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Engineering News Fall 2015

  • Grad Students Go Back to Preschool

    Computer engineering graduate students designed and produced software to engage visually-impaired preschoolers as a project for their Object-Oriented Analysis, Design, and Programming class, COEN 275, then got the thrill of seeing their work in action.

  • When Going to the Dogs Is a Good Thing

    How can you reap gigantic benefits from a teeny house? For a group of SCU students competing in the Sacramento Municipal Utility District 2016 Tiny House Competition, the solution was easy: When the contest is over, pass along the 238-square-foot solar-powered home to a very worthy organization.

  • Research with a Side of Competition

    A fascination for solving the puzzle of how to get other biological systems to harness biological concentration gradients, as electric eels do, to generate electricity has kept bioengineering senior Conary Meyer busy for years. "Using algae as a model photosynthetic system, I've been working on how to trigger unidirectional ionic flux through the cell to create electrical current from sunlight in a completely biological system."

  • Energizing Students ... and the World

    For students working in the Latimer Energy Laboratory, summer days were anything but lazy as they worked to design three important projects: a micro-grid power allocation device, a cookstove fan that pasteurizes water while generating electricity, and a system for pulling water out of the air to irrigate vegetation that might die in times of drought.

  • The Best of the Best

    In Uganda, the word "wakabi" means "best of the best," so when economics major Tyler Van Herweg '15 was looking for a team to help with his idea for facilitating transportation in rural Uganda, he turned to the School of Engineering's Frugal Innovation Lab.

  • Tug of War

    Finding the right balance between affordability and safety isn't always easy, but civil engineering professor Reynaud Serrette's research is helping make homes seismically safe.

  • Mr. Dakin Goes to Washington

    In the 1939 film classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart played an idealistic junior senator sent to our nation’s capital to represent his state and fight political entropy for the benefit of his constituents. A tremendous success at the time, the film promoted a faith in our country and its people. Fast-forward to fall 2015 and alumnus Ross Dakin '07 (computer engineering) has gone to Washington, having been selected as a Presidential Innovation Fellow.