Cal Poly honored by President Obama for its engineering graduates

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• At the Wall of Honor, two new plaques

  At the Wall of Honor, two new plaques

  Cal Poly on Monday honored two of its graduates who died while serving in the armed forces.

  Capt. Larry Dean Baldwin — killed in Vietnam in 1969 — and Lt. Richard Gary Abe — a pilot who died during a training mission in 1986 — were memorialized with plaques on the Wall of Honor at the University Union mustang statue on campus.

  Baldwin graduated from Cal Poly in 1963 with a degree in social services before serving in the U.S. Army. Abe graduated in 1983 with a degree in aerospace engineering and served in the U.S. Navy.

• Cal Poly students to vote on fee increase Wednesday

  Cal Poly students to vote on fee increase Wednesday

  Tuition costs at Cal Poly will nearly double in a span of six years if students vote today for a proposed fee increase and the decision is upheld by the California State University chancellor.

  Cal Poly students will cast ballots electronically on a mandatory fee for all students that would increase tuition by $160 per quarter, effective in the fall.

  If implemented, the phased-in plan would top out at $260 more per quarter in fall 2014.

• Students build a better mousetrap car

  Students build a better mousetrap car

  More than 250 middle and high school students gathered at Cal Poly for a math, science and engineering competition Saturday. In addition to the math competition, students participated in a hands-on competition involving dropping eggs and racing mousetrap cars that they built.

• With students doing good, no wonder Cal Poly is tops

  With students doing good, no wonder Cal Poly is tops

  If you happen to live in a neighborhood that’s reasonably close to Cal Poly, you may think partying and puking are the curriculum of choice for students. And while it’s true that the National Institutes of Health has found that adolescent brains don’t really evolve a sense of sound judgment until the mid-20s, Poly really can’t claim the dubious distinction of being known as a party school.

  Not only is the university one of the toughest public institutions to get into because of its “learn-by-doing” job placement record after graduation, but it also accepts only the best and brightest.

  Consider the College of Engineering at Poly, the largest of the university’s six colleges.

• Poly project helps boy walk

  Poly project helps boy walk

  At an exposition of Cal Poly engineering senior projects Thursday, 4-year-old Nathan Cooper tested a device that will allow him to walk alongside his parents on dirt trails.

  Nathan has spinal muscular atrophy and is one of the latest people to be helped by the Cal Poly kinesiology department’s Activity for All project.

  Funded by a $125,000, five-year grant from the National Science Foundation, the project brings together senior kinesiology and engineering students to design gear for disabled people to engage with nature.