INTERFACE – The Magazine of CALIT2, UC Irvine division

Since the first issue in Fall 2005, CALIT2’s communications team has published the award-winning Interface magazine. After 34 printed issues, we've gone digital with this highly interactive multimedia presentation style. Moving forward, Interface will be the platform for delving deeper into a project spearheaded by CALIT2.

CALIT2's first issue of Interface magazine was published in Fall 2005.

CALIT2's first issue of Interface magazine was published in Fall 2005.

Four key words define our mission: innovate, integrate, incubate, ignite. Under the leadership of Professor G.P. Li, the institute innovates novel solutions in a multidisciplinary research environment, integrates a wide range of academic expertise with industry experience to collaboratively seek ways to benefit society, incubates technology startups and ignites economic development.

In 2010, at the end of CALIT2’s first 10 years, the institute embarked on a strategic visioning process to identify focus areas on which to base future investments of time and personnel. Two years later, the process narrowed the list to four application areas: health, culture, energy and the environment. The strategy for focusing on the digital transformation of these areas is to develop technological and institutional innovations using CALIT2’s unique laboratories, technical staff and research spaces. These capabilities facilitate the formation of cross-disciplinary teams of internal and external partners who can successfully compete for funding and produce impactful accomplishments that have broad societal applications.

In these research application areas, CALIT2 is taking ideas beyond theory into practice, accelerating innovation by lowering the barriers to it. Where the university traditionally has focused on education and research, CALIT2 extends that focus to include development, demonstration and deployment of a proof-of-concept and prototype infrastructure for testing new solutions in a real-world context.

Interface will be the multimedia tool for the institute to visually tell transformative stories, showcasing the people, projects and programs that drive CALIT2’s success.
Shelly Nazarenus, CALIT2 Communications Director

CALIT2 represents an experiment in inventing the university research environment of the future to continue to fuel innovation in the global economy. Interface will be the multimedia tool for the institute to visually tell transformative stories, showcasing the people, projects and programs that drive CALIT2’s success.

SMART IAC video viewpoints

SMART IAC's award-winning hydrogen research project

Daniela Ruiz, mechanical engineering, PhD student at UC Irvine explains SMART IAC's Hydrogen research project.

Meet a student energy assessor

Chris Ramirez, UCI Mechanical Engineering student talks about his experience being an energy assessor at CALIT2’s SMART IAC.

SMART IAC program overview

SMART IAC program manager Chelsea Choudhary discusses the effects in the program since it’s launch on 2021.

Energy Assessments IACs Webinar

Chelsea Choudhary, UCI SMART IAC program manager, is a featured speaker at IACs Webinar in 2023.

Hydrogen Edition

UCI SMART IAC students create a video to explain how the next step of global energy transition will be based on the hydrogen economy.

SMART IAC OVERVIEW
In 2021, UC Irvine received nearly $2.25 million of a $60 million investment by the U.S. Department of Energy to assist small- and medium-sized manufacturers in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and lowering energy costs, while training the next generation of energy-efficiency workers.
The Sustainable Manufacturing Alliance for Research and Training Industrial Assessment Center (SMART IAC), housed at UCI’s California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CALIT2), operates the center with two satellite centers at CSUN and Cypress College. IACs provide small- and medium-sized manufacturers with assessments and recommendations on energy efficiency, productivity improvement, sustainability and competitiveness as well as measure the impacts of these recommendations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“While large, sophisticated companies like SpaceX dominate the public’s perception of manufacturing in Southern California, it is the manufacturers with fewer than 50 employees that produce most of the innovation, output and employment,” said G.P. Li, project PI and UCI CALIT2 director. “I am proud that UCI has been selected to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers across America lower their energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions while remaining globally competitive. This is further acknowledgment of UCI’s commitment to clean energy. By harnessing the talent of our brightest minds, we can take on the energy, environmental and economic challenges of tomorrow.”

ABOUT US
Our SMART IAC provides no-cost energy consulting services to small- and medium-sized manufacturers within 150 miles of UC Irvine (Orange, Ventura, Imperial and Riverside counties.) We have expanded our program to provide commercial building assessments, too.
Our assessments typically require one day on site in your facility and we typically identify 10-20% energy and productivity savings.
As part of our services, we will deliver a detailed, professional report outlining several ways that your facility can save energy and money. Our analysis includes detailed engineering and economic calculation of potential energy saving ideas. We typically only target recommendations that result in a 2-year financial payback for our clients.

UC IRVINE CALIT2

featuring the SMART IAC

Credits

Writer: Sharon Henry

Video: Natalie Tso

Editor: Shelly Nazarenus