EE major Alia Bonetti, center, with EE Chair Anastasios Chassiakos, left, and Tesoro lead electrical engineer Kyle Weeks, right.
Electrical engineering senior Alia Bonetti has gotten a lot out of her internships with Tesoro. Since connecting with the company at a CSULB job fair, she’s worked for two summers, learned about the type of engineering she’d like to pursue–and won the campuswide Internship Essay Contest.
And late last year, she received something even more exciting: a job offer to work as a Tesoro electrical engineer after graduation this spring.
Calling her summer internships “a fantastic learning experience,” Bonetti said she worked on upgrades for protection systems and conducted electrical safety systems studies. “I got to do real engineering work, not busy work. I learned a lot about the type of engineering I want to do and the type of engineer I want to be.”
The CSULB Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department (CECS) is working on a $62,000 pilot project to build a software application that would help the city of Long Beach improve inspection of its hundreds of miles of sewer lines.
The application being developed by CSULB engineering faculty and students would add some automation to the inspection process through a software tool that scans video images to detect problems.
The city’s aging network of sewer pipes must be regularly inspected to keep drains flowing freely—a process that takes about a decade to complete. The inspection process is currently carried out by video cameras that are pushed through tunnels to capture images that are viewed by employees visually checking for problems or needed repairs. Continue reading “CECS Project Aims to Help City with ‘Tunnel Vision’”
California State University Long Beach’s research partnership with the Southern California Gas Co. is the proverbial win-win. The utility suggests topics and provides financial support, CSULB engineering students conduct research, and at the end of the year, Southern California Gas Co. receives answers to pressing questions. Students, meanwhile, gain valuable experience and a shot at a job with the nation’s largest natural gas distribution utility.
The 3-year-old CSULB program is led by Rodger R. Schwecke, the Gas Co.’s Vice President of Customer Solutions. Schwecke, a 1983 B.S. in chemical engineering graduate, oversees major customer-related activities for SoCalGas, including account executives, customer communications and eservices. He is also responsible for customer programs promoting energy efficiency, sustainability, low-income assistance and the development of new emerging technologies, including clean transportation, distributed energy, in-home services and biofuels. Continue reading “Roger Schwecke Leads CSULB Gas Co. Research Program”
Nearly 200 students and faculty turned out this week for a special screening of “Code: Debugging the Gender Gap,” a documentary that examines the reasons more women aren’t pursuing careers in computing.
The screening–sponsored by the Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department—was followed by a panel discussion with Wonder Women Tech Founder Lisa Mae Brunson and Director of Global Partnerships Simmone Park; WE Labs and Innovatory Managing Partner Lincoln Bauer; and three female CSULB computer science alumni; Bonnie Hoang, Eileen McCremens, and Siori Hojo. Continue reading “Code Documentary Opens Gender Dialogue”
Kenneth Santarelli, director of the CSULB College of Engineering Antelope Valley degree-completion program, has been recognized for his work in producing mechanical and electrical engineering graduates who are ready to join the workforce.
Santarelli was presented with awards from Congressman Steve Knight, State Senator Sharon Runner, Assemblyman Tom Lackey, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris and Agents of Change for recruiting and graduating students in the program.
Offered in partnership with CSULB’s College of Continuing and Professional Education, the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Degree Completion Program is designed for students who are interested in completing their B.S. degree in electrical or mechanical engineering and have completed their first two years of coursework at a community college or other university.
Not only does the U.S. Department of Energy support 17 research labs, but also many internship and fellowship programs for students. U.S. DOE representative Sandra Cortez was at CSULB Wednesday to find candidates for the Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship and other programs.
The Mickey Leland fellowship, named after the late Texas congressman and anti-poverty activist, was created in 1995 to improve opportunities for underrepresented STEM students. It provides college students with a chance to develop research skills with the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy.
For 10 weeks during the summer, participants train under program officials and scientists, then present their research findings at a technical forum. The deadline to apply is December 21.
“Fossil energy isn’t the most popular area among students, but it still needs a lot of attention,” said Cortez.
The DOE’s Fossil Energy work includes research and development into clean coal, maintaining the nation’s emergency petroleum reserves, ensuring environmentally sustainable domestic and global supplies of oil and natural gas, and regulating natural gas imports and exports.
The 50 students selected for the fellowship each receive a weekly stipend, housing subsidy, and round-trip airfare from home to the national lab where they are assigned. The fellowship runs from June 6-August 12 and begins with a trip to the DOE’s Washington, DC-area office.
Besides the Mickey Leland fellowship, the DOE offers a number of other programs, including the Science Undergraduate Lab Internship (SULI), the Office of Science Graduate Fellowship, the Minority Educational Institution Student Partnership Program (MEISPP), and the DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. The department also offers year-round research opportunities for scholars and faculty.
Writing a business plan is critical to understanding all facets of the business, says Bruce Sparks, a senior business advisor for the Long Beach Small Business Development Center.
Innovation Challenge Advisory Committee member Larry Pate compared starting a business without a business plan to taking a cross-country trip without knowing how you’ll reach your destination. “The odds of success of just getting in the car and driving are slim. You might have a fun time, but it will take you a long time to get there.”
Students interested in entering the 2015 Innovation Challenge got a lesson Tuesday in a key part of the competition: creating the business plan. The contest offers $50,000 in seed funding and business services to the winning business idea.
Adam Moore, Sebastian Gutierrez, and Elliot Gertner preview Gutierrez’s new game, ‘Duke n Doug’s Trampoline Rush.’
It takes more than a compelling storyline to produce a successful videogame. Besides a storyteller, a game development team needs visual and sound artists, marketers, and software engineers to build the game and launch it on different platforms.
That’s why it’s so important that artists and software engineers learn how to communicate.
A former project manager, computer science lecturer Elliot Gertner has been interested in getting different types of people to work together for years. And on the other side of the campus in Fine Arts, so has film and electronic arts lecturer Adam Moore. Continue reading “Getting Software Engineers and Game Designers to Work Together”
There are alternatives to noisy study groups or struggling through tough engineering assignments alone. At the Engineering Tutoring Center, there’s help in the form of tutors who’ve already successfully made it through the same courses probably giving you angst.
The center employs more than two dozen tutors, with a focus on undergraduate engineering courses with low completion rates. The tutors need to have earned a B or better in the courses they’re tutoring in, preferably here at CSULB. “That way they can tutor based on experience,” said Academic Success Program Coordinator Katarina Spralja. Continue reading “Students Incorporate Tutoring into Study Routines”
