CCTO and SJ Peregrines

I ended up going to the California Clean Tech Open (CCTO) Technology and Entrepreneur Matching Event on Monday. It was pretty interesting, but as I feared, most of the research technologies being presented were way outside my areas of expertise. Most of them were related to alternative fuels and large scale energy production.

There were a bunch of guys running around with CalCars t-shirts. CalCars is a non-profit initiative promoting plug-in hybrid cars. They have a plug-in modified Toyota Prius (left) that is getting over 100 MPG. Basically they added additional rechargeable batteries with the ability to charge them by plugging in to a standard residential power plug (right - the plug receptacle is on the left of the bumper just above the word "THIS"). The added battery allows this Prius to run much longer on the electric motor without needing to use the gas engine. Apparently this group is looking to spin off a for-profit company, which I guess is why they were at the event.

I did make one interesting contact at the event. I met a researcher at UC Berkeley working on a project which utilizes wireless sensor networks for energy management applications. Since this is similar to some ideas I have been considering, I will be meeting up with him later in the week to see if we can pool our ideas and resources.

On the nature front, the San Jose Peregrines are getting bigger every day. Actually, they're pretty much full grown now, and should start flying any day now. The picture on the left shows one of the chicks that has made it on to the top of the 2 foot high parapet next to their next box. They look quite similar to the adults now, except for the coloration. Apparently it will be a year or so until they develop their final adult plumage. In the mean time, I'm hoping to be able to spot them flying around the downtown San Jose area soon.