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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.
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