CCST works on a growing variety of projects each year. In 2003-2004, CCST completed four major projects, and continued or initiated several others.
PROJECTS COMPLETED
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
In January 2004, CCST presented a briefing, Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: Opportunities and Challenges in California, to the Senate-Assembly Joint Committee on Preparing California for the 21st Century. The briefing includes sections on areas ranging from workforce issues to best practices in commercialization to social and ethical issues, and recommends that California support investment in the infrastructure and knowledge base necessary to sustain high-tech industries already under transformation by this technology.
Second Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Review
The second Independent Review Panel organized by CCST released its preliminary report in March 2004, and observed that the PIER program has made significant strides in the past three years since the previous review. Organizational challenges remain though, and the panel will be monitoring the PIER program's response to the recommendations of the preliminary report. The panel will release its final report in January 2005.
Retrospective Report on California's Electricity Crisis
Produced at the request of the California Energy Commission, this report released in January 2004 describes the impact of restructuring on California's energy system, and the shortfalls of doing so without clearly assigning responsibility for planning and managing resource portfolios.
Report to the California-Mexico Commission
In June 2004, CCST presented a report to the California-Mexico Commission on Education, Science and Technology exploring how to develop appropriate peer-to-peer collaboration between top high-tech researchers in Mexico and California, and how to address the lack of qualified science and math teachers in the K-12 systems with technology-based professional development systems. The report provided a brief but valuable overview of opportunities for collaboration in both areas.
NEW INITIATIVES
Collaboration with the National Academies
CCST and the National Academies have initiated a unique statewide collaboration to enhance the ability of both organizations to serve California's policy leaders by providing timely and relevant science and technology expertise and giving California issues a national context.
Intellectual Property
Assembly Concurrent Resolution 252, authored by Assembly Member Gene Mullin, requests that CCST, in collaboration with its sustaining institutions, conduct an analysis of California's intellectual property (IP) policies and make recommendations for streamlining the system. The current system is complicated and there are inconsistencies on how IP is handled among state agencies.
Professional Science Master's
California State University Chancellor Charles Reed has requested that CCST assist a coalition of 17 CSU campuses currently exploring the feasibility of implementing professional science master's degree programs in their respective campuses. CCST will be conducting a needs analysis in collaboration with representatives from a variety of high-tech industries throughout the state.
