California State University, Northridge mechanical engineering and electrical and computer engineering students have once again won the top spots in an international vehicle design competition.

CSUN’s Scorpion mobile robot tied for second overall out of 52 entries at the 21^st annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition held June 7-10 in Rochester, Mich. The student team won first place in the Auto-Nav Challenge Competition.

“Students worked for nine months on the project,” said mechanical engineering professor C.T. Lin, the team’s faculty adviser. “They worked as a team, learned about real-world engineering, improved on their presentation and writing skills, and won the international competition,” “This project experience has really prepared them for their future engineering jobs. Winning is fun, but learning is lifelong.”

For at least the last three years, students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science have placed either first or second in an competition against some of the most elite engineering schools in the nation including the U.S. Naval Academy, Hosei University in Japan and Princeton University.

“The fact that our Scorpion team won the Auto-Nav challenge, one of the most difficult challenges in the competition, speaks volumes about the quality of our programs and the abilities of our students to shine amongst the best in the world,” said S.K. Ramesh, dean of the college.

CSUN’s IGVC team has designed and engineered an entirely new platform for 2013. The Scorpion is a differential driven vehicle with a lower center of gravity compared to its predecessors. The entire process, from design to fabrication and integration of sensors and new algorithms, was completed in the 2012-2013 academic year. Some of the new innovations in this platform include a simplified decoupler, new path planning algorithm, and a fully adjustable suspension system.

The vehicle was designed by 24 students, including 17 from mechanical engineering and seven from electrical and computer science engineering. The mechanical engineering majors: Brionna Stearns, Daniel Franco, Merqui Absalon, Jeffery Ferree, Brian Burrows, Tynan Kelly, Daniel Kim, Brian Bati, Andres Lopez, Sasan Akhavan, Richard Walker, Derek Dreblow, Diego Castillo, Christopher Coria, Ali Ghazal, Amanda Martinez and Chase Warmuth.

The electrical and computer science majors are: Hovhannes Mkhitaryan, Xian Li, Heros Nasiri, Christopher Do, Hugo Anderson, Abou-Baker Kadmiry and Freddie Ayala.

This picture from NASA shows a coronal mass ejection’s interaction with the sun.

A burgeoning field of astronomy is looking to better understand the way “space storms,” or coronal mass ejections (CMEs), affect the sun. At the 44th meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society in Bozeman, Mont., last week, California State University, Northridge physics and astronomy professor Debi Prasad Choudhary presented results to the group that could change the current line of thinking on the issue.

The CMEs Choudhary has been tracking are huge clouds of material that weigh billions of tons, zip through space at four million miles per hour and cause a lot of trouble on Earth to pilots, astronauts and satellites. It’s the CMEs that hit the sun that are perplexing scientists the most. Now, thanks to a research system tracking them using the Synoptic Optical Long-Term Investigation of the Sun (SOLIS) instrument located at the National Solar Observatory in Kitt Peak, Ariz., the CSUN prof has found a new way to look at an old problem: how can they predict when CMEs hit the sun?

“We were trying to find a precursor to solar flares that shoot CMEs into space,” Choudhary said. “With magnetic field measurements at multiple locations in the Sun’s atmosphere from SOLIS, we were able to show that changes in the vertical structure of the magnetic field lead to flares and CMEs.”

For more: SOLIS Observatory Gives New Insights Into Space Weather [Enewspf.com]

Photo by Lee Choo

In this digital age, technology runs most of the world’s day-to-day functions. As part of California State University, Northridge’s commitment to preparing students for the future, open access has been given to all enrolled students to the online tutorial site Lynda.com. Now, students can learn how to master various software packages from wherever they sign on to the Internet—even through their smartphone or tablet.

Lynda.com is one of the most recognized tutorial systems in the world. Everything from everyday software like Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft Office to more specialized systems like MongoDB or Visual Basic can be learned using the site’s mix of videos and workshop materials. Bergen Muzatko, the training lead of the Department of Information Technology, said she feels that it’s the right tool for Matadors to learn their craft, regardless of what they study.

“For the first time, we have a product that I would call a ‘one-stop-shop’ that could benefit every student in every major on campus,” Muzatko said, adding the example: “My student assistant is a computer science major, and she used the online library to supplement a class she was taking to learn JavaScript. When she found that she needed more than just lecture notes, she would log in to lynda.csun.edu and watch the videos on JavaScript.”

However, Lynda.com is not just a technology hub. More practical tutorials are available as well.

“Even students who are not in a technical field will benefit from the Lynda online library,” Muzatko continued. “There are courses on how to design and deliver a presentation and how to deliver effective public speeches. And for those who may be graduating this year, there are courses on career development like how to ace an interview and write an effective resume.”

Those students who would like to use the site can go to lynda.csun.edu and use their CSUN username and password to log in. Alternately, once school is in session, the Lynda icon will display in the “Tools for Academic Success” pagelet on the “Academics” tab of the myNorthridge Portal. Muzatko also noted that along with Lynda.com access, the IT department will be rolling out the myCSUNbox online storage cloud solution and official CSUN app sometime at the beginning of the fall semester.

CSUN student Katelyn Fields purchases her iPad as part of the myCSUNtablet initiative.

When Katelyn Fields walked into the Matador bookstore on July 11, she had no idea her purchase would be a milestone in CSUN’s ongoing mission to reduce the cost and increase the quality of learning materials for students. Fields, an athletic training major who plans on graduating in 2015, was the first student to buy an Apple iPad as a part of the myCSUNtablet initiative, a new program that allows students to gain immediate access to e-books and other online learning tools for selected classes. As a result, students will enjoy more cost-efficient access to their course materials through a portable, creative and easy-to-use device, available right at their fingertips.

As a part of her purchase, Fields also received a free AppleCare+ extended warranty, made available by a $50,000 grant from the Joseph Drown Foundation, whose partnership with the university spans 25 years. The grant will allow the first 500 students who are enrolled in a myCSUNtablet course and who purchase their iPad at the Matador bookstore to receive AppleCare+ at no charge.

The Drown Foundation seeks to break down the barriers that prevent people from continuing to grow and learn, such as the high costs of books and other resources in higher education. Not only does the grant serve as a good incentive for students to purchase an iPad for the new myCSUNtablet initiative, but it also gives students like Fields the peace of mind of knowing that if they accidentally drop or damage their iPad over the next two years, they will quickly receive repair or replacement of their iPad. “It is going to be amazing to have AppleCare+,” said Fields after buying her new iPad. “I know that if something happens to my iPad, it will get fixed.”

“The Drown Foundation support of Apple Care+ coverage is a wonderful benefit for 500 of our CSUN students as they purchase their iPads for the launch of the myCSUNtablet courses this fall,” shared Hilary Baker, CSUN’s vice president for information technology.

Fields is also looking forward to using her new iPad in three myCSUNtablet courses. “It is going to make learning about the body so much easier,” she said. “I will be able to look at anatomy from a 360 degree angle! Plus, it’s going to be nice using e-books to have all my books in one place.”

California State University, Northridge has always strived to be on the cutting edge of education, and now, with the university-wide roll out of several computing initiatives, the campus is on the cutting edge of technology.

The New Media Consortium has been charting the landscape of emerging technologies in teaching, learning and creative inquiry on a global scale for the past decade. Recently, the NMC highlighted CSUN in two reports (the NMC Horizon Report: 2013 K-12 Edition and the NMC Horizon Report: 2013 Higher Education Edition), noting CSUN’s excellence in helping “high-need” students across Los Angeles learn using cloud computing technology with the Computer Supported Collaborative Science initiative.

The CSCS initiative is an ongoing effort to help science teachers in Los Angeles schools engage students in authentic research experiences through the use of cloud-based computing tools. Rolled out in 29 middle schools, the initiative training included a clinical teaching experience designed to use tools like Google Docs and Google Sites to enhance student learning.

The NMC reports covered 10 emerging technologies that will impact education over the next five years: cloud computing, mobile learning, learning analytics, open content, 3D printing, MOOCs, virtual and remote laboratories, games and gamification, tablet computing and wearable technology. CSUN was singled out in the science section of the cloud computing division of the report.

For more: 10 Emerging Educational Technologies & How They Are Being Used Across the Globe

As one of the research leaders in the field of assistive technologies, California State University, Northridge has become a sought-after partner by institutions of higher learning around the world. A new partnership was recently forged when CSUN and India’s Kumaraguru College of Technology signed a memorandum of understanding to assist each other in the creation of technology for persons with disabilities.

According to Ramalatha Marimuthu, the chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at KCT, CSUN’s master’s program in assistive technology made the collaboration ideal.

The memorandum will establish a research center on the KCT campus and includes an exchange of faculty and students and the development of seminars and workshops on assistive technology. The partnership has already held its first conference, the Intelligent Interactive Systems and Assistive Technologies gathering, which was attended by CSUN’s S.K. Ramesh, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science.

For more: KCT to have research centre on assistive technologies (The Hindu)

Olympia LePoint

Thanks in part to their informative lectures, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) Conferences are one of the most recognized in the world. Some of the lectures, such as those from Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, have gone viral on the Internet, receiving more than a billion views across the globe. Now, California State University, Northridge alumna Olympia LePoint ’98 (Mathematics Statistics), M.A. ’05 (Mathematics) will join the ranks of those speakers when she gives her TED Talk to an audience in Arcadia, Calif., on Nov. 23.

Johana Cruz Lopez from de Gaspar de Portola Middle School presents her project while President Harrison looks on. Photo by Lee Choo

A standing-room-only crowd filled the president’s boardroom in California State University, Northridge’s University Hall on Sept. 10. The group—an assembled mix of CSUN professors and students; middle school students, parents and educators; and CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison—watched as future scientists from Gaspar de Portola and Oliver Wendell Holmes middle schools presented their award-winning experiments they hope will go into space.

The groups beat out students from other Los Angeles area schools in the China Space Science Education Project, a collaborative effort between CSUN and China’s Nanjing University of Science and Technology in which the winners’ experiments will be in the running to be conducted in a Chinese space shuttle or space station.

The first presentation came from the students from Holmes: Jasmine Campos, Katherine Guzman, Diana Sanchez, Genesis Sandoval, Nathalie Tuazon and Meghan Williams. The group presented “Jalapeño Pepper and Broccoli Seeds In Space,” in which they outlined an experiment to track the germination rate of those seeds. The second report came from Johana Cruz Lopez from de Portola, whose “Boiling Water in Space” wondered how different boiling water in space would be from doing it on Earth.

CSUN’s President Harrison will be personally pitching the ideas to the president of Nanjing University, Wang Xiaofeng, during her upcoming visit to commemorate the school’s 60th anniversary. He will decide which of the projects will go on to the final round of judging by the Chinese space administration for the grand prize: to be placed on a Chinese space ship in a future launch.

Justine Su, a professor in the Eisner College of Education and the director of The China Institute, is one of organizers of the China Space Science Education Project on CSUN’S end. The China Institute is made up of a group of about 200 faculty, staff and members of the community who are committed to enhancing U.S.-China relations.

Su said she believes the program is a great example of CSUN at its best.

“CSUN shines again in our community and beyond when we recommend these selected American middle-school students science projects,” she said. “CSUN is in a unique position as a pioneer of international collaboration in science education. We have, and will continue to, stimulate lively dialogues and exchange of ideas among science-education scholars and generate great interests in the study of sciences from young students in the U.S. and China, especially female and minority students.”

Biology professor and China Institute Science Team Director Steven Oppenheimer—who shepherded the project along with Su and China Institute Founding Director and physics and astronomy emeritus professor Paul Chow—shared Su’s optimism.

“This is a monumental collaboration between the U.S. and China,” Oppenheimer said. ”It catapults CSUN into a position of leadership in international science education. The project is all about getting youngsters to begin to think [about] science. The two teachers—Terri Miller and Stacy Tanaka, whose students won this competition—are among the top science teachers in the U.S., who train their middle school students to do science research that gets published.”

An underwater “animal forest” made from gorgonian soft corals off the island of St. John. Photo by Peter Edmunds

California State University, Northridge marine biology professor Peter Edmunds has spent the past 27 years documenting the health of the world’s oceans, in particular their coral and the vibrant reefs the corals create.

While his research on the devastating impact global warming and increasing ocean acidity has had on stony corals and reefs has drawn international attention to the problem, it’s his new work, studying how climate change may be helping “soft” corals thrive, that has caught the attention of the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Edmunds and his colleague, Howard Lasker, a geology professor at the University at Buffalo, received a nearly $1 million three-year grant last month from the National Science Foundation to investigate why soft corals, known as gorgonian corals—which often form a “canopy” over reefs—seem to be thriving in certain areas while their harder cousins, stony coral—which form the backbone of ocean reefs—are dying.

“It’s something we’ve been seeing for a while, but no one has ever really looked into what is happening and why,” Edmunds said.

Peter Edmunds, left, and Howard Lasker at St. John. Photo courtesy of Peter Edmunds.

“Global warming and ocean acidification is clearly severely impacting the world’s stony coral, and therefore negatively impacting the sea life that rely on the reefs for their homes, as well as the humans who rely on the reefs for shoreline protection, tourism and other benefits,” he said. “At the same time, it appears that global warming seems to be having a positive impact on soft corals, which appear to be proliferating in certain areas. While this may be good for the sea life that rely on the soft corals to survive, we don’t know that this means in the future or for the areas in which they are thriving.”

In addition to Edmunds and Lasker, the research team includes a post-doctoral researcher, who will be based at CSUN, and several of Edmunds’ graduate students as well as a handful of undergraduate students.

As Edmunds’ more than a quarter century of research has documented, the violent weather and coral bleaching created by global warming and increasing ocean acidity have devastated the world’s stony coral population.

However, little research has been done on the ocean’s gorgonian coral—a softer, flexible, tree-like species that can provide canopies beneath which small fish and other aquatic life can thrive. Divers and ocean researchers, including Edmunds, have noticed in recent years that “soft” coral seems to be thriving in certain parts of the Caribbean while the stony coral is dying.

Edmunds and his team will examine 27 years of photographs he has taken of the reefs off the Caribbean island of St. John to determine how gorgonian numbers have changed. The team will then travel to St. John to run field experiments, including counting the soft coral to determine how many there are now and where they are located, so researchers can monitor the condition of the region’s gorgonian coral in the years to come.

Preliminary data from Edmunds’ photographs suggests that gorgonian coral density has indeed been increasing on the shallow reefs surrounding St. John.

Using the historical data and observations from the field, the scientists hope to model how the reef—and others like it—may look decades from now as the Earth’s climate continues to change.

The team’s field studies will try to explain why the soft corals may flourish when stony corals are in decline. The experiments in the waters of St. John will look at how two or three species of soft coral fare when growing alongside different combinations and densities of stony coral and algae.

“We’re just laying the foundation now for work to be done in the future,” Edmunds said. “There are a whole lot of questions we won’t be able to answer yet, such as what this shift in sea life in the oceans means, not only in the oceans themselves, but to human life as well. This is just the start of what could be major, ongoing research for years to come. Hopefully, someone will be interested enough to fund that work.”

Students taking part in last year’s Drop In, Take Ten event at the Oviatt Library. Photo courtesy of the Oviatt Library.

Students from colleges throughout the San Fernando Valley are invited to join their colleagues at California State University, Northridge for speed mentoring on Tuesday, Oct. 22, to learn about opportunities in the fields of engineering and science.

The second annual “Drop In, Take Ten” event, sponsored by CSUN’s Bonita J. Campbell Endowment for Women in Science an Engineering (WISE), is scheduled to take place from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Ferman Presentation Room of the Delmar T. Oviatt Library, located in the heart of the university’s campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

Engineers and scientists from all sectors of the technological workforce will be on hand to answer questions. Students will be able to site one-on-one for 10- to 15-minute intervals with up to five different “mentors” from a diverse list of organizations and companies that includes FIRST Robotics, Medtronic, Northrop Grumman, The Aerospace Corporation and the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center. During the short, highly focused sessions, students will be given the opportunity to ask questions about career paths and the professional environments their mentors work in.

The event will begin with a short welcome from Peggy Nelson, vice president of engineering and global product development for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.

The WISE endowment was established at CSUN’s Oviatt Library in 2009 by manufacturing systems engineering and management professor emeritus Bonita J. Campbell. One of the endowment’s primary directives is to encourage and help women build careers in science and engineering.

For more information about the event, visit the WISE website http://library.csun.edu/WISE or call (818) 677-2638. Persons with disabilities planning to attend the event and needing assistance and deaf and hard-of-hearing persons needing interpreters, please call the above number in advance for arrangements.

For additional information about library events and hours, visit its website at http://library.csun.edu or call (818) 677-2285.

Cal State Northridge’s Oviatt Library has more than 1.4 million volumes. It also subscribes to nearly 53,000 online journals, more than 2,300 print journals, more than 200 online databases and nearly 27,000 eBooks. It has an extensive audio and video collection, numbering nearly 18,000 items. The library’s online resources are heavily used, with almost 13 million visits to its Web pages and databases annually; and a yearly gate count of more than 1.6 million patrons. It also has an extensive collection of rare books, manuscripts, documents, photographs, artifacts and other archival materials. The Oviatt Library serves as the main research facility for the San Fernando Valley.

First row, from left: James Flynn, Matthew Keyawa, Kyle Figatner, William Fisher, Aaron Lawson, Edras Lepe-Zapata and Kevork Sepetci. Second row, from left: William Cannon, Paul Jessen, Sharlene Katz, David Castro, Nicholas Keyawa and Warren Kaye. Team members not in photo: Gor Beglaryan, Jack Buffington, Carl Chesko, James Downs, Andy Kurum, Michael Landers, Arnold Martinez, Cameron Mcateer, Roberto Orrostieta, Steven Parks, Gregory Pease, Rufus Simon, Andranik Tonoyan, Joseph Zitkus, computer science professor Adam Kaplan and electrical and computer engineering professor David Schwartz. Photo courtesy of Sharlene Katz.

CSUN is home to one of the 13 university teams NASA has selected for collaborative projects to develop and demonstrate new technologies and capabilities, and spur innovation in communication, navigation, propulsion, science instrument and advanced manufacturing for small spacecraft. The goal of these efforts is to transform a small spacecraft, some of which are only a few kilograms in weight, into powerful but affordable tools for science, exploration and space operations.

Electrical and computer engineering professors Sharlene Katz, James Flynn and David Schwartz applied for a NASA SmallSat Technology Partnership Grant. The grants were given to universities working in partnership with a NASA center. CSUN is working with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

“The project is to construct a ‘CubeSat,’ called ‘CSUNSat1,’” Katz said. “A 10-centimeter-by-10-centimeter-by-20-centimeter satellite, roughly the size of a shoe box and weighing about five pounds, to carry a J.P.L. energy storage experiment into low Earth orbit, or about 500 miles above the Earth’s surface. Over the course of several months, the satellite will downlink data from the experiment to a ground station on the roof of Jacaranda Hall. The CSUN team is responsible for the mechanical construction of the satellite, the design of the radio, sensor electronics and power system, along with all the satellite’s main computer programming.”

Testing of the completed satellite will be carried out by the CSUN unit.

“The team is also responsible for the design, construction and operation of the ground station,” Katz said. “The J.P.L. is responsible for the design and construction of the experimental payload. NASA will launch the satellite as part of their CubeSat Launch Initiative, which piggybacks small satellites from educational institutions onto commercial and government satellite launches around the world – at no cost to the educational institution.”

The CSUN team includes 20 students from the electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering and computer science departments.

“Senior and graduate students were selected based on their interests, course performance and an interview with the faculty,” Flynn said. “Their work on the project will fulfill their senior or graduate project requirement. Sophomore and junior students are beginning to take part by volunteering to help with the project on a regular basis. That gives the faculty a chance to see how they work and determine if they can assume a major role in the project during their senior year.”

The experiment involves a new development in power storage for spacecraft. Current systems consist of solar cells and batteries, or some other power source and batteries.

“Unfortunately, the batteries do not work well at the extremely low temperatures found in space far away from the sun or when the spacecraft is the earth’s shadow,” said Flynn. “Up to now, the batteries were equipped with heaters, but these consume precious energy and add weight to the vehicle. In addition, current battery systems involve rapid discharging and recharging of the batteries. This can wear out batteries very quickly and shorten the life of a mission. The new JPL technology eliminates the need for heaters and protects the batteries from the rapid discharge/charge cycles. Both aspects will allow longer missions farther from the sun.”

Katz looked to the future. “The flight of the CSUN/J.P.L. satellite “will verify and validate this new system, making it available for use on future missions,” she said. “In addition, the mission will validate the CSUN satellite design and allow for future missions using this spacecraft.”

CSUN’s mobile app

On Nov. 4, the California State University, Northridge released the second iteration of its mobile app. The new version, which works on the iOS and Android platforms, is full of new features including feeds for news, calendar, social media, videos, photos and emergency info. However, what had the CSU system buzzing when it was first released in August was the original intent of the app — as a portal for students to add and drop courses. If successful, it would have been the first in the system to do so.

The Chronicle of Higher Learning recently highlighted the CSUN app in a story about universities and their approaches to mobile because it was successful. They interviewed Hilary Baker, CSUN’s vice president for information technology and the head of the team that developed the app, about the use and success of the add/drop feature.

“There have been about 16,000 downloads of the app,” Baker said, noting that 15 percent of all use during the first week of classes was concentrated in the class-registration feature. “We get an average of 150 more downloads a day. As our students are about to enroll in classes for spring 2014, we expect to see this particular feature used even more over the next month.”

The app was also noteworthy because it was meant to work seamlessly with CSUN’s new mobile website, a goal which was also successful.

For more: Once Sideshows, Colleges’ Mobile Apps Move to Center Stage (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

CSUN computer science professor George (Taehyung) Wang presents research on Big Data during College of Engineering and Computer Science Speakers Series. Photo by Lee Choo.

Big data can have a significant impact on the economy, from reducing wasteful spending and fraud in healthcare to increasing the fuel efficiency of automobiles to job growth in the area of data analysis.

During a special  presentation, “Big Data — Trends and Technologies,” on Dec. 3, computer science professor George (Taehyung) Wang said big data can create significant value for the world economy, enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of companies and the public sector and creating substantial economic surplus for consumers.

“Data is money,” Wang said. “Everything can be connected.”

Big data is the collection of data from traditional and digital sources inside and outside a company that represents a means for ongoing discovery and analysis. Wang said the term refers to datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store, manage and analyze. It ranges from a few dozen terabytes to multiple petabytes.

Wang said data is collected from nearly every aspect of human life from video streaming services like Netflix to Web search engines like Google to retailers that track the shopping habits of consumers via their smartphones.

He said some cities are using big data to create smarter transportation grids, both public and private, by collecting data on how traffic flows using synchronized signals. Big data is also being used to develop more clean energy projects, and the healthcare industry is looking to provide better treatment plans through studying genomics or personalized medicine.

Wang’s presentation was part of the “Brown Bag” fall series of presentations by faculty in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. The series was launched last year to showcase the work of faculty in the college. Some of the other presentations this fall addressed, “Image Processing Techniques on Reconfigurable Hardware,” “Aspects of Smart Grid for Teaching and Research” and “Development of an Intelligent Wheelchair.”

“We have now made this a regular feature to showcase faculty research activities in our college,” said S.K. Ramesh, dean of the college. “These contemporary projects cover a broad array of important topics, from software engineering, energy, materials engineering, transportation and communications engineering just to name a few. Our students who work on these research projects gain valuable ‘hands-on’ experience that positively impacts their lives and careers.”

For a full list of the series’ topics, visit the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s website.

Abruzzo, Italy, is home to the largest parkland in Europe. Photo courtesy of Maria D’Orsogna.

Picture green mountains drooping down to a blue sea. Imagine the fresh scents of blossoming flowers, vineyards and olive trees mixing with the sea breeze. Envision a town with ruins dating to the time of Caesars buzz along the coastline.

This is the place Maria D’Orsogna grew to love in her youth – Abruzzo, Italy. The same place oil companies proposed to drill no more than a few miles off the coast. The lands of Abruzzo are mostly reserves and include the National Park of Abruzzo, the Park of Gran Sasso and the Laga Mountains. It is the largest parkland in Europe.

“I couldn’t accept that someone was going to uproot this beauty,” said D’Orsogna, an associate professor in the California State University, Northridge’s Department of Mathematics.

Her research interests are in statistical mechanics, mathematical modeling and computer simulations of biological and complex dynamical systems. She is also a member of the American Physical Society, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and the Biophysical Society.

Her work at CSUN seems far removed from the realm of fighting oil companies and preventing the destruction of precious lands.

Maria D’Orsogna.

“It’s just something that grew from no one else wanting to do anything,” she said. “Never in a million years did I think it would grow to this – me giving a lecture in the senate, writing a column for a national newspaper and debunking all the lies from corrupt politicians and oil executives.”

On Oct. 15, 2007, her phone rang. A friend from Italy told her that several companies were scouting the region for oil and drilling spots. D’Orsogna was in disbelief and felt hopeless, first resigning herself to the knowledge. However, having lived in California for years and knowing of laws against near-shore drilling, she knew she had to find a way to alter the fate of Abruzzo.

She immediately began researching the laws of the area, press releases to investors, and read up on everything related to oil drilling she could find.

Technology became important in her fight. D’Orsogna began a blog and Facebook page to expose the dangers of drilling, political corruption in the region and to protest the companies, including ENI, Petroceltic, MOG, Edison and Shell, that were scouting 50 percent of the region by 2009.

Her blog gained attention, including from the heads of oil companies and government officials. Even with the benefits of live-chat sites like Skype, she returned to Abruzzo often, planning trips during school breaks, talking to people and opening their eyes to the destruction oil drilling would bring to the land and to the towns.

“There is a myth that there is richness in oil,” D’Orsogna noted with a hint of disdain. “Companies said ‘drilling is for everyone,’ but it’s not.”

D’Orsogna has brought this story to her classroom, using it as part of a sustainability course. She now uses her story to inspire students to take action in causes they feel close to, proving that one person can make a difference.

“It was a lot of hard work and thick skin,” she said, noting the personal character attacks from oil companies and government officials who supported the drilling she endured. “I am just proud to say that what was once described as the biggest oil project in Italy will not happen now.”

Susan Love

A collaborative effort by faculty at California State University, Northridge and The University of Queensland in Australia to develop an online social network to support vulnerable parents in California has won the prestigious Learning Innovation award from the Australian Institute for Training and Development.

The project enhances an evidence-based parenting program, Triple P – Positive Parenting Program, by adding social media features such as gaming technology and discussion boards to engage vulnerable parents. Triple P views the development of a parent’s capacity for self-regulation as central to successful parenting; it teaches parents the skills that enable them to become independent problem solvers.

“This project was a collaborative across three continents—Australia, France and America—and took over a year to develop,” said Susan Love, a professor in CSUN’s Department of Social Work and principal investigator of the project.

Love noted that the project, funded by a $1.18 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, would not have happened without “the technology of Skype.”

“The whole point is to provide parents with the tools they need to make the right decisions for their families so that their children grow up in loving, supportive and healthy environments; the developmental context for a positive social, emotional, behavioral and health trajectory,” Love said. “Furthermore, parents need to be able to learn to make good decisions for them, and not to be dependent on others.”

A prototype of the project has just been completed with parents in Compton and Hollywood.

“These families are very poor,” said Karen Turner, deputy director of the Parenting and Family Support Centre at The University of Queensland. “Three-quarters of the parents are on an income of less than $15,000 per year and most are relying on food stamps. A quarter of them have children placed in foster care, more than half are single parents and 40 percent have been in jail.”

Despite some technical issues with getting broadband connections in the community agencies that serve the families, Turner said the parents involved in the project “loved it.”

The Triple P – Positive Parenting Program has been tested in more than 100 scientifically rigorous trials (16,500 parents), multiple meta-analyses and a few population-level studies. The program has been hailed by child-rearing experts around the world and is currently implemented in 26 countries, including the United States. Triple P is not designed to work with parents during a long period of time, but rather provide them with information, practice strategies and support over the course of a few weeks to lay a foundation for positive parenting practices that last a lifetime.

Love said the online community has a similar structure. It is available in a 12-week cohort model. Skilled moderators facilitate parents moving through eight modules that cover 17 core parenting principles. The network uses gaming mechanics to encourage participation and mastery of positive parenting skills.

“What we learn from the present study will help to design an online Triple P option for implementation into the Affordable Care Act as an indicated prevention model,” Love said. “This is an exciting opportunity to explore a new way of delivering much needed resources to families, in a format that parents want.”

In the age of mobile computing, quick access to information is a key element in any situation. The staff at California State University, Northridge’s Delmar T. Oviatt Library has launched an iPad app for their “In Protest: The Shifting Paradigms of Collective Social Action” exhibition. It is the first in the library’s history, and complements the mobile push on campus seen in the release of the official CSUN app and the myCSUNTablet initiative, both of which were unveiled in the fall of 2013.

The “In Protest” app displays companion selections from CSUN’s Special Collections and Archives that document dozens of distinct and significant social action movements over the course of the 20th century, including the Zoot Suit Riots, anti-war protests and school walk-outs.

“The app gives visitors an opportunity to reflect on objects in the exhibition from an alternate perspective, adding another dimension to the significance of these items,” said Elizabeth Altman, interim director of library information for the Oviatt. “Items in the live exhibit are grouped by theme in 11 cases. The app presents selected items from across the exhibition in five alternative subject-based groupings — Los Angeles, CSUN, Rights, Labor, and the 1960s — and maps their placement on the live exhibit floor.”

Users of the app also have the option to share each captioned image on the social media sites Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. Mark Stover, dean of the Oviatt Library, believes that this is an important step in developing exhibitions at CSUN, calling it “an important development for the Oviatt.”

The Oviatt Library is located in the heart of CSUN’s campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge. Parking on campus is $6. The exhibit and its accompanying series of events are free and open to the public. “In Protest” is viewable during regular library hours.

For more information about the exhibition, please call (818) 677-2638, or visit the Exhibitions and Events page on the library’s website. Persons with disabilities needing assistance and deaf and hard-of-hearing persons needing interpreters, please call the above number in advance for arrangements.

One of the bridges in the 2013 competition. Photo courtesy of Bolynet Sieng.

Just how strong is a bridge built out of popsicle sticks?

Approximately 250 high school students from throughout Southern California will find out Saturday, Feb. 15, when they take part in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 20th Annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Competition at California State University, Northridge.

Seventy teams will face off during the daylong event designed to expose high school students to the civil engineering profession, and introduce them to some of the challenges and triumphs that civil engineers face in their careers.

“Our goal is to get the kids interested in structural and civil engineering,” said CSUN civil engineering senior Bolynet Sieng, a member of CSUN’s chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers and one of the event’s coordinators. “The day is going to be a lot of fun as the kids discover how the bridges they built function during the competition and get to make presentations on their work.”

The teams of two to four students and one sponsoring teacher were tasked with designing and constructing a model bridge made solely from common wooden craft sticks and all-purpose white school glue. The objective: build the strongest bridge — one that will hold the largest applied load before failure.

Judges will score the teams on the strength of their structure, its workmanship, presentation and a technical report that describes the design and construction phases of their project. The students also will take part in an impromptu design competition that will test their ability to perform an assigned task on the day of event without any prior knowledge of the materials to be used or the objective.

Sieng said the annual competition is a fun way for high school students to develop engineering skills through critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and creativity.

The day is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. with registration, followed by a welcome from university officials in the University Student Union on the west side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge. The first round of the bridge competition begins at 10 a.m. and will continue throughout the day until 5 p.m. Bridge testing and the impromptu contest will take place in Jacaranda Hall, near the center of the campus.

The event’s organizers hope the competition sparks students’ interest in civil engineering and opens the doors for their pursuit of math, science and engineering-related careers, Sieng said.

For more information about the Popsicle Stick Bridge Competition, visit the American Society of Civil Engineers’ website http://mlab-ymf.org/events/popsicle-stick-bridge-competition.

The College of Engineering and Computer Science

Three faculty members in California State University, Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science are being recognized this month by the Engineers Council for their contributions to the fields of engineering and computer science.

The faculty members, professors Nagi El Naga, George Youssef and Shahnam Mirzaei–will be honored at the 59th annual Engineers Council Awards banquet on Saturday, Feb. 22, at the Sheraton Universal in Universal City.

“I am delighted that the Engineers Council is recognizing the outstanding contributions of our faculty with these awards during National Engineers Week 2014,” said S.K. Ramesh, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “Our hearty congratulations to all of them on these well-deserved recognitions.”

Both Naga, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Youssef, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, will be receiving the Distinguished Engineering Educator Awards. Recipients of this award are being honored for their outstanding professional qualities and have a top reputation for engineering education and leadership that spans a career.

Mirzaei, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will receive the Outstanding Engineering Achievement Merit Award. Mirzaei is being honored because of his work in electrical engineering during this past year.

Cal State Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science is home to several nationally recognized programs through which students work alongside faculty members and industry professionals on cutting edge research. The college offers a variety of ABET accredited undergraduate degree programs and contemporary graduate degree programs in engineering and computer science. The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) also recognized it for having the nation’s fastest growing undergraduate engineering program in 2010.

Attendees at a past CSUN Conference. Photo courtesy of the Center on Disabilities.

Thousands of people from around the globe are expected to gather in San Diego next month for the world’s largest event dedicated to exploring new ways technology can help persons with disabilities.

California State University, Northridge’s 29th annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference is scheduled to take place from March 17 to 22 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel.

People with disabilities make up the largest group of attendees and “are the reason we all gather to push the research and challenge industry professionals to keep moving technology forward and tackle new challenges,” said Sandy Plotin, managing director of CSUN’s Center on Disabilities, which organizes the conference.

The “CSUN Conference,” as it is known in the industry, is the only one of its kind sponsored by a university. It provides an unique opportunity for persons with disabilities to have direct input in the creation of or modifications to assistive technology — from wheelchairs and interactive software to apps.

“Our conference brings together thousands of people from around the world — including scientists, practitioners, educators, government officials, tech executives and entrepreneurs — all committed to driving innovation in assistive technology to promote inclusiveness for people with disabilities,” Plotin said.

The conference explores all aspects of technology and disabilities. It features a faculty of internationally recognized speakers, more than 350 general session workshops and more than 130 exhibitors displaying the latest technologies for persons with disabilities. This year’s speakers include Kathy Martinez, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor.

The keynote address will be given by Tommy Edison, who has gained national acclaim for his blog, “Blind Film Critic.” Edison, blind since birth, also produces online videos that offer glimpses into his life and the often humorous challenges he faces every day. He also has been a radio personality for nearly 25 years, spending the past 19 as the traffic reporter for a Connecticut station.

Conference organizers are working once again with WebAble TV, an Internet TV channel for people with disabilities on the TV Worldwide Network, to serve as the conference’s official webcaster.

“In past years, we have been able to provide some coverage of the conference to non-attending participants through WebAble TV’s live interviews with sponsors, exhibitors, VIPs and through a recording of the keynote address,” Plotin said. “This year, we’re excited that we’ll be selecting five sessions each from our science and research track and the web accessibility track, for a small fee to download post conference. We’re hoping that this helps expand the conference experience for people who are unable to attend.”

For more information about the conference or how to register, visit CSUN’s Center on Disabilities website, http://www.csun.edu/cod/conference/index.php, or call (818) 677-2578 V/TTY.

California State University, Northridge has a long history of involvement in many aspects of assisting persons with disabilities dating back to 1961, when the university was known as San Fernando Valley State College. This precedes Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. In 1983, university officials created the Center on Disabilities to assist students in realizing their academic and career goals. To that end, the technology and persons with disabilities conference was launched.

The conference has grown to about 5,000 participants, with presenters and exhibitors sharing technology devices, services and programs. Participants travel from all 50 states, numerous territories and more than 35 countries. It has an international reputation for expanding the knowledge base of professionals and introducing newcomers to the field.

California State University, Northridge is a regionally focused, nationally recognized university serving nearly 39,000 full- and part-time students in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding areas. Founded in 1958, Cal State Northridge is among the largest universities in the nation and is ranked among the top universities for bachelor’s degrees awarded to minority students.

It has nine colleges and more than 2,000 faculty members who teach courses leading to bachelor’s degrees in 69 disciplines, master’s degrees in 58 fields and doctorates in education and physical therapy, as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Continuously evolving and changing to meet the needs of California and the nation at large, the university is home to dozens of acclaimed programs where students gain hands-on experience working alongside faculty and industry professionals, whether in the sciences, health care and engineering or education, the arts and social sciences.