Difference Makers, May 2012

Two Microsoft software engineers have been awarded the grand prize in the U.S. Energy Department’s “Apps for Energy” competition. Tim Edgar, CA A 2008, was one of the developers for the app, called Leafully. The app works “by allowing users to log in on its website with their Facebook accounts and compare how much energy they’re using and saving against their friends.”

The competition was to “develop an application that helps utility customers visualize the energy they consume in different ways, such as the number of trees needed to offset the amount of energy an individual uses.” Edgar is a former Tau Beta Pi CA Alpha president and current District 14 Director and chapter advisor.

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The inventor of the first wireless TV remote control, Eugene J. Polley, passed away earlier this month at the age of 96. First sold in 1955, the “Flash-Matic” ray-gun remote control also feature the first mute function. The remote was developed at Zenith.

Polley’s son, Eugene J. Polley, Jr. (IL B 1970), is a member of Tau Beta Pi. Read the obituary from The Washington Post

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The Washington Post recently detailed a community service trip by the Howard University chapter of Engineers Without Borders. The “nine-member team is building a rainwater-harvesting unit and filtration system as well as installing six biosand filters” in Choimim, about 200 miles from Nairobi, Kenya.

The work will provide water to an orphanage and other village families who on average walk three miles a day to gather water. Dr. John Tharakan, DC A ’82, is the faculty advisor on the trip. Water resources engineer, Ken Ludwa (IL A ’92), is also helping lead the team of engineers. Read the article

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