Jacobs School of Engineering Students Combine Mechanics and Acting on Reality TV Show

By Rex Graham
December 12, 2005

At least seven UCSD engineering students and one alumnus will appear in a 13-part reality series on the Animal Planet Network called Chasing Nature. The series debuted in early December and is scheduled to continue through early 2006. The series, which was filmed in Australia, features students from top engineering schools in the United States who are challenged to use academic training and practical experience to recreate animal behaviors.

"I would absolutely love to do something like this again," says Jacobs School Ph.D. candidate Albert Lin.

"It's actually quite hard to mimic an animal's behavior and attributes, especially in just five working days," said Chiara Daraio, a Ph.D. candidate in the Jacobs School of Engineering's Materials Science and Engineering Program. "Mother Nature has taken some million years to get things straight."

This week's episode, "Big Horn Ram," features four students, including Scott Anderson, a 2005 graduate of UCSD, whose task was to engineer a skull to protect a fragile glass brain in a 25 mph head-on impact. They based their designs on the impact-absorbing skull structure of male bighorn sheep, which butt heads in vicious collisions during the mating season. Pairs of engineered skulls were attached to the front of dune buggies and crashed into one another. "What I learned at UCSD definitely helped guide our design," said Anderson. "I also took an acting class an undergrad and it helped me get through the long week of filming."

Suzie Keizler, production coordinator with Chasing Nature Beyond Productions in Australia, said the network is not releasing details of the shows in advance. "I can say that in the pilot episode the task was to build a claw that could catch a fish in a fashion similar to a bird of prey," She said.

In each episode, four-student teams are given four or five days to build a physical model that, on a human scale, replicates an important animal characteristic or behavior.

One of the 13 Chasing Nature episodes will feature: Mike Lin (left), Stanford University; Chiara Daraio, UCSD; Nicholas H. Yang, Northeastern University; and Robbie E. Martinez II, Harvard.

While Daraio said she prefers research to reality TV, Albert Lin, a Ph.D. candidate in the Jacobs School of Engineering's Materials Science and Engineering Program, relished his pressure-packed week of filming. "I would absolutely love to do something like this again," he said.

Daraio said her least favorite part of being on a reality TV show was the constant filming. Lin agreed that performing as an engineer before cameras was demanding, but he said the staff were very appreciative. "Everyone involved, from the director to the camera crew, treated us like we were stars," he said.

UCSD alumnus Scott Anderson, class of 2005, credits Jacobs School of Engineering professors for giving him insight into design problems his team faced in a Chasing Nature episode.

Lin will star in an upcoming episode with fellow UCSD engineering graduate student Andrew Gapin and two engineering students from Duke University, Sophia Santillan and Matt Johannes. The Americans had to cope with more than the reversal of seasonal weather patterns in the Southern Hemisphere. "Driving on the left-hand side of the road was definitely interesting," said Gapin. "I kept turning on the windshield wipers whenever I wanted to turn."

Also appearing in the series are three Ph.D. candidates in the Jacobs School's Materials Science and Engineering Program: Rita Finones, Joseph AuBuchon, and Smita J Pathak. Also participating in the series is Shay Shmuel Har-Noy, a Ph.D. candidate in the the Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Finones was a high-flying stunt artist for two days during her stint on the Chasing Nature set. "I enjoy shows such as Fear Factor, so this was a dream come true," she said. "Reality TV is good fun. But, then again, as scientists and engineers, we 'chase nature' every day. That's our job."