by Charlyne Berens, CoJMC alum
We all know engineers build roads and bridges. And buildings. Infrastructure.
They’re good at physics and math, and their work requires that they be exacting, meticulous. Admirable, for sure, but a little remote? Sort of off in their own world?
Hardly. At the College of Engineering Senior Design Showcase prior to May graduation, you would have seen 49 presentations including a miniature car designed by biosystems engineering majors for 3- to 5-year-olds with disabilities.
A chemical engineering student from Malaysia talked about how her team tweaked the process for making a material used in the plastics industry to make it friendlier to the environment.
An electrical and computer engineering major explained how his team invented a monitor that helps mechanize the work of Big Red Worms, a vermicomposting firm in Lincoln that develops environmentally friendly fertilizer.
Faculty research is just as diverse: gene therapy; road and bridge safety; cybersecurity protocols and technology; advances in natural resources practices; additive manufacturing; the nation’s only tractor test lab.
Engineering is not just infrastructure. In fact, says Lance C. Pérez, newly named dean of the College of Engineering, engineers are in every corner of people’s lives. “Engineering is fundamentally about improving the human condition,” Pérez said.
To read the rest of this story, please visit https://www.huskeralum.org/s/1620/magazine/interior.aspx?sid=1620&gid=1&pgid=1819.