“When I tried to buy steel toe boots, I couldn’t find any in my size — they had no women’s sizes,” she said. She settled for a smaller size in a man’s boot.

It is just one of the adjustments women engineers make in a profession historically dominated by men. As of 2013, only 11.7 percent of engineers in the U.S. were women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Last week Team OC had the opportunity to learn more about one of our first sponsors, Southern California Edison. We spent the morning touring their 31-acre campus in Westminster, California and got a first-hand look at their Advanced Technology Lab facility. At the facility, we learned how the choices we make daily could improve our overall energy-efficiency.

Being in the business of energy distribution simultaneously puts Edison at the forefront of energy-efficiency technology research. One of SoCal Edison’s main foundational concepts is to protect the environment. Two of SoCal Edison’s engineers, Alexsandra Guerra and Stephen Collins, guided us through one of their projects that addresses this: the Irvine Smart Grid Demonstration, more commonly known at SoCal Edison as ISGD. The tour included an interactive walk-through of ISGD’s step-by-step process.

Southern California Edison tested numerous Smart Grid technologies in an attempt to meet the state and federal policy goals for 2020. In its partnership with University of California Irvine, the ISGD project investigates how to measure sustainable energy use through the variety of levels: device level, a house level, a subspace level, and ultimately, the grid at large.
One of our first stops on the tour was in the Garage of the Future. Here we discussed technology that allows an electric vehicle to automatically charge when electricity is at its cheapest. We learned that the most economic time to use electricity is during non-peak hours. Non-peak hours are hours when most people use electricity, resulting in a lower price for consumers during this window of time.
We are fascinated with Smart Grid technologies and the grids’ ability to communicate and operate with one other. At the next stop on the tour, Alexsandra and Stephen explained how residents could utilize their home’s control systems to monitor which appliances utilize the most electricity at any given time. From there, residents can alter using their appliances during non-peak hours to conserve energy, save money, and reduce emissions.

This informative tour of SoCal Edison is just one of the many reasons we are so glad to have them as one of our sponsors. Ultimately, SoCal Edison showed us how the utilization of electricity can coincide with preservation of our environment.

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Check our blog again next week for more updates about Team OC in our mission to Make a Sustainable Future Feel Like Home.

Team OC chased the sun with great strides this first week of June. The organic, cohesive efforts of Team OC are apparent through our consistent progress. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been up to. Some highlights from this week were when we spray painted the outline of Casa del Sol, worked on our SWEC, and revamped our virtual presence.

Team OC officially mapped out Casa del Sol at Irvine Valley College. This white spray paint is just the inception of what’s to come!

Just yesterday graduate student, Moritz Limpinsel, took this candid picture of Zhongyue of UCI working with Dr. Eric Jarvis on the SWEC. The SWEC is a unique prototype for a Sub Wetbulb Evaporative Chiller, and was invented by Dr. Eric Jarvis himself.

Team OC completely revamped our virtual presence. Now there is easier access to our currently trending content such as media from our construction site. In addition, all of our social mediums are linked and visible on our website. Lastly, we updated our sponsor list to show off our amazing sponsors. Be sure to check out our new website and updates about Casa del Sol!

Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for frequent updates about Team OC.

Be sure to visit our blog next week for more updates about Team OC our mission to Make a Sustainable Future Feel Like Home.