dean002.jpgDear friends:

I am very pleased to share with you our first edition of SPECTRA for 2010. As you can see from the following pages, it has been a very successful year. Enrollment in the college peaked at 2,564 students last fall, with over 700 students enrolled in our graduate programs. We initiated a new BS degree program in Engineering Management and just received approval for a BS degree in Computer Information Technology and a self-supported interdisciplinary Professional Science master’s degree in Assistive and Rehabilitative Technology, to begin in 2011. Our Construction Management program hosted its inaugural accreditation review by the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE) in March and came through with flying colors.

It has also been an eventful year. There have been plenty of challenges, especially as we have grappled with the consequences of the ongoing state budget crisis. But through it all we have strived hard to meet the needs of our students. Thanks to our dedicated faculty, department chairs and staff, our college has done a great job at ensuring that our students continue to have a high-quality educational experience and that our graduates are prepared effectively for emerging workforce challenges. Indeed, it came as no surprise when ASEE, in the March 2010 issue of PRISM, singled us out as having the nation’s fastest-growing undergraduate engineering program out of 215 schools. prizm.jpgThe story here is that our college has a rich tradition of supporting hands-on learning, with an ideal blend of theory, problem solving and team-oriented projects that helps students succeed. These timeless values are at the very core of our programs and have been instrumental to our success. Our faculty have been equally adept and agile in applying these values to tackle emerging challenges in renewable energy, the smart grid, assistive technology, nanotechnology, and software-defined radio, just to name a few. Our highly acclaimed, first-ever college-wide “Project Showcase” on April 30, 2010, enabled our senior students to showcase their design projects to the community and industry and will become an annual tradition going forward. In conjunction with our Tech Fest events, the Honors Co-Op program, and Design Clinics, we are effectively engaging our students in the practice of engineering and computer science. We are very grateful for the support we continue to receive from our alumni and industry and especially to those who serve on the College Industry Advisory Board and the Department Industry Liaison Councils. Your support is vital to the success of these programs and benefits our students immensely.

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Looking ahead, we anticipate making SPECTRA a biannual publication to effectively cover the diverse accomplishments of our students and faculty. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who worked hard to bring this issue to fruition: Sarah Lifton for her writing and editing of the features, Carolina Franco-Ardaghi for the artistic formatting and images, and Armando Tellez for preparing the newsletter to appear online.

In closing, I am very grateful for the support that I have received from the faculty, staff and students in our college and from my colleagues across the university during the past four years. You really make my job very easy, and it is an honor and a privilege to serve you. Please feel free to email me at s.ramesh@csun.edu with your comments and suggestions to serve you better. I hope you enjoy this issue!

S. K. Ramesh
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