Daily Business Report — Oct. 6, 2014
Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT, will speak on printable robots at the forum.
Connect With San Diego’s Robotics Community
Join technologists and thought leaders from San Diego and beyond at an Oct. 10 forum focused both on contextual robotics and on strengthening the robotics community in San Diego.
The Contextual Robotics Forum offers attendees access to engineers and technologists who are at the forefront of the design and development of ubiquitous robotics technologies for the greater good.
The forum is presented by the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego and will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. in Atkinson Hall.
Addressing “context” in robotics will unlock the next generation robotics systems—systems which are able to determine the context of a situation involving humans, determine a course of subsequent action and then accomplish that action.
Some of the topics and speakers during the day:
• Smartphone-powered Robots — Matt Grob, chief technology officer and executive vice president, Qualcomm Technologies Inc.
• Robot Swarms — Vijay Kumar, UPS Foundation Professor, University of Pennsylvania.
• Airborne Big Data — Chris Anderson, co-founder and CEO, 3D Robotics.
• Printable Robots — Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT.
• The Three “M”s as Robotic Research Challenges: Mobility, Manipulations and Messiness — Rodney Brooks, CTO, Rethink Robotics.
• MicroRobotics and NanoMedicine — Brad Nelson, professor of robotics and intelligent systems, ETH-Zurich.
• Creating and Forming Future Technology Leaders — Dean Kamen, founder, DEKA Research.
Registration: corporate/government: $200. UC San Diego Alumni: $100.
For more information: (858) 534-6237.
Drone Maker Shoots for GoPro Market
Drone maker 3D Robotics showed off its autonomous civilian drones on national Manufacturing Day Friday with a flight inside its engineering facility in Otay Mesa. The Berkeley-based company employs 55 in a cavernous warehouse, where the drones can be tested indoors, and another 150 just across the border in Tijuana, where the devices are assembled.
The company ships some 150 of its IRIS+ ready-to-fly drones daily, each priced around $750, depending on features. Customers include photographers, filmmakers, search-and-rescue units, farmers and hobbyists.
“Everyone who buys GoPro — that’s our target right now,” said project manager Alan Sanchez, referring to the popular line of action cameras made by a company started by UC San Diego graduate Nick Woodman.
Sanchez said the warehouse space is ideal for testing because its wooden roof allows reception of GPS signals. “We can fly day and night inside,” he said.
In addition to the helicopter-style IRIS+, the company also makes a winged drone called Aero that can stay aloft for an hour.
3D Robotics was one of more than 25 San Diego-area companies that opened their facilities for public tours on Manufacturing Day.
The San Diego region is home to more than 2,900 manufacturers. Around 8.7 percent of jobs in San Diego County are in manufacturing, but it accounts for nearly 12.2 percent of the region’s wages, according to the San Diego Regional Economic Developent Corp.
— Times of San Diego
BD Acquires CareFusion for $12.2 Billion
Medical equipment maker Becton, Dickinson and Co. of New Jersey has entered into an agreement to acquire San Diego-based CareFusion, which makes products for the health care industry, $for 12.2 billion.
The combination of the two companies’ complementary product portfolios will offer integrated medication management solutions and smart devices, from drug preparation in the pharmacy, to dispensing on the hospital floor, administration to the patient, and subsequent monitoring, the companies said in a release.
“BD’s acquisition of CareFusion allows us to align our highly complementary technologies and products to address unmet needs in the growing $20 billion global medication management industry, which leverages BD’s world-wide infrastructure,” said Vincent Forlenza, BD chairman, CEO and president.
Academic Year Begins for UC San Diego
About 31,000 UC San Diego undergraduate and graduate students started school last week to begin the fall quarter — a total of about 4,900 incoming freshmen and 2,400 new transfer students.
The incoming freshmen have an overall grade-point average of 4.07 and average SAT Reasoning scores of 616, 679, and 639 respectively, for Critical Reading, Math and Writing. The campus’s new transfer students bring with them a 3.61 grade-point average.
This fall also marks the beginning of Juan Gonzalez’s tenure as UC San Diego’s vice chancellor for student affairs.
González has served as vice president for student affairs at a number of universities over a 22-year period; most recently, he held the position at the University of Texas at Austin, which has a student population of more than 50,000. Prior to that, he served as vice president for student affairs at Arizona State University; Georgetown University; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; and California State University, San Bernardino.
SDSU’s Steve Fisher to Receive
Legends of Coaching Award
San Diego State University’s men’s basketball head coach Steve Fisher will receive the John R. Wooden Award’s Legends of Coaching honor in 2015. The announcement, made by Wooden’s daughter, Nan Wooden, took place at the annual Los Angeles Athletic Club Wooden Award Tipoff Luncheon.
The prestigious award recognizes coaches who exemplify Wooden’s high standards of coaching success and personal integrity. Fisher is the first coach of a Southern California school to win the award.
In 15 seasons at SDSU, Fisher has guided the Aztecs to seven NCAA tournament appearances, 10 postseason berths overall, eight Mountain West championships and 10 seasons of at least 20 wins, including the last nine years. More recently, the 2011 National Coach of the Year has led San Diego State to the NCAA tournament five seasons in a row, including a pair of Sweet 16 appearances the last four years in 2011 and 2014.
The 39th annual Wooden Award Gala will celebrate the male and female Wooden Award All-America Teams and the Legends of Coaching Award winner, and will include the announcement of the Wooden Award winner. The Gala will take place in April in Los Angeles.
Colliers International Brings Former
Cushman & Wakefield Brokers to its Team
Four former members of the Cushman & Wakefield real estate brokerage firm have joined the San Diego office of Colliers International, forming the Urban Property Group. For more than 25 years, the team — Bill Shrader, David Maxwell, Joe Brady and Serena Patterson — has completed more than 700 lease and sale transactions totaling $730 million and 3 million square feet.
Bill Shrader, senior vice president, leads the Urban Retail Team and brings more than 26 years of commercial real estate industry experience specializing in urban mixed-use, restaurant, and retail sales and leasing. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California.
David Maxwell, vice president, has more than 10 years of commercial real estate experience and specializes in the leasing and sales of mixed-use developments in urban San Diego markets. He has a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University.
Joe Brady, associate, represents buyers and sellers and performs consulting assignments in the Downtown, Uptown, and Coastal San Diego submarkets. He received degrees from Villanova University and a master’s fegree from New York University.
Serena Patterson, associate, has more than 13 years of commercial real estate industry experience. She manages marketing activities for the Urban Property Group and is responsible for all stages of the leasing and sales transactions. She holds a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University.
Hewlett-Packard Plans to Break in Two
Hewlett-Packard, a pioneer in business computers, plans to break into two parts as it separates its personal-computer and printer businesses from its technology services. As early as Monday, the tech giant plans to announce the breakup, first reported Sunday by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed by other media and a person familiar with the matter. CEO Meg Whitman, who has led a multiyear restructuring, would serve as chairman of the PC and printer business and CEO of the separate company, which would be chaired by HP’s current lead independent director Patricia Russo, according to several published reports.
An HP breakup, which has been under discussion for more than a year, would follow recent corporate splits as companies aim to satisfy shareholders by sharpening their focus. On Tuesday, online-auction giant eBay said it was spinning off its PayPal payments-processing unit.
“We have no comment,” HP spokeswoman Sarah Pompei said Sunday of the latest report. The Journal said the breakup is expected to occur as a tax-free distribution of shares to the company’s stockholders next year.
— USA Today
Developer Fees for Affordable Housing
Back on City Council’s Agenda
The contentious debate over increasing a fee on developers to support affordable housing in San Diego may finally end in a deal. The City Council Monday will take up the agreement forged between the two feuding sides.
The housing impact fee is a one-time payment from developers of commercial projects that goes into a city fund to build homes low-income San Diegans can afford. It’s called the “linkage fee” or “jobs tax.”
After the City Council’s attempts to raise the fee last year didn’t go so well — the council rescinded a 300 percent to 700 percent increase after a group of businesses gathered enough signatures to force it on the ballot — council members asked opponents and supporters of the increase to reach a compromise.
The City Council will hear the details of the agreement this afternoon. It was proposed by the San Diego Housing Commission and the Jobs Coalition, which opposed the original hike.
— KPBS
Surf Air Expands Service to Carlsbad
Surf Air, a private membership airline based in Santa Monica, said it will expand its service to Carlsbad beginning Nov. 18 and Oakland beginning Dec. 15. The expansion occurs in conjunction with the delivery of the first three new Pilatus PC-12NG of Surf Air’s recent order of 65 aircraft to be delivered over the next five years. As part of that order, Surf Air will take delivery of an additional nine aircraft during 2015.
Surf Air will begin providing daily service from McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad starting on Nov. 18 with non-stop access to San Carlos and Santa Barbara and connecting service to Truckee Tahoe. Non-stop service to Hawthorne begins Jan. 12 with connecting flights to Oakland and Las Vegas. The inaugural flight will take-off at 6 a.m. on Nov. 18 from Carlsbad with arrival in San Carlos at 8 a.m.
Property Trust Acquires Chula Vista Center
RREEF Property Trust Inc. today announced the acquisition of Shops at Terra Nova Plaza, a retail property in Chula Vista, for $21.9 million. Located at 390 and 394 East H St., the retail property comprises 96,114 square feet. The building is 100 percent leased to two tenants, both with long-term leases in place.
“Shops at Terra Nova Plaza generates a strong cash yield for investors and is located in a submarket with high retail occupancy,” said Todd Henderson, chairman of the board of RREEF Property Trust and head of real estate, Americas, at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management.
RREEF Property Trust is a publicly registered, non-traded, company that intends to qualify as a real estate investment trust, the company said.
Hub International Acquires
Marrs Maddocks & Associates
Hub International Limited of Chicago, an insurance brokerage, has acquired the assets of Carlsbad-based Marrs Maddocks & Associates Insurance Services Inc., servicing the San Diego area. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Marrs Maddocks will become part of the California operations of Hub International.
Marrs Maddocks & Associates is led by Richard and Daniel Marrs and Nancy Maddocks. All three principals and their staff will be joining Hub California and keeping their existing office location.
The acquisition gives Hub International its 30th California office and more than 850 employees in California.
