Daily Business Report-Nov. 4, 2020
Current and prospective students at Mesa College got hands on experience with robots during a Future in Robotics event.
Mesa College engineering program
earns Preferred Provider designation
The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. and Advancing San Diego have designated San Diego Mesa College’s Engineering Program as a Preferred Provider of talent in training the next generation of engineers in the region.
Preferred Providers are chosen through skills-based criteria developed by industry, a commitment to industry engagement, and their success at reaching and serving a diverse student body. Mesa College’s designation underscores the San Diego Community College District’s success in working with its corporate partners in developing curriculum, programs, and initiatives relevant to a rapidly changing economy.
Being a Preferred Provider also means Mesa College engineering students will be eligible for up to 24 paid internships at a dozen engineering firms in San Diego.
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City Council approves sale of Downtown
property for affordable housing
The San Diego City Council unanimously approved the sale of a piece of city-owned land on Cortez Hill in Downtown to Community HousingWorks, an affordable-housing developer that plans to demolish the existing building and replace it with apartments priced as affordable for low-income residents.
Until this past May, the property, located at 1449 Ninth Ave., was occupied by the Cortez Hill Family Shelter, a 47-unit transitional center for families lacking permanent housing. The three-story building had fallen into severe disrepair, and on May 19, 2020, the City Council declared the land to be “surplus,” paving the way for it to be
sold.
The sale price at the appraised value of $11,593 takes into account the deed restriction that comes with the property requiring 44 units to continue to be priced as affordable for households earning no more than 30 percent of area median income (AMI). The new project is expected to consist of between 75 and 110 apartments, including the 44 units that will be deed-restricted as affordable for households earning no more than 30 percent of AMI. The remainder of the units will be priced as affordable for households earning between 30 percent and 80 percent of AMI.
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Viasat partners with AeroVironment for defense contract
Carlsbad-based Viasat Inc.and AeroVironment, Inc., a leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), announced they will collaborate on a contract awarded under the U.S. Army Reconfigurable Communications for Small Unmanned Systems (RCSUS) initiative.
The project will provide U.S. military customers flying small UAS platforms the ability to deploy a robust, on-demand, highly-secure communications network that will address the growing electronic warfare capabilities of peer and near-peer adversaries.
Viasat is the prime contractor on the award and will work with AeroVironment to develop and demonstrate advanced, encrypted communications suitable for AeroVironment’s portable, hand-launched Puma AE tactical UAS. The two companies will seek to strengthen the communications and transmission security of AeroVironment’s Digital Data Link (DDL) radios currently used by the U.S. Army by converting them into a Type 1 crypto communication system for video and data transmission.
Currently, tens of thousands of AeroVironment tactical unmanned aircraft are deployed around the world and are capable of serving as secure, digital network communication nodes for on-demand, mesh network applications in various operating environments, the company said.
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Judge checks governor’s executive authority
CalMatters
Gov. Gavin Newsom does not have the power to issue executive orders that amend or make new state laws, a California Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday in the first major blow to the governor’s executive authority amid the pandemic. The tentative ruling found that Newsom’s June executive orderestablishing new election regulations was unconstitutional because it violated the state’s separation of powers — only legislators have the power to make new laws. However, the ruling doesn’t affect the election because lawmakers later codified the executive order. (The ruling also doesn’t affect California’s lockdown or mask mandate.)
Newsom is almost certain to appeal the decision, foreshadowing a battle that could wind up in front of the state Supreme Court.
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Olivenhain’s Dominic Brunozzi named
Mechanical Technician of the Year
Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s Pump/Motor Technician Dominic “Bruno” Brunozzi has been named the California Water Environment Association’s “Mechanical Technician of the Year.”
Recognized for his dedication to public service and mechanical expertise, Brunozzi is receiving this award for the third time in five years. Brunozzi credits a 21-year active duty career of service in the United States Navy for his attention to detail and the ability to multitask.
In addition to Brunozzi’s award, Olivenhain Municipal Water District (OMWD) received third-place recognition statewide and from the San Diego Section in the “Community Engagement & Outreach Program of the Year” category. Outreach efforts include engagement with legislators and regulatory officials, classroom visits, presentations to community groups, newsletters, social media posts, community events, and tours of OMWD’s 4S Ranch Water Reclamation Facility. OMWD serves approximately 14 percent of its overall demand from recycled water.
— Reported by San Diego North EDC
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Apartments approved for Mission San Luis Rey
historic area in Oceanside
Construction for a mixed-use development off highway 76 has just been approved by the Oceanside Planning Commission.
The new site will be called Mission Flats, consisting of 137 rental apartments, commercial space, and outdoor amenities, including a swimming pool and a dog park. Located a half-mile from the San Luis Rey Mission, the 4.37-acre property is within the mission’s designated “historic area,” requiring the development to meet certain architectural and design guidelines.
The new buildings will be in the Mission Revival style, with a horizontal layout, red clay roof tiles, white stucco, and arched entries. Apartments will range in size from 454-square-foot studios to 1,100-square-foot, two-bedroom units on the upper three floors, with commercial space and common areas on the ground floor, and 287 parking spaces.
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New web tool helps MiraCosta College
students find a career that fits their
interests and classes to get them
MiraCosta College is making it easier for students to find careers they are passionate about and develop an educational plan to get them there without taking classes they don’t need. Thanks to a new tool called Career Coach offered in cooperation with Emsi, an Idaho-based, economic forecast-modeling firm with a long track record of working with community colleges across the country, students can easily investigate their career interests and map out a clear game plan to reach their goals.
Dean of Instructional Services Zhenya Lindstrom said Career Coach can be invaluable in starting the conversation for students who are uncertain of their planned educational journey. “Too often, students are making decisions about their educational journey without being fully informed,” Lindstrom said. “We want our students to explore career options and long-term goals before deciding what to major in.”
The MiraCosta College Career Coach webpage offers links for taking a career assessment, browsing careers, and searching college programs that can lead to a desired profession.
Career Coach, introduced in time for National Career Development Month in November, is the latest effort by the MiraCosta College Career Center, which serves thousands of students each year through workshops, webinars, career counseling, and more.
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Salk Institute and BridgeBio Pharma collaborate
to advance therapies for genetically driven disease
The Salk Institute and BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. announced a three-year collaboration agreement formed to advance cutting-edge academic discoveries in genetically driven diseases toward therapeutic applications. Under the partnership, BridgeBio will help fund research programs from Salk’s world-renowned innovative cancer research, with the eventual goal of developing new therapeutics for patients in need.
“Salk is known for its outstanding research, in particular in the field of oncology, so we are excited to enter into this partnership with BridgeBio to advance our discoveries and help develop next-generation therapies,” says Salk Vice President and Chief Science Officer Martin Hetzer, PhD. “The partnership represents an excellent opportunity for academic research to reach new potential in the clinical setting.”
The Salk Cancer Center is one of seven National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated basic research cancer centers in the United States. Here, researchers are using game-changing technologies to expose the molecular mechanisms underlying tumors in order to develop targeted cancer therapies. Salk is also home to the Conquering Cancer Initiative, which is a scientific and philanthropic endeavor to bring together collaborative cancer researchers to harness new strategies against five deadly cancers: pancreatic, ovarian, lung, brain (glioblastoma) and triple-negative breast. Salk’s scientists aim to identify cancer’s vulnerabilities in order to develop new methods that can attack the tumors while leaving the healthy tissues alone.
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Commentary
Incompetence could be GOP’s opportunity
By Dan Walters | CalMatters
California’s ever-shrinking Republican Party will receive little, if any, good news from this year’s elections.
The inevitable question will once again rise: Could the GOP, which once dominated the state, ever regain relevance?
Probably not, but if there is any chance for revival, it wouldn’t be an ideological reversion but rather popular disgust with incompetent governance.
We’ve seen the seeds of such a revolt in the recent meltdowns of two state agencies that have personal contact with millions of Californians, the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Employment Development Department (EDD).
Their chronic inability to provide rapid and efficient service — to simply do their jobs — has created boundless frustration and anger. Legislative hearings have been staged to allow venting, investigations have been ordered and Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed “strike teams” to fix their problems or at least show concern.
Last week, EDD Director Sharon Hilliard symbolically walked the plank, announcing her retirement after nearly four decades in the department but only eight months in its top position.
But DMV and EDD are just two obvious examples of chronic failure.
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General Atomics opens new customer
service center in Dresden, Germany
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), the world’s leading manufacturer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, opened a new customer service center in Dresden, Germany on Oct. 5, 2020. The center provides sustainment capabilities for MQ-9 fleets in and near Europe, providing customer convenience and expanding opportunities for European aerospace suppliers.
The service center is a key part of General Atomics’ European Regional Sustainment Network (ERSN). The ERSN leverages the European supply base and creates new repair capabilities that will reduce repair “turn-around-time” and the cost of MQ-9 support.
“Our sustainment services are flexible and reliable,” said Linden P. Blue, CEO, GA-ASI. “With ERSN, we’ll deliver better support while creating jobs through industry partners. We’re listening to our customers and acting on their desire to establish sustainment capability in Europe.”
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Platform Science and Samsung join
to bring mobile devices to fleets
Platform Science of San Diego announced the next phase of its collaboration with Samsung Electronics America to bring next-generation mobility solutions to enterprise fleets. The partnership will support the growing number of fleet organizations, which are dramatically improving the in-cab experience by providing drivers with ruggedized enterprise-level mobile devices, instead of having them use their own smartphone or rely on in-vehicle computers.
By pairing Samsung’s mobile devices with Platform Science’s Remote Platform Management (RPM ) products, fleets can transform their ruggedized devices into easily customized computing tools. Introduced in 2017–and designed specifically for the transportation industry– RPM enables enterprise fleets to connect and manage the core of the Connected Vehicle experience: devices, apps data and vehicles. In one seamless solution, RPM combines the functionality of mobile device management, mobile application management and device-to-vehicle connectivity — all natively built into the Platform Science open telematics platform.
RPM allows fleets to dynamically deploy the right applications to individual drivers and devices at any time and ensures that they are paired with the right vehicles. Uniquely, RPM ensures that each application is hosted locally at the edge when low latency is critical or 24/7 access is required, or in the cloud, when real-time processing is not essential. Currently, RPM has produced over a billion distraction-free miles and counting for its current customers.
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Cubic executive named to Top 50
Chief Diversity Officers list
, senior vice president and chief human resoources and diversity officer for Cubic Corporation, has been named among the 2020 Top 50 Chief Diversity Officers by the National Diversity Council.
Since joining Cubic in 2018, Lee has fostered a diverse and inclusive work environment by creating and implementing a global diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy. Her D&I strategy helps drive innovation within the organization and continues to position Cubic as a technology-driven, marketing-leading company. Lee’s framework currently serves as the guiding principles for recruiting diverse talent, expanding unconscious bias education, engaging an inclusive workforce, strengthening community outreach and supporting supplier diversity.
In addition to overseeing the development and advancement of Cubic’s diversity and inclusion strategy, Lee is responsible for the strategic leadership of global human resources, including talent acquisition; organizational learning and development; talent management; total rewards; and HR systems.
The National Diversity Council will host the 2020 National Diversity and Leadership Conference virtually on Nov. 4-5 where the top 50 chief diversity officers will be celebrated.
