College of Science, Engineering and Technology

The commencement speaker Friday, Dr. Rick Rigsby, spoke about his third-grade dropout father and the impact his simple — but profound — words of wisdom have made on his life. Typical of what Rigsby passed on to his audience: “Look at me, graduates. Don’t ever show up on time. That’s mediocre. That’s basic minimum required. Show up early.”

The rapidly expanding College of Science, Engineering and Technology on Friday will graduate its first information technology students. Paul Rodriguez, Jake Womer, Bridgette Smith and Timothy Prescott said it has been a challenging maneuvering through a new program, but found comfort in the words of their professors their freshman year in 2014, who told them they would need to stick together through it all.

Santa found some unlikely elves in GCU mechanical engineering students, who spent more than 12 hours in the days before Thanksgiving helping a nonprofit group, We Are Their Future, build a fantastical Whoville-themed holiday display.

Forget the old-school written log and measuring tape — 3D body scans may be the way of the future. One GCU research team spent the summer looking into the viability of using a mobile device, such as an iPad, and a 3D scanner to gather body dimensions for health and fitness monitoring.

What mechanical engineering major Grant Goodman thought would be a weekend project turned into a seven-month labor of love for him and members of GCU’s electrical engineering club. The club made a specialized wheelchair for Ruby Saunders, whose mobility is limited by cerebral palsy and other health issues.

More than 2,300 students from 65 schools across Arizona tiptoed through cadaver, engineering and DNA labs, and cavorted with 3D printers and robots as part of GCU’s Health, Sciences, Engineering and Technology Day on Wednesday. The goal is to showcase the STEM programs, facilities and clubs GCU offers.

The Arizona Cyber Warfare Range — Metro Phoenix is the first jewel in the crown of what will become a 140,000 square-foot innovation center at Grand Canyon University. Its opening Wednesday, attended by community and industry leaders, was greeted as an important step in the cyber war.

If you know what a pukwudgie, mooncalf, billywig and bowtruckle are, then you might have been one of the muggles at the recent “The Science of Harry Potter” event at the Arizona Science Center. It’s where GCU faculty members Deborah Haralson, Lindsey Kojich and Darien Hall led a talk called “Zoology in the Harry Potter Universe.”

S.M.U.R.F. has nothing to do with little blue creatures who dislike Gargamel. Instead S.M.U.R.F., or Smart Urban Fabrics, is a student research and development group in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology that explores what cutting-edge technologies are able to do. This semester, student researchers in the group are working on mixed reality projects, such as an augmented reality chess program and an augmented reality house.

GCU’s Robotics Club has been gearing up for bigger things. Since it debuted last year, the club has been raising funds and establishing bylaws. But this year, it’s going big with the debut of its first competition robot, Thunderbot, and it made the quarterfinals in its first competition.