College of Science, Engineering and Technology

For the second consecutive year, GCU made the top 10 of Niche’s Best College Campuses list, scoring a No. 7 ranking (up from No. 8 last year) for its college life — and the accolades don’t end there. The University also is No. 6 on the Best Dorms in America list and No. 7 in Best Online Colleges.

GCU News Bureau Faculty and students from Grand Canyon University‘s College of Science, Engineering and Technology spoke about desert plants, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and more at the American Scientific Affiliation national conference July 26-30 in Wenham, Mass. The annual meeting featured distinguished guest speakers such as Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health, noted for his landmark leadership of the Human Genome Project, as well as noteworthy scientists, theologians, business delegates and students from various countries. The conference highlighted the theme “Bioethics and Biotechnology” and included the following CSET contributions: — Dr. Daisy Savarirajan presented a poster on “Microbiology Through the Lens of the Bible: Antimicrobial Products From Sonoran Desert Plants.” She also was an early career track speaker on “Don’t Leave Undergrad Without It: Wisdom for Thriving in Science” that concluded with a speed mentoring session for undergraduate students. — With GCU-ASA being declared  the largest chapter in the nation, Savarirajan and Zachary Merhavy were invited to participate in the “Local Chapters Seminar” and share their experiences about successful initiation and sustenance of local chapters. — Dr. Ramesh Velupillaimani presented his research work in collaboration with Arizona State University on “God’s Solar Cells: Light-Harvesting Role of β-carotene […]

With computing jobs in such high demand, it’s hard to find and keep skilled computer science teachers, said Corinne Araza, GCU’s Director of STEM Outreach and Program Development. It’s why the recent Code.org courses on the GCU campus were so important. About 90 educators from around Arizona gave up part of their summer to enrich their computer science knowledge, thanks to a partnership between GCU, Code.org and Science Foundation Arizona.

GCU News Bureau College of Science, Engineering and Technology Professor Dr. Ramesh Velupillaimani presented his research findings this summer at the First European Congress on Photosynthesis Research, ePS-1 A Marcus Wallenberg Symposium, in Uppsala, Sweden. His research involved an ultrafast spectroscopic approach to study how green alga (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii), a miniature marvel, captures and converts solar energy into chemical energy. The ultimate goal of this research is the production of fuel directly from the energy of the sun, through natural or artificial photosynthesis, to help meet the world’s energy requirements. During the conference, Velupillaimani visited the homes of two world-famous scientists: Linnaeus Garden and Museum in Uppsala, where Carl Linnaeus lived and worked for almost 50 years — he developed the system for classifying and naming all living things; and the Mendel Museum of Masaryk University at Brno, Czech Republic, home of Gregor Mendel, who was an ordained priest and is known as the “Father of Genetics.”

DNA necklaces and DNA code bead bracelets just might be the unlikeliest type of jewelry. But they were a couple of the academic jewels made by seventh- and eighth- graders Monday at the Thunder Vision Biovision STEM Day Camp. It’s just one of four such camps — the others are Cybervision, Robovision and Technovision — unfurling this week on the GCU campus, courtesy of Strategic Educational Alliances. The camps serve SEA’s mission to support kindergarten- through 12th-grade students and educators while fostering a college culture.

The terminology might sound the same, but when it comes to “nonprofit” and “not-for-profit,” there are subtle differences between the two. So when it comes to referring to Grand Canyon University, it’s important to use the correct terminology: We are a nonprofit.

If you want to get the most out of exercising, it seems that exercising every day makes a difference. Dr. Zachary Zeigler and a team of GCU students looked into the impact of daily exercise versus skipping a day of exercise in men with high blood pressure. Their research was published recently in the academic journal Exercise Medicine. Here’s the skinny on what they found: Don’t skip a day — it appears that daily exercise may be good for your blood pressure.

The Summer Institute isn’t quite like the traditional s’mores and campfire summer camp. Instead, the more than a dozen academic camps in various GCU colleges saw high school sophomores, juniors and seniors learning about Trojan malware, investigating the qualities of polyvinyl alcohol cryogels, writing poetry or executing mock warrants — and making friends while staying in the University’s dorms for the two- to four-day camps. The institute geared up recently with various science camps and will continue throughout the summer with humanities, business, honors camps.

The black-footed ferret was thought to be extinct in the late 1970s until a small population was discovered in Wyoming in 1981. Arizona’s Aubrey Valley became one of the sites chosen to reintroduce the species through a captive breeding program, and GCU biology professor Adrienne Crawford and a small group of students recently helped the program by volunteering for a recent spotlight count of the endangered species.

Gone are the days of only having the option of earning the traditional bachelor’s degree in English or bachelor’s degree in history. Administrators want to make sure the University’s degrees lead to getting a job. So they’ve consulted with experts in the field and have reshaped many of GCU’s degree offerings, which are now “career-focused,” from a bachelor’s degree in history with an emphasis in public history, for example, to a bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in professional writing.