Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics
At the American Society of Civil Engineering’s 2010 regional conference, which took place during spring break at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, CSUN’s team claimed first place in the Steel Bridge competition in the aesthetics and lightness categories and came in third overall. The winning team is headed to the national competition in June.
The department will be welcoming a new chair this summer. Longtime chairman Stephen Gadomski has announced plans to retire, and associate chair Nazaret Dermendjian will take his place.
Emeritus professor James Roberts passed away on January 5. Roberts had been dean of the Davidson College of Engineering at San Jose State University before joining the CSUN faculty in 1981 and had continued to teach part time after his retirement. Countless students took his courses in soils, foundation design, statics and mechanics.
Computer Science
Department chair Steven Stepanek was elected faculty president for a two-year term of office during a recent campus-wide faculty election. In the role of faculty president, Professor Stepanek will chair the CSUN Faculty Senate, serve on numerous university committees and be the CSUN faculty spokesperson at various university events. During his term of office, he will continue to chair the Computer Science Department.
New Bachelors in Computer InformationTechnology
Starting in fall 2010, the department will offer a new bachelor of science degree in Computer Information Technology (CIT). The program is designed for students interested in professional careers involved with solving the informational technology infrastructure needs of companies and organizations. The program combines existing computer science courses with information science courses from business, plus new CIT courses designed by Computer Science faculty. As part of the CIT program, students will be required to take 15 units in an applied field other than business and computer science to assure both breadth and depth for their careers.
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Students Michael Yeretzian, Ellison Yasukochi, Aditya Singh and Long Nguyen took second place in the IEEE’s regional paper contest on April 17, for their paper titled “Covert Operation Using a Completely Autonomous UAV Helicopter.” Ashley Geng was their faculty advisor.
In addition to publishing five journal articles and presenting ten conference papers over the past year, Sembian Rengarjan was elected vice-chair and chair-elect of the Commission on Waves and Fields of the United States National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science (USNC/URSI) for the triennium 2009–11. He will chair the commission during 2012–14. Rengarjan was also awarded a CSUN Research Fellowship in January 2010 to investigate microstrip reflectarrays during 2010–11 academic year.
Matthew Radmanesh has released a three-CD set titled The Superior Foundation for Engineering and Sciences, which offers an in-depth discussion of the origin of time and space in the sciences, the pyramid of knowledge used in the engineering design and analysis process, the final unstacking of the universe and much more.
Ramin Roosta was awarded a 2010 NASA Achievement Award, NEPAG (NASA Electronic Parts Assurance Group). His research with undergraduate and graduate students also led to several published papers in 2009 and 2010.
Sharlene Katz and James Flynn coauthored a paper titled “Using Software Defined Radio (SDR) to demonstrate concepts in Communications and Signal Processing Courses” that was singled out as the best paper in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Division at the 2009 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference.
Nagwa Bekir has been coordinating the MSEE self-study report in preparation for the Master of Science in Electrical Engineering program review in spring 2011.
Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management
Dale Conner was named the 2009–10 College Research Fellow for his project to evaluate the fitness of Pd43Ni10Cu27P20 for metallic glass wires in biomedical applications. He has been working with graduate and undergraduate students to fabricate experimental alloys and test the suitability of metallic glass wires for biomedical applications.
For additional MSEM news, see articles on the Keck Advanced Materials Laboratory [MAKE INTO LINK] and the WESTEC Student Manufacturing Challenge. [MAKE INTO LINK]
Mechanical Engineering
On April 23–25, the department and the campus chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) hosted the 2010 national Human-Powered Vehicle (HPV) Challenge, which is sponsored by ASME International. The CSUN team, which was advised by Robert Ryan, placed second in the design category and third in the speed competition, against 29 other teams from across the country.
Students entering the October 2009 AHETEMS (Advancing Hispanic Excellence in Technology, Engineering, Math and Science) National Design Competition in Washington, D.C., were charged with designing “a commercially marketable product that has both a unique social benefit and improves…quality of life, especially for the Hispanic community.” Seizing on the contest’s theme of “adaptive assistive technologies,” 
CSUN’s team, made up of Eduardo “Eddy” Ekmekgian, Maurycy Sarosiek and Mario Servin, designed an ingenious remote-controlled “floating cabinet” that brings inaccessible items within reach. Their invention claimed first prize at the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers–sponsored event, beating out teams from Stanford, UC Berkeley and the University of Virginia. Their idea was born in Michael Kabo’s “Machine Design” class, and their classmate, Hector Perez, who is SHPE’s vice regional representative, had pushed the team to enter.