At the 2016 Academy Awards, the issue of diversity — or lack thereof — was widely acknowledged, with many actors threatening to boycott the show. It’s no secret that Hollywood struggles with on-screen diversity, which is exactly what makes Fatima Liaqat so passionate. Liaqat was born and raised in Pakistan and moved to Salt Lake […]
Author: Lassonde Staff
Bringing Crepes to SLC
Something is missing from the SLC food scene. Crepes! Jordan Nilsson, a business administration major at the U, noticed this gap. After visiting restaurants in other states and South America that served the dish, he began to think about how crepes would be a cost effective and simple meal to serve in a restaurant of […]
SHERO: Biodegradable Pads
For many women around the world, feminine hygiene products are not easily available or accessible. Women are often forced to stay home from school and work during their menstrual cycle. Alicia Dibble, Amber Barron and Ashlea Patterson, material science and engineering students, are working to solve this problem. “When women can’t access any means to […]
Helping Patients Catch Their Breath
When it’s a matter of life or death, it’s important to constantly improve the industry. Which is why, when U faculty member and anesthesiologist Sean Runnels had an idea for a safer upgrade to breathing tubes and the process of inserting them, it wasn’t difficult to recruit students for his team. He reached out to […]
Low-Cost Air Quality Sensor
Jonathan Whitaker will have a sigh of relief for more reasons than graduating in 2017. An undergraduate in computer engineering, he and a team of electrical and chemical engineers developed a low-cost air quality sensing platform that will be distributed to 150 schools across the Salt Lake Valley, with manufacture-ready plans for mass production. Just […]
Promoting Social Entrepreneurship
Liz Morales, an ethnic studies and communications major, has devoted herself and her education to create opportunities for under-served populations in higher education. “I realized entrepreneurship is more than just a product-based entrepreneur. It’s someone that wants to change something in the world,” Morales said. “That’s what social entrepreneurship does. It makes people think. It […]
Choreografish
For the fall 2016 semester, Kun Cheng, an Entertainment Arts and Engineering (EAE) graduate student, was the lead engineer developing a virtual reality video game for students with autism through the Therapeutic Games & Apps Lab (or Gapp Lab). Given the framework provided by University of Utah dance instructor Eric Handman, EAE students under Cheng’s […]
Art of Games
One of Cody Lee’s first memories was playing video games with his brother when he was 3 years old, and his obsession has only grown over time. “Videogames have become a huge part of my life,” he said. “I would dare to say that it defines me as a person, and without it, I do […]
Utah Maids: A Faster Way to Clean Your Home
Jaron Hall is graduating with a degree in business administration in May 2017 – and he has no plans to get a job. He hasn’t had a regular job since 2014. Instead, Hall plans to focus all of his attention on his latest startup, Utah Maids. In 2015, Hall launched the company for less than […]
Thinner Solar Cells
Dennis Pruzan, a materials science and engineering Ph.D student, is innovating the future of solar energy. In collaboration with professor Michael Scarpulla, he is researching how to make cadmium telluride (CdTe or “Cad Tell”) thin film solar cells that could disrupt the solar energy market. CdTe is in the class of thin-film solar cells that […]