Spectra Newsletter

George Youssef, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, was walking past the college’s aging machine shop last year, when an idea he’d been mulling over crystallized in his head. Why not upgrade the shop to teach engineers machining? Youssef, who teaches machine design, had found that when students arrived in his class, they couldn’t readily translate the designs they created in CAD to real life. Giving them hands-on machining skills would help them understand the capabilities and limitations of the machines, so when they put their ideas on paper, they would be able to gauge whether or not they were feasible.

He shared his idea with associate professor of mechanical engineering Robert Ryan, who was equally enthusiastic, and the two submitted a proposal for university funds to refurbish the machine shop and engage students through a series of workshops. They received the grant, and it soon became a collaboration that extended far beyond the pair. [Read more…]

There were robots upon robots at CSUN last summer, when students from three Valley middle schools met up with members of the CSUN Matabots, the university’s cross-disciplinary VEX robotics club.

It all started during a regular meeting of the robotics club, when Dale Conner, the club’s advisor, and Mike Rivas, a representative of CSUN’s Summer Academic Enrichment Program, came in to say that Project GRAD Los Angeles, a nonprofit dedicated to working with students and families to promote college success, was looking for people to teach robotics to middle school students. A few days later, a Project GRAD representative met with club members and briefed them on the program and its goals. [Read more…]

More than 100 middle and high school students converged on CSUN last spring to spend a day exploring different facets of engineering. Organized by the campus chapters of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and Tau Beta Pi (engineering honor society), Young Engineers Day featured several hands-on activities designed to engage the younger students and demonstrate how engineers think and what they do. Between 20 and 30 CSUN students volunteered for the day, becoming role models as well as facilitators.[Read more…]

In the 26-year history of the AeroDef Manufacturing Challenge (formerly WestTech), it had never been done: a clean sweep of the competition’s three top categories by a single university. But on March 18, 2013, CSUN did the near-impossible, claiming the grand prize, first place in the University division and the William B. Johnson “Leadership in Manufacturing” Award, which went to James Hunter.

The college entered two teams in the competition, which is sponsored by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and both were coached by Mark Rajai, assistant professor of manufacturing systems engineering and management, who set his sights on the grand prize—something CSUN had never won before. [Read more…]