U.C Institute Helping Solve Society’s Problems

A collection of four University of California campuses won $100 million in special funding from the state of California three years ago to establish the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), and has since raised another $200 million from corporations and federal agencies.

CITRIS executive director Gary Baldwin says the effort is tackling the type of research that Bell Laboratories and Xerox PARC are not able to address in such open fashion anymore.

Wireless sensor networks are being developed, for example, to monitor the environment and bolster disaster preparedness capabilities.

Motion sensors attached to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, for example, alert state officials when the bridge sways too much, signifying high winds or other disturbance.

Smart thermostats and power meters in large buildings are also being developed that will give people more information about the cost of electricity and impact of certain temperature settings.

Baldwin says a large amount of CITRIS funds come from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation.

The Homeland Security Department, he says, recently awarded CITRIS a large contract to develop cybersecurity protections. Even before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Baldwin says a CITRIS group was designing technology that could be of great use to emergency responders, especially firemen inside burning buildings.

Originally intended for motorcycle riders, helmet visor display technology could give firemen building schematics, as well as let them know where the fire is spreading and where colleagues are located. The helmet display technology is currently being tested in Berkeley, Oakland, and Chicago fire departments.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Silicon Valley Biz Ink (09/19/03); Graebner, Lynn.