University News – Summer 2009
Prof Helps Restore Factory in Iraq
Hany Khalil, a professor of food science at Cal Poly, will spend his summer in Balad, Iraq, helping rebuild a business. He will work with the Inma Agribusiness Project, helping restore the Balad Canning Factory, 65 kilometers north of Baghdad, to its pre-war operational status and expand the market for the company’s products.
More on Hany Khalil
Cal Poly and UCSB Join Forces on Engineering Center
Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara engineering programs are joining forces, linking a prominent undergraduate curriculum with a highly-ranked graduate research institution to expand opportunities for students and faculty. The universities have founded the Center for Collaborative Engineering Research and Education, allowing Cal Poly engineering students access to greater research opportunities, according to Cal Poly Engineering Dean Mohammad Noori. “This center extends the partnership between Cal Poly and UCSB to a new level of national eminence, the first research center of its type between a UC and CSU campus,” Noori said.
More on the Center for Collaborative Engineering Research and Education
Architecture Student Wins National Livability Award
Architecture student John Vierra won first place in the 2009 Livable Communities Student Design Competition. Participants were asked to design community space that enhanced the lives of senior residents by providing access to services, multiple transportation options and venues for social engagement as well as safe, accessible and affordable housing.
More on Vierra’s winning design
PBS ‘History Detectives’ Features Cal Poly
An episode of the PBS show “History Detectives” that was filmed at Cal Poly in March will air July 27. Check your local listings for times. For the episode, the show’s investigators try to determine if a piece of metal brought to them by a San Jose man is – as the man’s grandfather told him – a part of the landing gear from a plane crashed by aviatrix Amelia Earhart in Hawaii before embarking on the attempted round-the-world flight during which she disappeared. The show sought Cal Poly’s help in testing the metal to determine whether it was the same type known to have been used in Earhart’s plane.
More on the History Detectives episode
Cal Poly Establishes Working Relationship with Food Science Australia
Cal Poly’s Dairy Products Technology Center has signed an agreement to work with Food Science Australia, Australia’s leading food, health and nutrition research organization. Cal Poly and the Australian agency will host student and staff exchanges and work together on research, grant applications, subcontracting and workshops.
“This is consistent with our efforts to reach out to the world and to provide Cal Poly students and staff with more global experiences and perspectives,” said Phil Tong, director of the Dairy Products Technology Center.
More on Cal Poly’s Food Science Australia agreement
Cal Poly Journalism Student
Named a Top Collegiate Journalist
Cal Poly student Lauren Rabaino was named one of the nation’s top 100 student journalists by UWIRE, a college student media organization. She was recognized for implementing innovative platforms while excelling in traditional journalism. Rabaino was selected from more than 825 nominations from more than 135 schools. As online editor for Cal Poly’s Mustang Daily, Rabaino led a team that earned Online Pacemaker Finalist for 2009 in the Associated Collegiate Press competition – considered the highest national award for online college journalism.
More on Rabaino’s honor
Interdisciplinary Team Wins Low-Income Housing Challenge
An interdisciplinary team of Cal Poly students took first place in Bank of America’s Low-Income Housing Challenge. The team partnered with People’s Self Help Housing to create a physical and financial proposal for an 80-unit farm-worker housing development near Santa Maria. Team members included nine students working toward bachelor's degrees in architecture, business, city and regional planning, construction management, and landscape architecture, and three graduate students in city and regional planning and industrial technology.
More on the team’s winning entry
Take the Cal Poly Magazine Reader Survey and You May Win a $25 Gift Card
Help us plan future editions of Cal Poly magazine: Take our Summer '09 Reader Survey. Complete the survey by July 10 and you will automatically be entered in a drawing for one of four $25 gift cards good for Cal Poly Gear on the El Corral Web site.
Take the survey now
PASSINGS
ART ROSEN – Physics Professor Art Rosen died Saturday, May 9, at age 89. Rosen began teaching in the Physics Department in 1953. He retired in 1993 but remained active with his research as a volunteer employee until 2007. During his years at Cal Poly, he developed and taught a variety of courses including reactor physics and quantum physics. He was director of the Radio-Analytical Facility and supervised numerous student projects.
ROBERT WILLIAM WALTERS – Robert William Walters, former Student Affairs administrator, died May 2. He was 70. Walters came to San Luis Obispo in 1970 and spent the next 30 years at Cal Poly, primarily as assistant director of Student Affairs. He helped shape the university’s Week of Welcome student orientation program, which has become a model for other universities around the nation.
DANNY GANS – Former Cal Poly baseball player Danny Gans, named "Las Vegas Entertainer of the Year" for 11 consecutive years, died May 1. He was 52. Gans billed himself as a "musical impressionist" who delighted audiences with his takes on legendary entertainers. Gans played on the Mustang baseball team from 1976 to 1978 while studying kinesiology at Cal Poly. An injury ended his pursuit of a professional baseball career before he hit the big leagues but led him to success in Vegas.
RICHARD J. O’NEILL – Richard J. O'Neill, a prominent landowner and Democratic Party activist who helped transform the landscape of Orange County by developing his family's vast Rancho Mission Viejo, died April 4. He was 85. O'Neill was a longtime supporter of Cal Poly and Cal Poly Athletics. A portion of the rolling lawns on campus overlooking the football stadium are named The O'Neill Green in his honor. After graduating from high school, O'Neill enrolled at Cal Poly where he studied animal husbandry in preparation for taking over the business at the family ranch.
