Student Life Stories

05/22/2013

Kimm Fesenmaier

Caltech's Class of 2013 is a group of passionate, curious, and creative individuals who have spent their undergraduate years advancing research, challenging both conventional thinking and one another.

02/09/2012

KISS Selects Student-led Rover Project for Funding

Kimm Fesenmaier

The Keck Institute for Space Studies has announced that it will fund a new student-led mini program, giving a handful of undergraduate students the opportunity to help develop instruments for an extreme-terrain rover called Axel, which could one day be used to explore the moon, Mars, or an asteroid.

01/20/2012

Winners of the Doris S. Perpall SURF Speaking Competition Announced

Allison Benter

Seven finalists, named the best speakers out of 290 who presented their research on SURF Seminar Day in October, competed in the third and final round of the Doris S. Perpall SURF Speaking Competition on January 19. Three juniors won the top honors, with Kevin Gu in first place, Anum Jang Sher in second, and Matthew Mayers in third.

01/19/2012

S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation Gives $25 Million to Enrich Campus Life, Outreach Programs

Shayna Chabner McKinney

With an interest in enhancing the living and learning environment at Caltech, the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation has pledged $25 million to support campus life and outreach programs.

01/18/2012

SURF Student Orators Set for Final Round of Competition

Kimm Fesenmaier

Seven Caltech undergrads will do their best to impress, inform, and generally dazzle the audience and judges in the final round of the Doris S. Perpall SURF Speaking Competition Thursday at 2 p.m. in the Beckman Institute auditorium.

12/16/2011

Undergrad Finds New Inspiration in Honduras

Katie Neith

When Giulio Rottaro elected to take a year off from his physics studies at Caltech to teach kids with special needs in rural Honduras, his parents, along with many of his peers, questioned his choice to leave school. But for Rottaro, who is now back in Pasadena and completing his senior year, it just seemed like the right thing to do. As a native of Venezuela, he attended a bilingual school as a young child and felt a strong desire to give something back to a similar community.

11/21/2011

DNA Robotics Research Earns Undergrads a Gold Prize at BIOMOD 2011 Competition

Katie Neith

A team of undergrads recently received accolades for their research at an international competition in Boston. Their studies, which earned them a gold award at the 2011 International Bio-Molecular Design Competition, started out as a summer undergrad research fellowship (SURF) project. The group also received a third place ranking in the "best wiki" prize category, based on a series of web pages that explained their project, "DeoxyriboNucleicAwesome."

11/18/2011

Beaver Basketball Begins

Marcus Woo

Caltech basketball tips off with the first games of the season on Saturday. Cheer on the women as they face Pacific University in Braun Gym at 4 p.m. The men, who are coming off their historic season last year in which they broke a 310-game conference losing streak, play Vanguard University in Costa Mesa at 2:30 p.m.

11/11/2011

Student Group Aims to Highlight the Importance of Mental Health

Kimm Fesenmaier

A new student group, Active Minds at Caltech, is dedicated to getting the word out on campus about the importance of mental health.

11/09/2011

The Magnetic Moon

Marcus Woo

A team of scientists, led by a former Caltech undergrad, are proposing a new solution to a decades-long lunar mystery: how did the ancient moon power its now-defunct magnetic field?

11/04/2011

Students Take SURF Research to Boston for International Competition

Katie Neith

Their summer research is about to take a group of Caltech undergrads SURFing across the country for a global competition. The students, gold medal winners in last month's International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) regional competition, are headed to MIT this weekend for the world championship jamboree.