VISUALIZATION

California Assemblyman Martin Garrick toured the San Diego Supercomputer Center and related areas of the UC San Diego campus on May 2 as part of the center’s overall effort to brief elected officials on new systems and technologies that could have a positive impact on several state programs in the areas of education, emergency services, and transportation. Garrick, a Republican, is North County’s State Assemblyman for the 74th District covering Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Vista, San Marcos, Escondido, Solana Beach, Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe. The first-term assemblyman’s legislative focus is on improving California’s business climate, transportation infrastructure, public safety, and tax and regulation reform. In addition to touring the machine room of SDSC and getting a first-hand look at the supercomputer center’s 80,000 square-foot building extension that is nearing completion and set to open later this year, Garrick heard presentations from SDSC staff on selected research and educational initiatives. Presenters included:

• Dr. Chaitan Baru, who gave an overview of a 9-1-1 emergency call analysis recently conducted in several California areas. The analysis could assist CalTrans and other state agencies to enhance their early warning systems in the event of wider-scale disasters in California and across the nation such as earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes; and
• Kimberly D. Mann Bruch, who presented HPWREN (High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network), a program using real-time video cameras in remote or hard-to-reach areas to facilitate learning for local Native American tribes, as well as to coordinate with local first responders to assist during emergency activities such as the recent San Diego wildfires.

Garrick is also scheduled to hear presentations at a later date on SDSC’s TeacherTech program, which helps secondary and community college educators in the Southern California area introduce computational tools and approaches into their courses, creating compelling, interactive, and up-to-date learning experiences for their students. Earlier in the day, Garrick visited the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at UC San Diego, where he saw a demonstration of the institute’s Wireless Traffic Report, a toll-free, peer-to-peer traffic information service that allows motorists to get real-time information on traffic speeds and delays on major San Diego highways. Garrick was also given a virtual reality tour of the Oakland Bay Bridge reconstruction, seeing a 3-D structural view of the bridge using Calit2’s StarCAVE system. The system would allow construction teams to “see” what they’re building before they build it, and the practice could one day become standard operating procedure on similar construction projects around the world. In addition, Garrick was given a presentation by Jacobs School of Engineering professor Rajesh Gupta titled “The Educational Pipeline: From Classroom to Labs.” Gupta holds the QUALCOMM Endowed Chair in Embedded Microsystems in the Computer Science and Engineering department. With reporting by Tiffany Fox, Calit2.