For her translation of raunchy Middle French stage comedies, Enders, a theater historian and professor of French, has won the Lois Roth Award from the Modern Language Association.
A multi-institution collaboration of scientists investigates the rise and fall in the abundance of kelp, and how it affects shorebirds.
Demo Day is a showcase of the startups from our IdeaToDo program.
Meet the founders, learn about their startups, view product demos, and network with the startup community.
DATE
Tuesday, January 9 from 4 – 6 PM (PT)
In person at Hub101 (livestream link available)
Join EDC, Women’s Economic Ventures and SCORE for a NO-COST webinar series on how you can use AI to leverage your business! Spanish interpretation will be available.
AI for Business 101: How to Leverage AI to Accelerate your Business Growth
January 24 @ 12:00 pm
AI for Small Business Marketing: Supercharge your Social Media Content Creation with the Power of AI
February 28 @ 12:00 pm
Explore the real-world applications of AI. Don’t miss out on unlocking the potential of AI for your business success.
Register today!
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUude-trz8sHNRmYCUJx5uVPyyyTn22J-cV#/registration
BioScience Alliance (BSA) organizes networking events to foster relationships among industry scientists, executives, professionals and key vendors, facilitating idea exchange and growth. Next week, join their team to tour Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ newest manufacturing facility in Thousand Oaks!
Takeda is a patient-focused, values-based, R&D-driven global biopharmaceutical company committed to bringing Better Health and a Brighter Future to people worldwide
“E-bike safety, reckless riding, and enforcement have become a significant concern for our community, and we want to address these issues head-on,” said Chief Darin Schindler. “This workshop is an opportunity for residents to learn more about the safe and legal use of electric bicycles and to engage with our officers on these important issues. We are committed to ensuring the safety of all road users and fostering a culture of responsible e-bike use in Ventura.”
“We’re calling it a base camp (as opposed to a summit) because as far as AI has come in such a brief period of time, it still feels like a moment where we’re just beginning,” said Assistant Vice President of Digital Learning Lorna Gonzalez. “An event like this is meant to bring our community together to hear about what’s happening regionally and to have a shared experience about something that has been highly disruptive and will continue to be.”
The first workshop, entitled “Digital Marketing Guide: What, When and How to Post Content” will be held on September 4 at the Oxnard Public Library, Meeting Room B at 10:00AM. The workshop will be presented by Luisa Arzate who has more than 15 years of experience in graphic design and marketing. In addition to owning and operating her own local business, Luisa is a Marketing Business Advisor with the Economic Development Collaborative.
eet the talented individuals who make up our Agri Tech Fair speaker lineup. Each speaker brings a unique set of skills and expertise to the table, working together to create an exceptional event experience for our attendees.
FATHOMWERX Summit is an inclusive two-day event filled with tested technology expositions, demonstrations, tours, innovators, networking, a keynote speaker, industry and Department of the Navy program representatives and stakeholders. With participation from ANTX Coastal Trident and Venture Ventura, the two-day event explores the intersections between industry and the Department of the Navy.
SANTA BARBARA — Did you know in the next 6 years Podcast Listeners are predicted to grow from approximately 100 million people (that’s 1/3 of the USA Population) to 160 million people (1/2 the USA population). Having a Podcast is one of the least expensive ways to market your business and become known as an expert in your field.
A new workshop series offered by local coworking space Workzones in partnership with video and audio production company Hypecats promises to teach participants how to harness the power of podcasting for business promotion and brand building.
Join the Golden State APEX Accelerator and the Economic Development Collaborative for an exclusive in-person event focused on securing federal funding through the SBIR and STTR programs. Learn a clear overview of the programs available to you, how to identify potential topics/ funding sources and what to know about the application process. This interactive workshop equips new and experienced participants with the tools they need to succeed in SBIR/STTR programs.
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Salman Khan, Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing) on Saturday, October 5 at 4 p.m. at the Arlington Theatre. The visionary behind educational nonprofit Khan Academy, Salman Khan seeks to remove the barriers to education that leave over 600 million children lacking basic math and reading skills. His free, world-class curriculum – available to anyone, anywhere – has made a massive impact, with its videos reaching over a billion views. Now, Khan is using the power of AI to make education even more accessible. With the introduction of the revolutionary Khanmigo, he’s giving every student around the world an AI-powered personal tutor that The Washington Post calls “the best model we have for how to develop and implement AI for the public good.” Author of the new book Brave New Words, Khan offers a uniquely prescient and practical look into how we can use AI to enhance HI: “human intelligence, human potential and human purpose.”
“As AI is adopted across industries for automation, decision-making and data-driven insights, we will see growth rates that very few sectors have ever seen,” said Gerhard Apfelthaler, dean of the School of Management at Cal Lutheran. “By 2030, the global AI market is expected to expand to $1.3 trillion.”
Building on the research in the Civic Alliance’s 2023 State of the Region Report, this Future of the Region conference explores the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence and how it will shape our region.
We are excited to invite Aaron Anderson, president of Brandes Associates Inc., to be our next guest in our MSIT TechTalk webinar series.
For many of us who are in the workforce — or for those who are preparing to enter the workforce — we continue to ask ourselves this fundamental question, “Are We Prepared for the Workplace Where Artificial Intelligence is Bound to be Integral to the Company’s Workflow?”
In this TechTalk, Aaron Anderson, president of Brandes Associates Inc., will discuss how he answers this question and more. Anderson has much say about his expectations for his employees, be they new hires or seasoned professionals, and how he goes about preparing his teams for the future in which artificial intelligence will be highly integrated.
Doors open at 5PM. Food sponsored by Mendocino Farms.
5:00 PM – Enjoy food, networking, and sustinable fashion tabling. Feel free to shop!
5:30 PM – Keynote with Chipper Bro Bell, entrepreneur, B-Corp advocate, and Patagonia veteran of 25 years, shares insights on how companies can authentically live their brand by defining mission, values, and purpose to make a real impact on the planet.
6:00 PM – Runway style with sustainable fashion looks. Enjoy the latest eco-friendly looks on the runway, plus continued shopping and brand exhibits.
Enjoy an evening of runway fashion with eco-friendly designs and innovative styles that highlight the future of sustainable fashion. A must-see event for fashion enthusiasts and industry disruptors.
LOS ANGELES — Clean Power Alliance (CPA) has capped its fifth anniversary year of serving Southern California customers with a prestigious number one national ranking by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the sale of green power.
The NREL 2022 Utility Green Power Rankings, announced in fall 2023, is an annual list of top green power providers throughout the United States. The national report has historically identified and compared investor owned (IOU) and publicly owned utilities’ (POU) clean energy programs, evaluating green pricing, customer acquisition and sales. This year marked the first time the NREL included the nation’s community choice aggregators (CCAs), such as CPA.
Written by Wendy Eley Jackson, a lecturer in film and media studies, “Napa Ever After” is part of an effort to create movies that appeal to African-American families, particularly women, and reflect the themes of love, romance and personal growth.
Research in California’s Northern Channel Islands provides strong evidence of the benefit of marine protected areas for the recreational scuba diving industry in Southern California and highlights that the diving community should be considered a key stakeholder in decision-making about the future of MPAs.
Professor Emeritus Francisco Lomelí and Osiris Aníbal Gómez Ph.D. ’20 won an International Latino Book Award for their work on the former poet laureate.
An updated and expanded edition of Curtis Rhodes’ work maintains its volume as a seminal textbook.
SANTA BARBARA — On Monday, November 6, 2023, One805 presented donations to Chris Mailes, President of the Fire Chiefs Association of Santa Barbara County. The event took place at 6300 Hollister Avenue at 12 p.m.
Thirty-seven Seek Thermal FirePRO 300 devices, which help firefighters navigate through low visibility conditions by helping them see hazards invisible to the naked eye, were donated to Santa Barbara County Firefighters. One805 ran a “fundraiser within a fundraiser” at its One805Live! Fall Music Festival in September, earning enough to purchase fourteen Seek Thermal FirePRO 300 devices, with a promise from Seek Thermal to match, who exceeded its match promise with an additional nine extra devices to cover each fire station in the county.
GOLETA — LaunchPoint Electric Propulsion Solutions, Inc. (“LaunchPoint”), a pioneer in advanced aerospace electric power generation and propulsion technologies, announced today the grant of US Patent 11,738,875 B2 “Lightweight, High-Efficiency, Energy-Dense, Hybrid Power System for Reliable Electric Flight”. This patent is a significant milestone in LaunchPoint’s greater mission to revolutionize electric flight and propel the aerospace industry into a new era of efficiency and reliability.
Curated by art history graduate students Graham Feyl and Sylvia Faichney, the exhibition — now on view at UCSB’s Art, Design & Architecture Museum — reimagines spaces such as discos, dive bars, living rooms and bathrooms through the lens of queer placemaking.
When I was starting my higher technical education, I was studying “vacuum tubes.” These might as well be classified now as archaeological artifacts that young people can view in museums. Vacuum tubes were ubiquitous in the primitive computers of that time. They were also visible in everyday, household life—in radios, televisions, and guitar amplifiers.
IN-PERSON EVENT: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR SMALL BUSINESS
October 21 @ 10:00 am
The symposium will provide an introduction to AI and discuss tools and technologies with an overview of cutting-edge AI tools and platforms tailored for small businesses. Real-Life Case Studies will examine successful AI implementations in small businesses across diverse industries. They will also discuss AI-driven marketing and Sales Strategies, where you will discover how AI can supercharge your marketing campaigns, customer engagement and sales conversion rates. The key to prosperity is to reframe your thinking and leverage AI as a strategic tool to increase productivity. Join the NO-COST symposium to learn how! Location: Santa Barbara City College – West Campus, BC-Forum.
SAN LUIS OBISPO, SANTA BARBARA AND VENTURA COUNTIES — October is National Energy Awareness Month, which is a national effort to promote awareness and understanding of the importance of energy conservation, sustainability, and efficiency. Locally, 3C-REN (Tri-County Regional Energy Network), a partnership between the Counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura that delivers energy-saving programs, is introducing an “Incentives Finder,” a new online tool that helps residents find personalized programs and incentives for saving money and reducing energy usage. This tool is especially helpful in navigating the incentives that can be stacked for residents who upgrade their natural gas furnace or water heaters to high-efficiency, all-electric heat pumps.
“October serves as the perfect time to remind everyone about the opportunities and easy switches we can all make to be more energy wise,” said Marisa Hanson-Lopez, 3C-REN Program Manager. “Our new online tool allows residents to find the programs and incentives that are tailored specifically to them. We’re here to make it easy for the Central Coast to get onboard with electrification and energy savings. While this awareness month comes once a year, we encourage everyone to be energy efficient all year-round.”
A Chumash cultural burn reignites ancient practice for wilderness conservation
Reviving a practice that had been lost for generations, the Chumash community and the university partner on a cultural burn at North Campus Open Space.
In “The Virus Touch,” the global studies professor explores relationships between viruses, humans, animals and the environment to show how various forms of media — from news content to lab test results — create our understanding of epidemics.
A powerful memoir of poetry and prose, “Loving in the War Years: Lo que nunca pasó por sus labios” explores the author’s interconnected identities as a lesbian and a Chicana, coming of age in a turbulent era of American politics and social change.
PORT OF HUENEME — The Port of Hueneme is working with local fire departments on various training exercises to better prepare for a variety of emergency situations.
This week, crews from Ventura County, Oxnard and the Naval Base fire departments boarded the Wallenius Wilhelmsen (WW) car carrier vessel Oberon. This exercise is part of the ongoing effort to enhance awareness of Port and maritime operations to the local fire departments. The Oberon training focused on how to respond to emergencies involving electric and lithium powered vehicles and infrastructure. More than 370,000 cars come in through the Port of Hueneme on approximately 300 car carrier vessels annually, which accounts for a major part of the Port’s core business as the top 6 auto port in the US.
I am honored to have been elected the Chair of the Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) Policy Board of Directors. For those who don’t know, 3CE formed beginning in 2021 as our new, locally-owned electricity provider. Our reach spans 30 cities and 5 counties, from Carpinteria to the Santa Cruz Mountains. With no investors or shareholders, the revenue generated by 3CE stays local, helps keep rates lower than SCE and PG&E, and provides millions for rebates and incentives that lower greenhouse gas emissions. For example, during last week’s 3CE Policy Board of Directors meeting, we adopted the FY 2022-23 Operating Budget that includes approximately $16M for Energy Programs. During my time as Chair, I am looking forward to increasing the awareness of the important work 3CE is doing.
In her forthcoming book, and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kate McDonald illuminates the key role of people in the evolution of transport.
SANTA BARBARA — Cottage Health’s Santa Barbara Neuroscience Institute (SBNI) is the first healthcare provider on the Central Coast to use the latest image-guided laser technology to treat brain tumors, lesions and epilepsy.
The NeuroBlate® System delivers Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT), a minimally invasive surgical technique using MRI-guided laser light to ablate unhealthy brain tissue. It can be an effective treatment option for recurrent and hard to reach brain tumors and lesions. It is also used to treat certain types of epilepsy.
“LITT provides patients with difficult-to-access lesions, recurrent brain tumors and epilepsy with an alternative treatment method,” said Nicole Moayeri, MD, Neurosurgeon affiliated with the Santa Barbara Neuroscience Institute. “Being the first in the region to offer LITT is a testament to Cottage’s commitment to staying at the forefront of neurosurgery.”
CAMARILLO — Battery Streak, a leading battery technology company, has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the US Navy’s Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division. The CRADA will enable Battery Streak and NSWC Crane to collaborate on research for safe and fast charging battery development through August 2026.
The agreement will allow both entities to leverage each other’s subject matter experts, laboratory space, state of the art test equipment, and test result data. The collaboration will focus on developing Battery Streak’s advanced battery technology that can be used in dual use applications (military and commercial.)
For answers, John Protzko and his team looked to philosophers, professionals and laypersons. Their conclusions could help answer moral and legal questions if scenarios in today’s science fiction ever become reality.
OXNARD —The City of Oxnard announced the appointment of Rob Ruben as Oxnard’s new Chief Information Officer (CIO), effective Sept. 5, 2023.
With more than 20 years of industry experience leading large-scale project implementation and overseeing diverse operational teams, Ruben brings a wealth of expertise to his role in shaping Oxnard’s technological future.
“We’re excited to promote from within an experienced professional like Rob to lead our IT Department,” said City Manager Alexander Nguyen. “I look forward to him providing secure, efficient, forward-looking IT solutions for our organization.”
GOLETA — LaunchPoint Electric Propulsion Solutions, Inc. (“LaunchPoint”), a leading innovator in cutting-edge aerospace electric power generation and propulsion technologies, is thrilled to unveil its expansion to a new, state-of-the-art corporate headquarters in Goleta, Calif. The move to a larger, custom-built facility marks an exciting milestone for the company and underscores its commitment to better serving its aerospace industry customers as well as its growing workforce.
Using an Afrocentric and critical race theoretical framework, lead author Sharon Tettegah and co-authors Alison Cerezo, Terrance Wooten and DeLeon Gray review the works of four prominent Black psychologists.
“The culture in which a person grows up can impact the interpretation of the event,” said UC Santa Barbara professor emeritus Ann Taves. “And certain cultures can encourage people to watch out for and expect to experience these things.”
While they confer many ecological benefits, marine protected areas do not shield against the effects of prolonged elevated water temperatures.
CENTRAL COAST?— 3C-REN (Tri-County Regional Energy Network), a partnership between the Counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura that delivers energy-saving programs, had its $155 million, 8-year business plan approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. The plan permits 3C-REN to continue operating four successful existing programs and launch three new programs to fill gaps in energy efficiency services for commercial and public sector buildings, and the agricultural sector.
Resource managers are increasingly turning toward prescribed burns as a tool for land maintenance and restoration — and for reducing the risk of wildfires.
The Promise Scholar is graduating as a double major and is next set to join the university’s intensive Teacher Education Program on a full ride.
Faculty and students from four CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) academic programs are working together on a research project that has been awarded $80,000 by NASA.
Faculty and 10 students from CSUCI’s Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science and Chemistry/Biochemistry programs are involved in the research project, which is aimed at developing a way to predict how quickly various metal structures corrode in different environments.
“This is one giant project broken down into smaller projects,” explained Associate Professor of Mathematics Cynthia Flores, who is leading the project. “Essentially, we’d be able to render simulations with different metals and different designs to predict how they well they would withstand various atmospheric pressures and conditions before they start to degrade and corrode.”
Between the overlapping arrangement of two lattices, physicists find some interesting material behaviors that have never been seen before
Artificial intelligence (AI) may have burst upon the scene just last November, but it has been a part of our lives for at least several years. We may not have called it “artificial intelligence,” but many of us have been using it for years for our mundane tasks.
Google Maps is one clear long-running example of AI in some of our lives. It became available to us in 2005, not quite 20 years ago. The younger generations may feel particularly adept at using many of the more esoteric features of this app. But those of us of the boomer persuasion might have used Google Maps long ago simply as a digital version of the old Thomas Bros. paper map books that were sold in grocery stores and bookstores before the era of Google Maps.
Giovanni Vigna, with colleagues Ambuj Singh, Christopher Kruegel and João Hespanha, will head the $20-million Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and OperatioN (ACTION).
Professors Tanya Atwater, Leda Cosmides and Nelson Lichtenstein have been elected to the prestigious, 243 year-old institution.
The MOU outlines an agreement between the five container ports to jointly advance computerized and cloud-based data interoperability with a common goal of resilience.
View this email online. April 20, 2023 Top News Composer João Pedro Oliveira is awarded a Guggenheim “All of us at UC Santa Barbara are fortunate to have a colleague of such talent and expertise in our Music Department,” said…
GOLETA — LaunchPoint Electric Propulsion Solutions, Inc., an aerospace power generation and hybrid-electric propulsion company, announced today the commercialization and first customer shipments of its 12 kW stacked electric alternator solution for aerospace applications. The system is designed for drones and aircraft requiring a minimum axial form factor and lowest weight for maximum achievable power. The lightweight, high-power motors and controllers offered by LaunchPoint are coveted by companies seeking to reduce motor weight for maximum duration and payload.
One day some months back, I needed to talk with my bank about a suspicious charge on my credit card. I wasn’t as naïve to think that somebody would pick up the phone when I called. But I innocently believed that I would be talking with a person after listening to a brief “menu” and punching a couple of buttons.
Then I entered “chatbot hell.”
“Thank you for calling the Local Bank. What are you calling about?” the robot cheerily asked me.
“Credit card,” I answered.
A pause.
“Did you say, ‘debit card’?”
“No, I responded,” incredulous that it didn’t understand me the first time. “Credit card.”
“I’m sorry,” my chatbot said with no detectable remorse. “I’m not understanding your reply. What are you calling about?”
I started to become wary of this supposedly artificial “intelligence.” But I thought I would give it a chance and comply with its requests as best I could.
The Gevirtz Graduate School of Education is awarded a record grant for K-12 mental health services.
Doctoral candidate Elizabeth Driscoll Smith receives a dissertation fellowship to research the impact of transportation on midcentury American folk art.
If you need to locate a book – even if it was a written a decade or a century ago – there are library archives and organized shelves to help you. But similar systems for continually evolving computer games and interactive software have been slow to develop.
It’s a problem CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) Assistant Professor of Computer Science and video game enthusiast Eric Kaltman came across while attending graduate school at UC Santa Cruz, where he was doing computer game research.
“I was working at Stanford University archiving their video game collections—they had all of these games donated to them—and I thought, even Stanford is still figuring out what to do with all of this,” Kaltman said. “There was clearly a lot of work to do in figuring out how can we restore and recover historical video games for libraries and archives.”
Researchers prove that tough, woody lignin can be broken down in an anaerobic environment.
MPPA Policy Talk Series Presents…
Revisiting Integration Policies in the United States: From Patchwork Policies to a Systematic Approach
Wednesday, March 1 | 6:00 – 7:00 pm (PT) | In Person
Join Dr. Wa’ed Alshoubaki as she discusses integration policies in the United States while distinguishing between immigrants and refugees in terms of the logistics of their integration.
Assistant Professor at the University of Jordan. Expertise in public policy with ongoing research on immigration and refugee resettlements in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
Ecologist Leander Anderegg receives an award for research on the interplay between plant physiology and ecosystem dynamics.
I wrote recently about the rising influence of artificial intelligence (AI). This revolutionary advancement is no longer something far off in the distant future. Nor is it a nascent technology that is just now making an appearance. It has been creeping into our lives for decades.
Closely related to the field of AI is the science of robots, which are likewise invading our lives. For example, we are dependent on ATMs, installed at our banks and scattered around our cities. The check-in kiosks at medical offices and airports have replaced myriad jobs.
We order meals from some of our restaurant tables using digital devices. In more technologically advanced restaurants, robots are beginning to deliver those meals to our tables.
The biotech field is expected to grow faster than average through 2031, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Area biotech companies report struggling to fill positions for well-trained staff on their production teams. To meet this need, Moorpark College will offer a bachelor’s degree in applied biomanufacturing, expanding on the college’s proven track record of its associate degree in biotechnology.
The California Community Colleges Board of Governors granted Moorpark College official approval of the degree on Jan. 23. Students can begin the program with the fall 2024 semester.
“Students who earn this degree will be well-equipped to pursue careers in the growing biotech industry,” said Dr. Julius Sokenu, president of Moorpark College. “Moorpark College aims to provide our community with educational opportunities that lead to careers that help them build wealth — not just a living wage — and salaries that lift students out of poverty into solid middle-class professional jobs.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the quintessential double-edged sword. It has the ability to rescue humanity from some of its most intractable problems. On the other hand, if we are not careful, it could end up subjecting us to its whims, ravaging societies, and, ultimately, destroying us.
Some scientists and social engineers are giddy with the possibilities of AI. They see it as a means toward achieving things such as advances in medicine, more effective education, better tools for fighting climate change, and stronger and more durable materials. Employers are salivating with the potential of AI to help them trim costs—enormously, in some cases.
