Welcome to Calit2 at UC Riverside! As the newest partner in the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) consortium along with UC San Diego and UC Irvine, we are committed to the Calit2 mission to ensure that California remains on the leading edge of information, communications and future technologies. 

UC Riverside (UCR) has a lot to offer. UCR is the first UC campus to become a Hispanic Serving Institution and has grown to include 22 research centers, a school of medicine, more than 26,000 students, and a faculty that includes 26 members of the National Academies and two Nobel laureates. In particular, the campus’s programs in agriculture, precision agriculture, computer vision, 2D materials, and specialized nanofabrication (helium ion microscopy and focused ion beam work) dovetail with Calit2’s goals. 

Our campus partners include the Center for Environmental Research & Technology (a.k.a. CE-CERT), which addresses pressing environmental challenges; the Winston Chung Global Energy Center, which advances solutions for energy storage; Central Facility for Advanced Microscopy and Microanalysis (CFAMM) and the Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), which harnesses advances in nanotechnology to support research in physics, chemistry and environmental, chemical, mechanical and electrical engineering.

Calit2 Riverside has already won its first grant this year—funding from the US Environmental Development Administration (EDA) for the creation of a technology hub in “Lithium Valley.” Centered around the lithium brine deposits in Southern California’s Imperial County, the Lithium Valley Clean Tech Hub consortium aims to secure the supply of lithium for the nation’s energy markets, as well as to create a sustainable, inclusive, advanced-energy ecosystem in Southern California.

We center our work around the success of our students and advancement of Calit2 Riverside’s mission. Through the CNSE, we are now training students in microelectronics supported by a Department of Energy Minority Serving Institution grant; UC-Sandia Partnership in Microelectronics & Materials Engineering Education for Nuclear and Cyber Security (MEMENCYS) Workforce development and other educational activities, such as seminars and workshops, are also in the works.

We are just at the beginning of our Calit2 Riverside journey. We welcome new colleagues and ideas! I am energized by the synergies with our partners and excited by the possibilities that lie ahead for Calit2 as a whole.