These days, there are awareness days, awareness weeks and even whole awareness months for all sorts of causes. Some of them are serious, like Mental Health Month in May and National Consumer Protection week in March. Some of them are not-so-serious, like Clam Chowder Day, or Garlic Mustard Awareness Month (that would be the invasive weed, not the stuff you buy in a jar at the grocery store!).
One of the more impressive awareness weeks ends today. National Engineers Week is a week of competitions and events organized annually around engineers and engineering. It highlights how engineering touches all aspects of our daily lives and one of its main goals is to encourage more young people to take up the challenge and become engineers.
Both issues are central to the QL+ mission.
Our multidisciplinary teams of senior-year and graduate-level engineering students at the QL+ Laboratory at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo are, quite simply, creative geniuses. Using their newly-acquired skills, these remarkable young people work under the guidance of knowledgeable faculty advisors to design innovations that currently do not exist. The innovations they research and develop profoundly improve life for servicemen and women injured in the line of duty, allowing our nation’s heroes to live, work and play to their full potential.
Another focus of National Engineers Week is ‘Introduce a Girl to Engineering’. The importance of women in engineering is emphasized throughout the QL+ program:
Most of our QL+ Project teams include a good mix of both male and female engineering students. However, this semester, six of our projects have female team leaders.
Last October, we launched a pilot program with ‘Girls Exploring Engineering’ (GE²), an all-girls’ engineering program based at Chantilly Academy in Fairfax County, Virginia. In conjunction with Purdue University’s EPICS-High Program and with the support of the Fairfax County Public Schools system (the nation ‘s 12th largest school system), this new QL+ initiative brings the QL+ experience to the high school level. Eight teams of young female engineers are working on the QL+ ‘Radar for the Blind’ Project. The aim is to research and develop a system for the blind and visually impaired that offers a greater level and wider range of feedback than the traditional white cane.
Another of our most recently approved projects at Cal Poly – which is, incidentally, one of the most renowned Colleges of Engineering in the country – involves partnering with the Cal Poly chapter of SWE (Society of Women Engineers). QL+ is sponsoring a team in the Team Tech competition, an annual competition that emphasizes the role of multidisciplinary teamwork in the engineering education process. The objective of the QL+-sponsored team is to research and engineer a lower limb prosthesis that incorporates the leg lift required for an amputee missing one or both legs to climb a flight of stairs.
Last but not least, two of our QL+ innovations have, or will, directly benefit female recipients. The adaptive wheelchair allowed a young woman to once again enjoy hiking and other outdoor activities by developing a wheelchair that adapts between indoor and outdoor environments; while both the TENS machine and the exercise shoe modification are customized solutions for a female competitive athlete who previously served in the US Navy.
Take a look at our website for more information on our student teams and the innovative solutions they are developing.
Oh, and happy National Umbrella Month for March!
0 comments:
Post a Comment