Created in December 2000, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CalIT2) is one of California’s four University of California Institutes for Science and Innovation. CalIT2 is a world-class, multidisciplinary research partnership of UC San Diego, UC Irvine, and UC Riverside. The goal is to promote discovery and innovation, notably to harness the ubiquity and scale of the Internet and wireless technologies to accelerate growth in many different scientific fields and industries undergoing massive transformation. Over two decades, the institute has deployed new, advanced scientific facilities, technical and support staff and shared resources to serve CalIT2’s roughly 600 participating faculty who are collaborating on projects, research centers and ‘living laboratories’ across the campuses. Institute researchers are tackling some of the toughest challenges facing Californians—and the world—using technology to mitigate the pandemic, track and fight wildfires, retrain workers, develop environmentally safe batteries to power 500 million cars worldwide, and help manufacturers become more competitive.