- University News Archive - 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/tag/mechanical-engineering/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Mon, 16 May 2022 13:02:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Hudson Graduates from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock /news-archive/2022/05/16/hudson-graduation/ Mon, 16 May 2022 13:02:47 +0000 /news/?p=81568 ... Hudson Graduates from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock]]> 鈥淲hen I started going through the process of deciding where I wanted to go to school and what I wanted to do, I liked the idea of mechanical engineering best because it’s like the 鈥榮wiss army knife鈥 of engineering,鈥 Hudson said. 鈥淵ou can do just about anything with it.鈥 Hudson had the opportunity to intern with Cromwell Architects Engineers over the summer. Many of the men there had been working as engineers for more than 30 years, and they taught him 鈥渢ricks of the trade鈥 that have helped him in several of his classes. He also helped design the piping systems for the new University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences surgical annex building during his time there. 鈥淚f you’re ever in the bathrooms on the third floor, just know that was me,鈥 Hudson said. When asked about his plans after graduation in May, Hudson shared that he recently accepted a position with the Systems Group in their estimator department. He will be going to different job sites to figure out how much they’ll cost and how much labor they will involve. 鈥淭here鈥檚 travel involved so I鈥檒l get to go all around the country, which is really cool to me,鈥 Hudson said. 鈥淚 might be going to Colorado, Louisiana, and parts of Tennessee, and the Carolinas. The Systems Group works with plants in the Washington State area as well.鈥 Hudson is very involved on campus as a peer mentor for the Chancellor’s Leadership Corps (CLC) and serves as chief of staff of the Student Government Association and secretary of the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Delta Chi chapter. He also volunteers with the youth group at his church. Since joining 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, he’s been in several different positions with Delta Chi, the most notable being named president junior year. According to Lucee Lugo, assistant director for Fraternity and Sorority Life, Hudson represents everything a student leader should be. 鈥淗is presence and leadership within the Greek community has made a lasting impact,鈥 Lugo said. 鈥淗is attitude is flawless, and he has always shown up to everything that has been asked of him and more.鈥 Hudson said that although Greek life isn鈥檛 for everyone, it has helped him in many ways. 鈥淚 was one of three people from my high school who came to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, so I didn鈥檛 really know anyone at first,鈥 he said. 鈥淕reek life automatically gave me a place to connect with people, and it was very beneficial in that fact alone. It’s good to at least go through the process and see if it’s a good fit for you.鈥 Hudson also credits Cheyenne Philpot, his CLC peer mentor, in helping him break out of his shell freshman year. Philpot graduated in May 2021 with a degree in biology. 鈥淪he introduced me to a lot of people around campus, which I really appreciated,鈥 Hudson said. 鈥淪he made me want to be a mentor, and now I try to be that person to my own mentees. I want to be there for them, whether that鈥檚 giving them advice on what classes to take or just helping them with homework.鈥 鈥淭he thing I would say for anyone coming into 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock is to find a place to get involved,鈥 Hudson said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great school if you find something to do, whether that鈥檚 Greek life, SGA, or another student organization, or even just a friend group. Find somewhere to be with people and participate on campus, because the experience you can have鈥 looking back in your senior year鈥 is crazy if you get out and do it.鈥漖]> 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Graduate with a Passion for Green Energy is Putting His Engineering Skills to Work at Little Rock Startup /news-archive/2021/12/15/joseph-sepulveda-graduation/ Wed, 15 Dec 2021 13:44:40 +0000 /news/?p=80573 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Graduate with a Passion for Green Energy is Putting His Engineering Skills to Work at Little Rock Startup]]> Sepulveda will graduate Dec. 18 with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in mechanical engineering from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock. Since May, Sepulveda has worked as a solar coordinator at Entegrity Energy Partners, where he is responsible for designing, constructing, and selling solar arrays. 鈥淚鈥檝e always been passionate about the environment,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 had the opportunity to work at a green energy startup, and I realized I could work in solar. I wanted to learn how they design solar arrays and what are the layers of engineering that go into that. That passion has driven me to work in this field. I have a unique opportunity here to learn design for a company that is learning solar in real time. It鈥檚 been a great journey.鈥 Sepulveda鈥檚 love of engineering came from his father, who would spend his days wiring homes and repairing radios, televisions, and other electronic devices. 鈥淕rowing up, my dad was intrigued with electronics and electricity,鈥 Sepulveda said. 鈥淚 fully believe my dad is an electrical engineer without the degree. The military guided that knowledge and introduced it into airplanes. One of my dad鈥檚 friends from the Air Force had retired and started a small company in Memphis. He needed someone to be the floor manager, and the owner of the company said my dad was a perfect fit.鈥 His parents and older brother and sister moved from Chile to Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1990s. The family later moved to Cabot after his father got a job at Falcon Jet in Little Rock. 鈥淚鈥檝e followed along with my father by being an engineer, but I didn鈥檛 follow along the path of electricity, because electricity is still magic to me,鈥 Sepulveda said. In 2017, Sepulveda graduated as valedictorian from Cabot High School and joined 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock as a member of the Donaghey Scholars Honors Program. 鈥淚 also had an older brother who went through the Donaghey Scholars Program seven years earlier,鈥 Sepulveda said. 鈥淲hen he was 21, my brother was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The Donaghey Scholars were very accommodating and understanding of my brother鈥檚 situation. It was wonderful to see him accomplish his economics degree. I already had a warm feeling about the Donaghey Scholars and 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock engineering, so I made the decision to join 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock.鈥 Sepulveda started off his career at Entegrity as an inside sales intern. He found out about the green energy startup company from another Donaghey Scholar who was interning there. After interning for seven months, Sepulveda was promoted to a sales and operations coordinator. During this time, he closed more than $20 million worth of energy service performance contracts and solar sales.
Joseph Sepulveda

Joseph Sepulveda

In 2019, Sepulveda studied abroad to work as a lab assistant involving sustainability projects at Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, Chile. One of Sepulveda鈥檚 assignments was to design a housing unit for an air quality monitoring device. Sepulveda and his colleagues traveled to Coyhaique on the southern tip of Chile. This small tourist town is also known as the most air polluted town in all of South America. Sepulveda鈥檚 team visited the town to measure air quality levels and to help the people of Coyhaique understand how bad the air is polluted due to a heavy amount of wood burning. 鈥淪ince it鈥檚 in the very south of Chile, it鈥檚 very cold there, even in the summer and especially at night,鈥 Sepulveda said. 鈥淭hat coldness transforms into more wood burning. If you imagine a town of 25,000 people just burning wood throughout the day, there is an immense amount of smoke. Over the past 5-10 years, Chile has seen an unusual amount of respiratory issues coming from this town. It was troubling to realize some of the areas with the highest amounts of pollution are elementary schools. It鈥檚 a very complicated issue. You can鈥檛 just tell the residents to stop heating their homes by burning wood, or they will freeze to death.鈥 The study abroad trip was also a homecoming for Sepulveda, who used the opportunity to learn more about his Chilean roots. 鈥淭hat was the most impactful moment of my college career,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 was raised in a Chilean household. Since I was born in the U.S., I鈥檓 very Americanized. I didn鈥檛 know the struggles that my parents went through in their country of origin. It was a very profound and impactful identity experience, and I wouldn鈥檛 have that experience without 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock and the Donaghey Scholars.鈥漖]> Sustainability grant will lead to new greenhouse for Campus Garden, more fresh food for Trojan Food Pantry /news-archive/2018/05/22/sustainability-grant-will-lead-new-greenhouse-campus-garden-fresh-food-trojan-food-pantry/ Tue, 22 May 2018 13:56:51 +0000 /news/?p=70639 ... Sustainability grant will lead to new greenhouse for Campus Garden, more fresh food for Trojan Food Pantry]]> The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Sustainability Committee has awarded a $2,500 grant that will provide more growing opportunities for the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Campus Garden as well as an increase in fresh produce for the Trojan Food Pantry.聽 Dr. Stephen Grace, associate professor of biology, and Dr. Michael DeAngelis, associate professor of Earth Sciences, serve as faculty advisors of the Campus Garden Alliance, which began a partnership in 2016 to provide fresh produce for the Trojan Food Pantry. The Trojan Food Pantry typically relies on donations of nonperishable food, but staff members are eager to provide healthier options for people who use the food pantry. The Campus Garden Alliance provides the food pantry with produce such as beets, cauliflower, cabbage, greens, tomatoes, peas, peppers, herbs, squash, and onions. 鈥淲e intend to install a hoop-style, cold frame greenhouse at the Campus Garden to expand growing capacity and enable year-round vegetable production,鈥 Grace said. 鈥We feel that a greenhouse will greatly enhance the mission and goals of the Campus Garden by providing much needed infrastructure. It will also be used to leverage further improvements at the Campus Garden with the long-term goal of becoming an economically viable center for urban agriculture.鈥 The Sustainability Committee also awarded two additional $2,500 grants to Dr. John Czarnecki, adjunct professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, and Dr. Ashokkumar Sharma, assistant professor of mechanical engineering technology. Czarnecki will develop trash barriers for the city鈥檚 storm drains in order to reduce the amount of trash that winds up in Fourche Creek. 鈥淢uch of the floatable trash entering curbside storm drains in Little Rock ultimately ends up in Fourche Creek, home to 25 percent of all fish species in Arkansas,鈥 Czarnecki said. 鈥淭he city of Little Rock includes 1,800 acres of bottomland hardwood forests within the Fourche Creek bottoms area. Unfortunately, this area receives regular inputs of floatable trash during flood events. This trash negatively impacts sustainable water quality, ecosystems, and recreation in Fourche Creek bottoms.鈥 The storm drains have uncovered openings ranging from 5-12 inches in height and 6-12 feet in length, which can allow trash up to the size of a basketball to enter. Commercially made storm drain trash barriers are available, but Czarnecki notes that these cost roughly $1,000 each, making them an impractical option for Little Rock. With the help of construction management and Earth Sciences students, Czarnecki will design, build, and implement cost-effective barriers using readily available materials. Once he receives permission from the City of Little Rock鈥檚 Department of Public Works, Czarnecki and his students will test the barriers on storm drains on the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock campus and monitor their progress. 鈥淚 greatly enjoy building things and finding solutions that impact society,鈥 Czarnecki said. 鈥淔ourche Creek is a spectacularly beautiful natural resource right in the city limits of Little Rock that deserves respect and protection. This project will help attain that goal.鈥 Sharma will use his grant, 鈥淪ustainable Production of Renewable Fuels,鈥 to fund a research-based project to develop a novel thermochemical process to convert the university鈥檚 dry solid waste (papers, cardboard, and plastics) to produce a renewable fuel that can be utilized for generation of power and heat energy. 鈥淭his research will provide an improved alternative to utilize wastes of public institutions, strengthening the energy independence and economy of the nation,鈥 Sharma said. 鈥淭his project will demonstrate how it is possible to utilize waste instead of recycling to generate energy.鈥 He also plans to develop a course for engineering and engineering technology students with an emphasis on sustainability in energy conservation and efficiency. The grant money will be used to construct the reactor system, purchase materials, and fund student travel to present the research at a scientific conference. In the upper right photo,聽Dr. Stephen Grace works in the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Campus Garden. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Communications.]]> 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock student fulfills dream of becoming U.S. citizen /news-archive/2017/10/31/becoming-u-s-citizen/ Tue, 31 Oct 2017 20:53:43 +0000 /news/?p=68392 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock student fulfills dream of becoming U.S. citizen]]> Sunny Harshdeep鈥檚 first memory of moving to Arkansas from India is getting a giant soda at Subway.聽 鈥淚 remember the first time I came here I was pretty sleepy,鈥 Harshdeep said. 鈥淚t was a long trip from India. The first thing I remember is going to Subway and getting one of those humongous cups of soda. I have never seen a cup that big, only in America. Everything in America was bigger in general.鈥 Harshdeep, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, immigrated to America with his mother and younger sister in 2009, when Harshdeep was 12. Now Harshdeep is celebrating another milestone in his life. He and his entire family have recently been naturalized as United States citizens. Harshdeep and his mother took the oath of citizenship Sept. 20 at the Little Rock District Court with U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Little Rock, in attendance, while his father and sister became citizens in August. 鈥淚t felt good to realize I was a U.S. citizen,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t opens me up to a lot of opportunities I didn鈥檛 have. I can finally vote. I can also run for office one day if I choose to pursue that path.鈥 His family鈥檚 journey to become citizens has taken eight years. After five years as permanent residents, they applied to become citizens. The application process involved background checks, interviews, and written and oral tests, all to make sure that Harshdeep鈥檚 family had fully integrated into American society. Although Harshdeep and his family gave up citizenship to their native country of India, Harshdeep thinks the sacrifice was worth it to become a U.S. citizen. The family is also applying for lifetime visas to India, which would allow them to travel more freely between the U.S. and India. 鈥淭his is where our lives have been for the past eight years,鈥 he said. 鈥淭his is where I see my future. We have the most freedom and opportunity to succeed. I love it.鈥

Coming to America

They left their hometown in India, Anjar, and followed Harshdeep鈥檚 father, Inderjeet Singh, who came to work at a new manufacturing plant in Little Rock set up by his company, . 鈥淭hat company is always expanding,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ne branch is pipe manufacturing for the gas and oil industry. They wanted to expand to the United States, and they chose Little Rock because it鈥檚 almost in the middle of the country, and they can transport their pipes to anywhere in the country.鈥 Harshdeep came to 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock with a plan to major in mechanical engineering and minor in information technology. He is a member of the Chancellor鈥檚 Leadership Corps, a student ambassador for the College of Engineering and Information Technology, and a resident assistant. After graduation, he had planned to start his own research and development company focusing on robotics. 鈥溙切腣log传媒 Little Rock offers one of the finest programs in the country, and I consider myself fortunate to be able to attend the only college in the state which offers an engineering technology program.鈥 Things changed after Harshdeep completed a one-year internship as a data verification intern at in Little Rock. 鈥淚 got a taste of the technology field and what it has to offer,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 enjoyed that environment a lot, which is why I am starting to pursue web design and development as my main career.鈥 Now Harshdeep is planning to work in the tech industry after he graduates in 2020 and is earning an associate degree in mechanical engineering to keep his skills sharp. 鈥溙切腣log传媒 Little Rock has been awesome,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 am trying out a lot of new things, and it has given me a lot of chances to grow. It鈥檚 always welcoming and gives opportunities to students who show they are willing to put in the effort.鈥 ]]>