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The best
up-and-coming scientists in the west
WHIZ KID: Michael
Viscardi of Josan Academy in San Diego explains his research
project to a visitor. Viscardi was one of 14 high schoolers
who competed in the western regional portion of the Siemens
Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science, and Technology,
which recently took place in Soda Hall. Viscardi’s
project focused on finding a solution to the Dirichlet problem,
originally formulated by the 19th century mathematician Lejeune
Dirichlet. Viscardi eventually won the individual competition
and received a $3,000 scholarship. He advances to the national
finals. During the open house, several CS students wandered
in to look at the projects displayed in Wozniak Lounge. “These
guys are way smarter than us,” one remarked. (Rachel Jackson
Photo)
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You’re an engineer on a product design team. Your company is
under intense pressure from foreign competition. Management asks you
to come up with a Hail Mary product, something to push the company
ahead. You must innovate. How to start?
You could rub a lucky rabbit’s foot and wait for ideas to come.
But you’re an engineer. You want a plan for this elusive thing
called innovation. A good place to start is ME alum Jonathan Cagan’s
new book, The Design of Things to Come: How Ordinary People Create
Extraordinary Products. Cagan and co-authors Craig Vogel and Peter
Boatwright give tools, strategies, and a methodology for early product
design. The three authors offer plenty of real-world examples showing
how engineers and designers used these processes to come up with innovative
products.
“A large number of new products fail,” says Cagan (Ph.D.’90
ME). “We can’t guarantee success, but we’ve shown
that if you follow a good process, you increase your chances of
success. Innovation is the result of hard work.” [FULL STORY]
SMART ART: The rainy season has arrived
in Berkeley, and finals are just around the corner. So you may feel
compelled to attach yourself to a computer from now to the end of the
semester. We won’t talk you out of doing your work, but make
sure you take an occasional break to give your eyes and brain a rest.
We highly recommend the artful reprieve in Soda Hall. [FULL STORY]
The CEE undergraduate team that produced several designs for a suicide
barrier on the Golden Gate Bridge achieved yet another success. The
group’s paper has been accepted for publication by the American
Society of Civil Engineers’ Journal of Architectural Engineering.
The four team members had earlier submitted their final paper from
CE 180, “Construction, Maintenance and Design of Civil and
Environmental Engineered Systems,” taught by Professor Robert
Bea. The students received notice of the news on Monday, October 24.
“Not many undergraduates are able to do this, especially when
they are the primary authors and not the professor,” says CEE
graduate student Kofi Inkabi, a graduate student instructor for the
course. “I
am so proud of our students.”
Team members include Danielle Hutchings (B.S.’05 CEE), CEE senior
Doug Wahl, Ryan Stauffer (B.S.’05 CEE), and CEE exchange student
Robert Simpson of Scotland. The group’s accomplishments have
been many: first place in the CE 180 design competition, a top three
placement in the spring poster session, coverage in the San Francisco
Chronicle, and – the icing on the cake – a political win.
In late April, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District
Board approved a $2 million barrier design study. The board was able
to visualize how a barrier might look, thanks to the team’s research. [FULL STORY]
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