Jed Merrill and other students in the Entertainment Arts and Engineering program created B.E.S.T., a virtual-reality simulator that helps police officers de-escalate potentially dangerous situations. The tool could help lower the more than 1,000 citizens killed by police officers per year. Learn more at bestpolicetraining.com. More articles like this in ‘Student Innovation @ the U!’ […]
Born in Huancayo, Peru, Giulia Soto moved to Utah at the age of five. Her parents speak Spanish and Quechua fluently, which influenced how she navigated the United States K-12 educational system. “It’s like my parents learned math in a different way,” said Soto, who graduated from the U in 2016 with a double major […]
Before coming to the U to pursue a Ph.D. in social work, Ujal Ibrahim worked with the 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate in Bangladesh to help children of Grameen Bank (a bank for the poor with close to 9 million borrowers) borrowers to become entrepreneurs. Now he is bringing social good to Salt Lake City. Ibrahim […]
Most majors are a one-size-fits-all education plan that gives students a broad knowledge of an industry but lacks the various specific skills required for certain jobs. Tyson Florence, an Innovation Scholar and psychology major at the U, noticed this and created Gradalign, a company that helps students design a customized education plan and matches them […]
Identify, refine, resolve. This design process is followed by Evan DeGray, a Lassonde Studios resident and Multidisciplinary Design major in nearly all of his pursuits, and it has proven worthwhile and effective in both his academic and entrepreneurial ventures. Founder of Rugged Components LLC, a company borne out of a need for better tool placement […]
Ashkan Azmak, a master’s student in the International Affairs and Global Enterprise (MIAGE) program leads the design of a “marketplace plan” to improve dignity and connection to the outside world for Za’atari Camp refugees in Jordan, particularly women. “The idea is to engage and empower the minority at refugee camps,” Ashkan said. An entry in […]
Humans have yet to visit Mars. Partly because it’s 140 million miles away and partly because we don’t have enough resources to sustain human life. The Utah Robotic Mining Project at the U is helping NASA solve this problem. “The Utah Robotic Mining Project is a club on campus with the sole purpose of designing […]
If you are a student interested in design, look no further than the Multidisciplinary Design program, or MDD, which is part of the College of Architecture and Planning. They teach every aspect of design, and every year, juniors and seniors get to develop real products around a theme. The 2016-17 theme was “adaptive future.” “The […]
Caleb Johnson is an undergraduate chemical engineering student, focusing on biology. With professor Agnes Ostafin’s help, he tested the production of nanoparticles that purify blood and is developing a pilot-scale device that will perform this for commercial medical use. Using stable nanoparticles made out of gold, Johnson and Ostafin created chemical combinations that have exteriors […]
Typical mapping drones cost anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 to buy. Casey Duncan and David Wheatley, geology grad students at the U, and Sam Chesebrough, a grad student in mechanical engineering, wanted to make one for a fraction of the cost. And they succeeded. The three made one for only $600. Their DIY drone was […]
