Dr. Larry Smarr discussed his work over 30 years building cross-disciplinary teams at research institutes like Calit2 to solve real-world problems using cutting-edge technology. Calit2 is a collaborative research institute between UCSD and UCI that brings together over 1000 researchers from 24 departments to work on projects in health, energy, environment and culture. Calit2 provides world-class research facilities and has worked with over 180 industrial partners and incubated 17 startups. Examples of Calit2's work includes creating virtual reality models of historical sites, monitoring wildfires in real-time, and creating a "digital twin" interactive virtual reality model of San Diego County.

1. “Calit2 as a Model
for Collaborative Innovation”
Invited Talk
San Diego Rotary Club
San Diego, CA
April 18, 2019
Dr. Larry Smarr
Director, California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology
Harry E. Gruber Professor,
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering
Jacobs School of Engineering, UCSD
http://lsmarr.calit2.net
1

2. Abstract
I have spent the last 30 years building cross-disciplinary teams using
cutting-edge technology to solve real-world problems. The California
Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, a UC San
Diego/UC Irvine, is one of four Gray Davis Institutes for Science and
Innovation in the UC system. I will share examples from our projects in
digitally-enabled disruptions of Health, Energy, Environment, and Culture,
driven by innovations in wireless and photonic telecommunications,
nanotechnology, biotechnology, and virtual reality.

3. I Have Spent Four Decades
Developing Collaborative Institutes
National Center for
Supercomputing Applications 1985
Beckman Institute for
Advanced Science and Technology 1989

4. California’s Institutes for Science and Innovation
A Bold Experiment in Collaborative Research Launched in 2000
UCSB
UCLA
California
NanoSystems Institute
UCSF
UCB
California Institute for Bioengineering,
Biotechnology,
and Quantitative Biomedical Research
UCI
UCSD
California Institute for
Telecommunications and
Information Technology
Center for
Information Technology Research
in the Interest of Society
UCSC
UCD
UCM2000

5. Two Calit2 Buildings Provide
New Laboratories for “Living in the Future”
• World-Class Laboratory Facilities
• Over 1000 Researchers in Two Buildings
• Drawn From 24 Campus Departments
UC Irvine
$100M From State for New Facilities
UC San Diego
Opened
2005

6. Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute Has Worked With 180 Industrial Partners to Date,
Including These Companies
http://qi.ucsd.edu/industry-partners.php
Plus 130 More…

7. Calit2 “Lives in the Future” By Building Systems
of Emerging Disruptive Technologies
Co-Evolution of Personal Automobile and
Highway/Petroleum Infrastructure
Source: Harry Dent, The Great Boom Ahead
Calit2
Works Here
{
Technologies Diffuse Into Society Following an S-Curve

8. Calit2 is a Framework for “Living in the Future”
of the Digital Transformation of Society

9. Calit2’s QI Nanotechnology Clean Rooms and Microscopy Facilities
Have Been Used by Over 70 Companies In the Last Year
550 UCSD
Students Trained

10. Calit2’s QI Has One of the World’s Most Advanced
Photonics Systems Lab
DARPA
Lockheed
Google
Nokia
Sumitomo

11. Digital Archaeology in an Ultra-Resolution Virtual Reality Room:
Egypt’s Luxor in QI’s SunCAVE
250 Times the Resolution of a Head-Mounted Display!

12. Being There: Streaming HD Video to Calit2’s 64 Million Pixel Wall
From a Hydrothermal Vent 1 Mile Below Sea Level
Photo by Tom DeFanti, Calit2
July 26, 2017

13. Calit2 and UCSD Are Designing and Building
Robots in the Real World Working with Humans
3D Printing Lab
Prof. Henrik Christensen,
Director

14. Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute Innovation Space (QIIS)
Incubates 17 Startups

15. Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute Has Hosted 180 Events
In the Last Year

16. Calit2 Used Its New Building in 2006 to Host
a Disaster Drill of the San Diego Metropolitan Medical Strike Team
Involved
Over 200
First Responders

17. Creation of a “Digital Twin”:
Interactive Virtual Reality of San Diego County
0.5 meter image resolution.
2meter resolution elevation

18. Using Calit2’s Qualcomm Institute NexCAVE
for CAL FIRE Research and Planning
Thom Porter, San Diego CAL FIRE Unit Chief
January 9, 2012

19. Real-Time Network Cameras on Mountains Connected by High-Speed Wireless
for Environmental Observations and Fires
San Diego County Red Mountain Fire Cameras
• Southeast (left) “Highway” Fire
• Southwest (center rear) “Poinsettia” Fire
• West (right) “Tomahawk” Fire
Source: Frank Vernon,
Hans Werner Braun HPWREN
May 14, 2014

20. Once a Wildfire is Spotted, Our WIFIRE Software System
Can Predict the Future Path of the Fire
Landscape Data
WIFIRE Firemap
Source: Ilkay Altintas, SDSC
Fire Perimeter
Real-Time
Meteorological
Sensors
Weather
Forecasts

21. WIFIRE Prediction in Lilac Fire Dec 2018 in Collaboration with
San Diego Airborne Intelligence Reconnaissance System (SDAIRS)

22. Our NSF-Funded WIFIRE Project
Has Reached a National Audience
Ilkay Altintas, SDSC; PI WIFIRE

23. Qualcomm Institute Staff Created a 3D “Transparent Larry” From MRI Slices
So My Doctors and I Can Study Me in Calit2’s Virtual Reality CAVE
And 3D Printed
My Diseased Colon!

24. The Ability to See Inside Myself Led
to My Co-Planning My Own Surgery

25. Bringing Virtual Reality into the UCSD Operating Room
on Tuesday November 29, 2016

26. To Find Out More…
www.calit2.net/ http://qi.ucsd.edu/
www.calit2.uci.edu/
http://lsmarr.calit2.net/