Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering professor and interim chair Jalal Torabzadeh was awarded the prestigious Nicholas Perkins Hardeman Academic Leadership Award at the 2013 CSULB University Achievement Award Ceremony. Last awarded in 2008, the Hardeman award acknowledges significant contributions by faculty members to the principle and practice of shared governance at CSULB.
“Since joining the Mechanical and Aerospace Department in 1986, Dr. Torabzadeh has worked tirelessly on behalf of the university,” says interim university president Don Para. “His professionalism, integrity, ethical values, kindness, willingness to hear the viewpoints of others, and exceptional analytical skills have earned him the respect of his colleagues university-wide.”
Torabzadeh has served on numerous university committees, councils and taskforces during his 27-year career, and has had an impact on a wide variety of issues from enrollment management to grade appeals and advising. He is also active in such professional organizations as the American Society for Engineering Education, the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Los Angeles Council of Engineers and Scientists and the Orange County Engineering Council, and is the recipient of many academic and professional honors including Distinguished Engineering Educator, TRW Excellence in Teaching, SPEI Fellow, SPEI Distinguished Member, SPEI Outstanding Service, PTS Outstanding Service, and CSULB CFA Outstanding Service awards.
The College of Engineering welcomed seven new faculty and administrators during the Fall 2013/Spring 2014 academic year.
Burkhard Englert
Burkhard Englert
CECS Chair
Dr. Englert has been at CSULB since August 2003, and served as the COE’s graduate program coordinator from 2011-2013. He received his PhD from the University of Connecticut in 2000, and his areas of interest include distributed computing, computer security and transportation system simulation and modeling.
Anastassios G. Chassiakos
Anastassios G. Chassiakos
EE Chair
Dr. Chassiakos holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, and been with the College of Engineering since 1992. He served as the director of the California Pre-Doctoral Program for the Office of the CSU Chancellor from 2009-2012, and has extensive experience as a consultant for aerospace manufacturers including Rockwell International and Northrop Corporation.
Nicole Forrest Boggs
Nicole Forrest Boggs
Director of Development
Ms. Boggs comes to CSULB with over a decade of development experience. Most recently she served as Director of Development at Cal Poly Pomona where she was responsible for frontline fundraising in the College of Education and Integrative Studies, Student Affairs, University Library and Presidential Priorities. Prior to her work at Cal Poly Pomona, she was Director of Annual Giving at the University of La Verne. Nicole holds an MBA with a marketing emphasis and Bachelors in Economics.
Ted Yu
Ted Yu
Assistant Professor
Chemical Engineering
Dr. Yu holds a PhD in Materials Science from Caltech and has had many years of experience conducting experimental research at Lawrence Berkeley Labs. His area of interest include alternative energy applications of fuel cells, batteries, solar cells, and artificial photosynthesis.
Mehrdad Aliasgari
Mehrdad Aliasgari
Assistant Professor
Computer Science
Dr. Aliasgari holds a PhD in computer science and engineering from the University of Notre Dame, where he completed a dissertation in “Secure Computation and Outsourcing of Biometric Data.” He also received his masters degree in Computer Science and Engineering Notre Dame, and holds a bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. His research interests include computer security and applied cryptography.
Bob Minaie
Bob Minaie
Boeing Endowed Professor of Manufacturing
MAE Department
Dr. Minaie holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota. His research areas include manufacturing, materials, and mechanics including the use of advanced composites, thin films, and multifunctional nanostructured materials for aerospace, energy, green manufacturing, structural health monitoring, fuel cell, and transportation applications. His research has been supported at a significant level by NASA, ONR, AFOSR, DOE, NSF, and industry. Close collaboration with industry and providing leadership for university-industry-government teams in conducting interdisciplinary and multi-investigator research have been integral parts of his activities. Prior to joining CSULB, he served on the faculty of Wichita State University.
Mahdi Yoozbashizadeh
Mahdi Yoozbashizadeh
Assistant Professor
MAE Department
Dr. Mahdi Yoozbashizadeh holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering with a focus in Manufacturing Engineering from USC and has had six years of experience both as a postdoctoral fellow and research assistant conducting experimental research in the Additive Fabrication and Manufacturing Labs at USC. His research interests include powder metallurgy, 3D printing, metallic part fabrication, rapid prototyping, CAD/CAM and design of experiments.
The CSULB-based California Launch Vehicle Education Initiative (CALVEIN) integrates engineering hands-on education with technology development for tomorrow’s low cost launch vehicles and small spacecraft and provides payload developers with flight opportunities.
NCWIT’s Student Seed Fund Supports Student-led Recruitment Programs
The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) announced today the seventh round of winners of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund, sponsored by Symantec Corporation. Each winner will receive $1,000 for projects that recruit, retain, and encourage girls and women to participate in technology and computing career fields.
The NCWIT Student Seed Fund has provided $53,250 in seed funding for 80 student-run projects at universities and colleges nationwide since 2010. NCWIT Student Seed Fund projects include programming workshops, after-school programs, student mentoring, peer support, professional training, and other opportunities serving thousands of elementary, middle-school, high-school, undergraduate, and graduate students. With Symantec’s support, NCWIT was able to increase the grant awarded to recipients of the seventh round of the NCWIT Student Seed Fund awards.
By Long Beach Press-Telegram
Posted: 12/31/69, 4:00 PM PST | Updated: on 07/06/2013
LONG BEACH — A group of fifth-graders and their parents moved into a Cal State Long Beach dorm Friday to participate in the “My Daughter is an Engineer” residential program.
It’s designed as a live-and-learn experience for the 15 students and their parents to explore the realm of engineering.
The students were selected from six Long Beach Unified and two Compton Unified schools identified as having high-minority student enrollment and serving low-income families. Participating students are from Chavez and Edison elementary schools in Long Beach and Kennedy Elementary School in Compton.
Undergraduate Aerospace Engineering student David A. Stout will be continuing his education at Brown University. A few weeks ago, David was offered and accepted admission to Brown University’s PhD Biomedical Engineering program with a full academic fellowship, where he will be studying under Dr. Thomas J. Webster. Dr. Webster directs the Nanomedicine Laboratory which design, synthesizes, and evaluates nonmaterial for cardiovascular, nerve, and orthopedic implant applications. At Brown, David hopes to use his aerospace education on a multidisciplinary approach to investigate new biomaterials for the cardiovascular system.
MAE Students received the First and the Second Place Awards at the CSULB 2009 Student Research Competition – Engineering & Computer Science category. The competition was held at CSULB on Friday, February 27, 2009, and had 48 contestants in eight different categories. In the Engineering & Computer Science category there were five contestants (2 teams of 2 students and one individual entry), all of them from MAE department!
The award recipients are:
1. Christopher Bostwick and Andrea Smith (pictured at the right), First Place for their project: “Ceramic Matrix Composite Lined Rocket Engine”. They presented their design of a LOX/ethanol rocket engine used to demonstrate a ceramic-matrix-composite-lined ablative concept for increased engine performance. They designed and built the engine which was tested in Nov. 2008 and successfully demonstrated the concept. This work was funded by a Phase I NASA STTR with Hypertherm High Temperature Composites, Inc. of Huntington Beach, CA.
2. David Stout, Second Place for his project: “HawkSat-1 Innovative Component and integration Techniques for CubeSat-Class Satellites”. David Stout presented on the finished Cube Sat-Class Satellite, named Hawksat-1. His research found a way around the high failure-rate of past CubeSat-Class satellites that were launched by showing that Different Commercial-Off-The-Shelf products and can be fully integrated together to create a fully functional CubeSat-Class satellite–an idea that had not been tried before.
Additionally, Adam Vore and David Algarin also received “Honorable Mention” for their project: “Use of High Lift Devices on Tail-less Airplane Designs” (There is no Third Place winner). Normally, the First Place winner in each category will be sent to the CSU statewide(23 campuses) competition to be at CSULA. In the case of the Engineering winners, due to the high quality of their research work and their excellent presentations, the jurors recommended that both first and second place winners would be sent to the statewide competition.
Chris Bostwick, Andrea Smith, and David Stout will represent CSULB at The California State University (CSU) Student Research Competition on May 1-2, 2009, hosted by CSU Los Angeles.
MAE students Christopher Bostwick and Andrea Smith received the First Place Award at the 23rd CSU Student Research Competition in the engineering undergraduate category. The competition was held at CSU Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2, 2009. Their paper, titled “Ceramic Matrix Composite Lined Rocket Engine,” discusses the design of a LOX/ethanol rocket engine used to demonstrate a ceramicmatrix- composite-lined ablative concept for increased engine performance. They designed and built the engine which was tested in Nov. 2008 and successfully demonstrated the concept. This work was funded by a Phase I NASA STTR with Hypertherm High Temperature Composites, Inc. of Huntington Beach, CA.
Ceramic Matrix Composite Lined Rocket Engine This system-wide competition showcased excellent research conducted by CSU undergraduate and graduate students in the full range of academic programs offered by the CSU. Student participants made oral presentations before juries of professional experts from major corporations, foundations, public agencies, colleges and universities in California. The competition is held to promote excellence in undergraduate and graduate scholarly research and creative activity by recognizing outstanding student accomplishments throughout the twenty-three campuses of the California State University
The MAE team for ESRA (Experimental Sounding Rocket Association) won a 1st place overall award this year at the 4th IREC (Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition) in Green River, Utah. The competition involved a team of four students who designed, built and flew an experimental sounding rocket designed to carry 10 lbs. of payload to 10,000 feet AGL. The rocket was built entirely from scratch in one of the member’s garage using cardboard mailing tubes, birch plywood and aluminum. We also built our own electronics package with a custom coded deployment sequence that worked flawlessly in controlling drogue, and main parachute deployment using a combination of three accelerometers, and a barometric pressure sensor. Although we were not the only team to design and build our own flight computer, we were the only team with enough guts to use it as our primary flight computer! we used the commercial computer only as a backup! Scoring for this competition was based on how close our apogee was to 10,000 feet, an oral, and written presentation and general knowledge of the rocket systems specific to our rocket.
We flew a payload designed to visualize flow over the nosecone. we had a clear acrylic body section that had four tufts of yarn glued on. A camera mounted in the nosecone viewed the yarn with four mirrors mounted at a 45 degree angle. the results were great! we had very little flow separation below the nose and were able to get a roll rate from the rocket by using the sun as a reference point.
The Results of our efforts: Our calculated burnout velocity of mach 0.77 was confirmed from the data Our unpowered drag estimate for the rocket was far too small, causing our calculated apogee to be much higher than the actual apogee.
The Parachute deployment sequence was flawless, using a new novel deployment device, that to our knowledge has not been tried before in the field of sounding rockets. (the ideas were borrowed heavily from skydiving parachute systems) The team members: Tim Baker – Design and fabrication Takahiro Morikawa – Aerodynamics and fabrication David Murakami – Trajectory analysis, flight software, electronics and fabrication Adam Vore – Design, fabrication and recovery system Advisors: Charely Hoult Dave McCue
You can watch a video of our flight here on youtube.
BSAE Major, David A. Stout, represented the MAE Department and his mentor, Dr. Hsun-Hu Chen, at a Research Symposium held at Howard University in Washington, D.C., September 28-30, 2008. The undergraduate research program entitled “Presentations on the Hilltop” selected 10 presentations from across the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. David’s presentation, titled “COTS Systems for CubeSats,” showcased his research to the Faculty, Directors, and Deans of Howard University and surrounding institutions.
