Daily Business Report-June 1, 2016
Mother and baby
Obstetrics Unit at Scripps Memorial
Undergoing Major Remodeling
BNBuilders has started the remodeling of the obstetrics unit at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.
The remodel includes upgrades to enhance the patient experience and provide new technology and security systems. The design is by Interspec and Freeman White.
Construction has begun on the second and third floors of the hospital to provide new space for expectant mothers and their infants. The hospital is upgrading the inpatient and outpatient spaces including the triage, perinatal, post-partum, and labor and delivery rooms and the ultrasound area, enhancing the level of care and comfort for patients. The new patient amenities include a sleep-over space for family; increased seating options for visitors; new personal electronic device access for phones, iPads, and music players; and new larger televisions. New furnishings will be provided, and bathroom finishes will be enhanced. Patient privacy will also be improved.
Jamie Awford, Principal at BNBuilders, says, “Working with the nurses and Scripps staff has been extremely rewarding, knowing that we are designing and building this new space that will affect so many expectant mothers and provide essential care for them and their newborns,” said Jamie Awford, principal at BNBuilders. “The new space will also better serve their support network and families, which helps everyone to better focus on what’s most important — the health and care of the mothers and babies.”
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City Reaches Milestone by Repaving 250 Miles of Streets
Times of San Diego
More than 250 miles of city streets have been repaired so far this year, the San Diego Mayor’s Office will report today.
Mayor Kevin Faulconer was expected to make the announcement at a late morning news conference at the site of one of the repaired streets in Encanto.
The mayor’s goal was to have 1,000 miles of streets repaired over five years, with 300 of those miles expected to be completed by the end of the fiscal year ending June 30, according to mayoral spokesman Craig Gustafson. The project was ahead of schedule.
Faulconer was expected to be joined at the news conference by City Councilman Mark Kersey, who is chairman of the council’s infrastructure committee, and Paz Gomez, the city’s deputy chief operating officer for infrastructure and public works.
Kersey has sponsored Proposition H on the June 7 ballot to earmark more funding from current city revenues to repave streets and repair other public infrastructure.
City News Service contributed to this article.
Realtors Group to Host Brokers Breakfast
The Pacific Southwest Association of Realtors will host “Traction is Everything: San Diego County Brokers Breakfast” starting at 8:30 a.m., Tuesday, June 28, at the Riverwalk Golf Club, 1150 Fashion Valley Road, San Diego. Cost to attend is $20 per person, which includes continental breakfast. Attendance is limited to managing brokers and real estate office owners and managers. No affiliate sales pitches will be allowed.
Speakers will include: David Cabot, chairman, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services; David Romero, president/CEO, Century 21 Award; Terri Dillon, broker-owner, Realty Executives Dillon; Robert Sunderland, attorney. To RSVP, call PSAR at (619) 421-7811 or visit www.psar.org/brokers.
Five Distinguished UC San Diego
Alumni to be Celebrated June 4
Five distinguished University of California San Diego alumni will be honored at the 38th annual Alumni Celebration on June 4. The event recognizes outstanding alumni who have transformed their fields and made an impact in the community through their leadership, professional accomplishments and personal achievements.
“Our award recipients showcase the brilliance and far-reaching impact of a UC San Diego education,” said Steph Barry, assistant vice chancellor of alumni and community engagement. “By honoring these individuals, we also celebrate the achievements of the entire Triton Family — a community of thought-leaders, game-changers and dream-makers around the world.”
The following graduates will be recognized during the Alumni Celebration:
• Bruce Beutler, ’76, Biological Sciences
Bruce Beutler is an immunologist, geneticist and a professor and director of the Center for Genetics of Host Defense at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He received the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Jules Hoffman for their discoveries surrounding the activation of innate immunity.
• Timothy Gallaudet, M.S. ’91, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet has been instrumental in the development of the U.S. Navy’s climate change policy. He provides naval leadership on all issues related to oceanography, meteorology, hydrology, precise time, climate change, the Artic, maritime domain awareness and geospatial and celestial referencing.
• Sherri Lightner, ’72, Jacobs School of Engineering
Sherri Lightner serves as City Council president for the city of San Diego. She is the first female engineer to serve on the council, and its first female president. She has served as the councilmember for District 1, which includes La Jolla and UC San Diego, since December 2008. Her priorities include economic development and expanding the tech, cyber-tech and blue tech industries in San Diego.
• David Peterson, ’05, Linguistics
David Peterson is a writer and language creator, best known for creating the Dothraki and High Valyrian languages for the hit HBO series, “Game of Thrones.” In 2011, he became the alien language and culture consultant for the Syfy original series “Defiance.” He’s also the language creator of Syfy’s “Dominion.” He is the author of “Living Language: Dothraki and The Art of Language Invention.”
• Ashley Van Zeeland,’12, Rady School of Management
Ashley Van Zeeland is the co-founder and CEO of Cypher Genomics, a San Diego-based company revolutionizing human health through genome interpretation, where she played a critical role in the initial commercialization of its technology. Van Zeeland is now leading the Pediatrics Business at Human Longevity Inc. (HLI), after HLI acquired the Cypher Genomics technology and team to help build the world’s largest and most comprehensive database of genomic, phenotypic and clinical data, which will transform the practice of medicine.
The annual Alumni Celebration will be hosted from 6-10 p.m. on June 4 at UC San Diego. The event is open to the public, with proceeds benefiting student scholarships at UC San Diego.
Attorney Thomas Penfield Elected to
American Board of Trial Advocates
Thomas Penfield, partner in the CaseyGerry law firm, has been elected to the American Board of Trial Advocates. Penfield is the fifth CaseyGerry partner to join the organization comprised of leading lawyers and judges.
Membership to ABOTA — which is committed to the preservation and promotion of the civil jury trial — is by invitation only.
A former member of the board of directors of the San Diego County Bar Association, Penfield is also past president of the North San Diego County Bar Association, the past chair of the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Plaintiffs’ Policy of the Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) and former vice chair of the TIPS’ Trial Techniques Committee.
Other firm partners who are members include David Casey Jr., Frederick Schenk, Thomas Luneau and Robert Francavilla.
Carl Vinson Holds Change of Command
Capt. Douglas C. Verissimo relieved Capt. Karl O. Thomas as commanding officer of aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson during a change of command ceremony Tuesday on the flight deck, in the carrier’s home port of San Diego.
Rear Adm. James T. Loeblein, commander, Carrier Strike Group One, presided over the ceremony.
Loeblein presented Thomas the Legion of Merit award during the ceremony for his outstanding service as commanding officer. Carl Vinson completed a Western Pacific and Middle East deployment under Thomas.
Prior to assuming command, Verissimo served as commanding officer aboard USS New Orleans. Thomas was recently selected for promotion to rear admiral and will report to Commander, Naval Air Forces while awaiting further assignment by Chief of Naval Operations. The Carl Vinson Strike Group is scheduled for a Western Pacific deployment in 2017.
BBC News: Researchers
Teach Robots to ‘Feel Pain’
Researchers from Germany are developing an artificial nervous system aimed at teaching robots how to feel pain.
As well as allowing robots to quickly respond to potential damage to their systems, it could also protect humans who are increasingly working alongside them.
The scientists plan to base the system on “insights from human pain research.”
To test it, they fitted a robotic arm with a fingertip sensor that could detect pressure and temperature.
The researchers, from Leibniz University in Hannover, are developing a system that would allow a robot to “be able to detect and classify unforeseen physical states and disturbances, rate the potential damage they may cause to it and initiate appropriate countermeasures, ie reflexes”, they explained.
Just as human neurons transmit pain, the artificial ones will pass on information that can be classified by the robot as either light, moderate or severe pain.
Researcher Johannes Kuehn told IEEE Spectrum: “Pain is a system that protects us. When we move away from the source of pain, it helps us not get hurt.”
Teaching robots about a range of stimulus is important, robotics expert from Cambridge University Prof Fumiya Iida told the BBC. “Getting robots to learn is one of the most challenging things but is fundamental because it will make them more intelligent,” he said. “Learning is all about trial and error. When a child learns that falling over causes pain, it then learns to do it with more skill.”
Posted on June 1 by auvsiadmin in News, Spotlight on Programs, STEM Education and Learning.
