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Hi I am Alissa Anderson I am a 4th year mechanical engineering student
originally from Clifton Park New York
So when you think mechanical engineering you think, cars, bicycles, anything with moving
parts, um which is true. I have decided to take a different route in my degree. I am
really into the idea of innovation, or creating new products, product design, things like
that.
My favorite coop was my grenade launcher; I spent the summer working in Vermont working
on creating an actual computer model of a grenade launcher that is in use to do a little
research with it. And now I am heading out to California where I will be working for
Apple on consumer electronics. I have had the opportunity to work on a variety
of projects, all possible due to my mechanical background. I am now looking into different
projects on campus where I can really get my feet wet with the idea of innovation.
I am currently signed up for this course called the innovation process part one. It is a cross
program course of half graduate industrial design students and half undergraduate mechanical
engineers. We are put into the innovation center, a building on campus that is specifically
designed for student use; for bring students together from different backgrounds, different
majors, and giving them a place to really come together, and truly brainstorm and innovate
on a problem that is happening in the world. Our project is to revolutionize the sanitation
system in Haiti. Which sounds a little crazy, but the idea is that this is the brainstorming
quarter. These ten weeks are for students to work together and really figure out what
the problem is and then come up with a different approach. Anything we do we want to have a
very small environmental impact. We are in a group of two mechanical engineers and two
industrial design students and we have been working for ten weeks on our toilet system.
We really had the opportunity to use the right and the left side of the brain from our design
and engineering students to approach this problem and come up with a solution. Our final
system is a three-tier sanitation system where you have a toilet in your apartment for use.
It is a bucket system, so when your bucket is full, you take it out bring it outside
to a fifty-five gallon community drum. That drum serves your apartment complex, maybe
your entire neighborhood. That drum is then relocated to a composted where the waste can
be composted and then reused in a farm area.
Currently in the SAU. We are promoting an event called Make the Rink Pink which
is in conjunction with the Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity on campus and the RIT Men and Women's
hockey teams. Make the Rink Pink is an event to support both the ZTA Foundation and the
Rochester General Hospital Lipson Center, that's where all the proceeds are going
and the event is to raise awareness for breast cancer education and awareness so everyone
at the game will be wearing pink form the players jerseys to sticks, pink tape, pink
t-shirts, pink pom poms, pink cups, you name it, it will be pink at the game.
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