UPDATE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
Two members of the LiDAR Group from the UA Department of Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering show their project during the recent Engineering Design Day. The team’s Low-Cost Unmanned Aircraft-Based LiDAR Scanning System was winner of the Prototron Circuits Award for Best Printed Circuit Design. KRIS HANNING, UA BIOCOMM
opportunities to engage students with industry and vice versa.” In the 2017-2018 academic year, Raytheon Missile Systems sponsored five projects, including a system to optimize the efficiency of solar panels and another to nonintrusively detect the presence of stowed human cargo in vehicles. UA alumna Cindy Klingberg, program operations manager at Raytheon, said the program offers an important opportunity for the company to be involved in shaping the next generation of engineers. “We invest because we recognize that there’s certain talent, certain skill sets that we need to fill in our future workforce,” she said. Aimee Dolmseth is general manager of Control Vision Inc., a Green Valley company that manufactures optical instruments and control systems for industrial, scientific and military applications. In 2016, the company’s program team produced a mini-infrared camera with potential applications in night vision for cyclists and search-and-rescue missions. Not only did Control Vision hire one of the students from the team after his graduation but it partnered with the program again to sponsor an imaging pyrometer project allowing real-time monitoring
in the furnaces the company uses for smelting and metal-casting. The latest project was on display at April’s 2018 Design Day, where students presented their projects to a panel of industry judges and competed for thousands of dollars in awards. “We have multiple Wildcat students and alumni in our company, so we know firsthand the talented graduates UA programs produce,” Dolmseth said. “Control Vision is eager to work with these accomplished students whenever we are able.” The Engineering Design Program continues to grow, with a budget increase of nearly $150,000 between the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 academic years that allowed students to tackle increasingly complex projects. “Being able to work with a $4,000 budget is really cool, and I don’t think a lot of other schools get to work with that,” said Nic Balda, a mechanical engineering student who worked on one of the latest design projects. “I can definitely see why it’s one of the top-rated design programs in the nation.” EMILY DIECKMAN is associate editor of the UA College of
Engineering.
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