Daily Business Report-Aug. 14, 2020
Malcolm A. Love Library (Photo courtesy of San Diego State University)
Malcolm A. Love Library
at San Diego State University
turns 50
By Rebecca Williamson | SDSU
The year 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of San Diego State University’s Malcolm A. Love Library, a place so unique that it houses an 1858 edition of “The Lady’s Home Magazine,” first edition works of William Faulkner and Spider-Man comics.
Now home to more than 1.6 million books, serials and media titles in the library, with an additional 1.2 million and e-books and databases accessible to the SDSU community, the Love Library continues to evolve to meet the needs of students and SDSU’s aspirations as a research powerhouse.
The library is part of a legacy of expansion under Malcolm A. Love, who led the campus from 1952 to 1971 and retired just prior to its transformation from San Diego State College into the university of today.
Amid booms in student enrollment, faculty, graduate degree programs and research grants, plans emerged for a great new library to house over one million volumes. Construction began in 1968 and was completed in 1970. The building was named for Love in May 1971.
In 1997, Love Library was extended by an underground, $205 million addition, commonly known as “The Dome” for its green-tinted, 80-foot-wide rotunda. This provided additional room for research, computer activity and collaboration.
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Uber may shut down in California if forced
to classify drivers as employees, CEO says
Uber may shut down its operations in California, one of its largest markets in the U.S., if it is forced to classify drivers as employees, the company’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said on MSNBC Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Uber and Lyft were ordered by a California Superior Court judge to classify their drivers as employees.
At issue is the classification of ride-hailing drivers as independent contractors, which Uber and Lyft say most drivers prefer because of the flexibility and ability to set their own hours. But labor unions and elected officials contend this deprives them of traditional benefits like health insurance and workers’ compensation. Both companies have said they would appeal the ruling, which was stayed for 10 days.
But if their appeal fails, Uber may have to close up shop in California, Khosrowshahi said. “If the court doesn’t reconsider, then in California, it’s hard to believe we’ll be able to switch our model to full-time employment quickly.”
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Report: California’s lack of protective
gear in coronavirus pandemic costs lives
CalMatters
Nearly 21,000 essential workers wouldn’t have contracted COVID-19 and dozens likely wouldn’t have died if California had an adequate stockpile of personal protective equipment at the outset of the pandemic, according to a Wednesday report from UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and Labor Center.
Other key findings:
- The stockpile would have saved the state $93 million weekly in unemployment benefits by allowing employees to safely return to work earlier.
- Stockpiling masks and other protective gear in advance would have been 83 percent cheaper than buying them in the middle of the pandemic.
Gov. Gavin Newsom last month announced plans to create a stockpile of 100 million N95 masks and 200 million surgical masks to prepare for a surge of cases in the fall, and lawmakers are considering a bill that would require California to maintain 90 days worth of medical supplies. At the outset of the pandemic, the state had an emergency stockpile of 21 million N95 masks — all of which were expired.
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New graduate programs in data science and
artificial intelligence power professional success
New graduate engineering programs in applied data science and applied artificial intelligence are attracting strong interest from professionals looking to expand their skills during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have seen a tremendous amount of interest in our online master’s degree programs in the last few months, both in terms of enrollments and consideration for future term starts,” said Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering Dean Chell Roberts.
“The pandemic has sent working people all over the world into tailspins in their professions, but the response we’ve seen in applicants pursuing online master’s degrees during this time is indicative of their focus of turning their current disadvantaged situations into positive ones in the future,” he added.
“In particular, our new MS in Applied Data Science and MS in Applied Artificial Intelligence programs through USD’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering have a special appeal given the high labor demand in the fields of data science and artificial intelligence.”
The first cohort of the Applied Data Science program, for example, is expected to have nearly 40 students when it begins in Fall 2020.
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Biocept and health care group
to provide COVID-19 testing
Biocept Inc., a commercial provider of molecular technologies designed to provide physicians with clinically actionable information to improve outcomes, has entered into an agreement with a health care group to provide COVID-19 testing to skilled nursing facilities. The group operates and supports more than 50 facilities in multiple states, with most located in California, the state with one of the most stringent COVID-19 testing regulations in the U.S.
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Qualcomm Institute-based startup receives
funding to continue opioid sensor development
By Katie E. Ismael | UC San Diego
CARI Therapeutics, a member of UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute Innovation Space, has received additional funding from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to refine their tiny implantable biosensor that could help combat the deadly and destructive opioid crisis in the United States.
The second phase of funding from the NIDA’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs will allow CARI Therapeutics to continue developing a biosensor called “BioMote” that can continuously monitor opioid use in a patient and send data to health care providers who can intervene quickly if opioids are detected. It can be used along with other treatment options to help reduce relapses and overdoses.
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Cubic wins $172 million contract
from U.S. Special Operations Command
Cubic Corporation announced its Cubic Mission Solutions business division was awarded a contract with a ceiling of $172 million from United States Special Operations Command to deliver GATR inflatable satellite communications terminals and baseband communications equipment in support of special operations forces communications requirements.
The contract consists of five one-year ordering periods for the procurement of Cubic’s 1.2-meter and 2.4-meter GATR inflatable satellite communications terminals. Cubic’s technology not only enables the movement of data, but it also allows for pre-processing of data and rapid sharing of processed information.
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Sanford Burnham Prebys awarded $4.5 million
NIH grant for mental illness therapeutics
Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute has been awarded a $4.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify new therapies for mental health disorders. The research will be headed by Layton Smith, Ph.D., and Michael Jackson, Ph.D., of the Institute’s Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics. The funding supports the discovery of new classes of drugs that target “orphan” receptors to treat psychological conditions such as schizophrenia, depression, anxiety and substance abuse.
The research team has identified a collection of potential new drug targets selectively expressed in the brain, and all are orphan receptors—meaning their binding partner, or ligand, is unknown.
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ViaCyte appoints Dr. Sinha Jaiman
as VP of clinical development services
ViaCyte Inc., a clinical stage regenerative medicine company based in San Diego, announced the appointment of Manasi Sinha Jaiman, M.D., as vice president, clinical development. Jaiman joins ViaCyte from Covance Clinical Development Services, where she was senior medical director. She was also an attending physician at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was responsible for clinical care of type 1 and type 2 diabetes pediatric patients and was a co-investigator for the bionic pancreas trials at Massachusetts General Hospital.
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S.D. Women’s Week Leadership Conference Goes Global
New virtual format with no boundaries features Daymond John, Linda Cureton, Ed Smart, Amy Trask
San Diego Women’s Week, celebrating 11 years of inspiring, empowering and connecting women is now virtual with leadership events for all ages and professions. Attendees enjoy virtual networking, keynote speakers, panel discussions, and more, all wrapped around creative solutions to everyday issues affecting leaders in the workplace and in their daily lives.
WHEN: Wednesday, Aug. 26 – Friday, Aug. 28, 2020
WHO: Keynotes for 2020 Leadership conference include:
- Daymond John from Shark Tank: Powershift, Transform Any Situation, Close Any Deal, and Achieve Any Outcome.
- Linda Cureton, Former CIO – NASA: Managing and Leading in a Tough Environment.
- Ed Smart, Father of Elizabeth Smart: Two Miracles, and Standing up for Yourself.
- Amy Trask, Former NFL Team Executive – Los Angeles Raiders: Leadership Vulnerabilities.
WHERE: Wednesday – Virtual Women and Wine 6-7:30 p.m.
Friday – Virtual Leadership Conference 8:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Click here for complete list of speakers and additional details.
