Daily Business Report: Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021
Cal State San Marcos receives $6 million federal
grant for student veterans to pursue energy careers
By Tigist Layne | Cal State San Marcos
California State University at San Marcos (CSUSM) has received a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense that will help student veterans discover careers in sustainable energy.
The university had previously received a Veterans to Energy Careers (VTEC) grant in the amount of $3 million from the Office of Naval Research back in 2018 when the program was established at CSUSM.
The original grant of $3 million required VTEC to place at least 30 student veterans into internships at any given time. Under the terms of the new grant, which began Aug. 1, that reach has increased to 50 internships.
Established in 2012, VTEC has been helping veterans transition into sustainable careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
To address the shortage in the STEM workforce, VTEC established a workforce development program, funded by the Office of Naval Research, that provides paid internships, mentorship and career development, leading to careers in the Department of Defense as well as the private sector and defense industries.
TOP PHOTO: The Veterans to Energy Careers program helps student veterans find jobs in sustainable energy fields. (Photo courtesy of CSUSM)
Swedish firm Alfa Laval to support
San Diego’s water recycling program
Swedish company Alfa Laval has won an order to supply decanters to a wastewater treatment plant in San Diego that will treat municipal wastewater, ensuring it is suitable for irrigation and other non-potable uses. The project is part of San Diego’s Recycle Water program, which will provide more than 40 percent of the city’s water supply locally by the end of 2035.
The Recycled Water program gives the city a dependable, year-round and locally controlled water resource. Alfa Laval’s decanters will be installed in one of the municipal water treatment plants where they will be used for thickening and dewatering of the sludge.
The City of San Diego also has a plan to install proven water purification technology to clean recycled water and enable production of safe, high-quality drinking water.
New Qualcomm report calls for accelerated efforts
to use 5G to enable a more sustainable future
A new Qualcomm Technologies Inc. report, “Environmental sustainability and a greener economy: The transformative role of 5G,” highlights the many ways 5G technology can achieve critically needed sustainability benefits and calls for joint efforts by industry and government to accelerate 5G adoption.
The report finds that 5G can transform and positively impact industries across the globe by creating new products and processes that support environmental sustainability. It shows how 5G enabled sustainability is an economic opportunity with major potential for increased revenues, profit margins and productivity – as well as a range of other business benefits.
A key finding from the report shows the rollout of 5G in the U.S. alone is expected to
create as many as 300,000 new green jobs by 2030. The roles of data scientist, data engineering and software engineering will gain traction as companies rely more and more on 5G.
California unemployment rate stagnant
CalMatters
Although the Golden State created a whopping 44 percent of the nation’s new jobs last month, its unemployment rate remained the second-highest in the country at 7.5 percent, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department. That’s essentially unchanged from the 7.6 percent unemployment rate California notched in both July and June — and hardly different from the 7.7 percent rate in May, a month before the state ended most coronavirus restrictions and fully reopened its economy.
Nearly half of the 104,300 payroll jobs California added in August were government positions, a reflection of public schools desperately trying to fill teacher and substitute teacher shortages as kids return to campus.
Cultural Tourism and Tribal Enterprises
online certificate program announced
SDSU Global Campus and the American Indian Alaskan Native Tourism Association will offer a new online certificate in Cultural Tourism and Tribal Enterprises with classes beginning January 2022.
The for-credit certificate, developed by the L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management program, will bring together academic and industry experts who will provide tools for tribal tourism planners to sustain a balance between the tribal cultural environments, economic development, tourism promotion and recreational use.
Through the American Indian and Alaskan Native Cultural Heritage Tourism certificate program, students will learn global best practices in the effective organization, administration and supervision of tribal cultural sites, recreation and tourism agencies and leisure-related tribal businesses, including tourism agencies, tribal gaming and hospitality operations and sacred sites.
Kate Spilde, endowed chair of the Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming at SDSU, will serve as director of the new program.
How a plant virus could protect and
save lungs from metastatic cancer
Using a virus that grows in black-eyed pea plants, nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego developed a new treatment that could keep metastatic cancers at bay from the lungs. The treatment not only slowed tumor growth in the lungs of mice with either metastatic breast cancer or melanoma, it also prevented or drastically minimized the spread of these cancers to the lungs of healthy mice that were challenged with the disease.
Cancer spread to the lungs is one of the most common forms of metastasis in various cancers. Once there, it is extremely deadly and difficult to treat.
The research was published Sept. 14 in the journal Advanced Science.
Kratos delivers first order to Northrop Grumman
for U.S. Army’s TITAN prototype program
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. announced it has successfully delivered the first set of products to support the U.S. Army Tactical Intelligence Targeting Access Node (TITAN) space-ground system prototype, which is being developed by Northrop Grumman. The purpose of the TITAN system will be to provide near-real time data to commanders at all levels for timely targeting solutions.
Northrop Grumman was selected by the Defense Innovation Unit and the U.S. Army Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities office to develop prototype Space to Ground TITAN systems.
In addition, Kratos will provide engineering and manufacturing of the modified tactical shelter and related subsystem hardware for the TITAN prototypes.
U.S. Postal Service seeks to hire 500-plus workers
at San Diego and San Bernardino job fairs
The U.S. Postal Service is hosting job fairs in San Diego and San Bernardino in the coming weeks to facilitate the hiring of more than 500 employees. The 500+ available positions include jobs as City Carrier Assistants, Mail Handler Assistants, Postal Support Clerk Employees and Rural Carrier Associates and hourly pay from $16.87 to $19.06 an hour.
Pre-registration is encouraged, and social distancing and face masks are required to attend either job fair. Interested applicants can pre-register by going online at www.eventbrite.com. Walk-in applicants will be accepted based upon space availability.
San Diego’s job fair will be Saturday, Oct. 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at USPS Margaret L. Sellers Mail Processing & Distribution Center, 11251 Rancho Carmel Drive, San Diego 92199.
Cal State San Marcos wins top Diversity Award
Cal State San Marcos has received the 2021 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.
As a recipient of the annual HEED Award — a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion — CSUSM will be featured along with 100 other recipients in the November 2021 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.
This is the eighth straight year that CSUSM has been named a HEED Award recipient.
Cal State San Marcos is one of only three CSU schools to win the HEED Award this year. The others are Fresno and Fullerton.
