Spectra Newsletter

The college’s review workshops for the national Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) certification and Professional Engineer (PE) licensing exams may be one of the worst-kept secrets in Southern California. The workshops are not advertised, and CECS relies solely on word-of-mouth to promote them. But their reputation is so outstanding that year after year, students and industry engineers flock to the campus for the sessions, which are offered twice annually, prior to the April and October exams.

Before someone can take the exam to become licensed as a professional engineer (PE), he or she must pass the exam to earn FE certification (formerly called Engineer-in-Training, or EIT). The college first began offering the FE/EIT review workshop in 1995 and usually attracts anywhere from 15 to 32 students, in all disciplines. The civil PE review debuted in 2007 and encompasses three separate workshops—one for the national eighthour exam, one for the California Special Surveying exam and one for the California Special Seismic exam. All workshops are taught by professors specializing in that discipline.[Read more…]

When Rory DeJohn came to Los Angeles five years ago to assume a new executive position with Turner Construction Company, he not only inherited a job; he inherited a spot on the Industry Advisory Board for CSUN’s new Construction Management Technology program.

It was a commitment he immediately embraced. “There are not a lot of construction management schools in the country,” he says, “and the fact that the program was going to have to go through the approval process to get accredited meant we could design the program to make sure kids had the courses they really needed.”

A year after joining the board, DeJohn became its chair, and like his predecessor, David Honda, he has been a staunch advocate for the program and the construction industry.

“The industry’s been very good to me, and other board members could say the same thing,” he says. “We want to give back and let young people know it is a good industry, even in this bad economy, and make sure they get the best courses for an industry that is changing every day.”[Read more…]

When you’re driving a car and need to correct your course, the solution is simple: just turn the steering wheel and hit the gas pedal. When the vehicle is a satellite in orbit, however, the logistics become considerably more complex. That was the impetus behind a design clinic project for Rocketdyne, which approached the college last spring to help investigate options for a new propellant feed system.

Ordinarily, when a satellite needs propulsion for realignment or reorientation, a high-pressure helium-based system swings into action, forcing the propellant out of the tank to nudge the satellite in the right direction. The helium tank is typically heavy, with thick walls, and is equipped with a pressure regulator to handle a wide pressure difference. “You let the gas blow out, so the pressure in the helium tank goes from high levels and drops to low levels when the process is over,” explains Bob Ryan, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, and coprincipal investigator on the project.[Read more…]

Tony Magee combines engineering with inspiration

Unlike most engineers, Tony Magee (’93, Industrial Engineering) didn’t have a particular affinity for math and science as a kid. Growing up in the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts, the son of a single mother, he wanted, above all, to escape poverty. The only role model he had was his cousin, Darryl Claiborne (’81), who had earned a degree from CSUN and become an industrial engineer. Hungering for the life he saw his cousin leading, Magee wondered if he could become an engineer too. Claiborne encouraged him, helping him master mathematics and mentoring him in the skills that eventually allowed Magee to enroll at CSUN as an industrial engineering major. [Read more…]