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Kerem amsari, an assistant professor in UC Santa Barbaras Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, has received a prestigious Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

One of 32 junior faculty nationwide selected by ONR in 2022,amsari will receive a three-year, $510,000 grant in support of his work to design a probabilistic computer to solve computational problems faster and more efficiently.

I feel humbled and honored to receive this award from the Office of Naval Research, said amsari, who joined UCSBs College of Engineering in 2020. This is a very generous amount of funding that will support postdoctorates and graduate students, as well as chip fabrication and the costs of equipment that we will need to carry out this research.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has created a crisis in computing and a significant need for more energy-efficient and scalable hardware. A key step in both AI and ML is making decisions based on incomplete data; the best approach is to output a probability for each possible answer.

Current classical computers are not suited for the energy-efficient execution of these problems, thus intensifying the search for novel approaches to computing.

One solution being pursued by scientists is quantum computers, which are powered by qubits. Unlike the bits that power classical computers and can exist in a state of 0 or 1, a qubit is a two-state system that can be in more than one state at a time.

The phenomenon, known as superposition, enables quantum computers to perform computational functions exponentially faster than classical computers. However, qubits are extremely sensitive to their surroundings and must be kept at very low temperatures, which requires significant amounts of energy.

amsari and his colleagues see a probabilistic computer as another solution that could tackle the computationally difficult problems of AI and ML faster and more efficiently than classical and quantum computers.

In his ONR project, Scalable Probabilistic Computers for Optimization and Quantum Simulation, he aims to develop nanodevice-based probabilistic computers.

In this project, we will investigate the limits of probabilistic computers from hardware, architecture and algorithmic perspectives, said amsari, whose research on probabilistic computers dates back to his days at Purdue University, where he completed his Ph.D. and held a postdoctoral position.

Ultimately, we want to solve computational problems faster, better and more energy-efficiently, he said.

Probabilistic computers are powered by probabilistic bits, or p-bits, which interact with other bits in the same system. Unlike the bits in classical computers that are either 0 or 1 ,and the qubits of quantum computers, which exist in two states, p-bits fluctuate between positions. P-bits do not exhibit superposition and operate at room temperature.

amsari and collaborators during his time at Purdue built a prototype that showed the devices potential, solving the same optimization problems often targeted for quantum computers, while demonstrating a 10-fold reduction in the energy and a 100-fold reduction in the area footprint it required compared to a classical computer.

With seed funding from UCSBs Institute for Energy Efficiency, amsari and Luke Theogarajan, vice chair of UCSBs ECE department, in 2021 began to build a medium-sized probabilistic computer that incorporates complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

The ONR project will allow amsari to significantly expand on that project to determine if probabilistic computers can outperform all known classical methods for solving a set of practical problems, particularly those that are naturally probabilstic.

A fascinating scientific question is just how much of the application space envisioned for quantum computers can be tackled by probabilistic computers, he explained. Their application to classic optimization and machine learning problems can be much more immediate than quantum computers, because probabilistic computers admit a far larger variety of practical implementations.

amsari describes this project as truly interdisciplinary, and says it requires both theoretical and experimental breakthroughs. The immediate focus is solving difficult optimization and quantum simulation tasks by designing cutting-edge probabilistic algorithms, modifying them according to the needs of the underlying hardware, and developing additional prototypes.

The larger vision is to make domain-specific hardware that can connect unique features of materials and devices to corresponding algorithms and applications. In the next era of computing, most of us would agree that this is one of the few ways to make progress, he said.

While this is a very challenging task, our group is uniquely qualified to meet it. We are extremely excited to get started on this journey, he said.

Developing probabilistic computers that solve computational problems faster and more efficiently than the best classical and near-term quantum computers could address problems faced by the Department of Defense, such as supply-chain logistics, traffic optimization, tactical communications and probabilistic-decision making.

ONR, an executive branch agency within the Department of Defense, supports basic and applied research to increase fundamental knowledge, foster breakthroughs and provide technology options for future naval capabilities and systems.

The office also provides technical advice to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Secretary of the Navy.

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Kerem amsari Wins Junior Faculty Award From Office of Naval Research - Noozhawk

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Postdoctoral researchers who are designated Truman and Hruby fellows experience Sandia National Laboratories differently from their peers.

Appointees to the prestigious fellowships are given the latitude to pursue their own ideas, rather than being trained by fitting into the research plans of more experienced researchers. To give wings to this process, the four annual winners two for each category are 100 percent pre-funded for three years. This enables them, like bishops or knights in chess, to cut across financial barriers, walk into any group and participate in work by others that might help illuminate the research each has chosen to pursue.

The extraordinary appointments are named for former President Harry Truman and former Sandia President Jill Hruby, now the U.S. Department of Energy undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Truman wrote to the president of Bell Labs that he had an opportunity, in Sandias very early days, to perform exceptional service in the national interest. The President Harry S Truman Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineeringcould be said to assert Sandias intention to continue to fulfill Trumans hope.

TheJill Hruby Fellowship in National Security Science and Engineeringoffers the same pay, benefits and privileges as the Truman. It honors former Sandia President Jill Hruby, the first woman to direct a national laboratory. While all qualified applicants will be considered for this fellowship, and its purpose is to pursue independent research to develop advanced technologies to ensure global peace, another aim is to develop a cadre of women in the engineering and science fields who are interested in technical leadership careers in national security.

The selectees are:

2022 Truman Fellows

Alicia Magann: The quantum information science toolkit

Alicia Magann will explore quantum control in the era of quantum computing. (Photo courtesy Alicia Magann)

To help speed the emergence of quantum computers as important research tools, Magann is working to create a quantum information science toolkit. These modeling and simulation algorithms should enable quantum researchers to hit the ground running with meaningful science as quantum computing hardware improves, she says.

At Sandia, she will be working with Sandias quantum computer science department to develop algorithms for quantum computers that can be used to study the control of molecular systems.Her focus will extend aspects of her doctoral research at Princeton University to help explore the possibilities of quantum control in the era of quantum computing.

Im most interested in probing how interactions between light and matter can be harnessed towards new science and technology, Magann said. How well can we control the behavior of complicated quantum systems by shining laser light on them? What kinds of interesting dynamics can we create, and what laser resources do we need?

A big problem, she says, is that its so difficult to explore these questions in much detail on conventional computers. But quantum computers would give us a much more natural setting for doing this computational exploration.

Her mentor, Mohan Sarovar, is an ideal mentor because hes knowledgeable about quantum control and quantum computing the two fields Im connecting with my project.

During her doctoral research, Magann was a DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellow and also served as a graduate intern in Sandias extreme-scale data science and analytics department, where she heard by word of mouth about the Truman and Hruby fellowships. She applied for both and was thrilled to be interviewed and thrilled to be awarded the Truman.

Technical journals in which her work has been published include Quantum, Physical Review A, Physical Review Research, PRX Quantum, and IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology. One of her most recent 2021 publications is Digital Quantum Simulation of Molecular Dynamics & Control in Physical Review Research.

Gabriel Shipley: Mitigating instabilities at Sandias Z machine

Gabriel Shipley will investigate 3D instabilities in pulsed-power-driven implosions at Sandias Z machine,(Photo courtesy of Gabe Shipley)

When people mentioned the idea to Gabe Shipley about applying for a Truman fellowship, he scoffed. He hadnt gone to an Ivy League school. He hadnt studied with Nobel laureates. What he had done, by the time he received his doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico in 2021, was work at Sandia for eight years as an undergraduate student intern from 2013 and a graduate student intern since 2015. He wasnt sure that counted.

The candidates for the Truman are rock stars, Shipley told colleague Paul Schmit. When they graduate, theyre offered tenure track positions at universities.

Schmit, himself a former Truman selectee and in this case a walking embodiment of positive reinforcement, advised, Dont sell yourself short.

That was good advice. Shipley needed to keep in mind that as a student, he led 75 shots on Mykonos, a relatively small Sandia pulsed power machine, significantly broadening its use. I was the first person to execute targeted physics experiments on Mykonos, he said. He measured magnetic field production using miniature magnetic field probes and optically diagnosed dielectric breakdown in the target.

He used the results to convince management to let him lead seven shots on Sandias premier Z machine, an expression of confidence rarely bestowed upon a student. I got amazing support from colleagues, he said. These are the best people in the world.

Among them is theoretical physicist Steve Slutz, who theorized that a magnetized target, preheated by a laser beam, would intensify the effect of Zs electrical pulse to produce record numbers of fusion reactions. Shipley has worked to come up with physical solutions that would best embody that theory.

With Sandia physicist Thomas Awe, he developed methods that may allow researchers to scrap external structures called Helmholtz coils to provide magnetic fields and instead create them using only an invented architecture that takes advantage of Zs own electrical current.

His Truman focus investigating the origins and evolution of 3D instabilities in pulsed-power-driven implosions would ameliorate a major problem with Z pinches if what he finds proves useful. Instabilities have been recognized since at least the 1950s as weakening pinch effectiveness. They currently limit the extent of compression and confinement achievable in the fusion fuel. Mitigating their effect would be a major achievement for everyone at Z and a major improvement for every researcher using those facilities.

Shipley has authored articles in the journal Physics of Plasmas and provided invited talks at the Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics and the 9thFundamental Science with Pulsed Power: Research Opportunities and User Meeting. His most recent publication in Physics of Plasmas, Design of Dynamic Screw Pinch Experiments for Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion, represents another attempt to increase Z machine output.

Sommer Johansen: Wheres the nitrogen?

Sommer Johansen aims to improve models showing how burning bio-derived fuels affect ecology and forest fires caused by climate change . (Photo courtesy of Sommer Johansen)

Sommer Johansen received her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California, Davis, where her thesis involved going backward in time to explore the evolution of prebiotic molecules in the form of cyclic nitrogen compounds; her time machine consisted of combining laboratory spectroscopy and computational chemistry to learn how these molecules formed during the earliest stages of our solar system.

Cyclic nitrogen-containing organic molecules are found on meteorites, but we have not directly detected them in space. So how were they formed and why havent we found where that happens? she asked.

That work, funded by a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, formed the basis of publications in The Journal of Physical Chemistry and resulted in the inaugural Lewis E. Snyder Astrochemistry Award at the International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy. The work also was the subject of an invited talk she gave at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Stars & Planets Seminar in 2020.

At Sandia, she intends to come down to Earth, both literally and metaphorically, by experimenting at Sandias Combustion Research Facility in Livermore on projects of her own design.

She hopes to help improve comprehensive chemical kinetics models of the after-effects on Earths planetary ecology of burning bio-derived fuels and the increasingly severe forest fires caused by climate change.

Every time you burn something that was alive, nitrogen-containing species are released, she says. However, the chemical pathways of organic nitrogen-containing species are vastly under-represented in models of combustion and atmospheric chemistry, she says. We need highly accurate models to make accurate predictions. For example, right now it isnt clear how varying concentrations of different nitrogenated compounds within biofuels could affect efficiency and the emission of pollutants, she said.

Johansen will be working with the gas-phase chemical physics department, studying gas-phase nitrogen chemistry at Sandias Livermore site under the mentorship of Lenny Sheps and Judit Zdor. UC Davis is close to Livermore, and the Combustion Research Facility there was always in the back of my mind. I wanted to go there, use the best equipment in the world and work with some our fields smartest people.

She found particularly attractive that the Hruby fellowship not only encouraged winners to work on their own projects but also had a leadership and professional development component to help scientists become well-rounded. Johansen had already budgeted time outside lab work at UC Davis, where for five years she taught or helped assistants teach a workshop for incoming graduate students on the computer program Python. We had 30 people a year participating, until last year (when we went virtual) and had 150.

The program she initiated, she says, became a permanent fixture in my university.

Alex Downs: Long-lived wearable biosensors

As Alex Downs completed her doctorate at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in August 2021, she liked Sandia on LinkedIn. The Hruby postdoc listing happened to show up, she said, and it interested her. She wanted to create wearable biosensors for long duration, real-time molecular measurements of health markers that would be an ongoing measurement of a persons well-being. This would lessen the need to visit doctors offices and labs for evaluations that were not only expensive but might not register the full range of a persons illness.

Alex Downs hopes to create wearable biosensors that gather molecular measurements from health markers. (Photo courtesy of Alex Downs)

Her thesis title was Electrochemical Methods for Improving Spatial Resolution, Temporal Resolution, and Signal Accuracy of Aptamer Biosensors.

She thought, Theres a huge opportunity here for freedom to explore my research interests. I can bring my expertise in electrochemistry and device fabrication and develop new skills working with microneedles and possibly other sensing platforms. That expertise is needed because a key problem with wearable biosensors is that in the body, they degrade. To address this, Downs wants to study the stability of different parts of the sensor interface when its exposed to bodily fluids, like blood.

I plan not only to make the sensors longer lasting by improved understanding of how the sensors are impacted by biofouling in media, I will also investigate replacing the monolayers used in the present sensor design with new, more fouling resistant monolayers, she said.

The recognition element for this type of biosensor are aptamers strands of DNA that bind specifically to a given target, such as a small molecule or protein. When you add a reporter to an aptamer sequence and put it down on a conductive surface, you can measure target binding to the sensor as a change in electrochemical signal, she said.

The work fits well with Sandias biological and chemical sensors team, and when Downs came to Sandia in October, she was welcomed with coffee and donuts from her mentor Ronen Polsky, an internationally recognized expert in wearable microneedle sensors. Polsky introduced her to other scientists, told her of related projects and discussed research ideas.

Right now, meeting with people all across the Labs has been helpful, she said. Later, I look forward to learning more about the Laboratory Directed Research and Development review process, going to Washington, D.C. and learning more about how science policy works. But right now, Im mainly focused on setting up a lab to do the initial experiments for developing microneedle aptamer-based sensors, Downs said.

source: Sandia National Laboratories

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Truman and Hruby 2022 Fellows at Sandia Explore Their Possibilities - insideHPC - insideHPC

Graduate student co-chairs Jatin Patil and Kruthika Kikkeri had big plans for the 18th annual Microsystems Annual Research Conference (MARC) in January 2022: After last years all-virtual event, students, faculty, staff, and industry partners would again be able to gather in person to chart the future of microsystems and nanotechnology.

Then the pandemic took another turn. As the Omicron variant surged and with only three weeks to pivot, Kikkeri and Patil led the 16-person MARC student committee to redirect efforts swapping campus event space for an online platform, physical poster displays for digital, live research talks for prerecorded presentations, and social gatherings for virtual trivia.

We are so thankful to have had such a flexible and dedicated team who made this all happen, says Patil, a PhD candidate in the research group of Professor Jeffrey Grossman in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE). Everyone came together to shift gears and take on new responsibilities, despite having their own academic projects to maintain.

In addition to Kikkeri and Patil, the core planning group included Maitreyi Ashok, Will Banner, Jaehwan Kim, Rishabh Mittal, and Nili Persits from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Narumi Wong from chemical engineering.

The pivot ended up setting records. MARC attracted 262 attendees, the most ever for the long-standing event co-sponsored by the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) and MIT.nano. In addition, more than 100 student abstracts were presented from 37 MIT research groups, two more record-breaking statistics.

We were delighted to see such high numbers of participation, says Kikkeri, a PhD candidate in the research group of Professor Joel Voldman in EECS. It was energizing to see our community so engaged, particularly during these isolating times.

MARC is like a crystal ball.

Every January, MARC aims to accomplish several goals: highlight scientific achievements of the past year, look to the next set of challenges, and create opportunities for collaboration among MIT students, faculty, and industry partners. MARC 2022 proved to be no different.

We can build a better tomorrow, together, said MIT.nano Director Vladimir Bulovi, the Fariborz Maseeh (1990) Chair in Emerging Technology, in his opening remarks. The projects you hear about today are shaping what the future will be. MARC is like a crystal ball. Every year we get a glimpse at what is coming our way.

Research presentations spanned nine topics: integrated circuits; electronic devices; power; energy-efficient AI; optics, photonics, and magnetics; quantum; medical and biological technologies; materials and manufacturing; and nanostructures and nanomaterials. Each category was carefully curated by one of eight EECS graduate student session chairs: Ruicong Chen, Isaac Harris, Thomas Krause, Wei Liao, Sarah Muschinske, Milica Notaros, Kaidong Peng, and Abigail Zhien Wang.

I am, once again, blown away by the incredible array of mind-boggling research represented by the student posters and pitches at this years MARC, says MTL Director Hae-Seung Lee, professor of electrical engineering and computer science. It makes me so proud to be part of this community.

Fostering a strong research community is an important component of MARC, which includes attendance by members of MTLs Microsystems Industrial Group (MIG) and MIT.nanos Consortium. Concerned that opportunities for organic networking would be lacking in a virtual setting, Kikkeri and Patil added a structured segment for students and company representatives to discuss research collaborations, internships, and full-time opportunities. This new block featured more than 20 one-on-one meetings.

Education to fuel future advancements

Each day opened with a keynote lecture touching on the future of nanoscience and microsystems technology. Professor Tsu-Jae King Liu, the Dean and Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, delivered the first talk on alternative approaches to transistor scaling, discussing the need for new innovations across materials, processes, devices, and chip architecture.

Liu also addressed the current shortage of workers in the semiconductor industry, stressing the importance of education and encouraging collaboration between academia, industry, and government. We all need to work together to revitalize the curriculum for microelectronics, she said. Hands-on training in the clean room is invaluable for preparing students to work efficiently in semiconductor manufacturing.

On the second day, Jay M. Gambetta, IBM fellow and vice president of IBM Quantum, spoke about the current state of quantum computing technologies and gave his thoughts on the next set of inventions, in which he sees scientists pushing what can be done with a single chip to create new systems to accelerate workloads. He also stressed the importance of education, saying universities can play a role by giving students a flavor of both computer science and physics. How we bring these two areas together is where were going to see a lot of innovation in the near future, he said.

Interspersed between keynotes, prerecorded student pitches, and live poster sessions hosted on the virtual platform Gather, MIT faculty joined three technical panels highlighting current work in their research groups and sharing thoughts on the future of their fields. Panelists included School of Engineering Dean and Vannevar Bush Professor Anantha Chandrakasan, Donner Professor of Engineering Jess del Alamo, Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor David Perreault, Robert J. Shillman (1974) CD Assistant Professor Song Han, EECS Assistant Professor Jelena Notaros, EECS and Department of Physics Professor William Oliver, EECS Assistant Professor Sixian You, Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering Professor Bilge Yildiz, and Assistant Professor Deblina Sarkar of the Program in Media Arts and Sciences.

In their closing remarks, Lee and Bulovi congratulated the student committee on another successful MARC and spoke of future opportunities for collaboration.

MARC is coming to a close, but we are just beginning the next set of great ideas, said Bulovi. MIT.nano is proud to be your home; the place where you can do your best work and then take it to the intellectual center of MTL to further hone it in collaboration with colleagues.

This was a professional-level conference, said Lee. The core committee, session chairs, and panel moderators have done a superb job. With several large opportunities ahead of us, we are excited to engage many of you together in the near future.

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Last-minute pivot leads to record-setting Microsystems Annual Research Conference - MIT News

In fact, Democrats should ponder whether to seek out the Never Trumpers as dance partners at all. That movements only clear success has been to draw outsize media attention. While Trumpists are snatching up key positions in the countrys electoral mechanics, with an eye toward tilting the next presidential contest, Never Trumpers are writing op-eds, retiring from the fight, and occasionally making a complete mess of trying to help Democrats win elections.

Perhaps the most worrisome part of this partnership is the extent to which the Democrats have allowed these disaffected Republicans to colonize the Democratic Partys aesthetic. Bidens own Democratic National Convention was an often perverse display of moderate Republican courtship, with spare-no-expense production values given to Ohio Republican John Kasich to stand at a literal crossroads to make a point about a figurative crossroads, while Maines Sara Gideon was reduced to introducing a musical guest despite being in a competitive Senate race against Susan Collinsa seat that Democrats would dearly love to have now.

Writing for The New Republic, Samuel Moyn pinpointed an even more troubling aspect of this partnership: the extent to which Never Trumpism was being driven primarily by the foreign policy lifers of the Bush-Cheney era, the stalwart crew who feared that Trump threatened the Cold War national security consensus that gave rise to so much neoconservative misadventure. Its worth noting that earlier this week, Commentarys John Podhoretz crowed that neoconservatism had been vindicated, in part because hip liberals are no longer its loudest critics (instead, he argues, traditional conservatives have taken their place as the leading anti-American voices of our time).

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The Democrats Complicated Dance With Neoconservative Heiress Liz Cheney - The New Republic

San Diego

Two Democratic former city council members and a repeat but little known opponent from the political right are running in the special election to fill the 80th Assembly District seat, and the race has recently turned to finger-pointing about campaign expenditures.

The election takes place April 5, but early voting and mail ballots are available now for the districts nearly 250,000 registered voters.

On the Democratic side Georgette Gmez, an environmental advocate who served on the San Diego City Council from 2016 until 2020, is competing against David Alvarez, a former social worker who held a San Diego City Council seat from 2010 to 2018.

Also Republican Lincoln Pickard is making a fifth run at the liberal district.

The special election is to fill a vacancy for the remainder of a term that ends in December. If no candidate wins a majority of votes, the two front-runners will go to a run-off held during the June 7 primary election.

The seat opened when Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, who served for nearly a decade, resigned Jan. 3 to take a job as chief executive of the California Labor Federation. California state redistricting changes had zoned her out of the 80th District, so she couldnt run for reelection without moving to a new home.

Even before she departed, Gmez and Alvarez signaled their intent to seek her seat if she did not run for reelection by posting announcements of their plans as soon as state district maps were released.

The open assembly seat represents a window of opportunity for both life-long San Diegans. Gmez and Alvarez were born and raised in the Barrio Logan area, graduated from San Diego State University and launched political careers at City Hall.

Alvarez lives in Logan Heights with his wife Xochitl and two school-aged children, while Gmez and her wife, Raquel Pacheco, are moving to Barrio Logan.

Over the past week their campaign contributions have generated more buzz than their backgrounds or policy platforms.

The two are closely matched in campaign funding. Gmez brought in $221,956 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 19 and spent $37,553, while Alvarez received $190,828 and spent $66,766. Both also have smaller campaign accounts stashed toward the November general election.

Recently political action committees and other donors have weighed in.

Alvarez received help from an independent political action committee named Keeping Californians Working, a Coalition of Educators, Insurance Agents, Technology, Energy and Healthcare Providers, which spent $70,029 on mailers to support him. In addition, a PAC called Jobspac, a bi-partisan coalition of California employers, dropped $28,707 on live calls endorsing him. Another PAC named San Diego Families Opposing Georgette Gmez, funded by a Sacramento company, Ramos Towing, spent $13,164 on mailers against his opponent.

Meanwhile, Gmez has gained labor support, as a PAC called Nurses and Educators for Georgette Gmez for Assembly 2022, sponsored by labor organizations, spent more than $200,000 on TV ads, mailers, polling and research on her behalf. Another PAC funded by the Laborers International Union of North America, Local 89, threw in more than $60,000 for mailers, polling and other services.

Gmezs campaign has criticized the third-party spending on Alvarezs behalf, arguing that big corporations are influencing his campaign. They also took aim at direct contributions to his campaign by several oil companies.

Alvarez didnt respond directly to those accusations but said he believes voters wont heed them.

I think that voters want to vote for candidates who present a positive vision of what they will do if they are elected, so I believe that Georgettes negative campaigning will backfire in the end, Alvarez said.

Gmez, 46, was born in Barrio Logan and grew up in the Logan Heights area. After being introduced to activism in high school through her older brother, she earned a bachelors degree in environmental and natural resource geography.

I wanted to do urban planning because of growing up in Barrio Logan and realizing that the community I grew up in was not built in a way that was healthy for the residents, having industry mixed in and not having the elements that one needs while growing up, with healthy foods and parks, she said.

She worked for 12 years at the Environmental Health Coalition, starting as a community organizer in Chula Vista and Barrio Logan and ending as associate director.

When former San Diego City Councilmember Marti Emerald left the citys District 9 in 2016 Gmez ran for the seat and won against Emeralds chief of staff, Ricardo Flores. Later she served as council president.

She said the most important issues she tackled included affordable housing, community choice energy and police oversight, including banning police use of the chokehold restraint after the death of George Floyd.

She ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Sara Jacobs for the 53rd Congressional District in 2020.

Alvarez, 41, also was born in Barrio Logan and now lives in neighboring Logan Heights. Like Gmez, he said the decision to remain in the area and run for office was informed by a desire to fix problems he saw growing up.

In the 80s and 90s it was the epicenter of gang activity, he said. I chose to stay and invest in our community.

Alvarez earned a psychology degree from SDSU and became a social worker before joining the staff of former State Sen. Denise Ducheny. He won a seat in City Councils District 8 in 2010 and served until 2018.

In 2014 he ran unsuccessfully for mayor against Kevin Faulconer.

Alvarez said his top achievements at City Hall included replacing an aging library in San Ysidro with a modern facility, adding parks, including Cesar Solis Park near Otay Mesa, and leading efforts to update decades-old community plans.

His priorities if elected are homelessness, education and public safety, he said. Children in K-12 schools need additional learning opportunities to overcome deficits from a year of school closures and remote classes, he said.

I think we need to focus on nontraditional hours for learning: after-school learning and robust summer programs with professional educators that can help our children catch up, Alvarez said.

He added he would work to build a state university in Chula Vista, which could help students competing for limited seats at other campuses.

Alvarez said current efforts to address homelessness arent working. He said the state should revise laws to commit people with mental health or substance abuse issues to treatment centers if they dont seek help on their own.

I believe that we need to become more focused on taking people off the streets, and the current laws do not allow us to do that, he said. So we need to change the laws so that we can have individuals go to facilities where they can get care.

Alvarez said he doesnt agree with calls to defund police but supports additional spending to hire licensed clinical social workers and improve neighborhood policing.

We need to continue to establish strong relationships between our law enforcement and the community, he said.

Gmez said she would focus on issues including housing, environmental health and educational equity if she wins the 80th Assembly seat.

We need to build more housing for middle-class and low-income families, she said. We need to build more supportive housing for the mental health and homeless populations.

She said she advocates streamlining regulations to remove barriers to housing construction and calls for a uniform permitting process that would satisfy local, state and federal laws.

How do we make it easier for housing to be built so theres only one process that a developer has to go through? she asked. That can impact time and cost.

Gmez said the state has made strides toward addressing the climate crisis, but it needs to look more closely at climate impact and air pollution in underserved communities located near industrial zones, she said.

I would love to go to the state to introduce a bill that is really focused on environmental justice in the climate crisis, Gmez said.

She supports funding to increase child care access, expand free higher education and reduce the digital divide in areas without reliable internet access.

The California Democratic Party endorsed Gmez for the 80th Assembly District.

Their Republican opponent Lincoln Pickard, 80, said he is running in opposition to policies favored by the Democratic majority in Sacramento.

Because of their regulations and taxes, people are leaving by the droves, he said. Ive had several friends leave. The reason Im running is because Democrats are not treating these issues properly.

Pickard has run for the seat unsuccessfully since the 2013 special election, when he joined the ballot as a write-in independent candidate, and in the 2016, 2018 and 2020 general elections when he ran as a Republican.

He said he opposes firearm restrictions, wants to lift remaining COVID-19 restrictions and favors outlawing abortion. Pickard said he doesnt believe that human activity is causing climate change and would like to increase oil drilling in California.

He knows hes in the political minority but said a vote for him is a vote against Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats.

If they elect me to this particular post in San Diego where the odds are pretty much against me, that would send a powerful message, Pickard said.

The Secretary of State did not display any campaign finance disclosures submitted by Pickard. Although he is the sole Republican in the race, he was not listed among the Republican Party of San Diegos election endorsements.

Residents in the district have until Monday to register to receive a ballot in the mail, officials said.

Otherwise they can vote in person at the Registrars office in Kearny Mesa or they can conditionally register at a vote center and vote provisionally through Election Day. Voters can vote by mail or at one of the Registrars official ballot drop box locations or at any vote center in the district. Hours of operation can be found at sdvote.com .

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Two life-long San Diegan Democrats and a Republican battle for 80th Assembly District - The San Diego Union-Tribune