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Intellect

Top BYU Feature Videos of 2022

Check out the top research and BYU innovation videos of the year

Clean water for Pakistan
A BYU engineering capstone team designed a prototype for an affordable, easy-to-use water filtration device to purify water in Pakistan, where contaminated water sources cause about 30% of diseases. The students tested the device in the duck pond on south campus and found that it removed almost all pathogens from the murky water; 15 devices based on the team’s prototype went into use in Pakistan almost immediately.

See the BYU engineering students test their water filtration device at the campus duck pond. Video producer: Julie Walker; Editors: Julie Walker and Matt Mitchell; Videographer: Adam Sanders.

Light shared
“Light shared is the best kind of light”: BYU seeks to expand joy in the world through inspiring learning, by which university members serve and connect with all God’s children in lasting ways. Below is the 2022 institutional message, shared most widely during broadcasts of BYU football and BYU basketball.

Light Shared: BYU Message 2022. Produced by Julie Walker, edited by Adam Sanders.

World’s smallest Book of Mormon
What has 291,652 words and fits on a 4-inch diameter silicon disc? That would be the world’s smallest copy of the Book of Mormon, produced by a group of engineering students with BYU professor Aaron Hawkins. Physically engraved à-la-Moroni and coated with a layer of gold in a nod to the gold plates from which the text originates, these “scriptures on a chip” should long outlast other existing forms of storage (although you’ll need a microscope to read them).

World's smallest Book of Mormon. Video produced by Julie Walker, filmed by Adam Sanders, Barret Schoenrock; Edited by Matt Mitchell and Emily Ooi

Counting polar bears
Sponsored by Polar Bears International and led by BYU professors Tom Smith and Terri Bateman, a group of BYU engineering capstone students traveled to the Arctic and traversed the terrain in Tundra Buggies, looking for polars bears to image using synthetic aperture radar. Once back at BYU, the group analyzed the radar images to identify the “signature” of polar bears, a step toward using radar to locate bears in underground dens, which is crucial in conservation efforts for the endangered animals.

BYU and Polar Bears International count polar bears with synthetic aperture radar. Video produced by BYU University Communications in conjunction with PBI and Handcraft Creative. Producer Julie Walker, Editor Adam Sanders, Assistant Editors Barret Schoenrock and Matt Mitchell. Footage courtesy PBI.

Origami inspires innovation
Origami, the ancient art of folding paper into complex shapes, has inspired BYU engineers to create dozens of patented designs, from medical devices to wearable tech like a folding bullet-proof shield — and they’ve even designed a giant solar array for NASA.

Origami Innovations at BYU have led to licensed technology, such as the ATCS ballistic barrier. Video produced and edited by Julie Walker; Cinematography by Brian Wilcox.

Mars rover
“The BYU Mars Rover isn’t going to Mars, but the people who are developing it might,” according to student Dallin Cordon, who was part of the BYU’s Mars Rover team selected as one of 36 finalists to compete in this year’s University Rover Challenge. Learning team building and systems engineering, students in the international competition designed rovers that could operate in the rocky, harsh environment of the Red Planet, testing them out in the Mars-like desert near Hanksville, Utah. Cordon noted that many BYU engineering alumni now work in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The BYU Mars Rover Team finished in the top 10 out of 100 original entrants in the University Rover Challenge. Video produced by Julie Walker; edited by Adam Sanders.

Freshman Y
Freshmen came together to celebrate belonging at BYU by creating the time-honored Incoming Class Y-Photo. This mesmerizing time-lapse video captured the whole process.

BYU Welcomes 2022 Freshman Class

Quinoa
Resilient and nutrient-rich, quinoa is a promising “miracle grain” substitute for the corn, wheat and rice crops that are difficult to grow in increasingly arid climates around the world. To make quinoa a more viable food source, BYU plant and wildlife sciences professor Rick Jellen and his team have sequenced the genomes of many quinoa varieties and developed new quinoa strains, which are already being grown to feed people in developing countries.

BYU is helping feed the world with drought-resistant Quinoa. Video Producer: Julie Walker; Cinematographer: Brian Wilcox, Post Production Manager: Adam Sanders; Editor: Emily Hyatt

Blue zone tips
Looking to live a longer, more joyful life? BYU students traveled with public health professor Randy Page to Ikaria, Greece, to study one of the world’s five “blue zones,” areas known for health and longevity. They brought back lifestyle tips to share.

"Blue zone" tips from the world's healthiest people. Produced by Julie Walker; edited by Julie Walker, Todd Jackson. Videographers: Adam Sanders, Matt Mitchell, Randy Page, Tana Page, Carly Ludlow.

“Stowaway”
BYU Animation proved its chops again, winning a Student Emmy at the 41st College Television Awards for “Stowaway,” a short film about the shenanigans that ensue when two pirates attempt to rid their ship of a baby kraken they find hiding aboard. Despite pandemic disruptions, the tight-knit group of students who produced the film worked long hours and considered every detail, down to the Crocs and jeggings sported by their unconventional pirates.

BYU Animation wins Student Emmy for Stowaway. Video produced by BYU University Communications (Producer: Julie Walker; Post Production Manager: Adam Sanders; Editor: Matt Mitchell. Additional footage and images provided by Chelsea Domino and Ethan Briscoe).

Artemis launch
A BYU acoustics team, noted for studying the world's loudest sounds, shares its first-hand account of measuring audio levels during NASA's epic Artemis launch in November. Undeterred by two hurricanes and other challenges, the BYU team of undergraduate students (led by professors Kent Gee and Grant Hart) used their customized field equipment to record high intensity audio of the launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Artemis up-close: BYU acoustics collects data from NASA's big launch. Video produced by Julie Walker and edited by Matt Mitchell. Videographers: Adam Sanders, Matt Mitchell.

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