John “Jack” O’Neil, a longtime engineering professor who opened his home for nearly three decades to engineering students for a Thanksgiving meal and funded scholarships after retiring, died Feb. 12 after a long illness. O’Neil, a former aerospace engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company, began teaching at Cal Poly Pomona in 1970. The Boston native taught on campus for 33 years. He met the love of his life, his wife Mary (’71, mathematics, ’73 master’s in mathematics), shortly before coming to the university. Professor Emeritus Phil Rosenkrantz worked with O’Neil for 20 years in the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME) and knew him and his wife well. He described …

Cable news show Spectrum News 1 aired a feature on Cal Poly Pomona’s Horses for Heroes program on multiple newscasts on Feb. 12. Through the program, 10 student veterans were matched with horses at the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center for the mutual benefit of the horses and the veterans. Jaime Orozco Campos, a senior majoring in electric engineering, worked with an Arabian horse named Sophie to help her get used to people. In turn, working Sophie was therapeutic for Campos, helping him control his stress levels and become more comfortable as a student at Cal Poly Pomona and in his everyday life. More information about the program can be …

Some of the most creative spaces on the Cal Poly Pomona campus, the Student Innovation Idea Labs (SIIL), are celebrating five years of existence in 2020, which also marks the tenth year that the adjoining ESTEAM program has provided students firsthand entrepreneurial experience. Olukemi Sawyerr, Assistant VP of Academic Innovation, and Winny Dong, Faculty Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, helped establish the ESTEAM program and the SIIL, which oversees the iLab, Innovation Orchard, and Maker Studio. “For the engineering students, I wanted them to think about how inventions become actual products,” Dong said of the ESTEAM program. “And perhaps Olukemi (Sawyerr) wanted the business students …

The question and answer session between students and university leaders, including President Soraya M. Coley and ASI President Pasindu Senaratne, covered everything from transportation to campus climate on the evening of Feb. 11. Watch the video as administrators and the presidents answer inquiries about a range of topics. Students who submitted questions that were not answered during the allotted hour for the event will receive responses sent to the email address submitted along with their question. …

Cal Poly Pomona is partnering with Foothill Transit to embark on several transit initiatives to improve transportation to/from and around campus and reduce vehicle trips to campus. The three initial projects include: 1) introducing a Class Pass program providing free bus rides; 2) piloting a campus stop for the Foothill Transit Silver Streak bus route; and 3) creating a Bronco Mobility Hub. “There is a new realization that the high cost of car ownership and parking is affecting CSU students throughout the state, and it’s affecting their access and ability to get an education,” said History Professor John Lloyd, who chairs the university’s Transportation Alternatives Committee. “Improving transit and creating …

The Department of Music Spring 2020 series of events features student performances, special faculty presentation and appearances by renowned guest artists. Thomas Kotcheff, a Los Angeles based composer and pianist, whose music has been described as truly beautiful and inspired, performs Frederic Rzewski’s “Songs of Insurrection” (2016) a concert length, tour-de-force solo piano work which draws on protest songs from around the world on Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 8 p.m. in the music recital hall. Tickets are $15 general admission and $10 student admission. For details visit the Facebook event page: Thomas Kotcheff Piano Recital Drum set specialist and recording artist David Crigger will present a free master class titled …

Cal Poly Pomona students can play a puzzle-solving program to discover how their gaming skills can translate to careers in cyber security and obtain scores that can grant access to additional workshops and improve their qualifications for work opportunities. CyberStart offers educational challenges, tools and games to introduce students to cyber-related careers. Students who score well gain access to CyberStart Essentials, which provides video, audio and lab exercises on the fundamentals of technology and cyber security, preparing them to learn more advanced security skills and participate in hacking challenges. Participants will improve their qualifications for employment as student assistants with cyber faculty and the Division of Information Technology and can …

For Project Success, the mission isn’t just to increase the persistence and graduation rates for men of color on campus. The mentoring program also strives to mold leaders and critical thinkers. For alumnus and recently hired coordinator Rogelio Contreras (‘17, liberal studies) that means coming up with different workshops to help participants explore identity, discover their gifts and get comfortable reaching out for help and the resources they need to be successful. “Men of color often don’t have a point of reference on how to navigate the university system,” Contreras said. “Project Success makes the students into a resource for others.” During a Jan. 30 event on masculinity and …

The year 2020 signifies the start of many things: a new year, a new decade, a leap year, and an election year. For 16 political science students who traveled to Iowa to participate in the Democratic caucus held Feb. 3, the year brought a chance for them to be at the center of a presidential primary campaign. Political science associate professors Neil Chaturvedi and Mario Guerrero, from the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, wanted students to have the ability to work on campaigns in a more personalized way. “Our goal was to explore two things. One, is the nomination process representative, and two for our students to …