Not many deals made news in San Diego last week, although we had a few national stories that were of local interest.
—Bruce reported on some of the companies from Xconomy cities going to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference last week, including three from San Diego. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems gave a presentation on its Predator BUAV, while SAIC discussed using unmanned aircraft over the ocean.
—Bruce also did a more in-depth report on San Diego defense contractor Northrop Grumman and its presentation of robot vehicles at the conference. These include land robots as well as helicopters and its Broad Area Maritime Surveillance UAV program, which is intended help with oceanic intelligence and related concerns for the Navy, at a cost of $1.2 billion.
—Luke reported on a talk by the U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu in Washington State, whose new energy policies could have big repercussions around the country. Chu talked about how national labs can do mission-based science and still make big fundamental discoveries that will push areas like clean energy ahead.
—On a happy note for the suffering newspaper industry, Bruce reported on Wednesday that VMIX, a San Diego-based media company, is growing despite its newspaper focus thanks to the popularity of video on the Internet. The venture-backed startup said it expects big growth in the coming year because of its online video-based strategy.