Press Room
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17, 2002
CONTACT: Steve Maviglio
916/ 445-4571
This document and all Chabot Space & Science Center news releases
may be found online at www.chabotspace.org under
Press room.
Governor Davis Announces Technology
& Innovation Award Winners
12 California Organizations Will Receive Commendation
SACRAMENTO – Governor Gray Davis today announced the 12 winners of the 2002 Governor’s Technology & Innovation Awards, which honor non-profit organizations, public-private partnerships, educational institutions, individuals, and philanthropic programs that help foster California’s tech-based economy in exemplary and innovative ways.
“This year’s Technology & Innovation Award winners are as diverse as California’s regions,” Governor Davis said. “These organizations and programs illustrate why California remains the dominant global force in technology and serve as examples for replication throughout the State.”
“The awards are given for contributions that help foster the fundamentals needed to grow and maintain a tech-based economy,” said Lon S. Hatamiya, Secretary of California’s Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency. “All 12 recipients work to ensure a better quality of life for California’s communities and promote partnerships for opportunity and prosperity.”
Awards were given for innovative, high-tech applications in education and workforce development, commercialization, quality of life, investment, innovation, entrepreneurship and community access to technology.
Award winners include a business incubator, a high school principal, a workforce training program, community tech-access programs, a public-private science education collaborative, a trade organization, and a science learning center.
The winners will be featured in a “Governor’s Technology & Innovation Compendium of Best Practices” and distributed to non-profits, legislators, and other interested stakeholders.
The California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency serves as the State’s principal catalyst for innovation, investment and economic opportunity, enhancing the quality of life for all Californians.
The Governor’s Technology & Innovation Awards are administered by the Agency’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation, a partnership ensuring a technology driven economy for all Californians.
Recipients include:
BIOCOM/san diego – San Diego
BIOCOM/san diego was founded in 1995 and represents more than 350 biotechnology and medical device companies in the San Diego area. The organization has proactively addressed significant business and legislative issues, educated the general public, and developed programs to help life science companies operate efficiently and economically. BIOCOM/san diego’s Scholarship and Education Fund supports science education in high schools, community colleges, and universities.
Business Technology Center, L.A. County Community Development Commission – Monterey Park
The only high-tech incubator in the nation operated by a county agency, BTC assists start-up, early-stage and spin-off technology companies grow and prosper through commercialization of federal lab technologies. Though informally partnered with CalTech and Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, BTC is located in a redevelopment project area with 48 percent low- or moderate-income households. BTC also hosts a Small Business Development Center.
Chabot Space and Science Center – Oakland
Chabot Space and Science Center is an innovative teaching and learning center focusing on astronomy, the space sciences, and the interrelationships of all the sciences. Its observatory, planetarium, theater, exhibits, and natural park setting serve 50,000 students and 2,500 teachers each year. The Science Center encourages young Californians, especially those from low-income and ethnic communities, to enhance their knowledge of science and technology and to pursue careers in these fields.
Computers for Families – Santa Barbara
CFF is a community-based initiative to decrease the “digital divide” through increased home access to technology. It overcomes a major barrier to student achievement by providing home access to computers, including Internet access and training, for students whose families cannot afford to purchase them. CFF reaches children enrolled in the four major school districts in southern Santa Barbara County. Each district has 50 percent to 73 percent minority enrollment, with Hispanic students comprising 95 percent of total minority enrollment. Between 1997 and 2003, CFF will provide 4,000 underserved families with computers.
Conexant Systems, Inc. – Newport Beach
Conexant Systems, a worldwide leader in semiconductor system solutions for communications applications, is an Orange County philanthropic leader, helping develop future engineering students for tomorrow’s workforce. Since October, 1999, Conexant has contributed more than $4 million to educational institutions and non-profit organizations promoting math and science at the K-20 levels (including Project Tomorrow listed below), more than $2 million to universities for research and development grants to develop the next generations of technologies, and has made multi-year commitments of $3 million to establish the Center for Pervasive Communications at the University of California at Irvine and $2.5 million to Cal-(IT)2.
The Connectory.com ®, East County Economic Development Council – San Diego
The Connectory.com® Regional Buyer-Supplier Network is the premier industry/technology information resource linking buyers and suppliers across all industries and at every level of the supply chain. It is regional in scope but global in reach, highlighting the entire California-Mexico cross-border region. This free service takes the unprecedented information navigation ability and immediacy offered by the Internet and combines it with a high-quality database of companies’ capabilities.
Mark Morrison, Director, New Technology High School – Napa
NTHS is a non-charter, public high school preparing students to excel in an information-based, technologically advanced society. The school will be graduating its fifth class of seniors in 2002. NTHS was designated the first California Digital High School. It is also a USA Exemplary Technology-Supporting School. Mark joined the staff half way through the school’s first year of operation and has been at the helm ever since. In 2000 he was instrumental in establishing the New Technology Foundation, which oversees the effort to replicate NTHS in nine other northern California communities by 2005, a project funded by $4.9 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
National City Adult School’s Parent Computer Literacy Program – San Diego
Through partnerships with National City and the Futures Foundation, a non-profit organization established to help bridge San Diego County‘s “digital divide,” the National City Adult School has implemented a program that provides computer literacy training and a free, refurbished computer to parents of children in area schools. Parents attend adult education classes two evenings a week for 18 weeks to earn their computer.
Pangea Foundation – San Diego
Pangea Foundation’s Abilities Networks is a comprehensive program to research, design, and implement information technologies that ensure people with disabilities can fully participate in the digital economy. The project creates a series of online information management tools and assistive technology applications that enhance Internet capabilities for people with disabilities. Abilities Networks provides a framework for community organizations, government agencies, businesses, educational institutions, and other public and private entities to meet important goals of developing universally designed Internet applications and services.
Project Tomorrow – Anaheim
Project Tomorrow was founded by a coalition of business leaders, educators, and community representatives in 1996 as a non-profit partnership to address Orange County’s concerns with improving science and math education. It was formed to prepare students for the highly competitive workforce of the 21st century. The organization employs a venture capital model in making its investments by fueling innovative ideas, supporting their development, and eventually spinning them off through public support.
Street Tech – Pinole
Bringing technology to streets throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Street Tech provides advanced technology training and job placement to underserved and at-risk adults, including former felons. At the end of their Street Tech journey, employed graduates are required to give back to the program through a community service project they design themselves. Street Tech has both doubled its program graduates and achieved a 75 percent job placement rate since first opening.
UCR Community Digital Initiative (CDI) – Riverside
Housed in the Cesar Chavez Community Center, CDI is located in the underserved community of Eastside. CDI’s services include access to computers, software, Internet, self-paced instructional software, printing and training while providing employment assistance. Curriculum includes employment enrichment objectives designed to expand the participant’s employment opportunities. CDI also serves as a technology resource to community-based, non-profit organizations in the area.
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