2020 Day of Giving

At SCU, we are on a mission to provide transformational educational experiences for our Bronco engineers in our classrooms and laboratories, in Silicon Valley, and around the globe. Whether they are providing clean water for a community in Guatemala, developing a cancer detection device for women in developing countries, advancing a faculty mentor’s research in electromagnetics, or designing an adaptable automated fruit picker, our students are giving their all. Here are just a few examples of the students and projects your generosity supports.

Working with clients around the world, students in the Frugal Innovation Hub advance humanitarian technologies as they take on a wide range of projects. Recently, students joined forces with Maya Pedal Guatemala—a nonprofit helping those in need gain access to potable drinking water while promoting community involvement of women and children. Together, they designed, built, and implemented a bicycle-powered water purification and transportation system.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women, and approximately 90% of deaths from this disease occur in low- and middle-income countries. To help alleviate this problem, Bronco engineering seniors are collaborating with teammates from SCU’s public health science program to create a low-cost, non-invasive detection system for cervical cancer for use by women in developing countries.

Amritpal Singh ’20, an electrical engineering major minoring in computer science and engineering as well as mathematics, spent the summer working alongside his mentor, Assistant Professor Kurt Schab, to advance the theory of evaluating the performance of small antenna systems designed into electronic circuitry. The experience sparked an interest in research that may lead to pursuit of his Ph.D.

Facing an ongoing farm labor shortage that leaves tons of crops unharvested each year, giants in agriculture are banking on automation as an answer to this costly problem. Mai Sinada ’21 (civil, environmental, and sustainable engineering) spent the summer as a paid researcher designing a robotic arm end-effector for an automated fruit picker that is adaptable for a number of different crops.

SCU’s Robotics Systems Lab, recognized by the National Academy of Engineering as an exemplar program for real-world engineering, is ground-zero for students and faculty from more than 10 departments to design and deploy advanced robotic systems and autonomous control technology missions for land, sea, air, and space.