Narrator:       This is Science Today. The California Lighting Technology Center at the University of California, Davis was established in 2004 to increase the use of energy-efficient lighting through collaborations with energy utilities, lighting manufacturers, designers and government agencies. The center also educates the next generation of lighting engineers and designers. Michael Siminovitch, who directs the center, says it's essentially a living laboratory.

Siminovitch:   We're working on technology of today and technology of tomorrow.  And so we're partnering with many folks.  We're working with universities.  We're working with large state agencies with the idea that we're focused on real retrofit technologies in a non-abstract form.  We're interested in solving real problems today and we're interested in real energy savings, which in order to do that, you really need to engage in what we call applications research where you're taking the very best technology that's coming out of the laboratories today and you put it into the marketplace, but you do it in a way that's thoughtful and insightful and well thought out. 

Narrator:       For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.