“We’ve supported these kinds of initiatives at the college for quite a while before we called it LEAP,” says Chris Erickson, Aerojet Rocketdyne’s chief engineer for energy and advanced programs and a member of the CECS Industry Advisory Board. “We have been very active.”

Aerojet Rocketdyne is particularly interested in technical collaborations, he notes, adding that the company supported a successful collaboration with mechanical engineering professor Bob Ryan and his students involving an advanced phase change pressurization system. Another collaboration, with Rais Ahmad, assistant professor of civil engineering and construction management, is exploring ultrasonic leak detection.

With more than 250 CSUN alumni working at Aerojet Rocketdyne, the majority from CECS, the company has a powerful stake in these collaborations. Most of the projects involve students and are an effective way to determine whether Aerojet Rocketdyne should hire them as permanent employees once they graduate. A steady stream of CECS interns has provided similar insights.

“We reviewed the LEAP Compact item by item, and we were already doing those things,” says Erickson. “Really what we’re doing is packaging them under the LEAP umbrella. I think it’s a good initiative, and the company is very much behind the university alliance.”