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Alumni Online Community Launching!
PolyLink is almost here! PolyLink is Cal Poly's Online Community -- a secure, free, private, protected Web site.
PolyLink is free and open to all Mustang alumni – regardless of whether they are members of the Cal Poly Alumni Association. Later this year, PolyLink will add faculty and select staff as members – so alumni can stay in touch with favorite professors, coaches and other university mentors. Plans call for adding current Cal Poly juniors and seniors in the near future.
Once signed in to PolyLink, alumni from all decades, colleges and majors will be able to look up old classmates, send private e-mails to catch up with old friends and contacts, view friends’ online photo galleries, and join PolyLink groups and message board discussions.
PolyLink is the ideal spot to network, Mustang to Mustang. Alumni at all professional levels will be able to use PolyLink to sign up to mentor new grads, receive mentoring, post information about job openings at their companies and post business card information -- giving new Cal Poly grads and all alumni an inside track on career info.
For fun, PolyLink members will also be able to create a personal page, post their own class notes, photos and professional updates on the Web – with full control over how much (or how little) information is displayed.
Alumni: watch your e-mail basket in late August for your first-time log-in password!
Alumni in the News: August
An engineering alum received the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts for service in Iraq. Shea Goltry was shot twice in the left leg during an ambush of his patrol -- then got out of his Humvee on foot and led his troops in successfully fending off their attackers. Goltry is still in Iraq on duty, and received his medals a few weeks ago in a ceremony there. He's just one Cal Poly alumnus who made headlines over the past month. Others in the news include 'Weird Al' who appears to have (musically) conquered Canada; a Cal Poly alum who is now the nation's top Boy Scout; and a Cal Poly poet making her way in New York. Find out which Cal Poly alumni were in the news last month -- and if you know them!
Photo courtesy 82nd Airborne
Read about Alumni in the News
Noted Ag Alum to be Celebrated in September
The California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom is throwing a gala celebration in September for ag alumnus George Gomes. Gomes was recently appointed as undersecretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture by Governor Arnold Schwarzengger. Before taking the post, he served as the head of the the California Farm Bureau Federation for nearly 20 years. Gomes earned his bachelor’s degree in Agribusiness Management (1966) and a master’s degree in Agriculture Education (1967).
Read more details on the September celebration for Gomes
University
News
Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi Visits Campus
Lt. Governor John Garamendi came to Cal Poly Tuesday, July 17, as part of his "Listening Tour" of California. Garamendi held a public forum that filled the Pavilion of the Christopher Cohan Center on campus. The focus of the forum was to find new ideas on workforce development in California's science and technology sectors. Part of the forum was a panel discussion with local speakers including Cal Poly President Warren J. Baker; Julian Crocker, San Luis Obispo County Superintendent of Schools; Phil Bailey, Dean, Cal Poly College of Science & Mathematics; José Ortiz, President, Allan Hancock College; Ed Maduli, Interim President, Cuesta College (and a Cal Poly alumnus) and more. The event was the seventh stop on Garamendi's "Listening Tour," begun after he took office in January.
Read a Summary of the Forum | Read the Mustang Daily story on Garamendi's visit
See the KSBY news video | Read The Tribune story
New York Culinary Institute Students Tour Cal Poly Organic Farm
Students from the Culinary Institute of America in New York recently took a tour of the Cal Poly Organic Farm. The students were on a trip to gain a better understanding of food systems and food production in California. Students met with representatives from Cal Poly’s 11-acre organic farm, toured the property and helped harvest ripe herbs and vegetables.
Visit the Cal Poly Organic Farm Web site
More Women in Engineering's Freshman Class this Fall
More young women will be on campus this fall in Cal Poly's College of Engineering. The percentage of female freshmen is up slightly this year, from 13.1 percent to 15.4 percent. The percentage of female freshmen enrolled in Cal Poly's College of Science and Mathematics is expected to remain at about 56 percent this fall, the same as last year, said James Maraviglia, assistant vice president for admissions and financial aid.
Read the 2006 Cal Poly Magazine story about encouraging women in engineering
Read the LA Times story on female college students in science majors
High School Students Show Off Engineering Summer Projects
Young women and low-income high school students from San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria have been on campus with the “Engineering Days at Cal Poly” program. The week-long, on-campus, engineering “day camp” was sponsored by the Women’s Engineering Program. On Friday, they demonstrated their student projects in various fields of engineering, including computer science and computer engineering, electrical engineering and materials engineering, civil and environmental engineering, and aeronautical engineering. Some students demonstrated robots that draw pictures. Other students fired rockets they built.
Read more about the project display
Professor is Looking for Volunteer Fishermen to Tag Rockfish
A Cal Poly professor is looking for volunteer anglers in a "catch and release" program that will help him study popular Pacific fish. Sport fishing boats from Morro Bay and Port San Luis will make a dozen six-hour trips to waters off Point Buchon and Montaña de Oro State Park between August and October. Biology Professor Dean Wendt is looking for volunteers to catch, tag and release rockfish and other shallow-water species. Data recorded from these fishing expeditions will be used by state regulators to evaluate the effectiveness of a network of marine reserves that will go into effect in September off the Central Coast. The data will also give regulators a more accurate idea of how many fish inhabit local waters.
Read the SLO Tribune story
Today's
Students
Cal Poly Business Major Among "Veggie Girls" On Biofuel Tour
A Cal Poly business sophomore is among a group of college students who set out from San Luis Obispo recently on a 15-day cross-country tour in a bio-fuelled Ford truck. They'll be stopping at restaurants instead of gas stations to fuel up along the way and blogging about the trip. Cal Poly student Caitlyn Arigo was interviewed by the San Luis Obispo Tribune about the journey. “It’s a good way to be environmentally friendly,” she told the newspaper. “It’s also a fun trip to do with friends." The group of six college women raised $3,000 in sponsorships and donations for their biofuel promo tour, which is scheduled to end in Pougkeepsie, N.Y.
Read the SLO Tribune story | Read the students' blog at http://veggiegirls.livejournal.com
Ag Business Student Going for
Equestrian Gold in Virginia This Month
Ag Business student Olivia Loiacono won Top Young Rider in the CCI division at the prestigious Jersey Fresh three-day equestrian competition recently. She was also named to the North American Junior and Young Riders’ Championships Area VI two-star team. She'll be going for the gold at the equestrian championships in August on her thoroughbred, “Subway.” Loiacono is currently ranked No. 1 by the United States Equestrian Association.
Photo courtesy Olivia Loiacono
Read the Village News story on Loiacono
Accounting Firm Bankrolls
Student's Master's Degree Study at Cal Poly
Christine San Juan was one of the top spring grads from Fresno State. Diploma in hand, she was offered a job by accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers to work in its tax division in San Jose. It came with a big bonus: PWC offered to let her defer her work start date by a year to get her master's degree in Cal Poly's Orfalea College of Business one-year accounting-taxation program. PWC is lending San Juan $20,000 for tuition and expenses and will forgive the loan after she completes three years of employment with the firm. She'll start her master's classes at Cal Poly this fall.
Read the Bakersfield Californian story
Cal Poly Wins International RoboGames Competition
A robot designed and built by Cal Poly students won the Robo-Magellan Competition at the International RoboGames held in San Francisco recently. Dubbed “Spybot,” the robot won the event by autonomously navigating an outdoor course with use of GPS, camera, compass, encoder, and ultrasonic range finder. Spybot completed a nearly perfect run in just over a minute and a half -- even with interference from sunspots.
Read more about the Cal Poly
victory at the RoboGames
Faculty
& Staff
Animal Science Professor Receives National Award
Cal Poly animal science professor and alumnus Robert Delmore has won the American Meat Science Association Achievement Award for demonstrating significant scientific skills in muscle foods research and technology that contribute to the animal product industry. Delmore, of Atascadero, joined the faculty at Cal Poly as an associate professor in 2003 to help expand its meat science program. He teaches courses in meat science and food safety. His current research interest is in meat tenderness and quality.
Read more about Professor Delmore
College of Engineering Announces
Outstanding Faculty, Staff Awards
Cal Poly’s College of Engineering recently announced the recipients of two industry-sponsored faculty awards and 2007 Outstanding Staff Awards. Mechanical Engineering Professor Joseph D. Mello of Atascadero won the Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award. Materials Engineering Associate Professor Richard Savage of Atascadero received the Raytheon Excellence in Teaching and Applied Research Award.
Read about CENG's Outstanding Faculty & Staff
Cal Poly Math Prof Kayaking the Mississippi River for Summer Fun
Math and statistics professor Leonard Deaton, 65, and stepbrother Les DeGeus, 64, have set out on what some would consider the voyage of a lifetime. The two are canoeing their way down the Mississippi River, a few weeks and a few miles at a time. Deaton has so far retired three times: from the U.S. Navy Reserve as a commander, the U.S. Civil Service with the Navy and the state of California after teaching at Cal Poly -- though he's still teaching part-time. Deaton decided to shadow American author Mark Twain after Twain's “Life on the Mississippi,” an 1883 memoir detailing Twain's days as a steamboat pilot.
Read the Santa Maria Times story
Coming
Up
Alumni Big Band Celebrates 40 Years
with free Dance Concert August 25
The Cal Poly Collegians Alumni Big Band will return to San Luis Obispo again this summer to celebrate its 40th anniversary reunion and to give a free jazz and swing dance concert. The dance concert is set for 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25, in the Madonna Inn Ballroom. The public is invited to dance the night away to the big band sounds made famous by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Les Brown. The all-male Collegians ensemble was founded at Cal Poly in 1937 by longtime Music Department Head Harold P. Davidson. Members of the group from about 1948 to 1963 are now part of the alumni band. This year marks the ensemble’s 40th anniversary reunion.
Read more about the Big Band dance concert Aug. 25
Make a Liszt: Chamber Concert is September 28
The Liszt Chamber Orchestra will present a concert featuring the works of Franz Liszt Friday, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. in Harman Hall at the Christopher Cohan Center. Since 1963, the orchestra has played a significant role in Hungary’s musical life, touted as one of the world’s finest music ensembles. Janos Rolla, orchestra founder and one of Hungary’s foremost violinists, leads the ensemble in a program featuring Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 10, Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro, Dvorak’s Serenade in E Major, and a finale of the Brahms Hungarian Dances.
More on the Chamber Concert
George Carlin Coming to Cohan Center Sept. 29
For more than five decades, Carlin has used his razor sharp humor to point out hypocrisy in people’s actions and words. George Carlin is refreshingly forthright, cogently making points that few in his audience would ever dare to think much less express. He is not only distinguished by his choice of subject matter, but also his unique viewpoints and his “in your face” delivery. Carlin will perform two shows Sept. 29: one at 7 p.m. and one at 9:30 p.m.
More details on George Carlin's appearance
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