A good example is California’s Yuba-Sutter region. With unemployment rates consistently among the top ten highest in the nation, incomes below the state average, two major floods (1986 and 1997), and nine wildfires, the region was also hit by Rand McNally and Money magazine, when they twice named the region “the worst place to live in the nation.” This demoralizing label brought the region’s key stakeholders together to commit to develop and implement an economic development strategy they called, “Blueprint for Success,” and to form the Yuba-Sutter Economic Development Corporation (YSEDC) in 1994.

Similar to Humboldt County’s comprehensive economic development strategy, “Prosperity,” the Yuba-Sutter plan emphasizes activities that assist entrepreneurship.

Among several successful targeted activities, the YSEDC has led an initiative to bring industry, academia and government together to support and foster autonomous technology in the region and statewide. They see the Global Hawk, the new unmanned aircraft at Beale Air Force Base, as an opportunity to develop more autonomous technology applications and jobs for their region.

Tim Johnson, YSEDC executive director, says that “autonomous technology has a variety of commercial applications that help diversify and sustain the local economy. For example, agriculture is a key industry cluster of this region. Unmanned systems could be used in commercial agriculture to reduce overhead and improve productivity. This opportunity is just now being understood, but as of December 2003, over 2,000 people around the region were working in autonomous technology.”

In Emerging Technology Trends, blogger Roland Piquepaille reported (8/2/06) on an experiment conducted in Monterey Bay this August of a three-year program, Adaptive Sampling and Prediction (ASAP) led by Naomi Ehrich Leonard of Princeton University and Steven Ramp of the Naval Postgraduate School. It is hoped that this project, funded by the Office of Naval Research, leads to development of robot fleets that can forecast ocean conditions and better protect endangered marine animals, track oil spills, and guide military operations at sea. The mathematical system that allows the undersea robots to self-choreograph their movements in response to their environment might one day power other robotic teams that -- without human supervision -- could explore not just oceans, but deserts, rain forests and even other planets.

One of the North Coast’s first ventures into autonomous technology is Cognisense Labs, a company founded by Humboldt State mathematics professor Dr. Ken Owens and HSU alumnus Paul Burgess in 2005. They were recognized as one of five international 2004 Laureates of The Tech Museum Awards for their invention of a vehicle guidance, mapping, and verification system for Humanitarian Demining Vehicles, and were the sole cash prize recipient of the Intel Environment Award at the Tech Museum Awards Gala. In addition to their work in robotic landmine clearing, Owens and Burgess aim for Cognisense Labs to solve a variety of environmental problems with remote sensing, robotics, software engineering, and applied mathematics.

On Wednesday, November 15^th, 5:30-7:30PM at the Wharfinger Building in Eureka, Tim Johnson of YSEDC and Dr. Ken Owens of Cognisense Labs will discuss the potential for autonomous technology on the North Coast. This forum is part of the Humboldt State University Office for Economic & Community Development’s 2006-2007 Taking Care of Business Series and is co-sponsored by the HSU Northern California SBDC Region Center. The public is welcome. To RSVP, or schedule an appointment with Johnson and Owens, contact 826-3924 or econdev@humboldt.edu

Maggie Gainer is director of the Humboldt State University Office for Economic & Community Development (www.humboldt.edu/~econdev/). HSU is a business member of the Redwood Technology Consortium (www.redwoodtech.org).

Copyright 2006. This article firs appeared in the 11/14/06 print version of the Eureka Times Standard Newspaper.