Tech Coast
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tech Coast is the nickname given to the Southern California region extending from Santa Barbara in the north to northern San Diego County in the south. The Tech Coast concept and name, created by Timothy Cooley in the mid-90s to define the region's industrial and economic drivers, has been adopted to describe the region as it matured from an economy dominated by aerospace and defense to that of a diversified, global, multi technology-based powerhouse.
The Tech Coast region encompasses the greatest concentration of research and development activity in the world emanating from research universities such as UCLA, USC, Harvey Mudd, Caltech, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside and UC San Diego, supported by eleven California State University campuses {Bakersfield, Channel Islands, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Pomona, Northridge, San Bernardino, San Diego (a Carnegie Institution classified research institution), San Luis Obispo, and San Marcos campuses} and numerous smaller higher educational institutions; well-known research institutes such as Scripps (The Scripps Research Institute and Scripps Institution of Oceanography), The Aerospace Corporation, Alfred Mann Institute, Nichols Institute, the National Fuel Cell Research Center, RAND, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Beckman Research Institute, Information Sciences Institute (ISI), and Salk Institute; as well as countless technology-based companies far behind those in regions like Silicon Valley, Route 128 or Research Triangle Park.
Companies located in the Tech Coast include: Aerovironment, Amgen, Bargain Network, Broadcom, Buy.com, CinemaNow, Citrix Online/GoToMyPC, Commission Junction, Conexant, Day Software, Digital Insight, Emulex, E!_Online eHarmony, Frontbridge, Gateway, Inc., Gemstar/TV Guide, Idealab, Ingram Micro, Internet Brands, Iomega, Ixia, JAMDAT Mobile, Jazz Semiconductor, LegalZoom, Linspire, LowerMyBills.com, Filenet, MovieLink, Move.com, MySpace, Power-One, Proflowers.com, Pricegrabber, QLogic, Qualcomm, Rent.com, Sonos, Spark Networks, Tagworld, Userplane, Upcoming.org, ValueClick, Veoh, Viewsonic, WebSideStory, X1 Technologies, along with scores of smaller and lesser known technology firms.
In addition, technology firms Google and Yahoo maintain a significant presence in the region, with Google having acquired local firms Applied Semantics, Picasa, Urchin Software Corporation, dMarc Broadcasting, and Neven Vision.
The Tech Coast also includes the largest port complex in the U.S., the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and one of the largest airports in the world, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
[edit] External links
- socalTECH.com - Tech Coast High Tech News and Information
- LARTA Institute - Tech Coast research and information
- Tech Coast Angels - Largest, most successful angel investor network in U.S.
