Category: Interviews

Some media statements on working from home and the cloud

Here is an excerpt from the VCReporter on HEALTHCARE 2.0 | DOCTOR-PATIENT INTERACTIONS GO HIGH TECH DURING THE PANDEMIC — AND JUST MAY STAY THAT WAY

“A MASSIVE SHIFT”

Experts say the rapid technological changes happening in medicine due to the pandemic also have profound implications for other types of businesses, government agencies, schools and religious institutions.

CSUCI computer science professor Michael Soltys says organizations of all kinds have been adapting quickly to new technologies like Internet-based meeting programs.

Michael Soltys. Photo courtesy of CSU Channel Islands

“Everybody’s on Zoom and working from home if they can,” said Soltys “It’s a massive shift.”

He also says some people are finding benefits from taking care of business at home.

“Of course there’s the joke about sitting in your pajamas at a meeting comfortably in your home with a cup of coffee, but you do save time on commuting. Meetings online tend to be more targeted and condensed and better scripted. They’re often recorded so people are better prepared. They’re not just hanging out in a meeting room killing time,” said Soltys. “People are going to become accustomed to those benefits and will want to have them.”

I recently (April 12, 2020) spoke with KCLU on COVID 19 and the Cloud.

Mechatronics at CI

The following from: https://www.kclu.org/post/south-coast-university-begins-preparing-proposed-engineering-program#stream/0

A university on the South Coast is preparing for a new engineering program it hopes to have in place within the next two years.

Cal State Channel Islands in Camarillo proposed to launch an engineering program last summer. University officials say they’re still awaiting final approval from the CSU Chancellor’s Office, but they expect to get a green light soon.

So, they’ve begun the planning process for a program focused on mechatronics, which is a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering.

“The animation of mechanical devices by software” said Michael Soltys, chair of the Computer Science Department, which mechatronics will be housed under.

He said few engineering programs have an emphasis in this field.

“We’re thinking of starting mechatronics with small robotic mobility, like drones, like underwater robots. Robots that move, that walk, that drive,” he said.

The university has begun hiring faculty and designing courses. The goal is to start the engineering program in the fall of 2018 with 24 students.