Geodog

Berkeley hosts its own ETech

I'm an long time devotee of ETech, the OReilly conference devoted to Emerging Technologies, but unfortunately, I won't be able to make it to San Diego this year. However, I was delighted to find that Berkeley is holding the academic equivalent of ETech here in Berkeley. Called the Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium, or BEARS for short, it is a day when the Berkeley Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department shows off its stuff. The event is not well publicized, and appears to be targeted largely at the companies who sponsor research at Berkeley, but it is open to the public, and free. I've gone to the event in the past, and if the past is anything to judge by, it should be fascinating. The full program is available online, but highlights from the morning include Boing Boing editor David Pescovitz quizzing the faculty members on how new technologies will disrupt traditional industries and Wired Magazine editor Adam Rogers quizzing them on what technological innovations will create new industries. The afternoon is devoted to open houses at the various research labs -- you can go to labs you never knew existed in downtown Berkeley and see the wonderful and wacky things that very bright grad students are working on.

Check it out. Highly recommended.