The State of the Network

The Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) is pleased to invite you to:

CRCA Exchange #7 : The State of the Network

Featuring CRCA/Calit2 researchers Hans-Werner Braun, Peter Otto and Michelle Daniels.

Thursday April 14, 5pm - 7pm
CRCA Performative Computing Lab
Room 1606
Atkinson Hall
UCSD Voigt Drive, La Jolla

Presentations are followed by refreshments and are open to the public.

High Performance Wireless Network - Hans-Werner BraunThe High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) started in the year 2000 via a National Science Foundation network research grant, with additional NSF funding awards since, HPWREN functions as a collaborative cyberinfrastructure on research, education, and first responder activities. The project supports a high-performance wireless network in San Diego, Riverside, and Imperial counties. Th e network includes backbone nodes, typically on mountain tops, to connect often hard-to-reach areas in remote environments. HPWREN interconnects with the rest of the Internet at the San Diego Supercomputer Center here at UCSD. More information on HPWREN can be found at http://hpwren.ucsd.edu/

Sonic Arts Research - Peter Otto and Michelle DanielsPeter Otto (Director Sonic Arts Research Calit2) and Michelle Daniels (Graduate Student Music) present current projects underway in the the field of networked audio. The Sonic Arts Research Group partners in the film industry to find solutions for remote recording, mixing, editing, and composing projects.

CRCA Exchange is a series of free lecture and discussion events open to the general public. The organizers would appreciate it if you could share this announcement with any relevant distribution lists to which you have access.

The CRCA Exchange series is supported by The Center for Resea rch in Computing and the Arts, in conjunction with Calit2 and the UCSD 50th Anniversary.

For more information, please visit this link: http://crca.ucsd.edu/exchange/

Green Open House on campus is this Saturday / April 16

The UC San Diego Green Open House is this Saturday.

There are a couple of related events on campus, that require registration (one is free the other is not) that look interesting.

Food Justice Forum

The forum will focus on “Cultivating University-Community Partnerships for a Healthier Society.” The event is FREE but separate registration is required at ssi.ucsd.edu.

Green Business Summit

Hosted by UC San Diego Extension, the event features networking opportunities and inspirational speakers on how social and environmental strategies are creating profitable business models. Separate registration and fee required. Learn more at extension.ucsd.edu/summit.

Jan Talbot / 2010 Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award

NanoEngineering, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Professor Jan Talbot earned a 2010 Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award. Congrats!

This award recognizes a career of excellence in teaching both undergraduates and graduate students, mentoring graduate students, and contributing the development of educational curricula in her field.



According to Prof Talbot's Web page, her research interests include:

• Electrodeposition
  
• Electrophoretic deposition
  
• Information display screening technology
  
• Chemical mechanical polishing
• Solid state lighting materials
  
• Electrochemical transport phenomena
  
• Corrosion
  
• Materials science

The Zetabytes are Back!

Just when you think you're processing way more than your share of the bits in the digital deluge, UC San Diego's Roger Bohn and co come out with another study about zetabytes.

Today's zetabyte story, excerpted from the UC San Diego press release:

The world’s roughly 27 million computer servers processed 9.57 zettabytes of information in 2008, according to a paper to be presented April 7 at Storage Networking World’s (SNW’s) annual meeting in Santa Clara, Calif. The first-of-its kind rigorous estimate was generated with server-processing performance standards, server-industry reports, interviews with information technology experts, sales figures from server manufacturers and other sources. (One zettabyte is 10 to the 21st power, or a million million gigabytes.)

How much info is this? According to the press release, it's "the digital equivalent of a 5.6-billion-mile-high stack of books from Earth to Neptune and back to Earth, repeated about 20 times a year."

I wonder what kind of books...maybe the hard-copy encyclopedias that we don't look at any more.

Check out Gary Robbins' story on the topic in the San Diego Union Tribune:  "Business data could fill books reaching to Neptune and back."

Genomatica: Taking the Petrol out of Petrochemicals

NBC San Diego recently ran a TV story on Genomatica, a company that emerged from the Bioengineering Department here at UC San Diego. Check out the long list of press reports about Genomatica, including Xconomy, the Los Angeles Times, Forbes and the San Diego Union Tribune.

The NBC San Diego TV piece is neat because there is video footage from the labs, including bubbling brews derived from waste methane. In the piece, Christophe Schilling, Genomatica CEO and UCSD Bioengineering alumnus says that Genomatica is taking the petrol out of petrochemicals.

PNAS Paper / Gene Correcting does not Substantially Increase Stem Cell Mutations

The new paper published in PNAS includes four authors from the UC San Diego Department of Bioengineering: Athurva Gore, Zhe Li, Ho-Lim Fung and bioengineering professor Kun Zhang, who leads the Laboratory of Integrative Genomics at the Jacobs School of Engineering.

The press release from the University of Wisconsin-Madison: Study shows patient's own cells may hold therapeutic promise after reprogramming, gene correction

In the study, the researchers used a technique called episomal reprogramming to generate the induced pluripotent stem cells. In contrast to techniques that use retroviruses, episomal reprogramming doesn't involve inserting DNA into the genome. This technique allowed them to produce cells that were free of potentially harmful transgene sequences.

The scientists then corrected the actual retinal disease-causing gene defect using a technique called homologous recombination. The stem cells were extensively "characterized" or studied before and after the process to assess whether they developed significant additional mutations or variations. The results showed that the culture conditions required to correct a genetic defect did not substantially increase the number of mutations.

Brad Fikes from the North County Times covered the story:  Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Pass Gene Therapy Test

Coffee Grounds to BioDiesel

Jacobs School undergrads involved in the student group Engineers for a Sustainable World showed off their experimental coffee-grounds-to-biodiesel system on NBC San Diego (TV) this week.

Watch the two minute video on the NBC San Diego site.

Below is info about Engineers for a Sustainable World from their first ESW newsletter (PDF).

Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) is a student organization at UC San Diego devoted to promoting sustainability both at on campus and around the world through projects and community education. We are always looking for new and exciting ways to promote sustainability on the UC San Diego campus as well as in the broader community. Members of ESW are currently working on a number of projects promoting sustainability at UCSD and various locations around the globe.

As a student run organization, we appreciate investments that will help facilitate the development of future sustainable technologies. Engineers for a Sustainable World at UC San Diego welcomes new opportunities to work with professional companies to further our education and innovation. Any further questions or inquiries of investment can be sent to the ESW UC San Diego e-mail at esw.ucsd@gmail.com, or go to our website at http://esw.ucsd.edu.