San Jose Light Tower

Welcome to the site of the EPICS Spring 2018 Light Tower group!

This site exists to help you learn about our project, our community partner and our members. We will post updates about our progress, celebrate milestones and share what we've learned so far.

Project Description

San Jose is a city that has been at the heart of Silicon Valley, both physically and figuratively, since the beginning. San Jose is a home to tech industry titans and engineers from every corner of the Earth. But unlike other iconic cities around the world, San Jose does not have a landmark that signifies its position as one of the great cities. The San Jose Light Tower Corporation and EPICS have teamed up to further the goal of getting this landmark built, taking inspiration from the original San Jose light tower. The original light tower was a marvel of engineering for the time. It's only fitting that San Jose once again have a landmark worthy of its people and its contributions to the world.

The original San Jose Light Tower- http://digitalcollections.sjlibrary.org

Team Goals

Our team goal is to build a scale model of an early design competition submission. We will collaborate with the students that designed the model and add our own analysis of the structure to allow for the addition of lighting. We will also design and program an interactive lighting system for the model. The model will be displayed at the San Jose Tech Museum as an exhibit and a tool for increasing enthusiasm among the city for the full project.

Member Spotlight

Markanthony Rivera

Project Manager

Markanthony Rivera is a Mechanical Engineering student expected to graduate Spring 2018, and the Project Manager for the SJSU Light Tower team. He grew up in a small town in Southern Monterey County. He enjoys playing board games, kayaking, and listening to scores by Hans Zimmer. His favorite movies are anything by Christopher Nolan. He joined EPICS to give back to the community. Markanthony has worked in schools as a tutor and a TA. He enjoys sparking student’s interest in STEM. In the future, Markanthony hopes to work as a Researcher/Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California where he interned in 2012 and 2013.