Cal Poly Pomona Delta Beta

As a result of the efforts of Kenneth J. Schneider, Mechanical Engineering Department head, the admission of Cal Poly, Pomona, as a chapter of Pi Tau Sigma was petitioned for and granted in the spring of 1971.

An initiation banquet was held on May 10, 1971. Donald R. Haworth, national president, and E. L. Dowty, western regional vice president, were present to install the Delta Beta chapter of Pi Tau Sigma and to initiate its twenty-one charter members.

Members of the Delta Beta chapter, in the tradition of Pi Tau Sigma, wish to encourage and promote professionalism in mechanical engineering. Activities planned are to aid in registration and counseling of mechanical engineering students and to initiate a tutoring program for underclassmen.

ANNUAL SUMMARY REPORTS

2023-2024 Juliet Nordman - President

The 2023-2024 academic year was a great success for Cal Poly Pomona's Delta Beta chapter. We grew by 33 students, hosted multiple informational workshops, and celebrated the end of a successful year with a big banquet. 

The main focus of the club's efforts was to grow the club and strengthen members personal and professional skills. 

We conducted activities including multiple resume workshops where students would bring their printed resume and get personal feedback from multiple officers, additional resources were provided such as slides and a YouTube video. 

We held a talk presented by a Boeing hiring manager to discuss resumes, industry, and provide general advice. Questions were answered and multiple student resumes were reviewed. 

We co-hosted a banquet with ASME and over 80 guests in celebration of a successful year, this was a large event that our club spent much time and effort on. This event was open to all mechanical engineering students and faculty, industry representatives were present. A talk was given by a retired aerospace director. 

We had an informational workshop on graduate school discussing all steps to the application process, the timeline, and provided resources for applications and financial aid. 

We had t-shirts made for every member and new initiate at no cost to the students. 

 

Fall 2023 initiation was held on November 30th, 2023, with 14 new initiates. A make up initiation was held for one additional student on the same day (Nov 30th) at a different time. 

Spring 2024 initiation was held on May 2th, 2024, with 8 new initiates. A make up initiation was held on May 7th, 2024, with 10 new initiates.  

 

2022-2023 Ana Jurado - President

The 2022-2023 academic year was the first fully in-person year for Cal Poly Pomona’s Delta Beta chapter since the pandemic. Transitioning back to in-person events was something that proved to be more difficult than expected, as students were simply not used to the in-person dynamic. Despite the obstacles that came with this change, the club was successful at organizing and participating in various events throughout the year to keep members and prospective members engaged and motivated.

The club successfully hosted multiple department-wide and members-exclusive events with the main focus of getting students engaged with other students, on-campus resources, and professional engineers to help promote their personal and professional development. The first event was a collaboration with our campus ASME chapter as we hosted a joint meeting with guest speaker Nikkiso Cryoquip. The president of the company, and former PTS chapter president, attended the meeting and spoke to students about his experience as a PTS member and how that helped move his career forward. The next event we hosted was a member-exclusive technical challenge of an egg drop. The event was created to give students a chance to apply their engineering knowledge in a fun activity. Students were given one hour to design, build, and put their built contraptions to protect an egg to the test. The next event the club participated in was a university-wide club fair. This event allowed the students to learn about the chapter and ask officers questions. The chapter then also participated in the CPMCA (California Plumbing & Mechanical Contractors Association) networking event put together by a college-wide organization. As a collaborator at the event, members were able to participate and learn about the industry while meeting alumni and other PTS members.

The next event put together was an Interview Prep/Mock Interview Workshop for members only in collaboration with the career center. Students learned what to expect in an interview, important tips, and were able to practice in the interactive mock interview portion of the workshop. The following event hosted was another joint meeting with ASME with guest speaker ACCO Engineered Systems. The engineering manager of the company, and former president of the PTS chapter, explained his career to students and talked about how PTS helped him in that industry. Next, another joint meeting with ASME was hosted with a guest speaker from Cadence Aerospace giving a talk on “How Engineers Save the World.” The last event was the department’s annual ME Awards Banquet to commemorate a year of hard work and success. Hosted jointly with the department, ASME, and CPP Robotics, it was hosted in person at Pomona Valley Mining Company. The banquet featured student awards, faculty awards, raffles, networking, and a great time for all attendees.

With the organization of department-wide and member-exclusive events, the club was successful in promoting Pi Tau Sigma, excellence within the department, the college of engineering, and the university as a whole.  

Fall 2022 Initiation: December 1, 2022

Fall 2022 Makeup Initiation: December 1, 2022

Spring 2023 Initiation: May 4, 2023

 

2021-2022 Sarga Shrestha – President

The 2021-2022 academic year was one of change for Cal Poly Pomona’s Delta Beta chapter. Focusing on transitioning from the quarantine and online environment to one that is more in-person and engaging, the club was successful at organizing events to bring engagement to the club members and increase member involvement. As a result of this effort to bring students together, membership has increased from years prior.

The club successfully hosted multiple department-wide and club-exclusive events with the focus on smoothly transitioning from the virtual to in person environment, while still offering information to assist students with their future careers. The first event was a collaboration workshop with the Career Center offered to all Mechanical Engineering (ME) students and the topic was “Interview Tips” and advice on what to do after the Career Fair. This event was hosted during the Fall 2021 semester and due to many students not being comfortable having an in-person event, it was decided that this event would be virtual. During this event, speakers from the Career Center gave a presentation focusing mostly on industry style interviews, speaking about types of interviews and what to expect in each type of interview, and during the last quarter of the workshop, presented tips on what the students should/shouldn’t do during and after the career fair. There was significant participation from the audience and the presentation was very informative and engaging. The last few minutes of the workshop consisted of a small Q&A session, where the speakers gave insightful answers to the audience’s questions.

The next event was the Graduate School Experience Panel, and this was an in-person event exclusive to Pi Tau Sigma members. This panel consisted of professors who volunteered to speak about their time in grad school.  More specifically, they talked about their time in grad school, what led them to decide to go to grad school, and what type of work they had to do in order to get their degrees. There were three professors who volunteered for this event. However, one of this chapter’s members were working toward their master’s degree and was also willing to present his experience so far in their journey for that degree. The presentations were very informative, and the audience was very attentive, with lots of dialogue being passed around between the speakers and audience.

Lastly, the ME department’s main clubs, ASME and PTS, held our annual ME banquet, which was also a department-wide student organized event. However, prior to last year, this year’s event was in-person hosted at the Sheraton Fairplex Conference Center in order to promote the transition from online to in-person environment. This banquet, as previous years, featured various guest speakers, raffles, and student awards, and was very successful in attracting significant student and faculty participation. 

With the organization of department-wide and club-specific events and the increased membership, the club was successful in promoting the reputation of the department and the future growth of this chapter here at Cal Poly Pomona.

 

2020-2021 Cullen Kiriyama – President

The 2020-2021 academic year was one of growth for Cal Poly Pomona’s Delta Beta chapter. Focusing on community and engagement during the pandemic, the club was successful at fostering and hosting events to bring engagement and togetherness to students in such a time of uncertainty and anxiousness. Despite this, through the community and widespread department outreach from Pi Tau Sigma, membership has increased from years prior.

With an emphasis on trying to reconnect students virtually, the club did well at hosting department-wide events that were both inspiring and catered towards the students’ interests. Included in these events was a mixture of various different guest speakers and virtual tours from many industries. Virtual tours from lead engineers at the “Orange County Sanitation District” and the “Metropolitan Water District of Southern California” allowed students to interact and engage with lead representatives that were both intriguing and informative. Designed to draw interest for these specific fields, these tours also offered some insight and help towards potential future employment for the club’s members. Apart from waste water, students were also introduced to the aviation and nuclear industries. Unknowingly to the club and department’s students, these tours introduced unique fields of engineering and tips on how to break through into the industry. In addition to hosting these events, members from Pi Tau Sigma represented on behalf of the mechanical engineering student population to serve in department-wide forums to share their own personal experience having been chosen because of their academic success in the curriculum.

Prior to last year, the department’s main clubs, ASME and Pi Tau Sigma, held the ritual of co-hosting the end of the year banquet. Since the unfortunate cancelling of last year’s banquet due to the pandemic, the club made it a point of emphasis to revive this tradition. Designed at acknowledging and rewarding those that have embraced and contributed greatly to the department, the event celebrates the department’s success over the year. With a light-hearted approach, the agenda succeeded by featuring various guest speakers, raffles and giveaways, and a chance for ME-related clubs to plug their success for the 2020-2021 school year. Most importantly, Pi Tau Sigma conducted polls to give out student-voted awards specifically for professors within the department to acknowledge their hard work and commitment to the program. The banquet, which upon completion was praised by students and faculty alike, attracted substantial student and faculty attendance and interaction. Far exceeding the club’s expectations, the banquet was a huge success.

Tasked with a large learning curve, the Delta Beta Chapter succeeded at navigating new territories and utilizing virtual learning to adopt a new approach and experience for its members. Forced inside, the club lead and engaged with its fellow department organizations to re-instate the community that had been missing when the pandemic struck. Resulting in increased membership, the club trailblazed the path of this new learning experience and placed the foundation for future growth of the Delta Beta Chapter at Cal Poly Pomona.

 

2019-2020 John Hooman Kasraei - President (Spring 2020)

The 2019-2020 academic year was a unique year for the Cal Poly Pomona Delta Beta chapter. With the school still working on smoothing out the transition from quarters to semesters and new policies affecting our recruitment procedures, new member enrollment was low. Covid-19 also reduced engagement opportunities between PTS and the community.   

The motto at Cal Poly Pomona is “learn by doing”, however, that doesn’t tell the whole story. At Cal Poly Pomona, it is more than taking labs for classes, it is active engagement with everything we do. We engage with our classes by going beyond learning the theories, we apply them, we engage in projects going outside our major, we engage with industries trying to solve problems, and we engage with our communities to help.   

With all the bumps in the road that we experienced this school year, we still found a way to support whoever needed help. We continued to hold information sessions talking about “Getting that Interview” and industry events and conferences in the Southern California area, co-hosting resume reviews with Materials Advantage, and tutoring sessions for students. 

When school went online due to Covid-19 and there being stories of internships/jobs becoming cancelled, a lot of students became anxious about what to do. In order to alleviate this, PTS hosted two online based open-forums with people from industry so that students could get questions answered and see different perspectives. The event was attended by engineers, managers, and a VP from Northrop Grumman, Honeywell, Teradata, Goodyear, and Johnson & Johnson. Since Covid-19 affected everyone, all the engineering clubs at Cal Poly Pomona were invited with their students in their respective majors. All the connections made at the 2020 PTS convention were invited along with their invites too. The event answered questions as to what companies were doing in response to the pandemic, what students could do to improve themselves, and any other questions they may have such as technology and manufacturing methods. 

The 2019-2020 academic year presented difficulties that the Delta Beta Chapter overcame and learned from. With school policies affecting enrollment procedures and Covid’s impact on student and community engagement, the next year’s board learned what it takes to grow and prosper in these uncertain times. With the PTS members from other schools, hopefully they learned from the open-forums and can improve their 2020-2021 academic year as well.

 

2018-2019

Minna Mattis - President

The 2018-2019 academic year was a big learning experience for the CPP Delta Beta chapter. Big changes made at the university-wide level deeply impacted the well-being of many smaller clubs and organizations on campus. With a decrease in membership this year, our chapter struggled to host the amount of events and activities were are used to.

At Cal Poly Pomona, the “learn by doing” philosophy often extends past the walls of the classroom and into the scope of the community. For that reason, each year we emphasize participation in a variety of local and school activities. Because of lower levels of student membership and involvement, we encouraged our members to participate individually in volunteer events to spread the good name of Pi Tau Sigma. This year, members of the chapter volunteered at such on-campus events as the Femineers Summit, Introduce a Girl to Engineering event, Engineering Scholars Day, and the annual Robot Rally. The purpose of these events change but the overall goal is to introduce K-12 kids to engineering and inspire them to be part of the STEM community. Pi Tau Sigma Delta Beta members also volunteered off campus doing outreach in elementary schools, helping in senior homes, volunteering at charity races, etc.

In addition to encouraging members to participate in events that support others, we also encourage our members to participate in events that are aimed to help themselves and their careers. This year we offered two tours at Wacker Chemical Corporation and Boeing. At these tours, our members had the opportunity to see how their curriculum at school translates to the real world. Because not all students are able to participate in off-campus events during school days, we also host a number of industry events on campus during meetings. Guest speakers from industry, commonly CPP professors or alumni, are invited to come and talk to members, often giving an overview of their specific job and company and focusing on a topic related to their success. These events give our members the chance to see what opportunities await them after graduation and promote networking and good university-industry relations.

At the end of every school year, Pi Tau Sigma partners with the student run ASME chapter and the Mechanical Engineering Department to host a Banquet. This event serves to honor students and members of the faculty for their contribution to their community, the university, and the Mechanical Engineering field. This year, the speaker was Moein Lak, an engineer working for the Grid Application Integration group in the Grid Modernization & Resiliency organization at Southern California Edison (SCE).

Overall, the 2018-2019 academic year served as a challenging learning experience for the Delta Beta Chapter. Although the officers did their best to carry on with traditional club duties, the low return rate and membership growth forced CPP Delta Beta to focus on what we deem important to our legacy as a club. We hope we have left the chapter in a place where they can learn from these challenges in order to continue to grow and prosper in the years to come.

2017-2018 Benny Ly – President

The 2017-2018 Academic school year has been an eventful one for the CPP Delta Beta chapter. With an increase in membership this year, more events and activities were able to happen. At Cal Poly Pomona, there is an emphasis in helping in our community because our mantra is “Learn by doing.” For that reason, each year we participate in a variety of local and school activities. This year, members of the chapter volunteered at the Cal Poly Pomona’s Annual Robot Rally, as well as, the local one held for the Pomona School District called the Robotics Field Day. These events are for students from grade school to middle school, where they are tasked to make a robot capable of during various tasks. The robots they make must be able to follow a line using a sensor, navigate through a maze and push another robot out of a ring. Members of PTS helped proctor these events and help inspire the younger generation to consider engineering as a possible career path.
Towards the end of the year, the Delta Beta chapter organized a tour with a local engineering company, Applied Medical. At this tour, members were shown how the medical industry develops some of their tools and devices. More importantly, it showed students how their curriculum at school translates to the real world.
At the end of every school year, Pi Tau Sigma partners with the student run ASME chapter and the Mechanical Engineering Department to host a Banquet. This event serves to honor students and members of the faculty for their contribution to their community and Mechanical Engineering. This year, the event was held at the Kellogg Mansion, located on the top of our campus. We were honored to have Jesus Montes, the Senior Executive Officer of Vehicle Acquisition at LA Metro, talk about his career and how he has evolved as an engineer.
Overall, the 2017-2018 school year has been an eventful one for the Delta Beta chapter. There were a lot of outreach and volunteering done by members of the chapter, such as the CPP Robot Rally and Robotics Field Day. With a steady growth in membership from previous quarters and years, the student run chapter has a promising future ahead.