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Unique projects shown during engineering week

Michelle Ochoa
Daily Staff Writer

Issue date: 2/26/04 Section: Campus News
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Stacey Ruesch / Daily Staff
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Stacey Ruesch / Daily Staff
"This car is cool!" four-year-old Frank McMullin calls out to his father while playing in the Mini-Baja Racer project on display for the mechanical engineering student expo outside the Engineering building Monday afterno
[Click to enlarge]
Stacey Ruesch / Daily Staff
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Joel Ruscher, left, listens as Daniel Wong explains a student project on display for the mechanical engineering student expo outside the Engineering building Monday afternoon. Fuscher is a junior mechanical engineering m
Stacey Ruesch / Daily Staff
Joel Ruscher, left, listens as Daniel Wong explains a student project on display for the mechanical engineering student expo outside the Engineering building Monday afternoon. Fuscher is a junior mechanical engineering m
[Click to enlarge]
Stacey Ruesch / Daily Staff
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Daniel Wong explains the proximity sensor on the front of the Smart Cane project on display for the mechanical engineering student expo outside the Engineering building Monday afternoon. Wong, a senior majoring in mechan
Stacey Ruesch / Daily Staff
Daniel Wong explains the proximity sensor on the front of the Smart Cane project on display for the mechanical engineering student expo outside the Engineering building Monday afternoon. Wong, a senior majoring in mechan
[Click to enlarge]
Students from the College of Engineering are showcasing their talents this week in front of the Engineering building as part of National Engineers Week.

"Engineering Week is a national event, and in our school it's never celebrated," said Kat Flores. Flores is membership chair of the San Jose State University chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a senior majoring in mechanical engineering.

The exhibition is being held daily this week from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. except for Friday, said Thai Thach, chair of the SJSU chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

The exhibition is designed to be a tribute to graduating seniors and to attract new majors, Flores said.

On display are senior projects as well as club projects from the College of Engineering.

Project displays range from the EZ-racer, an aerodynamic racing vehicle, to the Senior Lift, designed to help raise a person who has fallen and needs assistance standing up.

Gerardo Vazquez is a senior aerospace engineering major and president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics at SJSU. As an extracurricular project, Vazquez has worked on creating computer tools to help design launch vehicles for outer space.

Vazquez sees events like this as an opportunity to get the information out about the aerospace engineering program.

"We're doing a lot but don't get the attention," Vazquez said.

An objective of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers is to aid students, Thach said.

"As an organization, we try to help students as much as possible," Thach said.

Because the price of these projects can be considerable, many of these projects receive funding from companies around San Jose, Thach said.

According to Thach, the price for vehicle projects can range from $16,000 to $20,000.

Getting women interested in engineering is also a priority, Flores said.

"I can count eight, nine, maybe 10 of us (women) in senior projects," said Flores, who also noted that there are about 80 graduating seniors.

On March 3, the senior projects will go up for competition in front of engineering faculty members and students, said Daniel Wong, a senior in mechanical engineering and event coordinator for the Association for Facilities Engineering.

According to Wong, students have 15 minutes to talk about their projects and show the design process as well as the purpose and need for what they have worked on.

The best project will go to an American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference later this year.


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