From a wireless device that will help doctors more accurately diagnose neurological disorders to a portable system that isolates energy inefficiencies in large buildings, scientists and engineers at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) have been harnessing cutting-edge technology to address our most pressing health, energy, and environmental challenges for eight years.

Now the pioneering, multidisciplinary minds at CITRIS — some 300 faculty and thousands of students from four UC campuses and 60 corporate partners — have a state-of-the-art building to match their big ideas. Sutardja Dai Hall — on the northeast corner of the UC Berkeley campus — was officially dedicated on February 27 at a jubilant ribbon-cutting ceremony that welcomed UC President Mark Yudof, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, former California Governor Gray Davis, and more than 600 guests.

“At UC Berkeley, and throughout the University of California, we take seriously our responsibility for shaping society’s economic and social well-being,” said Chancellor Birgeneau. “You need only look to the full name of CITRIS to appreciate that.”

But perhaps most promising is the role CITRIS is playing as an engine for the California economy. It is one of four California Institutes for Science and Innovation, which were created in 2001 to leverage private and government resources and shorten the path to entrepreneurial investment.

A public-private enterprise

As one of four California Institutes for Science and Innovation, CITRIS merges private support with state funding, with the goal of generating new knowledge and economic growth.

Sutardja Dai Hall and the Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory are named for three Cal alumni — Weili Dai, her husband, Sehat Sutardja and his brother Pantas Sutardja — and the company they founded. The trio cofounded Santa Clara-based Marvell Technology Group, an international leader in semiconductor technology. Pantas earned his B.S. in electrical engineering and computer science in 1983 and, along with Sehat, went on to earn his master’s and Ph.D. from Berkeley. Dai earned her B.A. in computer science in 1984.

The Banatao Institute@CITRIS Berkeley takes its name from Dado Banatao, founder of Tallwood Venture Capital and chair of the UC Berkeley College of Engineering Advisory Board, and his wife, Maria, trustee of the UC Berkeley Foundation.