The Daily Collegian Capstone projects displayed By Nick Manella FOR THE COLLEGIAN Seniors from the College of Engineering came together Thursday in the Bryce •Jordan Center to showcase projects they had spent the semester on. There were about 120 industry-part nered projects on display, most of which were capstone projects. Teams of four to five presented projects varying from those based on agricultural engineering to computer science. Projects varied from a device that assisted wheel chair bound people in climbing stairs which partnered with Everett Hills, a med ical doctor from central Pennsylvania to a machine that automatically inserted screwdriver bits into packaged cases for purchase, a project sponsored by Stanley Black & Decker. The popular wheelchair design was not the only disability-based project on display. Other designs included a bicycle for paraplegics and even an adap tive seat to assist paraplegic sailors. But not all were consumer goods. Members of the agricultural engineer ing team presented a method to locally produce canola oil for Penn State dining commons deep fryers, which could then be used as biodiesel to fuel university velu cles. all while meeting US Food & Drug Budents who read their college newspaper read 3 out of every 5 issues. -Alloy Media + Marketing {2OOB, WOW Research) , Students describe their design projects. Association and U.S. Department of Agriculture standards. Kyle Lewis (senior computer engineering) and Frank Peronace (senior-computer engineering) were part of a team that participated in the robot competition. The team's task was to build a robot that autonomously collected ping-pong balls from a playing field and brought them into a corner repository, all on a $250 budget. Though the competition was canceled due to two teams not being Gompetition-veady, all three teams still had the opportunity to present their projects. Amidst the crowd were representatives from the various companies who part nered with the students and came to see the projects. Even with companies pres ent, some students were unfazed in pre senting their work. “I wasn’t really that nervous to have the people from actual companies here." Lewis said. "It was pretty cool to have them come up and talk to us about our project.” LOCAL Student poses as lobbyist Ben Smith, a former tobacco lobbyist, began promoting his 2010 U.S. Senate run in front of the Allen Street gates Thursday a campaign that he promised would focus on protecting corporate interests. Sound unbelievable? It is. And that's because that campaign was actually an elaborate ruse designed to protest corpo rate America’s newfound freedoms in political advertising. The satirical campaign was the product of a project organized by students in COMM 514 (Political Economy of Communications), with T.C. Corrigan play ing the role of the sleazy Senate hopeful. Corrigan (graduate-mass communica tions) stood in front of the Allen Street Gates for an hour Thursday afternoon, handing out flyers and mingling with passersby. He said he dressed for the part as best he could wearing a suit and tie. with the back of his jacket was adorned with logos of companies like Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil. Rachel Guldin was one of the students from COMM 514. and said the group designed the project "in the spirit of the Daily Show and Colbert Report." two satir ical comedy news shows on Comedy Central. Guldin (.graduate-media studies! said the class was about the study of how money affects the political sphere. Their project targeted a recent Supreme Court case that allows the corporate world to make unlimited contributions to political campaigns. You worked so hard all semester and have done a great job! Welcome to the staff! By Nathan Pipenberg COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER CongratuCations (Business (Division trainees of the Semester! Customer Service Caitlin <■Brennan ‘Molly Cadden Samantha Krone Meagfian ‘Keenan Joe Mc(Jrath Joe Komanowshi Sam Sepanah, Creative Zhaojun Chu KeeCy Lane SI ley Patterson Ldian Vzohyve Thanks for all your hard work! Congratulations to our (Business (Division Trainees of the Semester! Creative: AfejcPatterson Advertising Sales: Jdayley chechathg Customer Service: Samantha Krone W The Daily Collegian Friday, April 30, 2010 I 5 "One point we were stressing was that the case has the potential to open the floodgates for corporate spending." said Corrigan. Megan Duke, another student involved in the fake campaign, said the project is an example of "cultural jamming." where activists try to disrupt mainstream cultur al ideas by re-figuring cultural symbols or logos. In this case, Duke (graduate-media studies) said they did this by appearing to be a serious political candidate, even though they pushed ideas most Americans would not agree with. Corrigan said that when someone brought up a talking point at the campaign, he would tiy to spin the issue to support corporate issues. For instance, he said when someone asked him about his stance on education, he said that schools are "a place where a lot of people see the oppor tunity for business investment." Most people who he talked to seemed to get the satirical message. Corrigan said. "We got laughs at some points." he said. "There were people who understood the joke and also got involved in the project as protestors." Once the campaign was over. Corrigan said he left Allen Street feeling like the afternoon ended well. "I felt like it w-as a success." he said. "But it's also not something that has to end at this point." Corrigan said the group is planning more stump speeches and creating a Twitter account for the imaginary politi cian in the future. To e-mail reporter: ndpso4s@psu.edu to our Advertising Sales David Carmona Jfayley Chechatka Tom Kareeparampil Carl Nelson Marcie Polonsky (Jarrett Sodroshy ‘Emily Toomhs
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