Faculty – Page 4 – Engineering News

May 13, 2016October 24, 2016

Mechanical Engineering Students Show Off Design Projects

From an operational hovercraft to a 3D-printed dog prosthetic to a grill that texts you when your food is cooked, the student projects shown off during the CSULB Mechanical Engineering Department’s 2015-16 Senior Design Project Exhibition demonstrated both creativity and technical understanding.

More than 100 students were enrolled in the Senior Design class, a two-semester capstone course that emphasizes the theory and practice of modern design and manufacturing. During the first semester, students focus on concept design and embodiment design, while the second semester is dedicated to project implementation. Continue reading “Mechanical Engineering Students Show Off Design Projects”

April 29, 2016October 24, 2016

Stanford Professor to Discuss State of Robotics

Faculty and students are invited to attend the CSULB College of Engineering’s final technical seminar of the semester. On Friday, May 6 from noon to 1 p.m., renowned Stanford University robotics expert Oussama Khatib will discuss how the generations of robots now being developed will increasingly touch people and their lives.

Khatib’s talk, “The New Robotics Age: Meeting the Physical,” will take place in the Niggli Conference Room, ECS-312. He will discuss new developments in robotics in the context of the underwater robot, Ocean One (called O2), developed at Stanford in collaboration with Meka-Google Robotics and KAUST. Continue reading “Stanford Professor to Discuss State of Robotics”

March 28, 2016March 28, 2016

CSULB’s Ramachandran Named Engineering Librarian of the Year

CSULB’s Hema Ramachandran has been named “Engineering Librarian of the Year” by the Special Libraries Association’s Engineering Division. A faculty member and engineering librarian at CSULB since 2007, Ramachandran was honored for her professional accomplishments.

She credits her father, a prominent statistician, for planting the seed for her library career. “When I was 14 years old, he said, ‘You should become a librarian—but you should become an engineering or science librarian.’ ”

Ramachandran said her friends tried to dissuade her, saying, “That’s really boring—you can’t do that.” Continue reading “CSULB’s Ramachandran Named Engineering Librarian of the Year”

March 15, 2016March 16, 2016

College Holds Workshop on Meeting Goals of Diverse Groups

The CSULB College of Engineering on Monday held its first workshop on how to meet the needs of diverse types of students considering engineering. Organized by computer science professor Alvaro Monge through a grant from the National Center for Women and Information Technology, the workshop featured CSULB social psychology postdoctoral researchers Matt Jackson and Mia Steinberg.

Steinberg drew on her own experience working as a software developer in the Silicon Valley for a decade. “For the vast majority of the years, I was the only woman in the group,” she said, adding that there were no discriminatory practices, just a lack of women in the pipeline.

Ironically, Steinberg’s high school counselor suggested she become a composer or computer scientist. “I said ‘No, I hate computers.’ But I went into it anyway and it’s become my life’s work.” Continue reading “College Holds Workshop on Meeting Goals of Diverse Groups”

March 7, 2016October 24, 2016

College Celebrates Engineering Night at the Pyramid

College of Engineering alumni, faculty, staff, and supporters helped cheer on the Long Beach State Men’s Basketball team to a 74-72 victory Saturday over top-ranked Hawaii State during the Inaugural Engineering Night at the Pyramid.

The evening began with a pre-game reception for members of the Dean’s Advisory Committee, featured an engineering-themed half-time show, and culminated with a post-game celebration that drew more than 200 College of Engineering alumni, supporters, faculty, and staff. Continue reading “College Celebrates Engineering Night at the Pyramid”

February 29, 2016October 24, 2016

Mechanical Engineering Students and Faculty Win OCEC Awards

Students and faculty from the CSULB Department of Mechanical Engineering received recognition at the 2016 Orange County Engineering Council Awards banquet last weekend.

Four CSULB students received Outstanding Engineering Student awards: Eric Barba and Farah Itani, both mechanical engineering seniors; Soorena Moogooie, a mechanical engineering junior and president of the CSULB Society for Petroleum Engineers chapter; and PhD candidate Darin Koblick.

Two students—Armando Fuentes and Koblick—also received the Outstanding Young Engineer Award. Continue reading “Mechanical Engineering Students and Faculty Win OCEC Awards”

February 15, 2016October 24, 2016

New Languages for CECS Students

Beginning this semester, CSULB Computer Engineering and Computer Science students will have a chance to learn new programming languages. Python will replace Java in “Introduction to Programming and Problem Solving” (CECS 174) and C++ will replace Java in the new CECS 275 class for Computer Engineering majors. Computer Science majors will continue to learn Java, however, in their “Object-Oriented Programming and Data Structures” (CECS 274) class.

Python is replacing Java in the intro class because it’s easier to learn, said CECS Chair Burkhard Englert. According to an article in Communications of the ACM, Python is now the most popular language to use for teaching introductory programming, favored by nearly 70 percent of top U.S. universities. A general-purpose language with a simple code base, Python allows extensions to be added as necessary. Continue reading “New Languages for CECS Students”

January 29, 2016October 24, 2016

New Resources for Engineering Students and Faculty

For most engineering students, math and science is fairly painless. But writing and oral presentations? Not so much. Luckily, there are new resources to help.

On Jan. 28, the College of Engineering celebrated the official opening of the Writing and Communication Resource Center (WCRC) in VEC-128B, and the Dudley Engineering Library in EN2-109—resources designed to help students meet their writing requirements to obtain a degree. Having a library housed in the College of Engineering will make it easier for faculty conducting research too. Continue reading “New Resources for Engineering Students and Faculty”

January 25, 2016January 26, 2016

New Writing Center Opens in VEC-128B

qudrat-maryam — Maryam Qudrat, director of the College of Engineering Writing and Communication Research Center.

If you’re an undergraduate student working on your senior-level capstone classes or a graduate student working on your thesis, be sure to stop by the new Writing and Communication Resource Center in VEC-128B.

The center is open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Friday from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. while classes are in session. Appointments are recommended, but walk-ins are available. Visit the WCRC website to book an appointment with a graduate assistant. Continue reading “New Writing Center Opens in VEC-128B”

December 17, 2015January 26, 2016

CECS Project Aims to Help City with ‘Tunnel Vision’

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’”