INNOVATION NEWS
Check out our news highlights and archive here.
NOTE: Our blogs are typically “assisted by AI”. We use AI to assist us in research and style the way a human editor would.
Not on our mailing list yet? Subscribe to our newsletter!
Interested in getting 10,000+ eyeballs to view your company’s content? Become a Santa Cruz Works Partner or, see 3rd party content Sponsors.
Kate Roberts Returns as Interim CEO of Monterey Bay Economic Partnership
A familiar face returns: MBEP's longtime former leader and Santa Cruz Works alum Kate Roberts steps back in as interim CEO.
Santa Cruz Faces a More Extreme Climate as Historic El Niño Takes Shape
New research from UC Santa Cruz warns of stronger storms, worsening droughts and mounting coastal risks. With an unusually powerful El Niño developing in the Pacific, the region may soon face another test.
The Sphere Is Spectacular. Now Make It Fit in a Parking Lot.
Elevation XR's Sean Ahearn brings Sphere-style immersion to modular geodesic domes that can land almost anywhere. He will present at Santa Cruz Works New Tech on November 5. Bring questions.
Why Santa Cruz County Is Winning the Road-Trip Economy
Santa Cruz County hotels just posted their strongest gains in years. High fuel costs are steering travelers toward drivable destinations, and bets on AI trip planning and autism-forward hospitality are helping the county win them
NSF Funding Brings Super Intelligence to K-12 Classrooms
NSF released a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) titled "Supplemental Funding Requests to Support Super Intelligence (SI) Innovation in the Presidential SI Challenge." The goal is to spark student interest in SI and build foundational expertise through hands-on, experiential learning.
No Screens, No Streams: Santa Cruz Scene Is A Calendar Built for Showing Up
A free, locals-run calendar is out to prove that Santa Cruz County has never been short on things to do.
Your Body Is Live-Streaming. Fullpower-AI Built Something That Actually Watches.
Santa Cruz's Fullpower-AI has introduced KOA Orchestration, an architecture designed to turn your body's nonstop stream of biological data into context, insights, and action—without depending on any single AI model to do the thinking.
Joby Aviation Named One of TIME's Best Inventions of 2026
Santa Cruz-based Joby Aviation has been named to TIME's Best Inventions of 2026, earning national recognition for its all-electric air taxi and its potential to transform urban transportation.
Santa Cruz County Brings Claude Aboard. What If It Helped Everything?
Supervisors approved the County's 2026 AI work plan, including a discounted Claude contract. We look at what changed, and imagine one AI interface that could search every County site and database.
Did Ukraine’s Strikes on Russian Data Centers Really Take Down Millions of Bots?
Ukraine attacked Russian data centers and shortly after a graph that illustrated a massive drop off of bot activity went viral. Unfortunately, the graph was quite misleading.
Reservoir Farms Expands to Washington State, Bringing Agricultural Robotics to Yakima Valley
The Salinas-based agricultural technology incubator will open its first Pacific Northwest location in spring 2027, focusing on robotics for tree fruit, blueberries and other high-value crops.
Why the Winner of Startup World Cup Santa Cruz Wants to Turn Off Gravity
g-SPACE, the Startup World Cup Santa Cruz Regional champion, uses physics and AI to show companies what happens when gravity disappears, before they spend a fortune launching anything into orbit.
Nominations Now Open: Santa Cruz Works Wavemaker Awards
Our annual awards event is BACK and with a new name: Wavemaker Awards…and nominations are now open!
Your Twenty-Dollar Bill Has Had a Really Complicated Day
A former cash-services operator built FlowLogicAI to give physical cash logistics an AI operating system, with eight pilot customers signed, an MVP launching this winter, and a pre-seed round open.
G-SPACE Wins Startup World Cup Santa Cruz Regional; Stork Labs Takes Second
Fifteen finalists, most of them women, pitched at The Catalyst on October 17. Sunnyvale’s G-SPACE took the regional title and a ticket to the Startup World Cup Grand Finale in San Francisco. Photo credits: Kalen Dion, Doug Erickson
The Most Radical Thing at Cat & Cloud Is the Conversation
In our Company Spotlight tour of Cat & Cloud on October 16, 2026, we learned how one Pleasure Point café grew into four shops and a roastery by betting on clear values and real human connection.
Is a Master's in Quantitative Economics on Your Radar? UCSC Wants to Hear From You
UC Santa Cruz's Economics Department is exploring whether its one-year MS in Quantitative Economics & Finance could serve working professionals in Santa Cruz County, and it's asking our community to weigh in.
Parallel Flight's Firefly Heads Down Under as Fire Seasons Go Global
La Selva Beach's Parallel Flight Technologies has tapped Australia's Drone Forge to distribute its Firefly heavy-lift drone across Asia-Pacific, just as wildfire seasons grow longer, larger, and less predictable on both continents.
Mountainfilm on Tour Returns to Santa Cruz to Support Second Harvest Food Bank
Mountainfilm on Tour returns to the Rio Theatre on Saturday, November 14, with an evening of films connected to Mountainfilm’s mission of using film, art and ideas to inspire audiences to create a better world. Learn how you can win tickets to see it.
From Santa Cruz to Nasdaq: Congratulations to West Coast Community Bank
A Santa Cruz success story reaches a major milestone on Wall Street, demonstrating how a community-focused bank can grow without losing sight of its roots.