Daily Business Report: January 18, 2024
San Diego State University and CSU campuses
get major cyberinfrastructure upgrade for research
By Sarah White | SDSU
San Diego State University, with partners from three California State University (CSU) campuses and the San Diego Supercomputer Center at University of California San Diego, is leading the way on a new project that will upgrade high-performance computing capabilities and increase access to advanced computing for faculty and student researchers across the CSU.
The Technology Infrastructure for Data Exploration (TIDE) project, backed by a $991,749 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, will use high-performance graphical processing computing servers to expedite artificial intelligence and machine learning calculations, which previously required days to complete on less powerful machines.
Nearly 700 new computing cores, purchased from Dell Technologies, will be housed at SDSU’s Campus Data Center but accessible to collaborators at an initial set of seven institutions — including researchers from the CSU campuses of Humboldt, San Bernardino and Stanislaus — who are part of the TIDE project team.
Photo: The TIDE initiative adds high-performance computing capabilities to the California State University system.
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Why California community colleges are reluctant
to spend more than $500 million in state money
By Adam Echelman | CalMatters
More than a year after California community colleges received $650 million in state COVID-19 relief money, schools have spent less than 20 percent of it.
Colleges say they desperately need the money, but that they are reluctant to spend it because of ongoing uncertainty surrounding the state’s budget. Namely, they fear they’ll be asked to give it back.
“It’s either feast or famine,” said Dan Troy, an assistant superintendent at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo and a former member of the finance team at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.
Community colleges can spend the relief money on a wide range of programs, including mental health services, food pantries for students, technology, and professional development for faculty. But more than $500 million remains unspent, according to the most recent data from the chancellor’s office.
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County leader wins prestigious Baldridge Foundation award
The Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award has recognized Barbara Jiménez, Community Operations Officer (COO) for the County’s Health and Human Services Agency, with a community leadership award.
Jiménez, who oversees the County’s Department of Homeless Solutions and Equitable Communities (HSEC), was among the national awardees representing large and small businesses, health care, education, nonprofit, cybersecurity, communities and government.
The Baldridge Foundation said this is the first time “Community” has been a category, and “the inaugural group embodies the type of role model leadership our communities and our country need.”
For more than 30 years Jiménez has provided, promoted and overseen social and human services throughout San Diego County. Before being named HHSA COO in July 2021 and being tasked with creating HSEC, much of her career was focused on communities in South and Central San Diego.
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December home sales hit a low note, and prices dip slightly
San Diego County home sales ended on a low note in December, closing out a year of fluctuating inflation and mortgage interest rates. Data on the current resale market is compilied by the Greater San Diego Association of Realtors.
Sales of single-family homes were down more than 21 percent in December, compared to December 2022, and were lower by almost 9 percent from the previous month. Attached properties (condominiums and townhomes) saw a drop of 10 percent from a year ago, and nearly 14 percent from November. Sales inventory is possibly a silver lining, with the supply of homes reaching 3.5 months – representing the number of months it would take for current for-sale homes to sell, given a monthly sales volume.
The median price of resale homes in San Diego County dipped last month, with single-family homes settling at $949,000, more than 3 percent lower than November. Condos and townhomes saw a median price of $650,000, about 2 percent lower than the prior month. However, prices in December are still about 10 percent higher than December 2022.
Most expensive single-family property sold in December
The most expensive single-family property sold in December in San Diego County was an oceanfront estate on Carlsbad Boulevard. Built in 2005, the property features 5 bedrooms, 7 baths – plus an office, media and wine room – along with a guest/caretaker apartment. It sold on Dec. 1 for $10.75 million.
San Diego County Economic Roundtable 2024
Federal, state and local experts will make their best educated guesses on what to expect from the economy in 2024 at the 40th Annual Economic Roundtable on Friday at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego. Time: 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.
County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas will make opening remarks. Additional opening speakers include Timothy Keane, dean, USD Knauss School of Business; A.J. Moyer, president and CEO, C3 Bank; and Tony Young, interim president & CEO, San Diego Workforce Partnership.
Andersen adds new San Diego office
Andersen, the fastest-growing independent, multidisciplinary professional services firm in the world, has announced a new San Diego office as the firm expands its presence in Southern California. The move comes after the professionals from Reibman, a leading San Diego-based tax compliance and planning firm, joined Andersen. The new San Diego office will include Managing Director Allen Reibman, whose team of a half dozen professionals will join Andersen’s Private Client Services practice.
Ivy Fertility and SMP Pharmacy Solutions launch co-branded partnership
Ivy Fertility, a global destination for family-building services, is partnering with fertility specialty pharmacy SMP Pharmacy Solutions to elevate the patient experience across Ivy’s 13 fertility centers through an innovative co-branding initiative. The two organizations will be launching co-branded packaging for fertility medications to ensure a seamless consumer experience from clinic to home.
Brain Corp unveils BrainOS Inventory AI Suite
Brain Corp, an autonomous technology company creating transformative core technology in robotics and AI, unveiled the BrainOS InventoryAI Suite, a sophisticated retail inventory analytics solution designed to analyze inventory data captured by autonomous mobile robots running on its platform. It also unveiled the “Dane AIR”, a purpose-built inventory scanning robot developed in collaboration with Dane Technologies.
San Diego Museum Month set for Feb. 1-29
San Diego Museum Month will return for its 35th year from Feb. 1-29, the San Diego Museum Council reports. For the first time ever, the popular program is expanding to include cultural sites in Tijuana and Baja California, making this the biggest and most diverse San Diego Museum Month ever, with more than 70 regional cultural sites offering half-off admission throughout the month of February.
Castle Creek Capital invests $30 million in FirstSun Capital Bancorp
San Diego-based Castle Creek Capital, a private equity firm focused on investments in the community banking industry, announced an agreement to invest $30 million in FirstSun Capital Bancorp alongside other investors, to fund the company’s announced merger with HomeStreet Inc. Spencer T. Cohn will become Castle Creek’s board level representative at the company after merger’s close. The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions including required regulatory and stockholder approvals.
ClearNote Health announce publication of new study on lung cancer
ClearNote Health, a cancer detection company focused on enabling people at risk for high-mortality cancers to live longer, healthier lives, announced the publication of new data from a study demonstrating the applications of its epigenomic technology platform in predicting and monitoring immunotherapy responses for patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The article was published in the online issue of The Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.
Aya Healthcare expands into UK with ID Medical acquisition
Aya Healthcare, the largest health care talent software and staffing company in the United States, announced the acquisition of ID Medical, a leading workforce solutions provider in the United Kingdom (U.K.). ID Medical brings over 20 years of experience providing the National Health Service (NHS) and other health care organizations with innovative workforce solutions, including workforce management, international recruitment and temporary health care staffing. ID Medical will continue to operate as its own brand in the U.K.
DermTech discontinuing add-on assay for melanoma test
DermTech Inc., a leader in precision dermatology enabled by a non-invasive skin genomics technology, announced that it will discontinue the optional TERT promoter mutation add-on assay for its DermTech Melanoma Test (DMT) effective March 1, 2024. Multiple studies, including the company’s recently completed Trust 2 Study, demonstrated the DMT’s negative predictive value (NPV) to be 99 percent or higher. DermTech originally marketed its foundational assay under the name Pigmented Lesion Assay (PLA).
SEQSTER launches tool to streamline data collection on clinical trials
SEQSTER PDM Inc., the leading patient-centric health care technology company, announces the launch of the Admin Portal for Healthcare and Life Science stakeholders, a powerful tool designed to streamline the data collection lifecycle and expedite clinical trials. SEQSTER has pioneered the longitudinal health record for clinical trials, studies, patient registries, and life science enterprises.
