ENTERTAINMENT COMIC FEST PAGE 4
THE NEWSPAPER OF SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1913 VOLUME 99, ISSUE 33
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012
Solar energy project receives $3.9 mil campus
Hannah Beausang
DoE grants SDSU $1.25 mill
Contributor
San Diego State Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering Fletcher Miller received a $3.9 million grant for the development of solar energy technology. Miller was awarded the grant on Oct. 16 through the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative which provides funds for high-risk, high-payoff solar energy projects. According to the SDSU NewsCenter, the grant will allow Miller and his team to build a large-scale model of technology and test the prototype at the National Solar Thermal Testing Facility in New Mexico. Miller believes his solar technology will significantly contribute to a cleaner, more cost-efficient future for energy. The goal of the project is to make solar energy accessible on a daily basis. Miller uses technology similar to an aircraft engine to power the solar receiver rather than typical steam-based methods, eliminating the need for water usage in desertbased solar plants, where water is
campus
David Hernandez Staff Writer
Victoria Barba earned the assist for Jurado’s goal, which was more than enough for the Aztecs
Seventh-grader Vivianna Cabrales eagerly walked around the San Diego State campus on Saturday with her mother, participating in the 13th annual Compact for Success campus visit to SDSU, which targets seventh grade students. Approximately 3,300 students from the Sweetwater Union High School and the San Ysidro School District toured SDSU, learned about college and discovered opportunities awaiting them. Viviana is currently a SUHSD and although she is five years away from graduating high school, she is already thinking about college and knows she wants to be a doctor. Viviana’s mother, Adriana Cabrales, also had her two sons participate in Compact for Success. Adriana said her daughter seems even more excited for college because of this program. “She wants to apply for college now,” Cabrales said. “Now that they are telling me that she has a guarantee, that’s just awesome.” In 2000, SDSU partnered with SUHSD to increase the
San Diego State recently received a $1.25 million grant to fund a project that will prepare students to become school counselors, psychologists and social workers in order to assist foster youth with special education needs and diverse backgrounds. The grant from the U.S. Department of Education will allow graduate students of school psychology, school counseling and school social work programs to be part of Project CARES, an acronym for Culturally Affirming Responsive Education Specialist. The project, beginning in January, will allow nine students, three from each discipline, to be trained for 18 months at a time. Project CARES involves fieldwork that includes working directly with foster children, training to become courtappointed special advocates or CASAs, being part of a seminar; professional development and advocacy training to help parents advocate for foster children. Director and Associate Professor of SDSU’s Department of Counseling and School Psychology program Tonika Duren Green said approximately 65 percent of the funding will go toward scholarships for the students to finance tuition, books, travel to conferences and some of the training. Green, who wrote the grant, said children in foster care have been in her heart and on her mind for a long time. As a child, Green lived with her grandmother, a single foster parent who took care of 10 foster children in the course of Green’s time with her. “I saw them in and out and the struggles they went through,” Green said. “Even as a child, I had a passion for understanding the circumstances that they were dealt.” Green believes Project CARES is special because it helps foster children who are often overlooked. “It’s specifically devoted to children in foster care who have special needs, who are children with disabilities and who are also from diverse backgrounds,” Green said.
WOMEN’S SOCCER continued on page 5
CAMPUS VISIT continued on page 2
FOSTER YOUTH continued on page 2
hannah beausang , contributor
San Diego State Assistant Professor of mechanical engineering Fletcher Miller sits contently at his desk. Miller is a recent recepient of a $3.9 million grant as an effort to develp solar energy technology.
limited. “The same thermodynamics is going on in our receiver and generator that would be going on in a jet engine,” Miller said. “That just uses air and a fuel; we’re using air plus sunlight to run it.” Miller’s innovative technology uses a quartz window as the
receiver to concentrate the energy from sunlight. There are tiny carbon particles that collect sunlight from the field of mirrors around the plant and move the energy into the gas inside the receiver. The particles transfer into the hot gas, which propels the turbine.
Miller has been awarded two previous grants, which significantly helped to further the project and contributed to his eligibility for the SunShot grant. A $240,000 grant from Google.org research program, Develop Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal, helped SOLAR ENERGY continued on page 2
Aztecs win MW championship 3,300 7th ’ graders visit SDSU
women s soccer
campus
Tara Millspaugh News Editor
peter kluch , assistant photo editor
Senior forward Megan Jurado dribbles in the open field Sunday against Air Force. Jurado scored SDSU’s third goal of the game as the Aztecs won the Mountain West regular-season championship with a 3-0 victory against Air Force.
The No. 6 SDSU women’s soccer team claimed the Mountain West regular-season title with a 3-0 victory against Air Force Christopher Stone Staff Writer
The No. 6/13/7 San Diego State women’s soccer team came onto the pitch Sunday afternoon with a chance to clinch the 2012 Mountain West regular-season championship. And with a large crowd hoping to see history, SDSU did just that, earning a 3-0 victory against Air Force to stay undefeated in conference play. The Aztecs now sit at 16-1-1
overall, marking the best record through their first 18 games in program history. The Aztecs scored early as sophomore forward Hannah Keane knocked in the gamewinner at the 2:24 mark. Keane also tallied another goal in the 21st minute, with both goals assisted by redshirt senior midfielder Tiffany Hurst. Sophomore forward Haley Locker was also credited with an assist on Keane’s first goal, while sophomore midfielder Kelsey Booth was credited with an assist on Keane’s second goal. Senior forward Megan Jurado knocked in the team’s third goal in the
first half, her 13th of the year, giving the Aztecs a 3-0 lead at halftime. Freshman midfielder
The Aztecs now sit at 16-1-1 overall, marking the best record through their first 18 games...