Daily Business Report: Aug. 24, 2021
This technology could bring the fastest
version of 5G to your home and workplace
Consumers of today’s 5G cellphones may have experienced one of the following tradeoffs: impressive download speeds with extremely limited and spotty coverage, or widespread and reliable coverage with speeds that aren’t much faster than today’s 4G networks.
A new technology developed by electrical engineers at the University of California San Diego combines the best of both worlds and could enable 5G connectivity that is ultra-fast and reliable at the same time.
The team will present their work at the ACM SIGCOMM 2021 conference which will take place online Aug. 23 to 27.
The technology presents a solution to overcome a roadblock to making high band 5G practical for the everyday user: the speedy wireless signals, known as millimeter waves, cannot travel far and are easily blocked by walls, people, trees and other obstacles.
Today’s high band 5G systems communicate data by sending one laser-like millimeter wave beam between a base station and a receiver—for example, a user’s phone. The problem is if something or someone gets in the way of that beam’s path, then the connection gets blocked completely.
“Relying on a single beam creates a single point of failure,” said Dinesh Bharadia, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, who is the senior author on the ACM SIGCOMM paper.
ABOVE PHOTO: UC San Diego electrical and computer engineering Ph.D. student Ish Jain poses with the new millimeter wave setup that he developed.
LET’S FIND SAN DIEGANS OVER 80
Poland’s most gifted poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec once said, “Youth is the gift of nature but age is a work of art.”
With this in mind, we’re looking to celebrate as many San Diegans 80 or over as we can find with your help.
The 2020 Census says there are more than 20 million Americans 80 years of age and older, including 97,000 who are 100.
We’re all living longer because we smoke less, drink less, eat better and exercise more.
Maybe 80 is the new 60!
Send us your nominations. Please go to our web site — www.sandiegometro.com– and complete the nomination form. Thank you.
Landscape architect group to participate
in International PARK(ing) Day 2021
The San Diego Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (SDASLA) is preparing to participate in international Park(ing) Day 2021, an annual, global event in which local community members, artists, activists, students, and designers transform metered parking spaces into temporary parks and parklets, demonstrating how designers can change even small areas into public spaces to exercise, relax or make a social statement.
“The mission of PARK(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate the critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat … at least until the meter runs out!”, says Chris Stebbins, KTUA senior designer and president of SDASLA.
This year, PARK(ing) Day falls on Friday, Sept. 17. To date, there will be a main hub of parklets along Third Avenue in Chula Vista with support from SDASLA, the City of Chula Vista and the Third Avenue Village Association. McCullough Landscape Architecture in East Village will also host a parklet.
Joe Garbanzos of Chula Vista appointed to
the Long Term Care Insurane Task Force
Joe Garbanzos, 65, of Chula Vista, has been appointed to the Long Term Care Insurance Task Force by Gov. Gavin Newsome. Garbanzos has been state president of AARP California since 2021, where he has been an Executive Council member since 2014. He has been adjunct faculty for Alliant International University, San Diego Campus since 2012. He was an Outreach and Education Consultant for Harbage Consulting from 2013 to 2018. He is a member of the ElderHelp San Diego Board of Directors and the San Diego County Aging and Independence Services Advisory Council.
The position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Garbanzos is registered without party preference.
Researchers develop first steerable
catheter for brain surgery
A team of engineers and physicians has developed a steerable catheter that for the first time will give neurosurgeons the ability to steer the device in any direction they want while navigating the brain’s arteries and blood vessels. The device was inspired by nature, specifically insect legs and flagella—tail-like structures that allow microscopic organisms such as bacteria to swim.
The team from the University of California San Diego describes the breakthrough in the Aug. 18 issue of Science Robotics.
The steerable catheter was successfully tested in pigs at the Center for the Future of Surgery at UC San Diego.
Public invited to Mid-Coast on Morena
Community Appreciation Festival
On Saturday, August 28, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., SANDAG and MTS will host a community appreciation festival for the Mid-Coast Extension of the UC San Diego Blue Line Trolley. Attendees will have the opportunity to ride the Trolley before the Mid-Coast Extension opens in November.
The free event, known as the Mid-Coast on Morena Community Appreciation Festival, will showcase the new Trolley stations constructed along Morena Boulevard and thank the local community for their support of the project and patience during construction. The main festivities will take place at the Tecolote Road Trolley Station and Balboa Avenue Transit Center
The $2.1 billion Mid-Coast Extension will add 11 miles to the UC San Diego Blue Line Trolley, extending service from Downtown San Diego, north to the University Community and serving major activity centers such as Mission Bay Park, the VA Medical Center, UC San Diego, and University Towne Centre.
Garment manufacturers worry California bill
threatens ‘golden window’ to reshore jobs
By Nigel Duara | CalMatters
A bill that would have fundamentally changed how garment workers are paid had enough votes to pass during last year’s legislative session, its supporters say, but ran out of time during the session’s frenzied final hours.
This year, the Garment Worker Protection Act is back as Senate Bill 62, and Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, a Los Angeles Democrat and its sponsor, is on a barnstorming tour across Southern California to gin up support ahead of this year’s session.
“I’m proud to be a Californian,” she told an audience in Venice. “One thing I’m not proud of is the exploitation and the wage theft that’s taking place in Los Angeles day after day after day.”
But garment manufacturers say the pandemic provided an unexpected boon to their business in the U.S., a nascent success story amid economic calamity that is threatened by the bill, which creates new liabilities across California’s clothing supply chain from factory subcontractors to retailers.
Read more…
Checkers & Rally’s continues nationwide
growth with California expansion
Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc., the parent company of Checkers & Rally’s iconic drive-thru restaurants, announced it is accelerating growth on the West Coast with a call for interested franchisee operators for the San Diego market. This announcement follows a recently announced 15-store development agreement in Orange County. The company has available growth opportunities through additional franchise agreements in Texas, Arizona and California markets in addition to San Diego.
While other brands are just beginning to test dedicated drive-thru and delivery-only concepts, Checkers & Rally’s has 35 years of experience successfully operating double drive-thru restaurants with walk-up windows and patio seating, and now, the brand offers an e-commerce only lane to meet the needs of delivery drivers and guests who order ahead.
City Office REIT announces agreements
to sell life science portfolio for $576 million
City Office REIT Inc. announced that it has entered into definitive agreements to sell all of its holdings in the Sorrento Mesa submarket of San Diego County for $576 million. The transactions are expected to generate net proceeds, after estimated closing and transaction costs, of approximately $546 million, which equates to $12.38 per common share. The properties to be sold are unencumbered by debt.
The sales will be completed pursuant to two separate agreements. The northern portion of the portfolio is scheduled to close in December 2021 for $395 million. The southern portion of the portfolio is scheduled to close in February 2023 for $181 million. City Office has the ability to accelerate either closing date to align with redeployment opportunities. Both sales are subject to customary closing conditions.
BioDuro-Sundia acquires U.S.-based
drug product manufacturing facility
San Diego-based BioDuro-Sundia, a drug discovery and development services organization backed by Advent International, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a 40,000-square-foot commercial oral solid dose manufacturing facility located at 72 Fairbanks, Irvine. Subject to customary closing conditions, BioDuro-Sundia expects to begin commercial service operations at the site on Jan. 1, 2022.
“This fully-audited and operational facility allows us to immediately support our clients who require larger scale commercial production,” said Kent Payne, who led the acquisition in his role as president, development and manufacturing US/EU at BioDuro-Sundia.
Fall semester begins for 60,000 students at
San Diego Community Colleg District
Fall classes began Monday for students enrolled in the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD). Many students will return to the classroom as the district’s colleges, City, Mesa, Miramar, and the College of Continuing Education offer more in-person classes to complement a considerable schedule of online classes.
The district hopes to transition back to normal in-person operations by the spring 2022 semester if the health situation improves.
Biocom California to host DE&I Leadership
Summit for life sciences industry
Biocom California, the association representing the California life science industry, announced the inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Leadership Summit, a virtual event to further ignite action around DE&I in California’s life sciences industry, will be held on Thursday, Aug. 26 from 9 a.m. to1 p.m.
The event will feature a keynote presentation from Dr. Leeno Karumanchery, co-founder and head of behavioral sciences at MESH/Diversity, an organization dedicated to empowering DE&I professionals with strategic support, tools, metrics and data. The event will also feature fireside chats with industry leaders and roundtable discussions around necessary conversations about advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
For additional information on the DE&I Leadership Summit and registration details, please visit the event’s website.
