April 2, 2012
Contact: Amy Hewes
805-756-6402; ahewes@calpoly.edu
Cal Poly Student Innovators’ Video Wins Social Impact Award
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Cal Poly Engineering’s “Earth2Block” video entry won the Greatest Social Impact Potential award at the Open Minds 2012 video competition.
Hosted by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) and Inventors Digest, the annual competition challenges student innovators to take their inventions one step closer to reality by communicating the importance of their ideas to the general public. The winners were announced March 22 at the NCIIA annual conference in San Francisco.
Nick Kennedy and Gyan Sinha, graduate students in civil and environmental engineering, produced the video. The entry documented their use of interlocking compressed-earth concrete blocks to meet the need for earthquake-resistant, inexpensive housing in developing countries. Project advisors were civil engineering professors Dan Jansen and Bing Qu and Architectural Engineering Assistant Professor Peter Laursen.
Kennedy and Sinha’s video beat out more than a dozen teams from around the world who were invited to participate in the two-day Open Minds conference and exhibition.
The Cal poly team won $1,000 to help further their ventures.
Watch the video at Cal Poly "Earth2Block."
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San Luis Obispo, California 93407