Engineering, Computing Students Pitch Solutions to Social Justice Issues



Finding remedies for individuals experiencing foodstuff insecurity, removing boundaries to well being care for transgender persons and strengthening accessibility for folks with disabilities are the best 3 profitable university student challenge strategies in Cal Condition Fullerton’s inaugural “Engineering Social Justice: A Style Problem.”
A full of 14 engineering and computing student teams pitched their tips to address social injustice at the March 16 competitors.
With the prize funds, the prime a few groups and their school mentors will additional produce strategies into alternatives. The winning teams are:
- Initial prize, $6,000 — “Bag/Get” by Open up-Resource Pantry Answers
- Second prize, $4,000 — “TranscendCare: A Complete Engineering Remedy to Transgender Wellness Treatment Disparities” by Crew Unicorn and
- Third prize, $2,000 — “OpenDoors” by Accessibility Squad.
“The Engineering Social Justice level of competition enabled our students to translate their discovering to methods that minimize societal inequities,” stated Susan Barua, dean of the College or university of Engineering and Computer system Science. “It is significant that engineers and laptop experts fully grasp and spend attention to how we can make a variance in society. The engineering devices we layout and the know-how options we develop have to empower persons.”
Profitable Groups Detect, Tackle Social Injustice
Bag/Get — Open-Source Pantry Remedies
Job plan: Bag/Get is a software application that integrates analytics-generating stock administration program with a person-going through software. It lets people today to locate pantries, stroll-in several hours and book appointments, as perfectly as access quick and up-to-day facts on people pantries and their recent inventories of foods. It produces an ecosystem of collaboration between end users, pantries and meals banking institutions.
Community need to have: Pantries often do not get the merchandise their community exclusively demands because of to a deficiency of info and insufficient communication with their foodstuff suppliers. They normally facial area hurdles in preserving monitor of their inventories digitally and distribution of their food stuff stock for the reason that of the complexities inherent to making use of computer software.
Resolution: Provided that over 50 million Us residents in 2021 (USDA and Feeding The usa) turned to foodstuff pantries and programs for supplemental diet, deploying Bag/Get builds an ecosystem concerning concerned parties. The task aims to destigmatize the act of getting foods guidance.
Next techniques: The crew plans to acquire a minimal feasible product or service (MVP) — a new product that is released in the market to get the interest of the people — and get feed-back. The prototype would contain main features that pantries need for person entry, stock management, and creating and exporting analytics.
Crew associates: Rohan Kunchala and Alan Cortez, equally computer system science majors, and
Cesar Rojas, computer system engineering big
School mentor: Kanika Sood, assistant professor of pc science
Quotation: “The deficiency of actual-time interaction and cohesion involving food providers and pantries, as very well as the dismal condition of info and accessibility encompassing pantries and users was introduced to our focus below in Orange County. Metropolitan areas like Santa Ana and Westminster, and college campuses through the county, are primary places to deploy and test our application so we can superior do the job with these underserved communities.”
TranscendCare: A Detailed Engineering Remedy to Transgender Health Treatment Disparities — Crew Unicorn
Challenge idea: myEgg is a private electronic assistant to join transgender men and women with gender-affirming health and fitness treatment expert services. It is a tiny, discreet and safe hand-held gadget that notifies end users when they are in the vicinity of a trans-harmless spot, alerts them when it is time to take drugs and a lot more.
Local community want: Despite an frustrating want, the gender-affirming health care current market is underserved. The staff performed interviews with transgender and LGBTQ+ youth and concluded that a secure hand-held gadget would be the very best solution.
Remedy: myEgg directly combats the concerns and obstacles linked to entry to wellness care for transgender and LGBTQ+ people today. The gadget will enable folks identify and accessibility overall health treatment, link with the community, securely store health care data, and prioritizes bodily and psychological nicely-remaining.
Next methods: The team ideas to create a prototype of the myEgg style and design and test the merchandise with target groups of transgender people today to assemble feed-back.
Team customers: Emily Crowl, Kirsten Ochoa, Felix Murray, Oscar Cisneros and Daniel Truong, all computer system science majors
Faculty mentors: Jin Woo Lee, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Paul Salvador Inventado, assistant professor of pc science
Quotation: “Our project’s ethos is the protection of transgender people today throughout the United States through hassle-free and impactful computer software. By developing a pocket-sized safe room for transgender folks, we can relieve some of the burgeoning issues to this local community and begin to uplift and affirm them by means of health and fitness care.”
OpenDoors — Accessibility Squad
Venture concept: To serve as an obtain guide for customers with disabilities to empower these men and women.
Group have to have: The team’s study found that just about just one-3rd of today’s properties are inaccessible to individuals with obvious and invisible disabilities. The disabled group wants improved accessibility to buildings that are not ADA compliant.
Resolution: The staff is making a website software that assists distribute consciousness of buildings that are not ADA compliant. The team’s hope is to incentivize firms to modify their developing layouts and processes to accommodate people with disabilities.
Future ways: Designs contain integrating the federal business ADA database into the team’s software program to tell disabled communities nationwide on organizations available to them take a look at the application with the disabled group and smooth start the challenge by the stop of the 12 months.
Team customers: Katherine Chen, Stephanie Pocci, Alejandro Ramos, Nolan Delligatta and Cesar Gutierrez, all computer system science majors
Faculty mentors: Jin Woo Lee, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Paul Salvador Inventado, assistant professor of pc science
Quotation: “OpenDoors aims to empower disabled voices, stimulate community areas and organizations to improve accessibility and foster a additional inclusive modern society. OpenDoors’ reviews will also be certain corporations are held accountable for getting obtainable for our total disabled neighborhood as mandated by law.”
The competitiveness was supported by the Scott-Jewett Fund for College student Accomplishment and Innovation. School customers Garrett Struckhoff, Kristijan Kolozvari and Paul Salvador Inventado of the School of Engineering and Pc Science arranged the competitiveness.
Sector judges were being Xyla Foxlin, engineer, entrepreneur and YouTuber, and keynote speaker Joshua Rojo, structural engineer at Degenkolb Engineers Google computer software engineer Joshua Caleb Dy and Thea Merritt, operator and founder of Eco Now. CSUF’s Mojgan Sami, assistant professor of public overall health, served as the faculty decide.
“It is wonderful to see our engineering and computer science students use their superpowers to alleviate some of the most tough challenges of our time — irrespective of whether it’s addressing starvation, health and fitness disparities, weather alter or disability accessibility. These college students give me hope for the upcoming,” Sami mentioned.

