Cracchiola, who led the team credited with building the world’s fastest racing wheelchair at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, crushing four world records and winning seven medals, including four gold, recalls reading the expressions in the room that first day: the stunned, the expectant, the fearful and the hopeful.
“We were doing introductions and students stood up and started excusing themselves for their majors,” he said, “saying things like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not an engineer.’”
Cracchiola cut the pity party short: “As of this moment, you’re all engineers.
“If you’re designing and building something new, you’re a designer, you’re an inventor. Period. No excuses. Don’t let a label limit what you can do in this class.”
USC Students Travel to Greece to Develop Real-World Solutions to Refugee Crisis in World Premiere of New Documentary ‘LIVES NOT GRADES’ Presented by KCET
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36 Young Innovators from USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering Learn Lessons Beyond the Classroom Going Up Against “The Greatest Humanitarian Crisis Since World War II LOS ANGELES (PRWEB) April 28, 2021 PBS SoCal and KCET, Southern California’s flagship PBS stations, along with national independent satellite network Link TV, has announced the world premiere of the documentary film LIVES NOT GRADES. The new documentary follows a team of college students at the University of Southern California (USC) as they travel to Greek island of Lesvos as part of a unique course to design and build innovations to improve the lives of refugees. The world premiere of LIVES NOT GRADES debuts in Southern California on Tues., May 4 at 8 p.m. on KCET and enco
Refresh LA, founded in the “Innovation in Engineering and Design for Global Crises” course, helps restaurants sell their leftover food to customers at decreased prices. (Photo Courtesy of Refresh LA)
In the virtual classroom setting of “Innovation in Engineering and Design for Global Crises,” Mallika Jain, Elisa James, Elina Xie and Dea Kurti were challenged to develop an innovative product or service to help solve an issue that was caused or exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. It was in this class, taught by David Gerber, Brad Cracchiola and Daniel Druhora, that the four students began to design their startup company, Refresh LA