CAST-SD 2026 Annual Convention Set for Nov. 21 at UCSD Price Center Theater: Technology, Entrepreneurship and Careers in the Age of AI/SI
The San Diego chapter of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology (CAST-SD) will hold its 2026 Annual Convention on Saturday, November 21, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Price Center Theater of the University of California San Diego (UCSD), in La Jolla, in the city of San Diego, San Diego County, California. Themed "Technology, Entrepreneurship & Career Development in the Age of AI/SI," the convention is hosted by CAST-SD together with the UCSD Chinese Engineering Association (UCSD-CES) and features three keynote talks, a San Diego entrepreneurship session, a startup pitch and hackathon demo show, and a panel discussion for Chinese-American scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and students in the San Diego area.
Organizers: Chinese Association for Science and Technology, San Diego (CAST-SD); UCSD Chinese Engineering Association (UCSD-CES)
Co-organizers: UCEA, CASTSD-Boya AI Club, CAST-SD Qichuanghui Club
Time: Saturday, November 21, 2026, 1:00-6:00 p.m. (registration from 12:30 p.m.; light dinner and networking 6:00-7:00 p.m.)
Venue: Price Center Theater, UC San Diego, La Jolla
Registration: Scan the QR code on the convention poster, or visit castsd.org for registration and membership information
Parking: UCSD Gilman Parking Structure (Russell Ln); V, B and S spaces available on weekends, $2.25/hour with a $9 daily maximum, payable via the ParkMobile app
CAST-SD President Dr. Yongfeng Wu and UCSD-CES President Edward Wang will deliver the opening remarks. The three keynotes in Session 1 are: UCSD professor Liangfang Zhang, the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Chancellor Professor and chair of the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering, on "Toward Biohybrid Nanomedicine: Cell Membrane-Coated Nanotherapeutics," introduced by UCSD Trustee Aiiso Yufeng Li; Diego Zuluaga, an ambassador of the Agentic AI Foundation and director of partner solution architecture at Futurewei Technologies, on "From Big Tech to Open Standards: Building the Agentic Web Together"; and Dr. Pengtao Xie, an associate professor at UC San Diego and co-founder and CEO of AIBuildAI, on a recursive self-improving agent for automated LLM post-training.
Session 2, "Entrepreneurship in San Diego," is hosted by Dr. Cooper Li, founder and CEO of VibraPower: Rory Moore, co-founder and CEO of EvoNexus, will present the incubator's work, and Daniel Haiming Chang, a professor of practice at the UCSD Rady School of Management, will speak on entrepreneurship as "the greatest gift of my life," followed by the startup pitch and hackathon demo show. Session 3 is a panel on "Challenges and Opportunities for Career Development in the Age of AI/SI," moderated by Dr. June Wang, a senior vice president at Futurewei Technologies, with panelists Dr. Ning Bi, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm Technologies; Dr. Chen Zhao, vice president and global head of computational science and informatics at Roche Diagnostics; Dr. Ray Wu, an associate attorney at Foley; and Dr. Tracy Yeo, senior director of business development at NovaBridge Biosciences. Two raffle rounds are scheduled during the event.
The Chinese Association for Science and Technology, San Diego (CAST-SD) is the San Diego chapter of CAST-USA, bringing together local Chinese-American scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and students in a member community of more than 1,000 people, with year-round lectures and entrepreneurship and career-development programs. The UCSD Chinese Engineering Association is the Chinese engineering student organization at UC San Diego. Sponsors of this year's convention include Qualcomm, Hewlett Packard, Futurewei, Cordx, the Haili Foundation and Xinli Education.
Source: CAST-SD
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：CAST-SD 2026 年会官方海报主视觉，圣迭戈市中心天际线与年会主题，旅美科协圣地亚哥分会提供。/ Image: Official CAST-SD 2026 Annual Convention poster banner, the downtown San Diego skyline and the convention theme, courtesy of CAST-SD.
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