News to ME
“moment of sheer joy” After months of work, anticipations run high when senior projects are put to the test
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n a dirt field near Sacramento, beekeeper Alex Jauregui attaches the arm of a modified dolly to the top of one of his bee boxes, then pulls the dolly back, lifting the 80-pound box with ease.
Then Jauregui, who is also a wounded war vet, turns to Cal Poly student and fellow veteran Javier Guerra, who is standing to his left, and offers a thumb’s up. “There it is, brother,” Jauregui says with a smile. Then he turns to the rest of the team that designed and built the dolly for its senior project. “You guys passed!”
▲ Mechanical engineering student Javier Guerra was so inspired by his senior project working on a project to help a beekeeper who is an injured war veteran, he enrolled in a beekeeping class at Cal Poly to better understand the physical requirements of the job. 6 | MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
After nine months of researching, designing and building, this is the moment mechanical engineering students both fear and relish — presenting their final project to the client. While there is always a possibility the product won’t work as planned, when it does, students often feel a rush of elation — followed by a sigh of relief.
