QL+ Student Team Wins Gold!
October 18, 2011
Contact: Amy Hewes
Cal Poly Engineering
805-756-6402 ahewes@calpoly.edu
Cal Poly SWE Repeats History
Cal Poly Society of Women Engineers Repeats History with Two TeamTech Firsts
Chapter wins Outstanding Collegiate Section Gold Award
Cal Poly Society of Women Engineers (SWE) again set the “gold standard” for university SWE chapters across the nation at WE11, the Society’s Annual Conference, October13-15 in Chicago.
Cal Poly brought home the Gold Award as the nation’s top Outstanding Collegiate section, and repeated history with two teams that tied for 1st in the Team Tech competition. The Team Tech competition involves a year-long, multidisciplinary, industry- sponsored project. One of the Cal Poly SWE teams worked with Santa Maria- based Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench on a compressor wheel cooling system.
The other team designed a prosthetic attachment to aid amputees when climbing stairs. The group worked with the Quality of Life Plus (QL+) Foundation, a nonprofit group that fosters innovation to improve the quality of life for those injured in the line of duty.
Natalie Lacey, a Biomedical Engineering senior and co-captain of the prosthetic knee lift project, gave her explanation of why Cal Poly continues to dominate the competition:
“Being a part of a project from the original conception all the way through to a prototype creates a lot of ownership. In addition, our relationship with industry definitely contributed to our win – when companies believe in the students and their abilities, it empowers and challenges us to perform to the best of our ability, and the knowledge that what we make over the year will actually impact the industry and be continued once we finish is something that pushes us even further.
“Recruiting students to work on Team Tech, to put in so many hours and give up a considerable amount of sleep is actually a lot easier than one might think. I think it has a lot to do with Cal Poly’s “Learn by Doing” motto – students choose this university because they know these opportunities exist here. The chance to work on a project as an undergraduate is very unique. Team Tech’s excellent track record is something that people look at and think ‘I’d like to be a part of that.’”
In addition to the section and Team Tech awards, Mechanical Engineering undergraduate Stephanie Smith won first place in the Technical Poster competition at the conference, and Biomedical Engineering graduate student Rebecca Campbell won third place.
The Collegiate Section Gold Award is awarded to the section, or university chapter, with the most outstanding overall program including community outreach as well as activities that provide leadership training and professional opportunities for its members. The Cal Poly section is the largest academic club on campus and provides engineering outreach to over 1350 K-12 students through on- and off- campus events. During National Engineers Week in February, SWE presented hands-on activities to 20 local fourth grade classrooms.
“In many ways, SWE represents the best of Cal Poly’s Learn By Doing experience and is a great example of how these academic clubs and co-curricular activities help accelerate learning and truly make the campus a distinctive learning community,” said Cal Poly Engineering Dean Debra Larson.
Since 2002, Cal Poly SWE has been named the nation’s topmost collegiate section (Gold Award) eight times. Cal Poly has also won the highly competitive Team Tech competition eight times, including two first-place ties in 2009 and 2011.