UCSC Silicon Valley Initiative

March 25, 2007 UC Santa Cruz takes off in Silicon Valley BY ROGER SIDEMAN SENTINEL STAFF WRITER MOUNTAIN VIEW — Forty miles to the north, where highways 101 and 85 meet, UC Santa Cruz is looking to expand its mini-campus at Silicon Valley's busiest crossroads. Already, more than 100 UCSC researchers are working in the shadow of the world's two largest wind tunnels to advance knowledge in such areas as human space flight. Their landlord, NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, is planning to build the world's largest concentration of high-tech companies — including the Google campus — and UCSC wants in on the ground floor. "If this was all here 40 years ago when people were considering sites for the new UC campus, it would have been [in San Jose], not Santa Cruz," said William Berry, who oversees the university's research contract with NASA. UCSC's expansion in Silicon Valley began when it landed a 10-year contract worth $330 million in research outsourced by NASA. UCSC is now seeking new deals with high-tech companies and government agencies, which rely more and more on universities to develop far-off, higher-risk technologies — the kinds that never pay off in the short term. UCSC just scored its first corporate partnership, a deal with computer maker Hewlett-Packard, with the lofty goal of "revolutionary science breakthroughs," and hopes that more companies will soon follow. At the same time, educational opportunities are being created for students. In a converted naval building filled a generation ago with young recruits learning to pilot planes and fix engines, UCSC students now can take classes year-round, learning topics such as e-business strategy and computer network security. Advertisement And basic introductory courses in economics and psychology will be available over the summer to undergraduates who live in the area and don't want to journey down to the coast. The Next Big Thing With the brains of its researchers, the science of NASA and the lure of cash from private companies, the university is positioning itself to carve out a new niche — a catalytic "synergy" as they say — at the intersections of bioscience, information technology and nanoscience. It's part of the new, so-called private-public partnership model, where university scientists no longer design experiments only to have them "just sit in journals," said UCSC's Patti Ponzini, director of the Advanced Studies Lab, one of several ventures between NASA and UCSC. Their experiments also need to have a financial payoff in order to get funding, she said. "Federal [granting] agencies like the National Science Foundation and Department of Defense are requiring that we have private partners who can push products into the marketplace," Ponzini said. That is where the future of research is going, said Carl Welch, who heads UCSC's Silicon Valley Initiatives. And while nobody knows exactly what kinds of products will take off, existing research has already led to several, including: Revolutionary computer simulation software that automated the nation's air traffic control system, thereby reducing dependence on radar and flight controllers; Infrared scanners aimed at preventing another space shuttle catastrophe by scanning the shells of shuttles for missing thermal tiles; A new kind of carbon nanotube, a material that can be used in countless products like hand-held medical diagnostic devices used by the Department of Homeland Security to detect harmful biological agents, or even E. coli. The Other Campus Beyond the gates of a second security checkpoint, only visitors wearing proper ID badges can get to N239, a lab building that sprung up in the space-flight era of the 1970s with a speckled, concrete facade made to look like craters on the moon. Inside, UCSC hopes that biologists, engineers and other academics rub elbows with people from Intel, AMD and other chip makers. It's similar to Stanford's Bio-X program, where scientists from wide-ranging fields are clustered together in one building, Ponzini said. "The idea is to force collaborations by having everyone cross each other in the hall on their way from their labs to the bathroom," she said. "But while this kind of thing is already happening at places like Stanford, what we're bringing into the mix is government and industry" The university announced its first corporate partnership this month, a research deal with Hewlett-Packard to establish the Bio-Info-Nano Research and Development Institute inside N239. The new lab will open in June. HP's primary focus will be on nanotechnology, the science of working with things that are very, very small. As in most cases when research is involved, nobody can predict what kind of products will come of the collaboration. "You've definitely got fantasies working with nanotech, such as pharmacological agents that can fight individual tumors or the ability to genetically modify cellulose to create renewable fuels," said Mike Isaacson, the institute's scientific director. The purchase of a new suped-up transmission electron microscope for the institute — one of only two in the world — will provide "the best tweezers available for mankind" for working on an atomic scale, said David Lackner, the institute's director. And at the same time Silicon Valley corporate leaders and venture capitalists lobby Congress and the Bush administration to boost federal funding to accelerate innovation in clean technologies, UCSC's Silicon Valley Center will soon unveil its own "green tech" initiative. Overall, many are excited by the possibilities in Silicon Valley for raising UCSC's profile. "Being in the neighborhood is very valuable and UCSC will become a key player and a leader there," said acting Chancellor George Blumenthal. Contact Roger Sideman at rsideman@santacruzsentinel.com.