From the College of Engineering at Oregon State University, this is "Engineering Out Loud"—a podcast telling the stories of how our research and innovation here are helping change the world out there.
How does culture influence engineering design? Two seniors in civil engineering tell about how they incorporated their research on the culture of Ethiopia into the design of a housing structure, an irrigation system, and a restroom.
Gavin Bennett and Amy Salisbury, undergraduates in civil engineering, took on a senior design project to improve a village school and a plant nursery in Ethiopia.
Javier Calvo-Amodio, Sage Kittelman, and Siqi Wang examine how teams and their communications function as systems within large, complex organizations. They are working with Boeing to understand how those systems can be improved to make manufacturing more efficient.
Javier Calvo-Amodio (center), Sage Kittelman (left), and Siqi Wang (right) work in the Change and Reliable Systems Engineering and Management research group at Oregon State University.
Can clean and renewable energy sources like wind and solar power reduce our dependence on fossil fuels? One major challenge is figuring out how to make that energy available when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Lynza Sprowl, a chemical engineering Ph.D. student, says the key is building better batteries.
Lynza Sprowl, Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering, uses computational methods to model the inner workings of lithium-ion batteries, to improve their performance and help make renewable energy go further.
Will a new breed of highly mobile, radiation-resistant soft robots become automated work horses for the nuclear industry—or save the day during nuclear disasters? A team of graduate students wants to make sure they’re up to the task.
Graduate students Osman Doğan Yirmibeşoğlu and Tyler Oshiro plan their next moves to build radiation-resistant soft robots.
How can two undergraduates impact the health of people with mental illness? Inspired by her own experience with bipolar disorder, Alison Bowden from Oregon State University created an app to help manage the daily challenges of living with mental illness. She co-founded Wellio with Houston Morgan from Arizona State University.
Alison Bowden founded Wellio, a mental health app to help people manage their mental illness.
How do you quickly calculate a worker's radiation skin dose in the event of exposure? VARSKIN--maintained and updated at Oregon State--is one of the main computer codes used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and undergrad Logan Anspach's peer-reviewed paper examines how it stacks up against other tools.
Undergrad Logan Anspach's research is informing the highest levels of regulating agencies in the nuclear and health physics fields.
"Engineering Out Loud" is produced and hosted by Jens Odegaard, Rachel Robertson, Steve Frandzel, Keith Hautala, Owen Perry, and Krista Klinkhammer. Visuals and marketing by Gale Sumida and Johanna Carson. Audio editing is provided by Brian Blythe. Artwork and graphic design by Jack Forkey. Additional support is provided by Megan Kilgore.
