January 28, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Amy Hewes
(805) 756-6402

Cal Poly Students Win Third Consecutive National Award
from the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers

SAN LUIS OBISPO - For the third consecutive year, Cal Poly’s student
chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) has
earned first place in a national design competition.

The SHPE Student Chapter Contest awarded Cal Poly top honors last month at the National Technical Career Conference in Dallas for the Automatic
Wrinkle Remover the students designed as a more efficient alternative to the conventional iron. Team members Abi Arroyo, Watsonville; Martin Barajas, Burlingame; Daniel Gutierrez, Los Angeles; Manuel Razo, Merced; and Miguel Trujillo, Pixley, designed the device to be easy to use and inexpensive to mass produce.

The wrinkle remover is a vinyl 10-inch by 30-inch by 60-inch box with a telescoping pole for hanging clothing. A steamer at the bottom of the
box does the job of removing wrinkles.

“It was a fun project,” said Trujillo, the team leader and idea-man for
the device. “I got the idea when I was getting ready for an interview
and needed to iron a shirt. It’s a lot easier than setting up an ironing
board.”

The students entered the competition because they wanted to succeed
personally, as well as give the Cal Poly SHPE student chapter some
national recognition, Trujillo said. “We worked together as a team to
build something from scratch. There’s a lot of self-fulfillment in
that.”

During the contest, the students put clothing in the steamer while they
explained its mechanics, economics and practicality to a judging team of
business professionals. The students not only demonstrated how the
device worked, but showed off their marketing skills and ability to work
together as a team. “We had to sell it to the judges,” Trujillo said.
“We targeted it toward business people – the ones who wear rayon and
polyester.”

Another Cal Poly team earned a fourth-place award for The Impact Jack, a
tool that combines a tire jack with a wrench that will lift 1.5 tons and
operates by wireless remote control. Team members Flavio Acosta, Daisy
Cisneros, Frank Lopez, Ruben Magana, Carlos Oropeza and Santos Najar
designed the jack as a safe alternative for changing tires on busy
highways or on roads with limited shoulders.

The Cal Poly teams were supervised by David Cantu, MESA director, and
Ronald Mullisen, professor of mechanical engineering.

The contest was open to all SHPE student chapters in the United States.
The products designed were judged for marketability and benefits to
users. The designs could not duplicate existing products, but could be
improvements to existing products.

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Editors: A photo of the students with their Automatic Wrinkle Remover is
available. Contact Amy Hewes at (805) 756-6402.