Students Shine in Professional Competitions

SAN LUIS OBISPO -- Every year, Cal Poly students put their education to the test in national industry and professional competitions across the country, and come out on top. A look at some of this year's winning teams:

Cal Poly Student Team Places First in 2020 Student Flexible Packaging Design Challenge

A team of students from Cal Poly, SLO placed first in the 2020 Student Flexible packaging Design Challenge. The student team consisted of Pierson Berry, Ian Jennings, Linnea Landgren, and Suzannie Marshall. The competition recognizes innovative flexible packaging and recognizes the next generation of package designers.  The Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) received 40 concept outlines from packaging design programs across the United States. Out of the 40 submitted, 15 were selected to continue to the development phase.  Label and Narrow Web

Cal Poly Student Team Wins Convention Management Competition

A proposal to create an annual convention for home share and vacation rental owners to enhance their knowledge, network and property-management skills led to a first-place win for a team of Cal Poly students from the Experience Industry Management Department.The five-person team won first place at the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) annual student competition for the proposal, called the “Home Sharing Proposal Experience (HSX).” The theme of the competition was to create a convention or meeting that encourages the idea of face-to-face interactions in a digital era. The Cal Poly team included senior recreation, parks and tourism majors Morgan Cutter, Luke Haley and Olivia Larsen; Courtney Frickman, a senior business administration major with an event planning and experience management minor; and Chrissy Baur, an exchange student from Germany. They were advised by Assistant Professor Kevin Lin, whose research interests include facilitating better design, delivery and evaluation of engaging experiences through the use of data and technology. 2019 News Releases

Cal Poly Students Place First in Screenwriting and Promotional Video at the CSU Media Arts Festival

Three Cal Poly students placed at the 29th annual CSU Media Arts Festival in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Nov. 13, sweeping the top three spots in Screenwriting and first in Promotional Video. The annual CSU Media Arts Festival is a film competition for students in the 23-campus California State University system. The festival gives students an opportunity to present their work for critical review and bridges the gap between students and working professionals in film and media. The competition was a part of the Digital Hollywood media conference, which had workshops and events meant to prepare CSU students to work in entertainment and media. Journalism major Shanti Herzog placed first and third in the Screenwriting category for two original screenplays; English major Matthew Lam placed second in Screenwriting for an original screenplay; and art and design major Casey Wieber placed first in Promotional Video. 2019 News Releases

Cal Poly Team Wins National Student Food Marketing Challenge

Several students from Cal Poly’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences showcased their marketing expertise in a real-world setting and won first place in a national food marketing challenge Oct. 19-20. Cal Poly’s team took first place for the second year in a row at the Food Distribution Research Society’s National Student Food Marketing Challenge in Seattle. Agricultural communication senior Emma Manoukian and agribusiness seniors Victoria Cohen, Katie Kelley, and Anna Hilbert created a market plan addressing specific challenges for an agribusiness company selected prior to the competition. They presented their findings to academia and industry judges, with three teams advancing to the final round to present to representatives of the company. Assistant Professor Cristina Connolly advised the team. 2019 News Releases

Cal Poly Students Set American Collegiate Speed Record with Human-Powered Vehicle

On its last possible run, a human-powered vehicle created by a team of Cal Poly engineering students broke the American collegiate speed record Saturday, setting a mark that hadn’t been bested in nearly three decades. The new record, 63.68 mph, was set during the 20th annual World Human-Powered Speed Challenge in Battle Mountain, Nevada, held Sept. 8-13. The previous record was 61.29 mph, set by a team from UC Berkeley in September 1992. A human-powered vehicle is any vehicle powered by muscular strength. The most common such vehicle is a bicycle. Cal Poly’s vehicle, named Ambition, competed against other enclosed recumbent bicycles that were designed, built and ridden by students. Professional teams also competed in separate categories. 2019 News Releases

Cal Poly Floral Design Team Wins First Overall in National Competition

Cal Poly’s Floral Design Team took home three first-place awards from the American Institute of Floral Designers (AIFD) National Student Competition, held at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas in July. The team won first overall and first in the Flowers to Wear and Bridal Bouquet categories. The team also placed fifth in Sympathy Design and 10th in Interpretive Design. Competing team members were Alyssa Snow, a senior agricultural education major from Galt, California; Amber Buzzard, a junior from Orange, California studying animal science; and recent graduate Megan Borzone (Horticulture and Crop Science, ’19) from Copperopolis, California. As a team, they placed first overall. In the individual competitions, Buzzard earned second place overall, won first in Flowers to Wear, and placed sixth in both the Wedding Bouquet and Sympathy Design categories. 2019 News Releases

Solar Car Created by Cal Poly Students Reaches 51 MPH, Just Shy of World Record

In a “Star Wars”-like setting in the Mojave Desert, a solar car created by a team of Cal Poly students eclipsed 50 mph this month, just shy of a world record. While the team did not break the 56-mph record set in Japan in 2014, it overcame many obstacles to reach a clocked speed of 51 mph.“It shows that with a little improvement, we can easily go 65 mph,” said Lacey Davis, an aerospace engineering student who drove the car. Davis is a member of Cal Poly’s Prototype Vehicle Laboratory, also known as the PROVE Lab. For roughly three years, she and her teammates have worked to build and refine a solar-powered car that could break the world speed record. A little over a week ago, the team hoped to do just that at El Mirage Lake, located about 50 miles northwest of Victorville in San Bernardino County. 2019 News Releases

Cal Poly’s Concrete Canoe Team Takes Second Overall, First Place in Final Product at National Competition

Cal Poly’s concrete canoe team finished second overall at the recent National Concrete Canoe Competition held at the Florida Institute of Technology.Cal Poly, the reigning champion the previous two years, took first in the final product category while winning four of the five races at the Melbourne, Florida, event. The team was edged out in two other key parts of the competition: design paper (third) and oral presentation (fourth), both won by this year’s champion, The University of Florida.The team captains, all civil engineering seniors from California, included: (design) Yin “Jerry” Ding of San Luis Obispo and Beijing, and Michael Romano of Modesto; and (construction) Jason Johnson of Alameda, Eleni Korogianos of Long Beach, Jonathan Mahmoud of Albany and Lauren Tigue of Placerville. In addition, Derek Fromm, a mechanical engineering senior from Seattle, Breipohl, Korogianos and Tigue paddled the canoe. 2019 News Releases

Reimagine Paradise: Cal Poly Architecture Students Design Future of Devastated Northern California Town

Three months after the Camp Fire destroyed much of the Northern California town of Paradise, Cal Poly students are working on plans intended to give its thousands of displaced residents hope for the future. Thirty-six third-year architecture students are coordinating with peers from two other universities to reimagine how Paradise can rebuild after the devastating fire killed 86 people and burned more than 13,900 homes in November. Two architecture design studios, taught by Cal Poly faculty members Stacey White and Kent Macdonald, are developing a design concept plan for a complete community of 30,000 people — from roads and circulation to determining where residential, commercial, public and other uses could be located. Paradise residents will have a chance to vote on the various options to determine which of them is developed into the final concept. 2019 News Releases

Cal Poly Students Honored by Lawmakers at State Capitol on Feb. 11

Nineteen Cal Poly students were recognized for their awards and other accomplishments by state lawmakers on the floors of the state Assembly and Senate in Sacramento on Feb. 11. The students represented five of Cal Poly’s colleges: four from the College of Architecture and Environmental Design; three from the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Services; six from the College of Liberal Arts; five from the College of Engineering; and one from the College of Science and Mathematics. Each has distinguished himself or herself, as an individual or on a team that has received a national industry award or in other high-profile events. These include the Tournament of Roses Parade, with its worldwide TV audience of 100 million; the concrete canoe team that won the national championship; and the prestigious Walt Disney Imagineering design competition. 2019 News Releases

Cal Poly Float Wins Extraordinaire Award at 2019 Rose Parade® 

Cal Poly universities’ “Far Out Frequencies,” featuring a pair of astronauts and a handful of animated extraterrestrials on an alien planet communicating through music, received the Extraordinaire Award for the most extraordinary float at the 130th Rose Parade® held New Year’s Day. The float, designed and built by teams of students from Cal Poly and California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, celebrates this year’s parade theme, “The Melody of Life,” by paying homage to music as a language for all. It is the fourth time in 71 appearances that the Cal Poly float has featured a space-related design. 2019 News Releases

Cal Poly Construction Management Students Sweep Invitational Competition

Cal Poly construction management students garnered four first-place trophies at the recent Associated Schools of Construction Region 3 Division Competition in Downers Grove, Illinois. This is the first year that Cal Poly’s teams have swept first place in all of the open national categories of Concrete, Electrical, Preconstruction, and Project Solutions. The four Cal Poly teams, consisting of six students each, began practicing in the spring quarter. The Region 3 competition was held Oct. 17-20, leaving the Cal Poly teams with just less than a month to fine-tune their skills after fall quarter started in late September. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Soil Science Team Wins Regional Competition  

The Cal Poly Soil Judging Team won first place in the Regional 6 Collegiate Soil Judging Competition held Nov. 3 at Bartleson Ranch in Arroyo Grande. The Cal Poly team, comprised of nine students, took first place in group judging; first, second, and third places in the individual competition; and first place overall. Forestry and natural resources major Braden Povah won first place overall in the individual competition. Senior environmental earth and soil sciences major Ryan Cunning took second place, and junior environmental management and protection major Blake Toney took third. Daniel Johnson, a faculty member in Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences, coached the team, and Professor Gordon Rees organized and oversaw the competition. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Student Floral Design Team Ranks Third in the Nation

The Cal Poly Floral Design Team ranked third in the nation at the American Institute of Floral Designer’s (AIFD) 2018 Student Floral Design Competition held in Washington, D.C. Alyssa Snow, a junior majoring in agricultural science from Galt, California, placed first in the wedding bouquet category and fourth place in the fashion flower category. She placed third overall in the competition. Allana Childs, who graduated in June with a degree in agricultural and environmental sciences, took third in the interpretive design category and eighth place for her wedding bouquet. Snow was also awarded a scholarship during the awards ceremony for her school fees for the 2018-19 school year from the AIFD Foundation Scholarship Committee. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly’s Mustang Media Group Named ACP Newspaper Pacemaker Finalist

Mustang Media Group, the Cal Poly Journalism Department’s student-run media organization, received national recognition this week with its first Newspaper Pacemaker finalist nomination from the Associated Collegiate Press’ (ACP) 2018 competition. The Pacemaker Awards, collegiate journalism’s pre-eminent awards, are granted by the Associated Collegiate Press, a national college media association, and have been presented annually since 1927. The Newspaper Pacemaker finalists uphold the highest standards in college student media and are evaluated on journalism content, coverage and design, according to the organization’s website. ACP nominated 37 schools for the national honors, distinguishing Mustang News among the best student media in the country. This national recognition holds great weight for Cal Poly’s journalism program and student-run media organization. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Biology Student to Receive CSU Trustees’ Award and $6,000 Scholarship

A Cal Poly biology junior who plans to pursue a career in emergency medicine has received a 2018 California State University Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement. The Outstanding Achievement Awards are presented annually to one student from each of the CSU system’s 23 campuses. David Denisov, 20, from Citrus Heights, Calif., like his counterparts throughout the state, was selected for superior academic performance, personal accomplishments, community service and financial need. As part of the recognition, he will receive a $6,000 scholarship as one of the state’s William Randolph Hearst Scholars. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly’s Concrete Canoe Team Repeats as National Champions in Dominating Performance

Cal Poly’s concrete canoe team repeated as national champions June 23-25, nearly sweeping the entire event with a visually stunning canoe that channeled Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. This is the fifth time Cal Poly has won the “America’s Cup of Civil Engineering,” having previously taken the honors in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2017. Cal Poly received a $5,000 scholarship and the “Civil Engineering Cup.” Each year, some 200 colleges and university teams are challenged to design and produce a canoe made of concrete. This year’s Cal Poly canoe was an art piece, with a theme honoring van Gogh, the post-impressionist painter and some of his famous works, including “The Starry Night” and “Sunflowers.” The victory marks the conclusion of nearly a year of effort. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Business Student Haley Stegall Receives Miracle Network Distinguished Leadership Award

Haley Stegall, a Cal Poly Business major and Spring 2018 graduate, was awarded the 2018 Miracle Network Distinguished Leadership Award for her support of the Children’s Miracle Network hospital charity. For the past two years, Stegall has helped plan the Miracle Network Dance Marathons at Cal Poly, including the inaugural event. During this time, she was the executive director of the Cal Poly Miracle Network Dance Marathon. The Madera Tribune

Cal Poly Wins Three Awards in Statewide Sustainability Best Practices Competition

Cal Poly won three awards among California’s public and private universities and colleges for its sustainability programs in academics, student leadership and waste reduction. Cal Poly’s University Honors Program received a Best Practice Award in the Sustainability in Academics category for a three-quarter, first-year learning experience in which students investigated environmental, social, economic and political facets of sustainability using both a historical and contemporary lens. The Cal Poly Climate Change Action Research Group received a Best Practice Award in the Student Sustainability Leadership category, which recognizes an individual, program, organization or group that has demonstrated real leadership in student-led energy efficiency and sustainability efforts. The Cal Poly Zero Waste Ambassadors Program received a Best Practice Award in the Waste Reduction category for empowering students to change the norm of the consumer waste stream. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Steel Bridge Team Finishes Second in National Competition

A team of Cal Poly civil engineering students placed second in the National Student Steel Bridge Competition at the University of Illinois — marking the eighth consecutive year Cal Poly has placed in the top 10. The national contest, testing teamwork and project management, challenges students to produce a scale-model bridge that satisfies requirements in several categories, including construction speed; lightness; display; stiffness; economy; and efficiency. The Cal Poly team also placed in the top six in each of those individual categories. The team began working in August to plan, design, fabricate and construct a 1:10 scale model steel bridge, said project manager Michael Clark. In the winter quarter, initial welding began, and in spring the team practiced construction three times a week for a total of 200 repetitions. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Construction Management Students Donate Tiny Home Structures to Hope’s Village

Construction management students in Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design recently put their skills to work constructing miniature cabins on wheels for a local nonprofit organization. In past years, students have built what has lovingly been deemed the “tiny house” as part of a 10-week-long course, which culminates in an auction of the homes through Cal Poly’s surplus department. During winter quarter, they did something different: The students partnered with local nonprofit Hope’s Village to donate two structures to the homeless.  Construction management faculty members Stacy Kolegraff and Eric Brinkman led their CM 214: Residential Construction classes in building the miniature structures. The students built the waterproof structural shell of two cabins, while additional volunteers will complete the interiors. Cuesta College and Nipomo High School students are also constructing miniature cabins for the organization. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Engineering Students Take Top Three Innovation and Entrepreneurship Awards

Students at Cal Poly’s College of Engineering took the top three honors and shared $30,000 in this year’s Innovation Quest, an annual competition that encourages innovators to pursue their ideas by providing award money that can be used to launch businesses. Sara Della Ripa, a biomedical engineering graduate, won the $15,000 top prize for creating a potentially life-saving medical device that could predict symptoms of hemorrhaging in new mothers. The $10,000 second-place honor went to a team that developed Clove, a device that automatically grows and maintains up to 24 plants for culinary use with little to no user interaction. Clove was conceived by business administration seniors AJ Gankhuyag and Kieran Scandrett; Alexander Decker, a mechanical engineering senior; Aaron Quinn, a biomedical engineering senior; Anna Shambaugh, a graphic communications; senior Matthew Callaghan, a mechanical engineering major; and Andrew Lam, a senior computer science major. The $5,000 third-place prize went to graduate aerospace engineering majors Shaun and Brandon Baldov of Lost Coast Surf Tech, which designed what they call the world’s best performing surfboard fin, with smart tracking features integrated into a comprehensive mobile app. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Students Earn Four Awards at Statewide Research Competition

Four Cal Poly students received awards — including three who earned first-place honors— at the 32nd annual California State University Student Research Competition held May 4-5 at Sacramento State University. Tobias Bleisch, 23, a software engineering graduate student, received first-place for his project titled “An Empirical Study of CSS Behavior in Web Frameworks.” Graduate biology student Daniel Haro received first-place for his study titled “How Cool Can Lizards Be? An Investigation with Two Populations of the Italian Wall Lizard (Podarcis siculus).” Psychology major Leah Thomas received first-place for her research titled “Meta-analysis on Internalizing Outcomes in Neurofibromatosis Type 1.” Christopher Hatch, a biomedical engineering junior, was the runner-up in the Health, Nutrition and Clinical Sciences category for a project titled “Mechanisms of Reduced Vascular Tone Following Collateral Arteriogenesis.” 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Excels in North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge

The Cal Poly Dairy Challenge Team earned first place at the 17th annual North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge, held April 12-14 in Visalia, California. The win marks the fourth time in five years that Cal Poly has won the Dairy Challenge Platinum Award. The Cal Poly team members on the winning team were: Anthony Echeverria of Bakersfield, California, Amber LaSalle of San Luis Obispo, Matt Ruby of Visalia, and Tony Lopes of Los Banos, California. The team was coached by Assistant Professor David Vagnoni, dairy science Lecturer Rich Silacci, and Assistant Professor Julie Huzzey. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly’s Architectural Engineering Program Wins National Award

Cal Poly’s Architectural Engineering (ARCE) Department has earned the 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers Walter LeFevre Award, recognizing the program’s efforts to promote the highest professional standards in licensures, ethics and professionalism. This is the first year Cal Poly’s ARCE Department has won the award. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly’s Mustang Media Group Wins 26 State and National Awards

Mustang Media Group, the Cal Poly Journalism Department’s student-run media organization, has received 26 awards in the span of five months. The student journalists received statewide recognition with 15 awards from the California Collegiate Media Association at the Associated Collegiate Press’ National Midwinter Journalism Convention held in early March. In addition, Professor Brady Teufel was named the Journalism Educator of the Year in the four-year division. Earlier in the 2017-18 academic year, the students also earned national recognition with 10 awards from College Media Association’s (CMA) 2017 Pinnacle Awards at the ACP/CMA Fall National College Media Convention in October. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Political Science Junior Selected for Panetta Institute for Public Policy’s Congressional Internship Program

Cal Poly’s 2018 representative to the Panetta Institute for Public Policy’s Congressional Internship Program is political science major Philip “RJ” Abarquez. The junior from San Jose, Calif., is among twenty-six students from around the Golden State taking part in the program. He will spend two weeks in August training at the Panetta Institute at California State University at Monterey Bay, followed by 11 weeks in the nation’s capital working full time in the office of a congressional representative. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Meats Team Wins Norm Eggen Championship Cup at Cured Meats Competition

The Cal Poly Meats Team brought home the Norm Eggen Championship Cup at the California Association of Meat Processors’ annual Cured Meats Competition, held Feb. 23-25 at UC Davis. The students competed in the collegiate class of 25 entries including UC Davis, Chico State and Fresno State. With its win, Cal Poly broke UC Davis’ five-year winning streak for the championship cup, named for former Cal Poly meats lecturer Norm Eggen, who taught in the 1970s and ’80s. In past competitions, the collegiate class featured a variety of sausage products. This year the class showcased flavor-coated bacons. The team developed, processed and produced the product from concept to completion. 2018 News Releases 

Cal Poly Construction Management Students Win Top Honors at National Competition

Cal Poly construction management students earned top honors and took home more trophies than any other university at the Associated Schools of Construction competition in Reno, Nevada. Seven out of 12 Cal Poly teams placed in the top three spots in their respective categories.
Cal Poly students earned first in the Mechanical, Preconstruction, and Project Management categories; second in the Heavy Civil category; and third in the Design Build, Electrical, and Virtual Design and Construction categories. All were national awards except for the Heavy Civil and Design Build categories, which were regional awards. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Business Students Finish First at Bay Area Finance Competition

A team of Orfalea College of Business students won the Northern California Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Investment Research Challenge sponsored by the CFA Society of San Francisco. The students competed against teams from 12 Bay Area universities, including graduate and undergraduate programs from Santa Clara, St. Mary’s, San Jose State, Hult International Business School, and UC Santa Cruz. The competitors were charged with analyzing and making buy/sell/hold recommendations for Salesforce.com, a cloud computing company headquartered in San Francisco. A panel of industry professionals and CFA charter holders judged the presentations. Cal Poly was represented by finance students Benjamin Consoli of Redwood City, Adam Pasco of Burbank, and Kian Ramezani and Coby Snyder of San Luis Obispo, along with economics major Mason McCloskey of San Luis Obispo. Finance Professor Cyrus Ramezani and finance alumnus Scott B. Kirk served as team advisors.
2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Packaging and Design Students Stand Out Among the World’s Best at Global Competition

Teams of Cal Poly packaging, business, and design students received two of the top three awards at the 2017 World Packaging Organisation (WPO) WorldStar International Packaging Design Student Competition that featured innovative package designs from university students from more than two dozen nations. In addition, two other Cal Poly teams received WorldStar Student Certificates of Merit given to the next 10 highest scoring entries. The Cal Poly students were honored for designing creative, functional and eye-catching packaging systems for food, healthcare and sports products. The interdisciplinary teams combined industrial technology and packaging students with art and design students to develop a physical prototype of their product complete with branded graphics. 2018 News Releases

Nineteen Cal Poly Students to be Honored by Lawmakers at State Capitol on Feb. 12

Nineteen Cal Poly students will be recognized for their awards and other accomplishments by state lawmakers on the floors of the state Assembly and Senate in Sacramento on Monday, Feb. 12.“I’m proud to accompany these fine young men and women, a group that includes some of our best and brightest students,” said university President Jeffrey D. Armstrong. “These campus leaders in their respective colleges will share with state representatives the value of the Learn by Doing education. In just a matter of months, several will make the transition from campus to careers, where the skills they developed as students will make them future industry leaders.” 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Students’ Cooling System Wins National ASHRAE Design Competition

A senior project by four Cal Poly mechanical engineering students won a national engineering competition and its $2,000 top prize for an air-conditioning system that uses reclaimed rainfall while trimming household energy costs.The Cal Poly team of Sunghood Chung (Seattle), Austin Hochstetler (Redwood City, Calif.), Sean Bybee (Torrance, Calif.) and Antonio De Jesus Aguayo (Santa Maria, Calif.) received first place in the 2017 Applied Engineering Challenge held by the American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineering (ASHRAE). Professors Steffen Peuker and Jesse Maddren served as their faculty advisors. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Dairy Judging Team Earns Top Honors at Southwestern Livestock Exposition

Cal Poly’s dairy judging team earned the highest team ranking Jan. 14 at the Fort Worth Stock Show Dairy Judging contest in Texas. Fourteen teams representing many of the top college dairy programs in the nation competed, with Cal Poly placing as the High Team Overall. Cal Poly also placed first in reasons, first in the Jersey breed, second in Brown Swiss, and third in Holsteins. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Student Team Takes Second Place at National Home Builders Competition

An interdisciplinary team of Cal Poly students earned second place at the 2018 National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Residential Construction Management Competition held Jan. 8-10 in Orlando, Florida. The Cal Poly students, all members of the university’s NAHB student chapter, competed against 33 other university teams, including first-place winner Penn State University, Brigham Young University (third place), and the University of Denver (fourth place). 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Student’s Poster Presentation Earns First Place at MIT Symposium

A Cal Poly industrial technology major won the student poster competition for a presentation on insulated solar electric cooking at MIT’s sixth annual Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Women in Clean Energy Symposium. Madison Fleming, a Santa Barbara native who is also minoring in sustainable environments, competed against graduate student teams from Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UC Berkley and Yale. She was the only undergraduate student presenting in the competition held last fall. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Float Wins Past Presidents Trophy at 2018 Rose Parade®

Cal Poly universities’ milestone 70th float, “Dreams Take Flight,” received the Past Presidents Trophy for the most outstanding innovation in the use of floral and non-floral materials at the 129th Rose Parade® held New Year’s Day. The float, designed and built by teams of students from Cal Poly and California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, invited onlookers to take flight on the airplane wings of a trio of cuddly critters — a koala bear, sea otter and red panda. It celebrates the 2018 parade theme, “Making A Difference,” honoring those individuals in our communities who act in selfless, generous and kind ways to benefit others. 2018 News Releases

Cal Poly Construction Management Students Place Second in International Competition

Two Cal Poly construction management students recently took second place in the fifth annual Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Region 8 International Student Competition. Kelly Williams and Carlye Cunningham were challenged to assume the role of contractor in the refurbishment of a 114-year-old building in Liverpool, England. Eleven teams from 11 universities, representing four countries, gathered Nov. 10 at Liverpool John Moores University to create solutions to the competition prompt. Williams, of Los Gatos (near San Jose), and Cunningham, of Laguna Hills in Orange County, competed in a joint team, partnered with two students from the Czech Technical University in Prague. The teams were pressed to develop a plan for a six-story hotel tenant improvement project. They worked for seven hours to produce a presentation and deliverables such as cost and schedule estimating for a panel of industry experts from Balfour Beatty, BAM Construct, Lovell, Russell’s Construction, and private consultants. Following the initial presentation, the judges deliberated and called back the top four teams for a question-and-answer session about the project. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Wins First Place at Timber Sports Competition 

Cal Poly’s logging team, an intercollegiate team of male and female students involved in traditional forestry field skills, won first place at the Cal Conclave collegiate logging competition held Nov. 4 at Cal Poly.Twenty-four Cal Poly students competed in three teams of eight, based on a combination of ability, improvement and commitment to the competition. Professor Samantha Gill is the team’s advisor.Teams from Humboldt State University, UC Berkeley and Northern Arizona University also competed at the all-day Cal Conclave, with a team from Northern Arizona University placing second and a team from Humboldt placing third.Events included tree climbing, power saw (chainsaw), single and double buck with cross cut saws, obstacle pole, choker setting and more. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Student Radio Station KCPR Ranked First by Great Value Colleges

Cal Poly’s student-run radio station 91.3 KCPR took the No. 1 spot on Great Value Colleges’ list of 30 Amazing College Radio Stations of 2017-18. The list of rankings was released in September and includes university radio stations such as Georgetown University and UC Berkeley. Cal Poly took the top spot based on its “dedication to the students and culture,” according to Great Value Colleges, a website dedicated to helping students make decisions about their college education.“Our programming has moved to appeal to a larger demographic on the Cal Polycampus,” said journalism senior and General Manager Brian Robbins. “We’ve really pushed new music in the last three years and we’ve gotten a lot more structure as an organization.” 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly City and Regional Planning Students Receive 2017 California State Academic Award of Excellence

A concept plan for a special wellness district in Ventura has earned Cal Poly city and regional planning graduate students accolades from the American Planning Association’s (APA) California Chapter. The City and Regional Planning (CRP) Department’s graduate studio received the State Academic Award of Excellence at the APA’s state conference Sept. 24 in Sacramento. The Wellness District Urban Design Concept Plan was also chosen in April for the Best Student Project Award from the APA’s Central Coast Section. The city of Ventura’s Planning Department hired Cal Poly’s spring 2016 graduate project planning studio to explore the potential for a special district anchored by the expansion of two important hospital campuses located in proximity to each other: the Community Memorial Hospital and the Ventura County Medical Center. The Wellness District concept plan recognizes the critical link between the built environment and public health and aims to change land uses, transportation options and physical design in order to reverse downward trends in people’s overall wellness and life span. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Architecture Students to Exhibit Furniture Designs in 14th Annual Show Nov. 3-4

Cal Poly is co-hosting the 14th annual Vellum Furniture Design Exhibition, a juried competition of hundreds of original furniture designs, in downtown San Luis Obispo on Nov. 3-4. Vellum Design Build, a San Luis Obispo design-and-build firm, and Cal Poly’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED) team up to sponsor the annual competition that asks students to conceive and construct projects that range from tables and chairs to light fixtures, toys and other furniture design solutions. "This competition provides a forum for students to expeditiously exhibit their design passions with alacrity and with a facility for craft,” said co-organizer Tom di Santo, a professor in Cal Poly’s Architecture Department. “It is amazing to see so many brilliant examples of Learn by Doing that the students achieve in such a short period of time.” 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly CIE’s SLO HotHouse Incubator Program Graduates Six Startup Companies

Six companies with more than two dozen employees and $1.8 million in venture capital have completed the SLO HotHouse Incubator program, a Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) program devoted to taking businesses from startup to sustainable. “CIE provides a structured, two-year program for early-stage startups that includes all the resources needed to facilitate smarter, faster growth,” said CIE Incubator Director Judy Mahan. “After working closely with these companies over the course of their development, we are excited to see where the future takes them as they continue to expand and grow locally.” 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Teams Place in National Student Packaging Design Competition

Four interdisciplinary Cal Poly student teams were among the top award winners at the Paperboard Packaging Alliance 2017 Student Design Challenge, announced at PackExpo, an annual packaging industry conference held Sept. 25-27 in Las Vegas.The 14th annual competition, which is open to universities throughout North America, seeks to foster awareness and appreciation of paperboard packaging among educators and the next generation of packaging design decision-makers. Students had to design interactive packaging for wearable fitness trackers that allows a consumer to try on the wristband and later reuse it to store the device. More than 60 student teams from 14 universities across the U.S. — including Clemson, Indiana, Michigan State, Rutgers, Rochester Institute of Technology, San Jose State and University of Wisconsin — submitted entries. Cal Poly students from a variety of majors developed their entries as Learn by Doing projects during a series of packaging and design courses taught earlier this year. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Accounting Club Raises $5,400 for Jack’s Helping Hand

The Cal Poly Accounting Club donated $5,400 to Jack’s Helping Hand, a Central Coast nonprofit organization that provides assistance and programs to children with cancer and special needs.The club raised the money at its third annual Orfalea College of Business Olympics, held Saturday, Sept. 30. This is the group’s biggest philanthropy event of the year. The recruiting and networking event brought together more than 100 students, alumni and accounting industry recruiters, who casually tackled obstacle courses and relay races on Cal Poly’s sports fields. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Ethnic Studies and Sociology Student Receives CSU Trustees’ Award

A Cal Poly ethnic studies and sociology student from Santa Maria has received the 2017 California State University Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement.The Outstanding Achievement Awards are presented annually to one student from each of the CSU system’s 23 campuses. Jeremiah Hernandez, 29, like his counterparts throughout the state, was selected for superior academic performance, personal accomplishments, community service, and financial need. As part of the recognition, he will receive a $6,000 scholarship as the state’s Michael A. and Debe Lucki Scholar. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Research Team Heading to Antarctica to Study Seal Pups

A team of Cal Poly students and professors is heading to Antarctica in October on a 10-week research expedition to study Weddell seal pups.The team, which includes Cal Poly graduate students Emma Weitzner and Melissa Voisinet, will share their discoveries and experiences with Central Coast K-12 students via a series of Skype video conferences from McMurdo Station, the main U.S. station in Antarctica, located 850 miles from the South Pole.They will investigate the physiology of the Weddell seal pups to learn more about the development of their ability to maintain a steady body temperature in the frigid Antarctic environment. The pups have only weeks to develop the capabilities to survive both on top of the sea ice and within the 28-degree seawater where they forage for food. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Dairy Judging Team Takes First Place at National Competition

The Cal Poly Dairy Judging Team won first place in oral reasons and fourth place overall in the All-American Dairy Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Fourteen teams representing the top dairy and animal science college programs throughout the nation, including universities in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia and Indiana, competed in the All-American Dairy Show Youth Judging Contest on Sept. 18. Four of the Cal Poly team’s 16 members competed: dairy science juniors Elise Regusci and Elisabeth Regusci, both of Modesto, California; animal science major Hannah Neer of Bishop, California; and dairy science major Alexandra Gambonini of Petaluma, California. Those same students will compete in the largest national competition of its kind at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin on Oct. 2. 2017 News Releases

Members of Inaugural Cal Poly Spanish-language Debate Team Ranked as World Finalists

Cal Poly Spanish-language debate team members Megan Boyd and Yessenia Sanchez finished as finalists at the Campeonato Mundial Universitario de Debate en Español (CMUDE). Held July 15-24 at the University of Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City, CMUDE is the largest international Spanish-language university debate competition. Throughout the 10-day competition, Boyd, a biology senior from Lake Forest, Calif., and Sanchez, a business senior from Hollister, Calif., competed with about 300 other participants from around the world. The two Cal Poly students argued their way to the final round in the Spanish as a Foreign Language category, competing against world-class teams from Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain and Guatemala, among others. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Student Researchers Help Locate WWII Wreckage Near Malta

 A new autonomous underwater vehicle and mapping technology developed by engineering students from Cal Poly and Harvey Mudd College helped lead to the discovery of “historically significant” remains of a missing World War II plane found off the coast of Malta.The students’ monthlong summer research project is part of an ongoing program called ICEX (International Computer Engineering Experience) that gives participants the opportunity to apply their technical knowledge in an international context and to further their research education. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Packaging and Design Students Earn National Awards at 2017 Ameristar Student Packaging Competition

For the second consecutive year, four teams of Cal Poly students took first-, second- and third-place awards and an honorable mention in the 2017 Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP) Ameristar Student Packaging Competition.Interdisciplinary teams combined industrial technology and packaging students with art and design students to create packaging solutions for a variety of consumer needs. Each team developed a physical prototype of their product complete with branded graphics. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Sweeps the Western Spring National Collegiate Dairy Judging Contest

Cal Poly dairy science students were among the top contenders at the recent Western Spring National Collegiate Dairy Judging Contest in Richmond, Utah. Cal Poly took two teams of students to the competition, coached by dairy science lecturer Rich Silacci and assisted by Professor Stan Henderson. Ten teams from across the country competed, including teams from Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Modesto Junior College. Participants, working on four-person teams, judged 10 classes of Holstein cattle. Each contestant then gave an oral presentation (called reasons) defending their placings for five of those classes. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Supermileage Team Places Fourth at Shell Eco-Marathon

Cruising 1,500.7 miles on a gallon of gas, the Cal PolySupermileage Team drove to a fourth-place finish out of 114 teams competing at the 2017 Shell Eco-Marathon on April 27-29 in Detroit, Mich.“Despite encountering a few setbacks at the competition and accidentally rolling the car twice, the team scored fourth overall in the newly combined Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) category, which now contains gasoline, diesel, ethanol and compressed natural gas prototype vehicles,” said Cal Poly Supermileage Team President Lucas Rybarczyk (San Luis Obispo, California). “We had a 300 miles-per-gallon improvement from the 1,215 mpg third-place finish we had last year. Even though this is one place lower, there are now more teams overall in this combined category.” 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Architecture Graduate Wins AIA COTE Award in National Student Design Competition

Karin Bjorkman, a Cal Poly architecture alumna, recently won an award for her design of a residential school in a rural part of India that aims to improve the poor living conditions for children there. Bjorkman’s student thesis design, “A Residential School in Andhra Pradesh,” received one of 10 awards for exceptional student projects in the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIACOTE) competition. Her project was one of more than 600 entries nationwide. 2017 News Releases

English Grad Student Wins Cal Poly’s Academy of American Poets Prize

Cal Poly Master in English student Marissa Ahmadkhani of Gilroy won the university’s Academy of American Poets (AAP) contest for her poem “Only Half,” which investigates her Iranian heritage expressed metaphorically through the complexity of pomegranates. “Through precise description and gentle repetition, Marissa Ahmadkhani has made a deeply moving poem of origins,” said Maggie Anderson, nationally recognized poet and judge of this year’s contest. “The delicate fruit of the pomegranate (apple of many seeds) is a brilliantly realized metaphor for the poet’s half-heritage.” 
2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Mechanical Engineering Student Receives Fulbright Award to Study in Slovenia

Daniel Ansorge, a Cal Poly mechanical engineering student and music minor, has been awarded a Fulbright student grant to study a unique family of string instruments in Slovenia this fall. For Ansorge, who grew up in Elk Grove, California, his selection for the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program was the culmination of a longtime interest in tinkering coupled with a love of music. In Slovenia, he will study the tamburitza, a family of lutes that originated in Croatia and spread to other parts of the former Yugoslavia around the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Students Earn Five Awards at Statewide Research Competition

Five Cal Poly students received awards — including a biology sciences undergraduate whose rattlesnake study earned first-place — at the 31st annual California State University Student Research Competition that brought nearly 250 students from 22 universities across the state to campus April 28-29.“The accomplishments of these students attest to the excellence of our academic programs and the commitment and quality of our faculty,” said Dean Wendt, the university’s dean of research and director of the Center for Coastal Marine Sciences. “All of the students who competed deserve our praise and appreciation of their efforts.” 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Political Science Junior Selected for Panetta Institute for Public Policy’s Congressional Internship Program

A political science major from Morgan Hill, Calif., is Cal Poly’s 2017 representative to the Panetta Institute for Public Policy’s Congressional Internship Program. Maryam Quasto, 21, will spend two weeks in August training at the Panetta Institute at California State University at Monterey Bay, followed by 11 weeks in Washington, D.C., working full time in the office of a congressional representative. The junior, who works part time in the university’s Donor Relations department, is among 26 students from around the Golden State taking part in the program. Participants were nominated by their respective campus presidents. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly’s Strong Showing at Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge is a Singular Achievement

A Cal Poly mechanical engineering student team won Best Paper/Presentation award and placed third overall at the national Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge. The event, held April 20-21 in Ames, Iowa, challenged teams of college students from across the country to design and build fluid-powered bicycles. The team received four awards, including a second for it project cost analysis and a third-place honor in the Reliability/Durability Challenge. The foremost challenge for Cal Poly was the fact that only one team member was able to make the trip to Ames. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Students Win National Marketing Competition

Cal Poly’s National Agri-Marketing Association (NAMA) Team won first place at this year’s student marketing competition hosted by the National Agri-Marketing Association. Cal Poly — which has taken first place three times in the last four years — competed against 28 other schools from the U.S. and Canada for the championship title April 26-27 in Dallas. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Logging Team Wins Timbersports Competition

The Cal Poly Loggers, an intercollegiate team of male and female students involved in traditional forestry field skills, won first place at the 78th annual Association of Western Forestry Clubs Logging Sports Conclave. In addition, bioresource and agricultural engineering sophomore Will Kraemer emerged the top male competitor, winning the title “Bull of the Woods.” The Cal Poly team competed April 19-23 at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, against 10 other universities and community colleges from throughout the west in events including double bucking, single bucking, axe throw, pulp toss, choker race, caber toss, horizontal chopping, dendrology, and traverse. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly’s Mustang Media Group Wins More Than 20 Awards at College Media Business and Advertising Managers Annual Contest

Mustang Media Group (MMG) took home more than 20 awards and placed second overall in the College Media Business and Advertising Managers annual contest. Competing against more than 100 schools, Cal Poly’s student media organization earned five first-place awards and was named the College Media Design Program of the Year. There are 43 categories in the contest, and schools earn points from placing in the top four of each category. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Freshman Named Treasurer of California FFA State Officer Team 

Cal Poly freshman Armando Nevarez, a bioresorce and agricultural engineering major, has been elected treasurer of the California FFA State Officer Team. He will serve alongside five colleagues in 2017-18, traveling the state and representing the organization. Nevarez, a first-generation college student form Holtville, California, will take a year off from his studies at Cal Poly to fulfill his duties as a state officer. He was elected to the position April 24 in front of more than 7,000 people at the FFA state conference held at Fresno’s Selland Arena after an intense five-day interview process. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Greek Life Councils Win ‘Best in the West’ Award at National Leadership Conference

Cal Poly’s Greek organizations recently won multiple nationally recognized awards at the Association of Fraternal Leadership and Values Conference.The Interfraternity Council (IFC) received the “Best in the West” Jellison Award for outstanding performance in council management, philanthropy and community service, public relations, risk reduction and management, self-governance and judicial affairs in its division.The Panhellenic Council (PHA) earned the title of “Best in the West” with the Sutherland Award, which recognized the organization for academic achievement, council management, leadership and educational development, membership recruitment, public relations, risk reduction management, self-governance and judicial affairs in its division. The Cal Poly United Sorority and Fraternity Council (USFC) also brought home its first award at the conference in council management. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Student Aims to Set International Land Speed Record in Solar-Powered Vehicle

Cal Poly’s Prototype Vehicles Laboratory (PROVE Lab) has announced aerospace engineering freshman Lacey Davis as the driver to set a new international land speed record for the world’s fastest solar-powered vehicle. To complete this goal, however, the PROVE Lab needs to raise $20,000 by the end of April. Building an ultra-lightweight car out of carbon fiber composites with over 100 square feet of solar panels and efficient electric wheel motors remains a challenging and expensive task for the PROVE Lab team. The team is confident that its design will beat the existing 56-mph record. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Mock Trial Team Earns Bid to Compete at National Championship

The Cal Poly Mock Trial Team has earned a bid to compete at the American Mock Trial Association National Championship Tournament in Los Angeles on April 21-23. This is the first-time Cal Poly has earned a spot in the prestigious national tournament. Cal Poly’s A Team finished in the top six teams in their Opening Round Championship Series in Fresno on March 25-26. Team members are political science students Deeksha Kohli (San Jose), Zackery Michaelson (Visalia) and Jesse Quiroz (Orange); business student Chloe Loomer (Los Gatos); mathematics student Rod Rahimi (San Luis Obispo); and civil engineering student Garrett Rutherford (Girdwood, Alaska). 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Business Students Finish Second in Annual Finance Competition

A team of Cal Poly business and economics students took second place in the local Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute Research Challenge in Los Angeles. Cal Poly students competed against teams from USC, Loyola Marymount University, Pepperdine University and Claremont McKenna College on March 3. The teams had to create a valuation report and make investment recommendations on retailer Bed Bath & Beyond. A panel of industry professionals and CFA charter holders judged the presentations. Cal Poly’s team lost to USC by half a point in the final round. Cal Poly teams have won the past three local CFA Institute Research Challenge competitions. 
2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Team Wins Grand Prize at Annual Graphic Arts Conference

A team of students from Cal Poly’s Graphic Communication Department won the Grand Prize Award for the first time in a decade at the Technical Association of Graphic Arts (TAGA) Annual Technical Conference held March 19-22 in Houston. The winning Cal Poly TAGA team was led by team president Mayra Mejia of Lodi, Calif., along with vice president and treasurer Jacqui Luis of El Granada, Calif.; production team coordinator Amanda Ornelas of Torrance, Calif.; design team coordinator Jasper Lim of San Luis Obispo; digital team coordinator Alan Nguyen of Garden Grove, Calif.; marketing team coordinator Molly McCarthy of Shelburne, Vermont; and team advisor Peter Schlosser. This is the first time that Cal Poly has won the grand prize, the Helmut Kipphan Cup, in 10 years. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Students Place High at a National Supply Chain Competition

An interdisciplinary team of Cal Poly students took eighth place in the North American round of the Global Student Challenge, an annual supply chain finance competition hosted by the Supply Chain Finance Community on March 9 in Los Angeles. The team of four competed in a timed business simulation in which they aimed to maximize profits for a hypothetical company while balancing 200 variables including production needs, customer financing, marketing, loan financing and shipment deliverables while avoiding risk of supplier defaults and managing currency exchange changes. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Soil Judging Team Named Regional Champions

The Cal Poly Soil Judging Team won first place in the Region 6 Collegiate Soil Judging Competition held March 4 in Woodlake, California.The competition, sponsored by the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America, challenges students to describe, classify and interpret soils in the field in a competitive setting using standards established by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The win advances the Cal Poly students to compete as one of 24 qualifying teams at the National Soil Judging Competition hosted at Northern Illinois University from April 23-29. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Construction Management Students Dominate National Competition with Wins in Four Categories

Cal Poly construction management students ranked highly at the recent 30th annual Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Region 6 and 7 competition in Reno, Nevada. Four of 12 Cal Poly teams brought home trophies Feb. 11, including a first-place win in the Commercial category. Cal Poly placed second in the Concrete Solutions, Sustainability, and Mechanical Systems categories.The competition challenged teams of six students to solve real-life construction management problems in nine categories. Teams were given 18 hours to create and present deliverables to a panel of industry experts, included modeling, estimating, scheduling and site logistics. The competition drew 182 teams from 45 universities. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Polo Women’s and Men’s Teams Advance to Nationals

The women’s and men’s Cal Poly Polo Teams recently won the regional title at the 2017 Western Intercollegiate Regionals and qualified to compete in the national intercollegiate championships. Both teams will travel to the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club to compete for the national title April 3-9. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly’s Mustang Media Group Wins More Than 20 Awards at National College Media Convention

Mustang Media Group, the Cal Poly Journalism Department’s student-run news organization, earned 22 awards — including nine first-place awards — from the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) and the California College Media Association (CCMA) at the Midwinter National College Media Convention held March 2-5 in San Francisco. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Students on Winning Teams at the Western Regional Dairy Challenge Competition

Cal Poly dairy science students were among the top contenders at the recent Western Regional Dairy Challenge Competition in Twin Falls, Idaho. Fifteen students from the upper-level Dairy Farm Consultation course traveled to the University of Idaho from Feb. 23-25 to compete in the challenge, coached by Animal Science professors Rich Silacci, Julie Huzzey and David Vagnoni. Participants, working on five-person teams with students from other universities, assessed all aspects of a working dairy farm, including facilities, nutrition, financials, reproduction and animal health. Students from Utah, Idaho, Washington and Alberta, Canada, also competed. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Student Wins First Runner-Up at Young Farmers and Ranchers Meet

Cal Poly dairy science junior Tony Lopes was named the first runner-up at the Young Farmers and Ranchers State Collegiate Discussion Meet on Feb. 25 in Modesto. Lopes, from Gustine, California, serves on the ASI board of directors and is president of the Los Lecheros Dairy Club. The California Farm Bureau Federation of Young Farmers and Ranchers is a program for agriculturists 18 to 35 years old who are actively involved in production and affiliated professions. Three additional students from the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences also competed in the discussion meet: agribusiness junior Blair Brookes of Kelseyville, California; dairy science junior Amber LaSalle of San Luis Obispo; and environmental management freshman Mark Borges of Oakdale, California. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Students to be Honored by Lawmakers at State Capitol on Feb. 13

Twenty Cal Poly students will be recognized for their awards and other accomplishments by state lawmakers on the floors of the state Assembly and Senate in Sacramento on Monday, Feb. 13. "I am so pleased to share with our state leaders the can-do Learn by Doing ethos that this group of dedicated and talented students exemplify," said university President Jeffrey D. Armstrong, who will accompany the students to both legislative chambers. "These fine young men and women from all six of our colleges will be future leaders in their respective fields." The group will be introduced in the Senate by Majority Leader Bill Monning, D-Carmel, and in the Assembly by Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, R-Templeton. Both men represent San Luis Obispo County. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly Interdisciplinary Team Ranks High at Construction Management Competition

The student chapter of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) at Cal Poly was awarded third place in the four-year college category of the NAHB Residential Construction Management Competition on Jan. 11. Sixty teams representing universities, community colleges, high schools and career technical schools across the U.S. participated in the annual competition at the 2017 NAHB International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Florida. It challenged students to solve a real-life construction management problem — to develop a 32-acre parcel of land by determining costs, scheduling, marketing, the design of the homes, and a feasibility analysis for the project. In front of an audience of peers, this solution was presented to an investment committee, which judged the student proposals. 2017 News Releases

Cal Poly students win Founders' trophy for Rose Parade float 

Cal Poly SLO and Pomona students worked together to create a brightly designed float that won the Founder's trophy in the 128th Rose Parade this year. The float titled "A New Leaf" featured mechanized chameleons decorated with thousands of roses, daisies, and button mums. Cal Poly SLO students put in countless hours planning, designing, and building the float collaboratively with Cal Poly Pomona. 2017 News Releases

Sara Dreyer receives American FFA Degree

Three Exeter FFA members were honored with the American FFA Degree, including Cal Poly student Sara Dreyer. The American FFA Degree is the highest awarded degree to any FFA member and is presented to less than half of a percent of total members. 
The Sun Gazette

Cal Poly student, Eduardo Garcia, wins regional scholarship for Syngenta Agricultural Essay Contest

Eduardo Garcia was one of six awarded with the $1,000 regional scholarship prize in the Syngenta Agricultural Essay Contest. The contest asked students to write an essay on the topic of who inspired them to study agriculutre and who motivated them to pursue their degree. Garcia was selected from approximately 200 eligible applicants to receive the regional scholarship prize. Garden Center

Over 140 Cal Poly students compete in Vellum/CAED Furniture Design Exhibition

Cal Poly architecture students showcased their work in the Thirteenth annual Vellum/CAED Furniture Design Exhibition in downtown SLO Saturday, November 5th. The event was created to encourage creativity in design for Cal Poly College of Architecture and Environmental Design students as well as give them experience and exposure in the industry. Cal Poly Architecture

Cal Poly Student, Maria Woodson, Wins Grand Prize in Protest Songwriting Contest

Maria Woodson of San Luis Obispo has won the grand prize of $1,000 in the Protest Song Songwriting Contest, a competition put on by the nonprofit Ecologistics Inc. Woodson, who is a student studying English at Cal Poly, won for her haunting melody “Daffodils.”Runners-up in the competition are SLO residents Bloom for his anthem “Earth Child,” and Noach Tangeras for her composition “Buffalo Don’t Roam. Contestants were asked to create an original song about the impacts of climate change, habitat loss, extinction, or overpopulation on our planet, including animals, ecosystems and humans. SLO Tribune

Cal Poly Landscape Architecture Student Earns International Award of Excellence

Cal Poly landscape architecture student Brandon Cornejo earned the 2016 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Student Research Award of Excellence for his feasibility study that examined the use of epiphytes — plants with the ability to grow without soil — in landscapes. Cornejo’s winning paper is titled “Integration of Epiphytes in Designed Landscapes.” He is among 22 student award winners selected from 271 entries representing 71 schools. The awards honor the top work of landscape architecture students in the U.S. and around the world. The winners will receive their awards Oct. 24 at the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in New Orleans. Cal Poly News Website.

Cal Poly ITE is Top Student Regional Chapter for Third Straight Year

For the third year running, Cal Poly’s Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) club reigns as the best in the west. Cal Poly was awarded the Student Chapter of the Year award at the ITE Western District Annual Meeting held July 10 to 13 in Albuquerque, N.M.The award was based on student groups’ annual reports, with Cal Poly’s submission ranked first out of 23 reports received from universities in the 13-state region.“Overall, this year’s report reflected our interest in boosting the profession and not just our chapter,” said Krista Purser (Clayton, Calif.), chapter president. “We coordinated a nationwide teleconference with other campus’ leaders, for example, to discuss how to cultivate leadership, grow and sustain an organization and leverage events.” Cal Poly News Website.

Cal Poly Floral Team Places First in National Competition

The Cal Poly Floral Design Team earned first place at the Floral Designer’s 2016 Symposium held July 2 to 3 in Anaheim, Calif. Cal Poly students also took top honors in several individual categories at the AIFD (American Institute of Floral Designers) Symposium and Student Floral Design Competition. In all, 11 colleges, including Texas A&M and Missouri State University, and 52 contestants took part in the national competition. In the Duplication Arrangement competition, in which students are tasked with making two arrangements exactly the same, Agricultural Science major Kirsten Smith from Los Osos tied for first place. In the Wedding Bouquet Design competition, Agricultural and Environmental Plant Sciences majors Sara Do from San Gabriel and Dawn Mones from Kapaa, Hawaii, placed second and fourth, respectively. Do also took fourth place for her design of an arrangement for cocktail tables. Horticulture and Crop Science lecturer Melinda Lynch is the team’s advisor. Cal Poly News Website.

Cal Poly Sociology Senior Selected for Panetta Institute for Public Policy’s Congressional Internship Program

Malcolm Mills, a sociology major from Rancho Cucamonga is Cal Poly’s 2016 representative to the Panetta Institute for Public Policy’s Congressional Internship Program. Mills, 21, will spend two weeks in August training at the Panetta Institute at CSU Monterey Bay, followed by 11 weeks in Washington, D.C., working full time in the office of a congressional representative. The fourth-year senior, who worked as a community advisor at a Cal Poly freshmen dormitory from 2014 to 2016, is among two dozen students from around the Golden State taking part in the program. Participants were nominated by their respective campus presidents. Cal Poly News Website.

Cal Poly Students Sweep National Packaging Design Competition

Four teams of Cal Poly students took home first-, second- and third-place awards and an honorable mention in this year’s Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP) Ameristar Student Packaging Awards Competition. The interdisciplinary teams combined industrial technology and packaging students with art and design students to create packaging solutions for a variety of consumer needs. Each team developed a physical prototype of their product complete with branded graphics. “[Cal Poly’s] work is truly inspiring to our student community and packaging professionals,” said Jane Chase, chair of the AmeriStar competition judging panel and IoPP board member. “It gives students at the other packaging schools something to shoot for when we conduct our AmeriStar Packaging Awards 2017.” The teams will be honored at IoPP’s industry conference PackExpo in November. Cal Poly News Website.

Cal Poly Great Grads Highlight the Strengths of the Class of 2016

SAN LUIS OBISPO — Each year, Cal Poly bids adieu to thousands of graduates who are ready to tackle the world’s problems with innovation, technical savvy and roll-up-their-sleeves-and-get-to-it moxie. Each of this year’s roughly 4,200 graduates has a unique story of success and perseverance along with thoughts on how their university experience has shaped them as they ready to make their way in the world — plunging into careers or continuing on with graduate studies. Here are six members of the Class of 2016 who’ll graduate June 11-12 and take their Learn by Doing education into the world. Cal Poly News Website.