Legislators with robot delivering Innovate 2 Innovate Action Plan

President Qayoumi traveled to Sacramento Aug. 17, when a remote control medical robot delivered an education plan he helped develop.

By Pat Lopes Harris, Media Relations Director

It should come as no surprise that a university president who sends 220 letters to Silicon Valley business leaders on his first day in office would help design a plan calling for more collaboration between industry and higher education. SJSU President Mohammad Qayoumi traveled Aug. 17 to Sacramento to watch as the “Innovate 2 Innovation” action plan was delivered to a gathering of California legislators by a remote control medical robot. Remotely piloting the robot from Santa Barbara was Yulun Wang, precisely the type of high-tech entrepreneur the plan seeks to nurture. Smiling from a monitor on the robot’s head, Wang put a face on the report’s mission and purpose — to restore California’s unparalleled reputation for scientific research and high technology. Qayoumi and Anne Marie Bergen, teacher in residence, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, led the report’s education action team. The project was coordinated by the California Council on Science and Technology, a nonpartisan, impartial, non-profit created in 1988 by a unanimous vote of the California Legislature. CCST offers expert advice to the state government and recommends solutions on science and technology-related policy issues.