ACADEMIA

SAN DIEGO, CA -- On Friday, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), broke ground on two buildings with state-of-the art facilities to support technology research and education. At a combined cost of $143 million, the facilities will provide a boost to the region's economy, both short- and long-term. "The construction of this world-class facility will generate hundreds of jobs and help stimulate our economy," said Governor Davis, participating in the groundbreaking ceremonies. "By fusing public and private sector support for cutting-edge research and training for the next generation of scientists and technology leaders here at Cal-(IT)² we are creating a portal to new California jobs and technologies." At 215,000 gross square feet (GSF), the larger of the two buildings will house the headquarters and UCSD division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology [Cal-(IT)²], a collaboration between UCSD and UC Irvine, which seeks to extend the Internet throughout the physical world. The 148,000 GSF Computer Science and Engineering building will include the Jacobs School of Engineering's Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department as well as the administrative offices of Earl Warren College. The new buildings, together with the Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall set for completion in Fall 2002, will add 462,000 GSF. This is almost as much as the total current 480,000 GSF of the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. The planned construction will help accommodate a sharp increase in graduate and undergraduate enrollment at the Jacobs School. Since 1994, the Jacobs School's enrollment has increased roughly 50% to 4,500 today, and plans call for a total enrollment of 6,000 UCSD engineering students by 2010. In particular, Computer Science and Engineering majors and graduate students will grow by nearly 75 percent to a total enrollment of 400 graduate students and 1800 undergraduates. "We have been increasing engineering enrollments system-wide to meet the state's workforce needs, and UCSD's programs are an important part of that effort," said UC President Richard C. Atkinson. "In partnership with government and industry, UCSD and the Jacobs School are making a major contribution to the future economic success of the San Diego region and California in its entirety." The buildings will allow both Cal-(IT)² and the Jacobs School to expand the scope and focus of their research enterprises. "They will allow us to concentrate our efforts in focus areas that will continue to be major technological drivers for California and the nation—information technology, mobile computing, bioinformatics, education and the arts, and sensor networks to monitor the environment, transportation infrastructure, and homeland security," said Jacobs School Dean Robert W. Conn. "We're grateful to the Governor and the People of California and to our industry partners for their investment in our programs. They are enabling our future." The Governor recently signed into law legislation authorizing the sale of lease-revenue bonds to fund construction of multi-disciplinary research facilities for Cal-(IT)² and three sister institutes based on UC campuses; the bonds will cover the remaining $50 million of the State's total $100 million commitment to Cal-(IT)². Separately, the Governor and legislature earmarked more than $37 million for accelerated construction of the CSE building as part of an economic stimulus package approved in April. On hand for the groundbreaking ceremonies: Gov. Gray Davis, UC President Richard C. Atkinson, UCSD Chancellor Robert Dynes, QUALCOMM founder and CEO Irwin Jacobs, Jacobs School Dean Robert Conn, Cal-(IT)² Director Larry Smarr, CSE Chair Mohan Paturi, and more than 400 faculty, students, lawmakers, business leaders and other visitors. Cal-(IT)² Building Budgeted at $102.5 million for construction, equipment and services (of which $66.5 million is contributed by the State of California), Cal-(IT)²'s building at UCSD is the first to break ground of all the buildings planned by the four California Institutes for Science and Innovation (Cal ISI), created in December 2000. Managed by Gilbane Construction (San Francisco), the two-year project will employ approximately 45 subcontractors from the San Diego area. More than 450 tradesmen will work some 400,000 man-hours on the project, with occupancy expected in Fall 2004. Designed by NBBJ (San Francisco), the building will feature state-of-the-art facilities including an industrial-grade clean room and materials characterization lab; a six-walled, two-story virtual reality theater; a rooftop antenna garden; and offices and labs that can be reconfigured depending on the needs of each multi-disciplinary research team. "Everything about this building is designed to encourage faculty, students, and industrial partners to work together in inter-disciplinary teams to make fundamental discoveries," said Larry Smarr, Cal-(IT)² director and a professor of computer science and engineering at the Jacobs School. "For example, we expect co-location of physicists and chemists with artists and computer scientists to foster unusual collaborations and teams, leading to the ability to address complex societal problems more creatively and more comprehensively." The facility is also being designed to help the public understand how technology is conceived, studied, developed, and implemented, especially in integration with other technologies, such as in Cal-(IT)²'s "living laboratories." Computer Science and Engineering Building The $41 million building will consolidate operations and provide growth space for the CSE Department, while also housing the Administrative Complex of Earl Warren College. The project will employ roughly 200 construction workers and add 50 new jobs. Completion is projected for Spring 2004, with occupancy that Summer. Designed by Bohlin, Cywinski & Jackson (San Diego) to foster a sense of community among faculty, staff, students and visitors, the building incorporates "interaction spaces" for graduate and undergraduate students and researchers to share ideas and discuss classroom topics. The CSE building will also house sizable laboratories dedicated to undergraduate instruction, as well as research facilities. "Computer science is in an era of exciting growth due to fundamental innovations as well as the potential of information technology to create new applications in science, medicine, business and the arts. This building will accelerate our efforts to define the future of computing and to establish our leadership in emerging technologies such as 'anywhere, anytime' information access and intelligent embedded devices," said CSE Chair Mohan Paturi. "The building will provide a place where students, researchers and industrial partners collaborate, teach and learn." Visit www.calit2.net for further information.