Spectra Newsletter

Globalization has really taken hold in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, with international partnerships and collaborations continuing to proliferate. The most recent example took place last fall, when Shereazad Jimmy Gandhi, assistant professor of engineering management and director of the Ernie Schaffer Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, planned and taught a research class in supply chain management and sustainability jointly with an instructor at the Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (the Technical University of Ingolstadt, or THI). Both classes were closely aligned so that students in California and in Germany had essentially the same experience. [Read more…]

Supavadee Aramvith in center with Dean Ramesh (left) and Taeyou Jung (right), Director of the Brown Center and professor in the College of Health and Human Development.

CSUN’s expertise in assistive technology continues to attract interest from abroad. Last June, Supavadee Aramvith, a faculty member in electrical engineering at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, visited the campus to learn more about the field. Aramvith, who serves on the IEEE’s Educational Activities Board along with CECS dean S.K. Ramesh, was in Los Angeles while on sabbatical. During her visit to CSUN, she met with faculty and discussed potential collaborations.

Vahab Pournaghshband[/img]On February 25, 2015, after several years of contentious debate, the FCC adopted new rules about so-called net neutrality, the Internet’s guiding principle. The rules, which went into effect June 23, 2015, stipulate that broadband providers cannot block access to legal content, impede legal Internet traffic, or give preferential treatment in exchange for money or other consideration.

But CSUN’s Vahab Pournaghshband isn’t taking Internet service providers’ compliance for granted. Instead, the CSUN assistant professor of computer science, who is passionate about net neutrality, is responding proactively. Noting that in the past, some U.S. ISPs were found to be violating net neutrality but were not forthcoming about it, he’s intent on developing a novel method that will enable end users to detect violators and will work even if ISPs try to hide what they’re doing.

“We are actually talking about a global issue,” he says. “It’s not just a problem in the U.S. but in other countries as well.”[Read more…]

Northrop Grumman funds research project with CSUN Faculty
Ruting Jia[/img]Vidya Nandikolla[/img]Gyros are sensors that tell pilots the degree of rotation in aircraft, and they are key components in numerous aviation instruments, whether a jumbo jet or a drone is flying. In late 2014, Northrop Grumman, which manufactures and sells gyros, contracted with Vidya Nandikolla, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Ruting Jia, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, to model an inertially stable platform, of the sort on which a camera or telescope might be mounted. Nandikolla and Jia were asked to simulate vibration for the components around the platform to see how the guiders and motors function. [Read more…]