Membership Challenge: “Most Creative Recruitment Strategy”
California Polytechnic State University: San Luis Obispo
Submitted by: Eric Hahn (ehahn@calpoly.edu)
Chair Position: Chair
Date: 3/29/2012
The Materials Advantage chapter at the California Polytechnic (“Cal Poly”) State University
is under the Materials Engineering department student club named Materials Engineering
Student Societies (MESS). We hosted a variety of unique events during the month of
February to promote Materials Advantage.
The club officers decided to take the approach of promoting Materials Advantage with
exciting meetings and activities that would appeal to Materials Engineering students.
Particular student officers took the initiative to develop and lead a meeting that greatly
interested them under the broad theme of “Materials and You.”
Timeline:
February 2nd
February 6th
Materials and Industry, a Look into How You Can Fit Into Industry, Solar
Junction Speaker, Building 192-204, 6:30pm
Materials and Food, Using Science Every Day, Building 192-204, 7pm
February 13th Materials and Music, the Science of What You Hear, Ernie Ball Speaker,
Building 192-204, 6:30pm
th
February 24 National Engineers Week: Materials Engineering Outreach, Boys & Girls
Club
February 24th Lockheed Martin/NDC Tour, Sunnyvale, CA
February 27th Materials and Nature, Being Inspired by What Surrounds You, Building 192204, 6pm
Event Summaries
February 2nd - Materials and Industry, Solar Junction Speaker, 32 students attended
Cal Poly Materials Engineering alumnus Emily Becker is a Solar Test and
Applications Engineer at Solar Junction, where the industry’s high efficiency record
of 43.5% is currently held. Concentrated PV cells are able to utilize low cost optics
and 2 axis tracking to concentrate light onto solar cells. Emily discussed her
transition into industry life, including how she landed the job, her role and
responsibility, and what is expected of a starting engineer.
February 6th - Materials and Food, 35 students attended
For centuries, chefs have been using proven culinary techniques to achieve artisanlevel desserts. MESS invited everyone to explore delicious foods such as caramel,
fudge, and ice cream from a Materials Engineering perspective!
Left: Maxwell Martin (blue shirt) behind the table talking about the caramel’s amorphous
structure resulting from frustrating the crystallization process.
Right: Leah Herbert (maroon shirt) working on an experiment to determine the effect of liquid
nitrogen quenching vs. slow cooling fudge
February 13th - Materials and Music, Ernie Ball Speaker, 29 students
A musical demonstration and a quick glimpse into sound engineering were given by
a few of our fellow students. MatE alumnus Chris Harrington joined the students for
an evening to discuss the newest developments in guitar string technologies. Chris
recently developed a new cobalt alloy and heat treatment to change the
industry, check out a video on it here.
(Pictured Left to Right) Chris Dunn, Clincy Cheung, and Alex Stanley giving a musical
performance after talking about the role of different materials properties (elastic modulus,
strain, grain orientation/size) on the sound they produce.
February 24th – National Engineers Week: Materials Engineering Outreach, 8 students
Students volunteered at the local Boys & Girls Club where they performed outreach
demonstrations and made liquid nitrogen icecream for two different elementary
schools (~150 students).
February 24th - Lockheed Martin/NDC Tour, 9 students
Thomas Logue and Daniel Filo (Cal Poly Materials Engineering alumni and past
MESS officers) hosted a special tour for the MatE students at Lockheed Martin in
Sunnyvale. They are currently working in manufacturing, specifically the Solar
Array Manufacturing Center. During our tour with Lockheed, we also received a
special presentation regarding the THAAD program. The THAAD program missiles
are designed to intercept mid-course or final stage ballistic missiles. Jen Fino hosted
a tour for the students at NDC in Fremont, CA
February 27th - Materials and Nature, 24 students
Biomimicry has become an unprecedentedly innovative engineering concept and
MESS presented the philosophy of design by bioinspiration. Seniors Eric Hahn and
Ian Hosek discussed their senior projects and what types of senior projects are
available at Cal Poly; Eric also talked about opportunities for graduate research in
the field. MESS provided the materials for nature themed food: make-your-own mud
pies and ants on a log!
Electronic Signups:
We provided laptops before the start of each event to assist students with the electronic
Materials Advantage (MA) signup page; MESS also sent out an email with detailed
instructions on how to become a MA member, posted an update on the MatE facebook
page, and visited classes to make announcements for the events.
Estimated number of new MA members: 10-15
Estimate of current MA members: 15-20
Estimate of students in the department: 150