Physics and Engineering in the Village

Promotional image for talk: Elements of a successful scientific talk

Speaker(s): Peter Saeta

Are you tired of having your work appreciated? Does it embarrass you when people celebrate your achievements by cheering, singing, and dancing? Yes? Well, then I don’t recommend working on a water and solar-power project in Africa. Engineering students Rob Best (’10), Isabel Bush, Evann Gonzales, Ozzie Gooen (all ’12) and I spent 6 weeks installing photovoltaic panels, a solar-powered water pump, and classroom lighting at the Clay International Secondary School in Ngomano, Kenya. Along the way, we gained new insights into Newtonian gravity, off-grid electrical systems, the challenges of getting things built without the HMC machinist, and how “technology divorced from humanity is worse than no technology at all.”

Colloquium

Junior and senior physics majors attend our biweekly colloquium series, held on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. in Shanahan B460. The talks are open to all students and to the public, and are frequently attended by scientists from the other Claremont Colleges, Cal Poly Pomona, and others. The series features speakers from a broad range of institutions and fields of physics.