"Tech Coast" is the nickname given to the Southern California region extending from Santa Barbara in the north to San Diego in the south. The Tech Coast concept and name, created by Timothy Cooley in the mid-90s to define the region's industrial and economic drivers, has been adopted to describe the region as it matured from an economy dominated by aerospace and defense to that of a diversified, global, multi technology-based powerhouse.

The Tech Coast region encompasses the greatest concentration of research and development activity in the world emanating from research universities such as UCLA, USC, Caltech, UC-Irvine, UC-Santa Barbara, Loma Linda, UC-Riverside and UC-San Diego; research institutes such as Scripps, Aerospace Corp, Mann, Nichols, Rand, Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL), Beckman, and Salk; as well as countless technology-based companies far outnumbering those in regions like Silicon Valley, Route 128 or Research Triangle.

The Tech Coast also includes the largest port complex in the U.S., the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and one of the largest airports in the world, Los Angeles International (LAX.)