Join Monterey Bay DART, along with experts, entrepreneurs, educators, policy makers, and investors, for a Drone, Automation and Robotics Technology (DART) Symposium, Nov 30 – Dec 1. This in-person event will feature two days of compelling panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities at the University Center at California State University Monterey Bay’s (CSUMB) campus.

The symposium, “Innovation Workforce: Ready to Fly!”, focuses on the economic development opportunities and challenges of drone and automation technology.

RSVP NOW for your chance to:

• Attend discussions and panels addressing developments in mobility, airspace management, and carbon-neutral power
• Network with some of the industry’s top performers
• Participate in developing an inclusive tech community

Space is limited, so RSVP today at https://montereybaydart.org/2022-dart-symposium/

CITRIS Seed Funding 2021 Request for Proposals

Proposals due by:
Monday, Oct. 25, at 5 p.m. (PDT)

The CITRIS Seed Funding program issues short-term, targeted awards to further the institute’s research priorities for societal benefit, catalyze early results that can lead to significant funding and strengthen connections across UC campuses.

Through engagement with our collaborators, CITRIS has identified four critical Grand Challenges in Information Technology. We seek innovative proposals that bring the university’s expertise and ingenuity to bear on the complex issues.

Proposals are invited from principal investigators at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Davis Health, UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz. Awardees embody the university’s public mission and innovative spirit of California.

• $500,000 available
• $40,000–$60,000 awarded per project

Funded projects offer a glimpse at new frontiers of technology and have attracted more than $60 million in follow-on support from federal, state, corporate and private sources.

Team Formation:
To encourage collaboration, proposals should engage at least two investigators from different CITRIS campuses. Search our researcher directory or tap your own network to build a team.

Info Sessions:
Online info sessions with live Q&A will be held:

• Tuesday, Sept. 28, from 11–11:45 a.m.
• Monday, Oct. 4, from 4–4:45 p.m.

Find Zoom registration links on the CITRIS Seed Funding webpage.

To view the full RFP and eligibility and application information, please visit: https://citris-uc.org/labs-programs/seed-funding/citris-core-seed-funding/

Grand Challenges in Information Technology

Climate Resilience

• Critical life support systems: energy, water, food
• Transportation and the built environment
• Disaster mitigation: fire, flood, heat, drought
• Decarbonization strategies

Digital Health Innovation

• Remote access to quality care
• Data analytics for health improvement
• Aging well in a digitized world
• Public health for environmental hazards
• Preparing tomorrow’s health care workforce

Next-Generation Tech Policy

• Responsible artificial intelligence
• Digital ID systems and blockchain applications
• Computational propaganda and authoritarianism
• Participatory tools for equity and engagement
• IT supply chain stability and security

Automation and the Workforce

• Design for inclusive, accessible, safe systems
• Platform technologies: emerging and at scale
• Remote sensing, geospatial, aviation applications
• Preparedness for tech-enabled jobs and careers
• Economic mobility and technology literacy

For more information, contact Michael Matkin, assistant director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute at UC Santa Cruz, at mmatkin@ucsc.edu.

CITRIS and the Banatao Institute at UC Santa Cruz invites UCSC faculty and researchers to apply for project support through its Campus Seed Funding program. For 2021, the program will fund multidisciplinary projects that involve drone technology. This includes the innovative use of existing technology, the development of new technology, or examinations of the impacts of specific drone technologies and applications. Projects should address solutions to significant social challenges.

The UC Santa Cruz Campus Seed Funding program, which is separate from the broader CITRIS Core Seed Funding initiative, focuses on strengthening interdisciplinary connections on the Santa Cruz campus and requires project teams to include at least two principal investigators from different UC Santa Cruz campus divisions. The program will fund early-stage research that furthers the CITRIS and the Banatao Institute mission and exhibits strong promise of securing external funding.

Drone-related proposals may address, but are not limited to, the following areas of research:

• Agriculture and AgTech;
• Disaster monitoring, mitigation and recovery – including wildfires, impacts of sea level rise and earthquakes;
• Conservation and coastal science;
• Security and defense;
• Societal impacts of drones.

The submission deadline is July 31, 2021.

View the RFP at: https://citris.ucsc.edu/ucsc-campus-seed-funding/

Applications can be submitted at: https://citris.smapply.org/prog/2021_citris_ucsc_campus_seed_funding_-_drone_research

A campus information session will be held via Zoom for all interested parties on Wednesday, June 2, from 12 noon to 1 p.m. To attend, RSVP at https://ucsc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0odu2hpzkuHtACI9-khK2QAsD1I0drJRSX

For more information, contact Michael Matkin, assistant director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute at UC Santa Cruz, at mmatkin@ucsc.edu.

CITRIS and the Banatao Institute create information technology solutions for society’s most pressing challenges. Established in 2001, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) leverages the interdisciplinary research strengths of four UC campuses—Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Davis and Merced—to advance UC’s mission and the innovative spirit of California. The institute was created to shorten the pipeline between world-class laboratory research and the development of cutting-edge applications, platforms, companies, and even new industries.

Please join us on June 4th from 2:30 until 4:00 pm for a showcase of UCSC’s Tech For Social Good teams from both the 2019 and 2020 funding periods. Teams from both years have faced an unprecedented series of challenges – from student strikes to wildfires to a global pandemic lockdown – and have shown tremendous tenacity and creativity in moving their visions closer to completion. We’re excited to celebrate their progress and learn where they plan to take their projects next.

REGISTER FOR THE EVENT HERE

The schedule of presentations is as follows:

• 2:30-2:35 pm: Welcome, introduction
• 2:35-2:42: The Cookie Problem
• 2:42-2:49: Circus-Themed Physical Rehabilitation App
• 2:49-2:56: ReFuel: Harnessing Synthetic Biology to Build a Plastic-to-Biofuel Pipeline.
• 2:56-3:02: Project Pasathea
• 3:02-3:09: The Gateways Project
• 3:09-3:17: Wonderfil at UCSC
• 3:17-3:24: weBLACK
• 3:24-3:31: Enhancing Climate Change Education Through Personalized Scientific Communications on Phenology
• 3:31-3:38: Ocean Sustainability Autonomous Boats
• 3:38-3:45: Revitalizing Everett’s Digital Toolkit & Educational Outreach
• 3:45-4:00: Follow-up discussion/questions, wrap-up