The Original Silicon Valley Start-Up, San José State University Continues to Lead Regional Innovation

SJSU is the original start-up and original influencer — ever evolving to meet present-day challenges and opportunities. Pictured: SJSU President Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson. Photo by Robert C. Bain.

This story was originally published in the Silicon Valley Business Journal on August 9, 2024.

Like our city – the first chartered city in California and the first state capital – San José State University has a long and storied history spanning 167 years. The first public university on the West Coast, our legacy and our future reflect a tapestry of innovation, woven by the history of our city and our geography in Silicon Valley. Our technology ecosystem is irreplicable, and drives expectations for SJSU to be inventive and ambitious as the anchor institution of downtown San José, the capital of global innovation.

Being Silicon Valley’s only public university ensures that Spartans are driving forces of diversity, disruption, innovation and entrepreneurship. In a region rich with influential ideas and business launches, SJSU is the original start-up and original influencer — ever evolving to meet present-day challenges and opportunities, as we ignite our students’ creativity to look ahead at what will be relevant and integral to society in the near and distant future. 

SJSU is uniquely positioned, in the heart of San José, to shoulder the weight of educating the next generation of global leaders for innovation and change, and to be the epicenter of the future. Learn about the IDEA Lab incubator space at SJSU. Photo by Robert C. Bain.

As artificial intelligence’s influence evolves in Silicon Valley and beyond, we know of no better place than Downtown San José to unleash our intellectual energy in this next phase of the technological revolution. The moment for competitive advantage is right here, right now at SJSU — a comprehensive university uniquely situated to accelerate the benefits of computational power, large data sets and sophisticated algorithms. As technologies, robotics and spatial computing converge, we must consider the ethical implications, and ensure that AI delivers on its capability to unlock new avenues for the betterment of humanity.

To accomplish this, we recently unveiled an AI Vision Statement that, in alignment with our institutional values, signifies our responsibility and commitment to ethical principles as we adapt AI-influenced technological advances. As we expand faculty and student research, we are focused on collective impact, entrepreneurship and experiential learning across the curriculum. As in other sectors, we must reimagine business practices, with solutions to social and civic issues that increase our agility to partner with industry, advancing our role as thought-leaders and collaborators for a flourishing, and responsible tomorrow.

Serving as a north star for this work will be our newly launched AI Advisory Committee, which serves as a strategic body to advise President Teniente-Matson and campus leadership on the integration, development, and ethical implementation of AI technologies across SJSU’s community. Our students and our faculty are the leaders who will tackle difficult questions brought about by new technologies in policy, regulation, legal structures, privacy, and so much more. We are already doing the work to steward ethical technologies as we contemplate the preservation of intellectual property and reduce the risks of bias and inequities. 

In the world of generative AI, our mission, vision and values center on a spirit of innovation and creativity that drives academic excellence, teaching, research, and service in a learning environment where all students belong. Our students are active in hands-on learning opportunities, research and internships that give them the tools to become city leaders and innovators at the most successful companies that call Silicon Valley home. SJSU alumni live at the forefront of industry, supporting the next generation of Spartans in the world’s best-known corporations and nonprofits, who continue to invest in us as change agents to advance digital and creative literacy.

The Digital Humanities Center at the King Library is the university’s new hub for collaboration and incubation for discussions on the future, application of AI/ML and emerging technology. Read about the DHC in Washington Square: The Magazine. Photo by Robert C. Bain.

Our faculty pave the way as collaborators in learning and as applied researchers. Currently, we have over 445 active research projects with more than $200M in external funding — soon we will reach Carnegie R2 designation; and as our research expands, we will develop more doctoral programs. With a collective impact philosophy, we are accelerating pipeline programs for K-12 and community college partners. We are co-creating education-to-career pathways, especially for under-served communities in health, technology, education, science and math, to name a few. You can look around and see visible symbols of progress like our contemporary Interdisciplinary Science Building, with world-class labs and classrooms that open the door for industry collaborations, and soon, our latest residence hall at Spartan Village on the Paseo will stand as a national model for student housing in an urban setting.  

SJSU is advancing our leadership position at this critical inflection point in core industries like AI, robotics, transportation, climate science, human factors in space, engineering and so much more. We proudly partner with our city and county leaders. We ensure Silicon Valley is ably strengthened by Spartans. SJSU is uniquely positioned, in the heart of San José, to shoulder the weight of educating the next generation of global leaders for innovation and change, and to be the epicenter of the future.

This article is part of the Silicon Valley Business Journal “Elevate” series, focused on downtown San José. Contributions from Michelle Smith McDonald and Kenneth Mashinchi, San José State University Marketing and Communications.