Feature Ideas

Media looking for general feature story ideas can find a full crop at Cal Poly any season. Check back here regularly for some 'anytime' feature ideas as we add to the list below. Or, if you're looking for interesting professors, visit our Focus on Faculty Web page.

Research: College of Agriculture Does it All
Cal Poly professors have been awarded $7.6 million in research grants so far from the California Agricultural Research Initiative. The state research project, begun in 1999, offers funding for research into new, innovative applied technology supporting California's agriculture industry. In addition to benefitting industry, ARI grant research projects are also an opportunity for Cal Poly students to work on applied research projects involving current agriculture issues. Research projects range from tackling the glassy-winged sharpshooter (which threatens California wine grapes) to developing safer meat processing plants to fire risks in urban and wildland area forests, Cal Poly professors are working on solutions for the state.
More on research projects

Cal Poly Awarded $3.4 Million Grant to Monitor California Ocean Currents
Cal Poly has received a $3.4 million grant to install a high-tech system to monitor California's near-shore currents.The ocean currents monitoring system will help combat pollution, aid in response to natural hazards, and help understand the coastal ecosystem of California. A total of $21 million was approved by the state Coastal Conservancy for the project. The funding will come from two statewide bond measures approved by voters in 2002 and will not add to California's budget deficit. Eight institutions, including Cal Poly, shared the funding and will install the system from the border of Mexico to the Oregon state line. The universities expect to have the system up and running in two years.
More

Cal Poly Grown & Cal Poly Made
The university's learn-by-doing tradition means that the university's College of Agriculture produces a variety of campus-grown or campus-made food, flowers, plants and more that are for sale throughout the year to both the campus community and the general public. Some are produced as part of hands-on lessons in college classes. Others are 'Enterprise Projects,' in which the university provides money or resources, students provide labor in design, production, packaging and marketing under the supervision of faculty. Net proceeds from Enterprise Projects go to pay the students involved and can be re-invested in the project.
More details

Cal Poly's California Institute for the Study of Specialty Crops
Cal Poly is home to the California Institute for the Study of Specialty Crops (CISSC). The institute sponsors research by faculty members, graduate students and undergraduates into economic, policy and regulatory issues that affect specialty crops. Specialty crops are all crops except the agricultural commodities of wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco, oil seeds and feed grains subsidized by USDA programs. More than 90 percent of the $27 billion in crops grown in California are considered specialty crops; the list includes everything from wine grapes to lettuce to herbs to timber. The institute is sharing its research findings with agriculturalists, legislators, growers, grower associations and farm bureaus. It will also serve Cal Poly by giving professors, graduate students and undergraduates a chance to work on real-world issues and problems. CISSC was founded in October, 2003 with a $2.8 million state grant to Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture.
Background on the founding of CISSC
CISSC Web site

Women in Science? Plenty at Cal Poly
When it comes to science, Cal Poly girls kick -- all kinds of things. Cal Poly has a successful, established Women in Engineering program, and the university's chapter of the Society of Women Engineers repeatedly wins the national award for 'best chapter' in its collegiate category. Every year, during National Engineers Week, SWE members go to local elementary school classrooms in an outreach to fourth-graders, giving them some hands-on lessons in science that also offer plenty of fun. Check through the roster of science professors in the College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Engineering and the College of Agriculture, and you'll find women faculty everywhere. Contact the Public Affairs Office to get in touch with some of the leading women on campus.

Cal Poly Offering New Biomedical Engineering Degree
The California State University’s first Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering will be awarded at Cal Poly. Recently approved by CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, the degree is part of Cal Poly’s new Biomedical and General Engineering Department. Dan Walsh is department chair, materials engineering Professor Lanny Griffin and industrial engineering Assistant Professor Robert Crockett are the first faculty members. Biomedical Engineering at Cal Poly is fostered by a close partnership with St. Jude Medical, which has provided $500,000 to support curriculum and provide laboratory facilities, faculty and student research opportunities and co-ops.
More

Looking for more feature ideas? Visit our Focus on Faculty page to read about professors research projects and special classes.