The first step in harnessing the power of wireless technology, says Arlene Krebs of CSU Monterey Bay’s Wireless Education and Technology Center (WeTEC), is to grasp its possibilities—or as she says, “to understand what new technologies are capable of.”

Such capabilities will be spotlighted at this week’s Wireless Community and Mobile User Conference hosted by WeTEC and the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG).

And the capabilities are cool.

Case studies in point: One panel on mobile education will show how Central Coast youngsters use wireless technology to steer a remote-controlled underwater submarine called “ROVing Otter.” The ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle), which can dive 100 feet, allows students to study a living kelp forest in Whaler’s Cove off Point Lobos from their classrooms. Later, attendees will travel virtually across town to CSUMB, where students respond when prompted to different questions posed by their professors via handheld wireless Classroom Performance Systems (CPS). By using the CPS, the professor can analyze individual students’ performance and tailor added instruction according to need.

Of course, the possibilities extend well beyond education, into government, industry and beyond. One lecture will explore solutions developed by a team from the Naval Postgraduate School that allowed them to establish wireless networks in post-Katrina New Orleans, solutions that linked lifesaving first responders and aid groups to hurricane victims. Other talks will analyze wireless technology’s role in enriching information access (through citywide broadband initiatives), economic development (by empowering small business), and basic quality of life (through Internet access for the disadvantaged and health care applications), among other topics.

Krebs says these possibilities are promising, but they’re not everything. “Technologies are just a tool,” she says. “What they are capable of is made possible by our imaginations.”