Clips

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) in IEEE are advancing technological innovation and making measurable social impacts, while addressing local community-service needs as they pertain to education and outreach, access and abilities, the environment, and human services. A look at a few EPICS in IEEE solar projects in Africa explores how philanthropy can be leveraged in ways that benefits local communities, and also empowers young people through practical, educational experiences based on applied engineering principles in the field. Successful EPICS in IEEE projects such as these are proving to be a grassroots approach that fosters young students’ interest in engineering studies today and sows the seeds for the engineers that will serve the power industry for the future. -- Renewable Energy World magazine

They are students now, but a promising future awaits them, as well as hope for others. The lessons learned by the Cal State Northridge students selected to work for two semesters in UCLA’s stem cell labs may lead to a process that repairs spinal cords, cures cancer or enables paralyzed kids to scramble across playgrounds. -- Los Angeles Daily News

-I’m a reluctant passenger on the Measure M train. That’s the half-cent sales tax increase in Los Angeles County to bankroll transportation improvements. My main reservation, aside from the fact that a 9.5 percent sales tax would be mighty steep, is that spending billions of dollars on expensive rail systems may be largely unnecessary in a few years if autonomous transportations systems (think Uber without drivers) can deliver you door-to-door using small cars that constantly move, except overnight. On the other hand, can we depend on such a futuristic system to fully take hold? Besides, the San Fernando Valley would get a lot of love with Measure M: the Orange Line busway would get converted to rail, a transportation tunnel through the Sepulveda Pass would be slated and a rapid bus system to California State University Northridge would be created. So, OK, yeah, I’d vote for it. Still, I wonder if we will eventually regret Measure M like we regret our approval of the California high-speed rail a few years ago. -- San Fernando Valley Business Journal

Political Science professor Tyler J. Hughes at California State University, Northridge said the race has generated “very little excitement” in part because it’s a contest between two Democrats and because it hasn’t appeared to be close. Hughes says it’s unfortunate it hasn’t gotten more press attention because, whatever happens, California will be electing its first woman of color to the Senate. -- Visalia Times-Delta