Four California State University, Fresno, engineering students have developed technology that will help up to 200 developmentally disabled workers manufacture irrigation equipment.

Arc Fresno trains and employs the workers at three production centers, and has a contract with Netafim Irrigation in Fresno to do work involving precise cutting of irrigation tubing. Professor Shahriar Jahanian in Fresno State's mechanical and industrial engineering department worked with four students on a designer engineering project for Arc Fresno and Netafim.

"This is an application of what they learned in class," Jahanian says.

The students overcame several challenges during the project, which began with brainstorming and concluded with putting together a working machine. The automated machine allows for faster measuring and cutting of tube segments to length, and that automation frees Arc Fresno workers to master more skills and expand their work experience, says Joseph D. Cristando, a spokesman for Arc Fresno.

The final design employs an optical sensor, an encoder and a piston that powers the cutting blade. "Stuff that seems simple is a lot more complex," says student Jayson Emerian, a senior in mechanical engineering. "We ran into problems of alignment."

Student Filipe Moreira says he and the others spent a semester on the project. The two say they enjoyed applying their engineering to fill Arc Fresno's and the Netafim company's need for improved technology. Developing that technology was fun and work.

"Probably more work than fun," Emerian says. "It really makes you think. Some ideas we couldn't do because they were too expensive."