Director of Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness visits Rice’s OEDK

Don Graves, executive director of President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, spent time July 25 at Rice University’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. President David Leebron and Associate Dean of Engineering Bart Sinclair gave him a tour of the student engineering facility and, with other university officials, engaged in a discussion of how Rice is encouraging entrepreneurship through the senior design projects that are required of most Rice engineering students.

Also present for the meeting were Vice Provost for Research Vicki Colvin, Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship Managing Director Brad Burke, Rice Center for Engineering Leadership Director Mark Embree and Vice President for Public Affairs Linda Thrane.

Pictured: From left, Danielle Evers, the council’s associate director; Graves; Kinder Institute for Urban Research Co-Director Stephen Klineberg; and Leebron listen as engineering student Jade Juzswik demonstrates her summer design team’s low-cost pediatric goniometer, which is used by physical therapists to measure joint angles. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow)