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Letter: U. engineering school does more than talk about climate change

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah president Taylor Randall, left, helps unveil a new name for the College of Engineering at the University of after the announcement of a $50 million gift from philanthropists and benefactors John and Marcia Price to fuel scholarships and a new building during a ceremony on Tuesday, Jan 10, 2023.

In a Jan. 15 letter to The Public Forum, Joseph Andrade complained about our recent event celebrating a $50 million gift for the college because no one “noted the key engineering and socio-political problem of our time — no one mentioned climate change, global warming, sea level rise, severe weather.”

But our engineering faculty prefer to do more than just speak up. They take action to address pressing issues like these. For example, Professor Kevin Whitty is researching ways hydrogen can be used as a clean energy source. Professor Kerry E. Kelly is developing personal air quality sensors that track pollution in Salt Lake County. Professor Masood Parvania is developing techniques to enable the electrical grid to deal with the onslaught of electric vehicles.

Faculty in electrical and computer engineering are developing semiconductor devices and circuits to reduce the consumption of power in electronic devices from phones to laptops. Professor Kody Powell’s award-winning Intermountain Industrial Assessment Center has helped more than 100 Utah businesses save energy and reduce emissions.

Faculty members from civil and environmental engineering and chemical engineering run a project called FORGE, the country’s largest laboratory developing clean geothermal energy. And chemical engineering faculty are improving methods of carbon capture for power plants.

Those are just a few of the many projects the faculty and students from the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering are engaged in to tackle the energy and environment challenge. And thanks to this generous gift, we will graduate even more engineers who will address this and many other issues to help improve our quality of life. That’s because engineers are born and educated to do more than just complain about a problem — they want to solve it.

Vince Horiuchi, public relations, University of Utah John and Marcia Price College of Engineering

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