University of California San Diego Extension and the Downtown San Diego Partnership have announced the Collaboratory for Downtown Innovation initiative to support and strengthen Downtown’s growing tech ecosystem. The CDI will offer connections, support and workforce training to assist tech entrepreneurs in the urban core. The partnership will offer a wide range of entrepreneurship support and incubation activities including skills development workshops and pre-accelerator programs.

The Collaboratory for Downtown Innovation, which is made possible by foundation and private funds, will operate out of the Downtown San Diego Partnership’s redesigned offices and will serve as a hub for a variety of programs including:

• Ideas Forum: To encourage collaboration and the exchange of ideas, CDI will develop a series of roundtables to connect Downtown tech entrepreneurs with researchers and scientists at UC San Diego and on the Torrey Pines Mesa. These roundtables will provide participants an opportunity to learn from experts and discover new ways that science and technology intersect and identify new business opportunities.
• Talent Accelerator: The CDI will leverage UC San Diego Extension’s robust certificate and pre-college offerings to provide a variety of education and training programs, with a special focus on providing computer science and information technology skills to youth in underserved communities.
• Entrepreneur Exchange: To ensure that entrepreneurs at every stage of development have the support and mentorship needed to excel, the CDI will offer a wide range of entrepreneurship support and incubation activities including skills development workshops and pre-accelerator programs.

UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla said that the new initiative will help the university to deliver on its Strategic Plan by strengthening the region’s innovation economy and ensuring educational and economic equity to middle and high school students in urban communities.

Kris Michell, President and CEO of the Downtown San Diego Partnership, commented that the Collaboratory for Downtown Innovation is about tapping into the talent and expertise at UC San Diego and in the research institutions on the Torrey Pines Mesa to better inform the opportunities available to tech companies in Downtown in such growing sectors as cybersecurity, personalized medicine and big data.

Mary Walshok, UC San Diego’s Vice Chancellor of Public Programs and Dean of Extension, said CDI will be crucial in addressing San Diego’s skills gap by providing coding academies and other educational programs for middle and high school students, especially in underserved communities, as well as education and certificates relevant to the Downtown tech sector.

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