will open the event by introducing the recipients of the 2014-2015 Calit2 Strategic Research Opportunities (CSRO) grants, who will present their work on a wide array of topics central to Calit2’s research mission. Three floors of Atkinson Hall will then be opened to the public for an Open Labs and Demos session, featuring performances, presentations and demos from nearly a dozen Qualcomm Institute labs and research groups. Among the participants in this session are the StarCAVE and NexCAVE visualization spaces, which will feature demos from the Virtual Reality Initiative and Virtual Environment Human Navigation Task team, as well as the Machine Perception Lab, which will share RUBI, a “social robot” that interacts with small children. Other participating groups include: Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3) Design Lab Exercise and Physical Activity Resource Center (EPARC) Nano3 cleanroom facility Performance Computing Lab Qualcomm Institute Innovation Space (QIIS) Training, Research, and Education for Driving Safety (TREDS) open space. Concurrently, the VRoom Theater will host a performance organized by the Initiative for Digital Exploration of Arts and Sciences (IDEAS). Image: Calit2's 10th anniversary in 2010 Visitors are invited to attend a research open house held in Atkinson Hall on Dec. 7 in honor of Calit2's 15th anniversary. In a series of speeches following the demos, Davis and Calit2 Director Larry Smarr will discuss the past and future of the Qualcomm Institute, with particular emphasis on the groundbreaking potential of the Pacific Research Platform – a fiber-optic network connecting universities throughout the Pacific Rim, enabling them to share “big data” at an unprecedented speed. Qualcomm Institute composer-in-residence Lei Liang will then present “Hearing Landscapes,” a multimedia audio and visual performance work, in the VRoom Theater. The festivities will conclude with a reception in Atkinson Hall. A joint endeavor of UC Irvine and UC San Diego, Calit2 was founded in 2000 as one of four California Institutes for Science and Innovation, collectively renamed the Governor Gray Davis Institutes for Science and Innovation in 2010. The UC San Diego division of Calit2 officially became known as the Qualcomm Institute in 2013. For further information about the Qualcomm Institute’s 15th anniversary, or to RSVP to the event, click here.