Last week The College of Engineering and Computer Science at Sacramento State held its annual event Discussion, Discovery, and Dissemination or D3. D3 highlights the collaborative work being done at the College. They partnered with the College of Natural Science and Mathematics and invite all faculty and students to share what they were working on. It is a great glimpse into what innovation can be done locally.  If you attended you would learn about how collaboration could bring about cool new technologies. 

Leading with collaboration the keynote speaker Professor Chris Cappa PhD from UC Davis shared how over the past decades’ collaboration has lead to innovative research that has sharped policy discussion around covid. That a small thing today could grow into a bigger project in the future. Dean Smith of the College of Engineering and Computer Science highlighted additional collaboration and how faculty came together to support underserved students. 

In breakout rooms, attendees got to hear from faculty on what they were researching. One of our favorites is Professor Atous Yazdani PhD who has been focusing on Safe Reliable Power Systems.  Professor Yazdani has presented at two past meetups and now has students working on real-world problems around Distributed Energy Resources and the Grid.  

Here are some of what the College of Engineering and Computer Science Senior Design Projects have been around:

• Smart Inverters and Volt Var Optimization
• Scalable High-Density Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting System from Roadway Traffic
• Optimized and Coordinated Charging Methods for Electric Vehicles Cost
• Distribution Systems Dynamic Service Restoration Utilizing Load Curves
• Frequency-dependent line modeling and equipment sizing
• Flywheel Energy Storage
• Power system stability evaluation with mass free productions
• Fire in California the cause and solution

Many of those projects are with Cleantech or energy companies that are looking for validation of their solution. Working with the college around energy projects is a great opportunity for startup companies to grow their projects.  D3 is only where they share some of the projects.  If your company has an idea it needs support with connecting with the College of Engineering and Computer Science. 

It was a great event and we were able to connect with people virtually.  I hope to see more private industries attend next year…and maybe see more collaboration and projects with local cleantech companies.