Daily Business Report-May 5, 2017
The UC San Diego team —called the UC San Diego Center for Engineered Natural Intelligence Team — is one of only eight university-led teams in the competition
UC San Diego Team Aims for Top Prize
in Artificial Intelligence Competition
A team of researchers at the University of California San Diego has been selected to take part in the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE. The competition aims to accelerate the development and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies that are truly scalable and have the capacity to solve grand challenges facing society.
The UC San Diego team —called the UC San Diego Center for Engineered Natural Intelligence Team — is one of only eight university-led teams in the competition, which includes $5 million in prizes. One hundred forty seven teams will take part in the first round of the competition.
For the XPRIZE competition, the UC San Diego team is working on proof-of-concept demos that will help the general public experience what is possible when they apply the work of the Center for Engineered Natural Intelligence to some of the world’s most advanced cognitive computing systems.
The driving force behind the UC San Diego team is the leadership of the UC San Diego Center for Engineered Natural Intelligence, which is a new interdisciplinary research center at the Jacobs School of Engineering. The team is leveraging its unique expertise in theoretical and computational neuroscience, experimental neurobiology, neural engineering, mathematics, and algorithms to develop natural intelligence for machines. The goal is to give cognitive computing systems the ability to think creatively on their own and to arrive at original ideas and thoughts about specific problems or specific classes of problems. Getting there will require the researchers to leverage their work on a new class of dynamic artificial neural networks that go beyond traditional machine learning methods.
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Trader Joe’s Set to Open May 19
at SDSU’s South Campus Plaza
The first retail store at San Diego State University’s South Campus Plaza, is nearly set to open. Trader Joe’s, the popular neighborhood grocery store, is scheduled to open its doors on Friday, May 19.
The new store has been in the works since Trader Joe’s announced the signing of its lease in the summer of 2015. It occupies a 10,200 square-foot space at the northwest corner of College Avenue and Lindo Paseo. Large signs marking the store’s new location were installed earlier this month on the building’s exterior.
The opening of the first of 10 planned retail tenants is another milestone in the development of South Campus Plaza. In January, more than 600 students moved into the housing units on the upper floors of the development, which stretches along the west side of College Avenue between Hardy Avenue and Montezuma Road.
In addition to Trader Joe’s, restaurants and other retail shops coming to South Campus Plaza include Broken Yolk Café, Epic Wings N’ Things, Which Wich, GoWireless and Eureka!.
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Air & Space Museum Wins International
Award for Innovation for Youth Project
The San Diego Air & Space Museum, in partnership with the Balboa Park Online Collaborative, was named winner of the International Award for Innovation in the Education category for its project, “Museum at Your Fingertips: Telepresence Tours for Schools,” at the annual GLAMI Awards on April 21.
For the project, the Air & Space Museum worked with the Balboa Park Online Collaborative to bring the museum experience to students and learners who were otherwise unable to visit and enjoy the museum. Using the Suitable Technologies BeamPro (an interactive remote presence robot device much like a rolling teleconference screen), teachers and students were able to control a BeamPro directly from their classrooms and access additional photo, sound and video media by logging into a website developed by BPOC in the fall of 2015. A SDASM educator “tour guide” accompanied the device during these sessions, allowing personal interaction with students in their home classrooms.
The award was presented at the Museum and the Web Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.
Galleries, libraries, archives and museums are referred to as GLAMI institutions.
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Zayo Acquires San Diego Data Centers
Zayo Group Holdings Inc. said it has completed the $12 million acquisition of KIO Networks’ San Diego data centers. The two data centers, located at 12270 World Trade Drive and 9606 Aero Drive, total more than 100,000 square feet of space and 2 megawatts (MW) of IT power, with additional power available.
Zayo said the acquisition builds on Zayo’s continued growth on the West Coast, which includes extensive network assets from Electric Lightwave and recently announced data centers in Santa Clara and Los Angeles.
Zayo has experienced accelerated demand for data center and interconnection services in San Diego, fueled by customers in IT, health care and professional services.
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Cubic Receives $35 Million
Contract from British Army
Cubic Global Defense, a business unit of Cubic Corporation, has received a contract award worth more than $35 million to continue supporting the British Army. The three-year contract allows Cubic to deliver services and repair to the Area Weapons Effects Simulator (AWES) at Salisbury Plain Training Area in the United Kingdom and at the British Army Training Unit Suffield in Alberta, Canada.
AWES allows the British Army to conduct large-scale, force-on-force combat exercises with realistic, but simulated effects of direct fire, artillery, mortar fire, mines and air-delivered munitions as well as nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. AWES also tracks and monitors the actions and positions of more than 1,400 individual soldiers and 250 vehicles using GPS technology. It also records “hits,” “kills” and “misses” of small-arms fire with Cubic’s Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System technology and recreates combat exercises for post-mission analysis.
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Research in Action: New Exhibit at Birch Aquarium
Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography launched a new exhibit in the Hall of Fishes unlike any other in the history of the aquarium. More than a display, “Research in Action: 100 Island Challenge” is also a working laboratory for Scripps Oceanography scientists.
The new exhibit serves as an experimental reef that allows Scripps Oceanography scientists to develop coral research techniques and test equipment and ideas before traveling to remote locations. In addition to enjoying the beautiful display, guests will also be able to meet scientists and see prototype digital cameras and underwater robotic equipment before it’s deployed in the field.
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NASSCO Invites Logan Heights Students
to Name the Company’s New Tug Boat
General Dynamics NASSCO is inviting local K-8 students residing or attending school in the Greater Logan Heights community to name the company’s new tug boat.
The 38-foot-long tug is currently under construction at Marine Boat Works in Chula Vista. Once complete, it will be used to support NASSCO’s waterfront activities near the Barrio Logan/Greater Logan Heights community.
The contest is open now until June 9. Participants are encouraged to submit their idea with the following themes in mind: maritime, San Diego-built, ocean, and water. The contest winner will have the opportunity to participate in the christening of the new tug at a special ceremony on Saturday, July 8. The contest winner will also receive a family four-pack of tickets to the San Diego Zoo. Visit www.nassco.com/NameOurTug for complete contest rules and information.
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Personnel Announcements
Alahe Aldo Joins Carrier Johnson as Director of Higher Education
Alahe Aldo has joined Carrier Johnson + CULTURE as director of higher education, leading university and college projects for a variety of clients.
Aldo brings to the post an extensive knowledge of campus planning as well as commercial and workplace architecture. With 30-plus years of experience in the field, Aldo has worked extensively with campuses across the northeastern United States, including at Harvard University, MIT, and Boston College.
Aldo also brings to the San Diego firm a wide-ranging national and international portfolio of award-winning work encompassing all phases of design and delivery of educational, commercial and mixed-use projects. She has been active with the Boston Society of Architects, the U.S. Green Building Council, and Commercial Real Estate Women.
Over the last decade, Aldo has focused on creating exceptional academic spaces, with varied projects exemplifying the cutting edge of 21st-century trends in campus life and education delivery. Most notable have been live-learn residence halls as well as flexible teaching spaces supporting emerging technology and pedagogical innovation throughout the Northeast, including Harvard, Lesley University, MIT, Northeastern University and Southern New Hampshire University.
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