California State University, Northridge paleoanthropologist Hélène Rougier has uncovered one of the biggest finds in her field — the first identified remains of cannibalized Neandertals in Northern Europe.

The remains are part of the 21-drawer collection of bones excavated from the Goyet cave in Belgium found more than 150 years ago and are stored at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. Details of Rougier’s discovery were published in the science journal Scientific Reports ​​on July 6.

CSUN anthropology professor Hélène Rougier (center) identifies human skeletal remains among the collections from the Goyet cave in Belgium with colleagues from her project team, paleoanthropologist Dr. Isabelle Crevecoeur from Bordeaux University (right) and archeozoologist Cédric Beauval from Archéosphère in France (left). Photo provided by Hèléne Rougier.

The cannibalized remains had gone unnoticed for more than 150 years, Rougier said.

“Because the remains are cannibalized, they were broken … [the Neandertals] really broke the bones in many pieces,” she said. “We put aside bones that we wouldn’t have selected normally because they were not diagnostically human. Then we made a puzzle and put them together to show human bones.”

Rougier said the cannibalized remains were located near Neandertal burial sites that are clustered within a 250 kilometer diameter — some as close as 20 kilometers away. She said the findings show that Neanderthals were aware of their dead and had culture, but do not conclusively reveal the reason behind cannibalism.

“It is very interesting how [Neandertals] treated their dead in different ways,” Rougier said. “We are really wondering what it means. Are these enemies? Are these people of their own group? Unfortunately, these are questions we cannot answer. What we know is that they had culture and had some complex behaviors. We don’t know if they made a point to treat them like this.”

Rougier said the discovery was made possible by the interdisciplinary nature and collaboration of other researchers, such as fellow paleoanthropologist Isabelle Crevecoeur and archaeozoologist Cédric Beauval, who together determined the remains were indeed Neandertal and cannibalized.

Beauval was looking at the Goyet collection to study  animal bones and their usage for retouching stone tools by Neandertals compared to the remains of the Neandertals found. While examining smaller bone fragments, Rougier said, Beauval noted retouching marks, bore holes that went through the bone for Neandertals to get marrow and defleshing scrape marks that were done when the bones were fresh.

“Cédric noted the presence of cut marks on the remains,” Rougier said. “He also studied a sample of the animal remains to compare it to the [Neandertal] remains. Cédric said [the Neandertals] actually really processed them intensively. They really broke the bones in many pieces.”

The Neandertal remains had portions of mitochondrial DNA in them, which two geneticists, Cosimo Posth and Johannes Krause,  used to determine the ancestry of the bones to at least three different people who came from part of the latest known generations of Neandertals, Rougier said.

“We sent the samples to be directly dated and got results that fitted with what we knew were Neandertal times. Some came back too young,” she said. “We tried to get better dates. We got dates that were again really young. We realized there were early modern human remains in [the cave] as well.

“It’s really a multidisciplinary study,” Rougier said. “We had to put the results of different fields to get the results in the article. We identified some human remains with [Crevecoeur], and we checked that they were indeed Neandertal through DNA testing done by the geneticists. We communicated a lot. We knew when one field got some results, we compared them to the results of another field in the study.”

Rougier and some of her colleagues currently are excavating at Saint-Césaire, a cave in western France, where a Neandertal’s remains were found buried in a pit in 1979. Rougier said she aims to continue updating older studies with the use of new technology.

“By doing this work and by using state-of-the-art methods like DNA analysis, we can give a second life to this site on which the work had not been done using today’s standards because it was done early on,” she said. “We are now trying to set the record straight.”

On a Friday afternoon in July, California State University, Northridge theoretical astrophysicist Wladimir Lyra sat in a conference room with four of his returning students. Astronomy graduate Alexandra Yep joined them via Skype from Germany. Brazilian graduate student Leonardo Sattler Cassará introduced himself to his new colleagues.

The students are part of a cohort, known as the Origins Lab, working to answer some questions with potentially astronomical answers.

Lyra said the Origins Lab reflects the global nature of scientific research today.

“Science is international,” Lyra said. “In astronomy, in science, nationalities don’t matter. We are interested in what people can do. Where they come from, what native language they speak, doesn’t matter.”

When Cassará studied abroad in the United States for his undergraduate degree, he worked with Lyra at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, developing a computer code that would simulate convection in one of Jupiter’s icy moons, Europa. Cassará is continuing to develop the code, which is part of his master’s thesis, as a research assistant at CSUN this year before he returns to Brazil to defend his thesis.

Although he is not in his native country of Brazil, Cassará said he feels like he is part of a community of fellow academics here, too.

Leonardo Cassará is collaborating with CSUN theoretical astrophysicist Wladimir Lyra on coding to simulate convection on one of Jupiter’s icy moons, Europa. Photo provided by Wladimir Lyra.

“The best part is, right now, meeting you all,” he said. “I felt like I was missing this academic atmosphere. I miss this — working, the productivity.”

Yep was in Germany collaborating with astronomers on simulations of star formation. She said her experience studying abroad this summer made her feel at home in the scientific community.

“I’m working with a lot of people who are [in Germany, but are] not from Germany,” she said. “One is from New York and one is from Colombia. Everybody is a little different and everybody is really smart. They are really helpful, too. The best thing is, I get to work directly with my research leaders. It’s a lot more like an internship.”

Lab member and astronomy undergraduate Sean Snyder is collaborating with Lyra on a simulation of planet formation. He said working alongside his professor, Lyra, helps him work through astronomical questions in a more collaborative way, giving him a leg up when he goes on to conduct research after he graduates.

“I am looking at disks and gases and particles and certain areas where they interact with each other. I am really excited,” Snyder said. “Dr. Lyra is a great person to work with. He is really helpful. We’re getting ready to publish. We’ve been exploring the conditions for what bumps trap particles and what bumps don’t. We originally thought we wouldn’t have any troubles trapping these particles. From there we were going to try and simulate planets.”

Origins Lab members also will begin working on a project with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to explore and study planetary systems around other stars, Lyra said.

CSUN graduate astronomy student and cohort member Vincent Carpenter added that being able to pursue questions such as the origins of the Earth is rewarding.

“I see it as something that’s important for humanity as a whole — to have curiosity,” he said. “To me, it’s cool. Who cares what sort of economic benefits might come [for me] later from astronomy? I’m doing it because it’s neat.”

Lyra explained that the natural curiosity of those who pursue science and astronomy has advanced society.

“One of my professors in college used to say that astronomy had absolutely no use, except for answering the fundamental questions humankind has always asked itself — who are we, where do we come from, how do we fit in it all, where are we going?” Lyra said.

“Astronomy historically has given back to society in the time scale of centuries,” he continued. “The

Last July, CSUN theoretical astrophysicist Wladimir Lyra went back to the City of God, an infamous Brazilian favella, to help inform and inspire its children about space exploration. Photo provided by Wladimir Lyra.

science that we do today is the engineering of 100 years in the future. We use calculus to build everything. The origin of calculus was from Isaac Newton. He developed it because he wanted to know how the planets move. Maybe if Galileo hadn’t pointed the first telescope to the skies, we would still have a totalitarian pope dictating the course of history. [It was] the first moment in history that science unequivocally showed that some ecclesiastical dogmas were categorically wrong. Astronomy was in the forefront of the Renaissance.”

Lyra added that he believes science is a community that grows as more become exposed to it. This year, Lyra started an astronomy book drive, where people can donate their astronomy textbooks to be sent to a school in Kenya. Since last summer, he has co-run a nonprofit program, Ad Astra Academy — “to the stars” in Latin — whose mission is to inspire disadvantaged students to discover opportunities through science and exploration.

Together with colleagues Jeff Marlow of Harvard University, Paul Hayne of JPL, Carolyn Crow of the Livermore National Laboratory and Los Angeles-based film maker Hank Leukart, the group successfully ran a pilot program for 18 students who were between 11 and 16 years old in the City of God favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“The main problems that these kids face are economic and a lack of access to education,” he said. “Many of them were never exposed to the idea that science can be a career. It was great to see their enthusiasm when our team of scientists entered the classroom. It was a brand new world for many of them. Yet, we had to deal with social problems that, as a scientist, I’ve never encountered before. For example, how to make them remain in school.

“In the pilot program in the City of God we were told that around a certain age, the boys start to be recruited by the drug lords and the girls start to abandon school, mostly due to teen pregnancy,” Lyra continued. “We targeted the age range just under that. We need to monitor the group to see if Ad Astra will have any long-term impact, but, short-term, some of the kids of the program now say they want to be astronomers. We partnered with astronomy institutes in Rio to give these kids the possibility of internships and opportunities.”

Cassará volunteered as one of the Ad Astra Academy mentors last July, in Rio. He said the experience impacted his perspective on astronomy as not just looking to the stars, but looking to the potential in others’ futures.

“[The children] really give something to you,” he said. “You feel so good helping them.”

The California State University, Northridge Department of Information Technology hosted its sixth annual Technology Fair on July 27 in the University Student Union Grand Salon, to inform faculty and staff about the latest trends in higher education technology.

“The CSUN Technology Fair has been held annually since 2011,” said Hilary Baker, chief information officer and vice president of information technology (IT). “It provides a forum for all IT staff, college technical staff and other interested employees to gather for two speaker presentations about topical IT subjects, and to interface with our key CSUN technology vendors.”

Representatives from HP, Lynda, Apple, Microsoft, Box, Shi, Dell and OnBase showcased the newest products on the market, while discussing their uses in higher education. Two speakers talked about current, relevant technology issues.

Morley Winograd, executive director of the Institute for Communication Technology Management at the USC Marshall School of Business, was the event’s morning speaker. He spoke about different generations and how each generation has engaged with technology through the decades.

Campuses will adapt to the increased technology use of the current generation and will become more interactive and connected to the web, Winograd said. He called data sharing the “new way of life,” adding that encyclopedias have been replaced by Wikipedia and open-access sources.

“Many grow up learning that wisdom is in the cloud,” he said.

“Morley Winograd’s presentation about millennial students and the new plurals (post-millennial) generation helps us better comprehend our current and future students, to determine how we can best help them succeed,” Baker said.

In the afternoon, Lisa Feldman, assistant U.S. attorney for the cybersecurity unit at the Department of Justice, spoke about online crime and how to guard against it.

She talked about the dangers of cyberbullying for younger generations and explained how users can identify and prevent malicious internet traps such as geotracking (identifying someone’s location through a picture), catfishing (faking someone’s social media profile) and phishing (fraud through malware).

“Information security awareness to protect our campus data is a shared campus responsibility, so listening to Lisa Feldman talk about cybersecurity was compelling,” Baker said.

“People have commented on how relevant the topics were to their professional and personal lives,” added Ben Quillian, associate vice president of information technology. “CSUN has been directly affected by the information security issues presented, and many attendees have been personally affected by identity theft and cyber crime as well. Being well informed helps people protect themselves.”

More than 200 people attended this year’s Technology Fair, including CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison.

“We are very happy with the turnout for this year, as we had a number of people from around campus join the event — as evidenced by another full room,” Quillian said. “Our goal is to provide information that is engaging, relevant and helpful in supporting student and employee success on campus.”

This fall, Ryan Davis ’15 (Biology) will begin a doctoral program in chemistry at Yale University as a recipient of a 2016 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind and one of the most prestigious. Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $34,000, along with a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), opportunities for international research and professional development, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. institution of graduate education.

The 32-year-old Davis said the fellowship was made possible because of the support and guidance of California State University, Northridge faculty and the research he has done.

“CSUN had everything to do with my success,” Davis said. “All the faculty I’ve worked with want to see students succeed.”

Davis transferred to CSUN in 2013 from Pierce College, but his journey was full of obstacles and curves along the way.

Music always had been a significant part of Davis’ life, so when he graduated from high school, the self-taught guitarist thought music was his best option. He poured himself into music and ended up signing with a record label, touring the world and obtaining a “moderate” level of success in the music industry. But Davis was not happy and decided to enroll in a San Diego community college. He enrolled in an introductory chemistry class and fell in love with the subject.

“I fell in love with problem solving, the periodic trends and the predictive power this information provided,” Davis said. “More importantly, I fell in love with the enrichment provided by learning, and it was in this community college classroom that my life began the process of being forever changed.”

He initially thought he would go to medical school. Davis obtained his emergency medical technician license to support himself and get some experience. In 2011, his older sister was diagnosed with cancer, and he decided to move back to the San Fernando Valley. He enrolled at Pierce College and took a job working in the college’s chemistry stockroom.

Davis visited CSUN to find out more about its programs, and an adviser recommended he contact Department of Chemistry professor Gagik Melikyan. The two met, Melikyan invited Davis to join his research group and today, the CSUN chemistry professor is the former musician’s No. 1 cheerleader.

“Ryan is one of the best students I have ever had,” Melikyan said. “I’m absolutely positive he will be successful in any doctoral program in this country.

“He is one of the CSUN students who will definitely make us proud,” Melikyan added.

Davis has worked in Melikyan’s research group since 2013, where he has done research at the interface of organic, organometallic, computational and medicinal chemistry. He has co-authored several papers due to be published with Melikyan and presented at numerous conferences. He also has won several other awards, including the 2015 ACS Southern California Undergraduate Research Conference (SCURC) Outstanding Oral Presentation Award, 2015 Sigma Xi CSUN Student Research Symposium Second Place Award and the 2015 Leslie and Terry Cutler Scholarship for Outstanding Promise in Science.

“The faculty here cares,” Davis said. “CSUN is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

This summer, President Barack Obama announced a $70 million federal award to the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC), an industry-led national nonprofit, to create a nationwide Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The institute includes three of the five California State University campuses (CSU5) in the Los Angeles area. California State University, Northridge, along with Cal State Long Beach and Cal Poly Pomona, will fuel industry growth and innovation nationwide with more than $140 million in public-private investment geared toward developing advanced manufacturing technology and a supporting workforce and education pipeline. The announcement was made at the Select USA Summit in Washington, D.C.

S. K. Ramesh, dean of CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, who represents the university at the institute, spoke about CSUN’s longstanding commitment to promote advanced manufacturing.

“We offer one of the three ABET-accredited bachelor’s degree programs in manufacturing systems engineering in the state of California, and we are a leading partner in the national Maker Faire Movement, Higher Education University Alliance,” he said. “Our faculty and students work on a variety of areas of interest to the new institute, including software development, sensors, advanced modeling and control systems.”

The Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will be an industry-led nonprofit organization headquartered in LA, with networked regional centers across California, Washington, New York, North Carolina and Texas. The national network will work across business, workforce and technical focus areas, leveraging each region’s unique industrial environments. It will be the ninth institute awarded under the National Network of Manufacturing Institutes initiative. The SMLC brings together a strong collaboration of nearly 200 partners from academia, industry and nonprofits across more than 30 states. The institute will accelerate the development and adoption of advanced sensors, data analytics and controls in manufacturing, while reducing the cost of these technologies by half and radically improving the efficiency of U.S. advanced manufacturing.

The institute will enable small, medium and large manufacturers, new and unprecedented access to smart tools, innovation and the ability to grow their business.

CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science has a culture of supporting innovation and celebrates the success of its students through events such as the annual Senior Design Project Showcase. Several projects have won acclaim at regional and national competitions. In the past two years, CSUN’s “Hybrid Layered Manufacturing 3D Printer” and “Cloudponics System” have won the grand prize at the Product and Manufacturing System Design Challenge, hosted by the Small Manufacturer’s Institute.

Several industry partners from the college’s industry advisory board are expected to actively participate in the new institute.

“One of the important DOE goals for the institute is workforce development and education,” Ramesh said. “DOE expects the institute to train at least 500 students per year in smart manufacturing technologies and solutions by year three. CSUN is uniquely positioned to help the institute meet this goal, given our high-quality programs.”

California State University, Northridge holds this year’s record for the largest increase in research publications rates in North America, according to a listing of top tier peer-reviewed journals selected by the journal Nature.

The list, created by Nature Index, is made by analyzing research institutions in North America and their research output percentages from 2012 to 2015. Articles in chemistry, life sciences, physical sciences, and earth and environmental sciences published in journals chosen by Nature were the markers.

CSUN Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics Jerry Stinner said being listed among the top 25 Rising Stars is a great honor for the university.

“What a tremendous validation of everything we’ve been trying to accomplish in the college, in all five departments,” he said.  “To say that I’m proud of the faculty is a complete understatement. For Nature to recognize the incredible achievements and hard work of my faculty is beyond anything I could have wished for. The external recognition by a premier science journal is simply incredible.”

CSUN held the highest percent increase in publication rate at more than 190 percent, followed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U. S. Geological Survey, Carnegie Mellon University and Stanford University. CSUN is the only public institution of higher education in California listed.

The college includes the Departments of Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Geological Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy. Stinner noted that research by faculty in all of the departments contributed to the listing.

CSUN biology professor Jonathan Kelber makes cancer cell samples to analyze in his lab. Photo by Lee Choo.

CSUN biology professor and cancer researcher Steven Oppenheimer, who has taught at CSUN for more than 45 years, said the listing had him “just flabbergasted.”

“This is a blockbuster,” he said. “I think this is the most important research advance for CSUN in the history of CSUN. In my 45 years here, I’ve never seen anything like this — ever. It shows that of all organizations in the country, CSUN made the greatest advance in research from 2012 to 2015 ­— more than Stanford, more than Harvard, more than anywhere! This is unbelievable. It is simply amazing. It’s a reflection of the great work that is being done here.”

Fellow cancer researcher Jonathan Kelber, a CSUN assistant professor of biology, added that the listing is a major bonus for the university because of Nature’s high profile.

“From my understanding, the list is generated from looking over publications in certain journals. That’s a really important caveat,” he said. “Nature Index identifies certain journals to watch that have big impacts in science. What they’re doing is not looking at all publications. [Nature Index] preselects which journals they are looking at. Many of these journals are high profile. They are banking on these journals [to be] predictive of current or past success of institutions. In that regard, it’s more exciting … I think it is encouraging.”

CSUN anthropology professor Hélène Rougier’s recent article on the origins of Eastern European Neandertals received the university’s highest score in outreach, called an altemetric score, according to Nature Index.

Rougier, whose department is in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, expressed gratitude for the listing and said the work of CSUN’s researchers speaks for itself.

CSUN anthropology professor Hélène Rougier (center) identifies human skeletal remains among the collections from the Goyet cave in Belgium with colleagues from her project team, paleoanthropologist Dr. Isabelle Crevecoeur from Bordeaux University (right) and archeozoologist Cédric Beauval from Archéosphère in France (left). Photo provided by Hèléne Rougier.

“I’m very thankful that people are interested in this work,” she said. “I’m sure it’s going to help to present and share this kind of research with a larger audience. CSUN has been supportive of my work. I’m very glad for CSUN, because we try to do research and I really feel support from the university.”

Kelber noted that Stinner provided him with exceptional support when coming to the university, which led the professor and his team of students to find causes of certain forms of cancer in their research, he said.

“Jerry Stinner, our dean, has been really giving faculty the resources — space and financial — to get research programs started up,” he said. “Our lab wouldn’t have been successful in getting the grants that we have or the research we did unless we had startup funds to buy the equipment. It is a big part, having a dean who has placed a huge priority on scholarship. He wants us to be engaged in the highest level of scholarship possible and has supported us for it.”

CSUN’s place on the Nature list is also thanks to support from CSUN’s leaders, including Stinner and biology department chair Larry Allen, Oppenheimer added.

“The way in which Jerry Stinner, Larry Allen and others have done this is by hiring scores of top faculty, first-choice faculty, for over a decade and supporting them with the best support anywhere,” he said. “This support starts with the president and the provost and the dean and the chair of biology. [CSUs] are not generally known for massive ​​quantities of research, but this [ranking] shows that here we are. Cal State Northridge — the greatest increase in top papers of any other place in North America. It is simply amazing.”

Allen reiterated that the work of the college for the past decade toward supporting its faculty has contributed to having CSUN on the listing.

“But most importantly,” he said, “it reflects the success of our undergraduate and graduate-based research model in producing both great science and invaluable training opportunities for our students.”

Kimberly Rose Madhwani is having a hard time adjusting back to the warmer climate of the San Fernando Valley. For 10 weeks over this summer, the California State University, Northridge student conducted research at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as part of a scholarship program hosted by the Amgen Foundation. The program pairs 17 leading educational and research institutions across the United States, Europe and Japan to host scholars in research labs.

Madhwani, a fifth-year biochemistry major and president of CSUN’s Chemistry & Biochemistry Club, first heard about the scholarship when she attended a conference hosted by the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. She was one of about 360 applicants chosen from more than 5,000 applications. Madhwani was thrilled when UCSF selected her for the program, where she conducted research, studying the underlying neural circuits responsible for thermoregulations.

The scholarship application required her to write a diversity statement, where Madhwani explained how her upbringing was perfectly suited to a career in medical research.

“Growing up, and especially in Filipino culture, you work hard for a lot of things,” she said. “I was taught if you didn’t work hard for it initially, then you didn’t deserve it in the first place. That translates to my work ethic in the lab, because it’s a lot of delayed gratification, but you have to be consistent.”

After conducting research during the past three years, Madhwani said she appreciated the opportunities CSUN opened up for her — including this scholarship that allowed her to experience a different city. She encouraged all CSUN students to try to find scholarships, to show others what great scholars the university can produce.

“CSUN is very underrepresented in a lot of ways, and I feel like there are such great minds here,” she said. “It’s only a quick Google search away. I highly recommend these kinds of scholarships to people, because we’re just as competitive as any other school.”

Scholarships like those offered by Amgen can help students discover new opportunities and realize their dreams. Madhwani described how her time at UCSF has prepared her for a career in medical research, as well as helped reaffirm her beliefs in just how much she can accomplish in the field.

“I definitely believe this experience has better prepared me for graduate school,” Madhwani said. “I want to get my Ph.D. and hopefully start a lab of my own, and this experience has brought me one step closer to accomplishing this career goal.”

Rosa Angulo-Barroso

Iron is keeping pregnant women healthy across the globe. But what impact can it have once the baby is born? Research by California State University, Northridge kinesiology professor and international collaborator Rosa Angulo-Barroso is exploring the effects of iron supplementation on the motor development of infants, and their preliminary findings are positive.

A study published in the Pediatrics Journal earlier this year, revealed that infants from Beijing, China, that received iron supplementation from six weeks to nine months had improvements in their gross motor skills compared to those who did not. Gross motor skills cover the use of large muscles and locomotion.

Angulo-Barroso explained the research results provide insight into how iron supplementation is vital to helping children do better in other aspects of their development.

“It is almost a cascading effect,” she said. “It creates more cognition, more emotional and social development. The fact that iron supplementing the kid in this six weeks all the way to nine months helps them have better scores is so important.”

However, infants who had a mild iron deficiency were just as likely to have issues in motor development as those who were iron deficient and anemic.

“Iron deficiency is very common,” Angulo-Barroso added. “The level of iron deficiency with anemia is different, since you have a low red blood cell count. We are not talking about that level of iron deficiency here. One is more severe than the other. And even though iron deficiency is a lower level, still, we are finding these effects [in motor development].”

Angulo-Barroso explained that while iron supplementation helped, more studies are being done to look at the status of iron levels in the infants and mothers, as opposed to just the iron supplementation. This way, more effects can be analyzed in the data set.

She said that the most important outcome of the study was that even if the iron levels are not severely low, having a slight deficiency can clearly impact the development of the children, and more tests can be done to help identify it.

“This is the interesting part to me, since kids don’t get screened for iron deficiency, just iron deficiency anemia,” she said. “[Most doctors] don’t look at other markers for iron deficiency, they only look at hemoglobin levels. Have your iron levels assessed, not only your hemoglobin levels.”

Angulo-Barroso has worked with and assessed the iron levels of various populations around the world for the past 17 years, including those from Chile, Costa Rica and the United States. She said she was shocked to discover how common iron deficiency was, no matter the country.

“A lot of these early developing countries did not have a policy of reinforcing iron in their formulas for the babies,” she said. “It was a lot easier to go to these countries and examine and finding a population that was iron deficient early in life. Because in the U.S. everything has been fortified, we thought it would be harder to find an iron deficient population. Amazingly, about 20 percent of babies in the Detroit area were iron deficient. We are continuing to explore more effects of iron on the development of these children.”

Photo courtesy of Aishwarya Iyler.

It’s Wednesday night, and Aishwarya Iyer is excited to begin her night shift at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. She has spent a week sitting in front of her computer in a small cubicle, where she has evaluated and analyzed data for several hours a day. She submits the coordinates of this night’s target planet to the 13,802-foot-high summit telescope in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and selects the instrument of choice offered by the telescope facility to study the atmosphere of this planet.

Iyer, a graduate student in California State University, Northridge’s physics program, started working for JPL in summer 2014 as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Over the past year, she had the opportunity to lead an entire study on exoplanets — planets outside Earth’s solar system. She’s passionate about the research she has been conducting at JPL, and one of her favorite parts of the job is the occasional late-night observation run that provides an opportunity to observe planets physically, she said.

“Those are the most fun days of the semester,” Iyer said. “When we’re done with all the legwork, and you can actually get to the science aspect of it.”

Most of Iyer’s work involves days of programming and evaluating huge data sets to obtain quality results from reducing data acquired during the observation runs. Her current work focuses on characterizing the atmospheric properties of 19 “hot Jupiters” previously observed by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Hot Jupiters are 1,500-degree-Fahrenheit exoplanets that have masses similar to that of Jupiter but are much closer to their parent star than our Jupiter to the sun. Iyer’s task was to classify these 19 planets to find common atmospheric features, unique to the class of hot Jupiters.

Iyer explained that a majority of these planets exhibit the presence of water vapor within their atmospheres. Previous studies however have resulted in a variety of analysis and interpretation methods. Iyer’s work was motivated by the need for standardizing this data to look for patterns. The results of the study show that water is ubiquitous in the atmospheres of hot Jupiters and that about half of the atmosphere of any hot Jupiter is blocked by clouds, haze or aerosols, thus preventing scientists from detecting the true water content.

“There’s still so much we don’t know and to know even just a little bit more than yesterday about the universe, is really one of the encouraging reasons to do research.” Iyer said.

Her study was published in the June 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal in the June 1 issue. The results of the study could have implications on future studies of hot Jupiter atmospheres as well as for using the next generation of space observatories such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Iyer graduated from UCSD in 2015 and moved to CSUN to pursue her master’s in physics.

“The generic norm is that people do their undergraduate [in physics] and directly go to the Ph.D. programs,” Iyer explained. “But I thought, it’s best to go through a master’s program to solidify your understanding of the core concepts, which will allow you to become a stronger candidate for a Ph.D program — that’s why I was really inclined toward taking this path.”

Iyer said she particularly values working with professors Wladimir Lyra and Farisa Morales, both faculty in CSUN’s Department of Physics. Lyra and Morales have become key mentors, she said.

“CSUN has such a wonderful physics program, which has been an important part of my whole journey,” she added. “I wouldn’t have had the courage to jump on a Ph.D. program right away, and this program is something I definitely needed.”

Iler also advocates to encourage more female students and under-represented minority students to not shy away from physics or astronomy classes.

“It is our duty as members of the academic community to build one another and provide support whenever necessary,” she said. “We must keep reminding ourselves that it is okay to struggle while solving some physics problems but when it comes to the big picture, we must realize that getting an opportunity to study any part of our magnificent universe is truly a privilege.”

Currently, Iyer is applying to various Ph.D. programs for next year and said she is very excited to get started.

“I believe that it’s very important to do what you love, and I can’t wait to work on more exciting science,” she said.

Hundreds of millions of cancer samples, each the size of a saltine cracker, have been archived across the globe. These samples contain genetic information that can radically improve cancer patient survival – even curing difficult-to-treat tumor types. Extracting this information out of these cancer samples has been a major bottleneck to progress in oncology research — until now.

California State University, Northridge cancer researchers have developed a novel method for extracting these genetic data from archived pancreatic cancer tissue — this cancer type is known for its very low survival rate at only 7 percent — with results that could enable major future breakthroughs for this disease. Their research was published in the September edition of the journal Oncotarget, and will directly address recommendations made to the National Institutes of Health in response to United States Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative, announced last February, which is slated to provide $1 billion toward cancer research efforts.

CSUN biology graduate students Yvess Adamian, left, and Malachaia Hoover, right, prepare tissue samples for RNA extraction with a groundbreaking method utilizing a microHomogenizer, with biology professor Jonathan Kelber, center, assisting in the lab. Photo by David J. Hawkins.

Biology professor Jonathan Kelber and two graduate students, Malachaia Hoover and Yvess Adamian, integrated a miniature blender-like tool the size of an eraser head into a standard method for purifying Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) from these archived samples. They hypothesized that the microHomogenizer^TM (mH), developed by Claremont Biosolutions whose associates collaborated on the article, would effectively liberate the trapped molecular information from these samples – something that is very difficult to do because they are preserved in a formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) cube.

Kelber explained that the samples are readily available for research, but the material within them is usually compromised because of the way they are preserved.

“We have a lot of tools to study this molecular information [in these FFPE samples],” Kelber said. “The problem is getting information out of them – it is a tedious task fraught with all kinds of challenges. The molecules get cross linked and you can’t break them apart. The integrity of the material is compromised. [The mH] liberates more [RNA] from these samples, and we think that by liberating more than you would with standard methods, you get better quality material that is then available for a variety of downstream applications — that’s a big breakthrough.”

The FFPE samples used in this study were generated from human pancreatic tumors surgically implanted and grown in the pancreata of mice — a cancer research method known as orthotopic surgery and developed by article collaborator Dr. Robert Hoffman, a professor of surgery at the University of California, San Diego. The procedure takes place at AntiCancer, Inc. which was founded by Hoffman.

Kelber’s team validated their breakthrough method by evaluating how different biomarker genes are expressed in cancer cells when they are grown in different environments. Hoffman explained that this study reaffirms his laboratory’s previous work demonstrating the importance studying human cancer cells in the orthotopic environment.

“Jonathan looks at genes and how they are expressed at the subcutaneous versus the orthotopic levels,” he said. “[The results are] very different. Very, very different. Jonathan developed a new and better technique — it’s revolutionary! There’s millions — tens of millions of these FFPE samples sitting in drawers all over the world. Just one application of his technique is looking at tumors orthotopically and finding a remarkable difference.”

Adamian explained the low survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients is due in part to the difficulty of identifying biomarkers to make early diagnoses.

“Pancreatic cancer is currently at a 7 percent survival rate. We thought we really needed a breakthrough for this cancer,” she said. “We think this [method] could really help to identify new biomarkers.”

Hoover, who began working on developing these novel mH-based methods as an undergraduate at CSUN, said the new technique will pave the way for better genome and RNA sequencing of patient tissue — a potentially life-changing feat for pancreatic cancer research.

“We see that when we use the microHomogenizer^TM method, the gene profile is more similar to fresh tissue samples,” she said. “I just can’t wait for [this project] to continue so we can identify new biomarkers and how gene signatures are changing between patients!”

Claremont BioSolutions’ President and co-founder Dr. Robert Doebler, said the tool’s success is something to be lauded.

“We are honored to be involved in the success achieved by the Kelber Lab in demonstrating a unique method for RNA extraction from challenging FFPE tissue samples utilizing our microHomogenizer™ device,” he said. “We feel that this protocol has the potential to fill a significant need in cancer-related research and clinical oncology.”

With the opening of the new Extended University Commons building on campus this fall semester, California State University, Northridge provides students with a new learning experience, introducing the Technology Enhanced Active Learning (TEAL) classroom on the building’s first floor.

The TEAL room offers a variety of new technology to enhance student learning. Unlike other classrooms, faculty who want to use the space must complete an orientation to familiarize themselves with the classroom’s sophisticated environment and work with the Faculty Technology Center and Faculty Development to create a community and share best practices.

“If a faculty member goes into any open lecture room on campus, they typically know what technology is in there and how to use it. This room is a lot more enhanced and not automatically intuitive,” said Leslie Gillman, manager of academic facilities.

Six 55-inch flatscreen TVs span the walls of the classroom, with several plug-ins to enable students to connect their laptops to the screens or charge their electronic devices. The classroom’s tables align with the screens but can also split apart to facilitate group work and active learning assignments.

The classroom’s most cutting-edge feature, however, is the use of we-inspire, a collaborative technology system with digitized whiteboards and pens to enable collaboration with digital material from course content, the internet and real-time work at the board.

“The company provides these specialized [digital] whiteboards,” Gillman said. “You’re not using actual dry erase markers on these, but pens designed to write on the board without leaving marks. Similar to existing smart board technology, they can color, create designs, go out to the internet and collect, capture and show data.”

Faculty members and students can also use specialized pens to draw on paper. The we-inspire software can then project the paper’s content onto the whiteboard. In the classroom, a variety of additional applications will support the overall course workflow and help make presentations as collaborative and engaging as possible.

“There have been studies showing that an active learning classroom improves retention and grades by at least half a grade,” Gillman said. “That’s hopefully one of the benefits we’ll realize from this installation.”

Back in early 2015, a committee was formed to discuss the possible components of a classroom that could push the envelope in terms of its learning environment and technology. The committee consisted of CSUN representatives from IT’s Classroom Technology Support, the Faculty Technology Center, Facilities Planning and Design Construction and the Tseng College of Extended Learning.

The committee decided that this room would provide an excellent opportunity for students to collaborate on the creation of it. Professor Adam Kaplan from the Department of Computer Science and professor Anubhuti Thakur from the Department of Family and Consumer Science engaged students in their classes to work on developing the project’s initial outlines.

“We just gave them a general direction and let them fly with what they thought might work,” Gillman said. “They came up with all kinds of technology and design solutions and presented their findings and recommendations to the committee. back in April 2015”

Considering the students’ ideas, standard protocols and the room’s design, the committee established the final design and technical components of the classroom. After visiting the we-inspire showroom in Los Angeles, the committee agreed on the TEAL’s current configuration. CSU Monterey Bay and Cal State Long Beach also have integrated the we-inspire system in similar settings.

“We went into this knowing that this is an experiment and a pilot,” Gillman said. “It’s not something that would ever be done in all classrooms because it’s just too cost prohibitive. It’s specifically done as a place to explore the active learning classroom model to determine what students and faculty gain from this sort of advanced collaborative space.”

Six faculty members from different departments teach their classes in the futuristic classroom this fall. Five others have expressed interest and participated in the classroom training end of July. Faculty members who are interested in learning more about the TEAL room are encouraged to contact Leslie Gillman at leslie.gillman@csun.edu.

California State University, Northridge officials broke ground on a new Associated Students Sustainability Center on Sept. 19. Campus leadership, the Institute for Sustainability, Associated Students (AS), the center’s partners in architecture, construction and consulting, as well as other CSUN stakeholders celebrated at the AS Recycling Yard next to the University Student Union, where the center will be built.

The Center will be a multi-functional space serving as an expanded collections station for campus recyclables, the administrative hub of AS’ sustainability programs and services, and as the administrative offices of the Institute for Sustainability.

“What we really hope is that it will become the focal point for the university community for educational programs and services related to the environment and sustainability,” said David Crandall, general manager of Associated Students.

At 8,000 square feet and a cost of approximately $4.7 million, the building will be a model of sustainable technology and practices.

The administrative area will house seminar rooms, offices and workspaces, a pantry, restrooms, showers, and a 5,000-square-foot covered yard space. The yard’s roof will include approximately 100 solar panels that will provide enough energy to keep the administrative space completely off the grid, supporting CSUN’s initiative to become a carbon-neutral campus.

Solar hot water produced on the roof will provide hot water for the center’s sinks and showers, and used water will feed into a “gray water” collection tank that will irrigate drought-tolerant landscaping around the building. The air conditioning system will be connected to the building’s windows, maximizing natural ventilation to save power.

The center’s restrooms will include self-contained composting toilets, which can convert waste into clean compost and limit water use to as little as .2 liters per flush.

Architectural firm Gensler, construction firm Gilbane and sustainability consultants from Glumac created the center’s innovative design and engineering.

CSUN is a national leader in implementing and promoting sustainable practices, said CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison, who chairs the Second Nature Climate Leadership Steering Committee and made sustainability one of her top priorities when she arrived at the university in 2012.

The university has been awarded a gold rating by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), the highest rating in the CSU. The Student Recreation Center and Valley Performing Arts Center were awarded LEED Gold awards from the U.S. Green Building Council, and the campus is seeking Gold status for the new Extended University Commons building.

CSUN achieved a 22 percent reduction in water use — equivalent to 55 million gallons — in 2015, surpassing the CSU water reduction goal of 20 percent by 2020.

“The Sustainability Center that we celebrate today will play a major role in advancing our sustainability efforts on campus,” Harrison said. “To Associated Students, the students and the faculty and staff who have played a role in bringing this center from a mere idea in someone’s head to reality, I say thank you so much for your work in making CSUN a national leader and role model for sustainable practices and actions.”

Director of the Institute for Sustainability Helen Cox said she also appreciated the spirit of universitywide teamwork.

“This center brings all the different units of the university together in a great collaborative effort,” Cox said. “It’s been exciting to do something really transformative. The building is so cutting edge — it just proves you really can make net-zero [energy] happen.”

AS President Sevag Alexanian expressed pride in his fellow students’ hard work, turning a dream into a reality.

“We are standing here today and it goes to show that really, anything is possible,” Alexanian said.

An innovation movement is burgeoning in the City of Los Angeles — and California State University, Northridge is at the vanguard.

A major partner of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), and the only university-based LACI satellite, CSUN is the largest single contributor of events for InnovateLA — a countywide celebration of innovation and creativity in the region hosted by a plethora of organizations. These events include: coding challenges, “mini-hackathons,” a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon, a faculty-focused Virtual and Augmented Reality Exploration (VARx) event, a networking and presentation event by Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), the fourth annual Art of Innovation conference, Sustainability Day and the Phenomenal Woman Awards. CSUN is also a stakeholder in the grand opening event on Oct. 7 for the La Kretz Innovation Campus in Downtown Los Angeles.

As the city works to bring visibility and resources to the numerous innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises in the region, CSUN is doing the same for the campus community. CSUN Innovates!, is a university initiative currently being developed by a group of CSUN faculty, staff, alumni and administrators. It aims to stimulate increased innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship among students, faculty, staff, alumni and the greater community.

Doing so requires identifying and empowering individuals who may not call themselves “innovators” or “entrepreneurs,” although they do innovative work in their respective fields. And according to Julia Potter, Director for Strategic Partnerships and Special Initiatives, there’s no lack of innovation going on at CSUN.

“Innovation and entrepreneurship is embedded into the mission and vision of CSUN,” Potter said. “It’s found everywhere on campus, in all fields, and doesn’t only apply to those in business. It’s essential to a liberal arts education that teaches critical thinking and problem solving.”

Kevin Randolph, Executive Director of LACI@CSUN, said the university’s openness to new ideas has led to tangible results in innovation and entrepreneurship. Since the LACI satellite was established at CSUN in 2014, the campus has hosted a variety of collaborative and interdisciplinary innovation activities: The Bull Ring new venture competition; mobile app competition AppJam; new venture pitch competition FastPitch; and the Breakthrough Breakfast Series, as well as meetings taking place all over campus focused on spurring innovation.

“When I came here I was extraordinarily impressed by the energy and enthusiasm on campus, particular from the leadership that President Dianne F. Harrison has provided in pushing the university to evolve so students can be successful,” Randolph said. “What we are promoting is experiential learning in the student environment. We want students to be ready for the real world and immediately productive turning ideas into commercial applications.”

Potter said the demographic and characteristics of CSUN students in particular go hand in hand with innovation in applied learning and research.

“Innovation is in our DNA,” Potter said. “We are a highly diverse campus with a lot of low-income, historically underrepresented and first-generation students who have to innovate in order to succeed. However, a lot of folks don’t realize that the dream of becoming entrepreneurs is not limited to people with means.”

Potter hopes that adding innovation language into university discourse will help all community members feel comfortable taking on an entrepreneurial identity and to take ownership of their work as innovative.

Asad Mandi

California State University, Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science and David Nazarian College of Business and Economics are co-hosting the Art of Innovation Conference (AOI), which takes place from 8 a.m. to 3:30 pm. on Friday, Oct. 14, in the Grand Salon of the University Student Union.

          “The conference is a great way for attendees to build their networks while also learning from various leaders in their respective industries,” said Ryan Holbrook, entrepreneurship program director in the Nazarian College. “Our keynote and subsequent panels will highlight opportunities that lie ahead for current and aspiring innovators and entrepreneurs.”

           This year’s keynote speaker is Asad Madni, former president, chief operating officer and chief technology officer of BEI Technologies Inc. Madni is currently an independent consultant and an adjunct professor of engineering at UCLA. He also worked for Systron Donner Corporation, where he played a critical role in the development of radio frequency and microwave systems and instrumentation. Madni has published and received credit for more than 100 research reports.

          The conference will be divided into three focus areas: “Intrapreneurship and Entrepreneurship,” “The Future of Technology” and “Social Entrepreneurship.”  

          “In 2015, we introduced a panel on social entrepreneurship, which was very well-received by the students — they saw it as something truly unique, even for innovation conferences,” said Jimmy Gandhi, director of the Ernie Schaeffer Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “Hence, we decided to keep it as a focus of AOI 2016 to create a paradigm shift around social entrepreneurship.”

         The event’s panels will feature professionals from industries including manufacturing, virtual reality, sustainability, health care, education, aerospace and new media.

         CSUN students, faculty and staff can attend the conference for free and the cost for alumni and community members is $40 if they by Oct. 7. Space is limited; register online at www.csunaoi.com. Breakfast and lunch is included with registration. For more information, call Ryan Holbrook at (818) 677-4510 or ryan.holbrook@csun.edu.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

S.K. Ramesh, dean of CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. Photo by Lee Choo.

A collaborative effort by California State University, Northridge and local community colleges to increase the number of underrepresented students who study computer science and engineering has received the support of the U.S. Department of Education, awarding the program nearly $6 million over five years to expand its reach.

The project, AIMS² — Attract, Inspire, Mentor and Support Students — has faculty at CSUN and the community colleges working together to ensure students, and now including incoming freshmen, have the support they need to graduate in a timely fashion.

“The program, which we started five years ago, was such a success that we now have a new grant to help us build on what we’ve done and expand our reach and the students we serve,” said S.K. Ramesh, dean of CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, who is leading the project as principal investigator of the grant.

The new grant is funded through a competitive program under the auspices of the HSI-STEM (Hispanic-Serving Institutions division) initiative of the U.S. Department of Education. CSUN will receive nearly $1.2 million in the first year, starting this year.

AIMS² debuted in 2011 with the help of a similar grant from the department. At that time, it targeted Hispanic and low-income transfer students. The participating community colleges were Glendale Community College and College of the Canyons.

The goal was to increase the number of Hispanic and low-income students who graduated with degrees in computer science or engineering. Project leaders hoped to develop a model that could be replicated elsewhere. In its initial five years, about 240 students successfully completed the program and are now working in their chosen fields or pursuing graduate degrees.

“This new grant will enable us to double that number,” Ramesh said, noting that three additional community colleges joined the project — Los Angeles Pierce College, Moorpark College and Los Angeles Mission College — and that participation in AIMS² has been extended to incoming freshmen.

Ramesh said a total of 12 campuses in the California State University system received similar grants. The campuses have agreed to share the best practices of their projects with colleagues in all campuses throughout the CSU system.

“We purposely designed AIMS² so that it can be replicated,” Ramesh said. “If something works, it’s in all our best interests to share the model.”

The AIMS2 Logic Model

AIMS² takes an interdisciplinary approach to ensure student success. Faculty and administrators from the participating community colleges and from CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Mathematics and Science, and Michael D. Eisner College of Education are on the project team that meets monthly and monitors the needs of the students and how the project is responding to those needs. CSUN and community college faculty work together to ensure that students’ transition to the Northridge campus is as seamless as possible, including implementing summer bridge programs.

Students must apply to the program. The application process includes an essay about what they aspire to be, the challenges they face and how they see themselves succeeding.

Ramesh noted that in the past, nearly every applicant was accepted, “and even those who were not selected, we made sure that some of the services, such as tutoring, were available to them.”

Once accepted, students are placed in a cohort based on their discipline. Each cohort includes proactive academic advising and tracking, organized tutoring, peer and faculty mentoring, hands-on research opportunities and project-based learning, career advising, and support with the transition to the workforce or advanced studies.

The program was singled out in 2015 by the White House Initiative on Excellence for Hispanics in its “Bright Spot in Hispanic Education National Online Catalog.” In 2014, it received an honorable mention from Excelencia in Education as an example of excellence in the baccalaureate category.

“AIMS² has the potential to significantly improve graduation rates and close the achievement gaps for Hispanic and low-income students, expand undergraduate research projects to mentor students, and enhance faculty collaboration between two-year and four-year institutions to improve student success,” Ramesh said. “We are humbled and thrilled to be selected, and look forward to serving larger numbers of students with the new grant award.”

Dayna Middleton, a food science intern at California State University, Northridge’s Marilyn Magaram Center (MMC) for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics, spent her entire summer drying rosemary, sage, basil and cilantro, and mixing it with chili powder, cayenne pepper and various other spices in order to find the perfect mixture for an all-purpose seasoning blend.

After more than three months of drying, mixing and researching, the food science senior presented a prototype of the Spicy Matador blend at the MMC’s 25th anniversary celebration on Sept. 15.

“My goal was to make a seasoning for everything,” Middleton said. “We also want to have something available to CSUN students at an affordable price. We’re all college students on a budget. Spices are very expensive, so this can be an all-in-one solution.”

Middleton used herbs provided by the MMC’s new Wellness Garden, located in the interior courtyard in Sequoia Hall. The garden is funded by the Campus Quality Fee and is part of the College of Health and Human Development.

One of the center’s dietetic interns, graduate student Danielle Adler, is working on a marketing and distribution plan to bring Spicy Matador to the CSUN community as a product grown locally and made by the CSUN food science lab.

“[When] you’re grocery shopping, I think the last thing on your list is a $9 spice — most students just go for salt and pepper and call it a day,” said Danielle Adler, a graduate student and dietetic intern. “We wanted to make something that can have a health benefit of not having to add so much salt, and is also affordable for the community.”

Supervised by staff in the MMC, the Spicy Matador project was supported by a CSUN Instructionally Related Activities grant. MMC students, staff and dietetic interns have been involved in the planting, growing, harvesting, drying, packaging and labeling of these products.

Another highlight of the MMC’s anniversary event was the debut of Matador Marmalade, a vision of the MMC leadership and initially developed by food science students in a family and consumer sciences product development course.

“Matador Marmalade was created out of the idea that a product made by students, for students, could generate school spirit and add to the university’s great legacy,” said MMC director Annette Besnilian.

Food science seniors Jennifer Raj and Julie Jordan worked on a low-sugar version over the summer as part of their food science internships at the center.

“Sometimes it would be too clumpy, and we needed to figure out the right ratio for pectin [to fruit],” Jordan said. “[It was a challenge] trying to formulate the recipe to have the right ratios.”

CSUN’s historic Orange Grove provided the Valencia oranges for the zesty marmalade, which makes the product a sustainable food. MMC interns, staff and members of CSUN’s Food Science Association and Student Dietetic Food Science Association hand-picked 130 pounds of oranges from the grove in April.

“Our food science students have made exciting strides in product development,” said Cassie Berger, MMC’s food science internship coordinator.  “Our main goal is to offer a quality product created by CSUN students for our community.”

The MMC’s next goal is to sell Spicy Matador and Matador Marmalade at CSUN’s weekly Farmers Market, where the center has been providing frequent food demonstrations.

“We are working with LACI@CSUN to write a business plan and have it on the shelves of the university, the Farmers Market and local supermarkets,” Besnilian said.

Farrell J. Webb, dean of the College of Health and Human Development, said he was particularly impressed with the students’ inventiveness and dedication.

“The students are engaging in a high-impact practice for learning,” he said. “They are involved in every step of the product development process. And the samples were certainly a success with our guests.”

The aspiring food scientists said they were encouraged by the positive response from guests at the center’s anniversary event who tasted both products.

Besnilian added that the students’ work “will support CSUN’s efforts to move closer towards a sustainable campus by sourcing locally.”

California State University, Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science is hosting its ninth biannual Brown Bag series this fall, bringing together faculty from different disciplines across the college to share their work.

The series began in the fall of 2012 and is held every semester. Open to the campus and the community, it provides an opportunity to learn more about the research projects conducted by faculty in the college. Some of the topics to be covered this semester include: The Evaluation of Seismic Performance Factors in High Rise Steel Buildings; the Mechatronics Laboratory Experience for Undergraduates; and the Corrosion Protection of the Above Ground Tanks Using Nano-Particle Size Vapor Phase Corrosion Inhibitors.

Last year, the series caught the eye of the San Fernando Valley section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the largest professional technical society in the world with over 400,000 members worldwide. The IEEE provides lunch for those who attend the seminars.

“The Brown Bag seminars are a great opportunity for faculty in the college to share their work with an interdisciplinary audience of students, faculty, staff and just about anyone who is interested,” said S.K. Ramesh, dean of the college. “From wireless health, renewable energy, cyber security, the smart grid, and structural engineering — we have had a wide array of interesting talks.”

Ramesh said the series has led to collaborative research projects across the college. Electrical engineering professor Ruting Jia and mechanical engineering professor Vidya Nandikolla worked with a group of undergraduate students on a research project sponsored by Northrop Grumman. Professor Jimmy Ghandi, who teaches in the manufacturing systems engineering and management department, is leading the way, with a large grant that connects high school students to careers in the field. He is working collaboratively with faculty members from the college, as well as the Michael D. Eisner College of Education and the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication.

Nandikolla presented in the fall of 2014 on Active Footwear Designs for Diabetic Mellitus and will present this fall on The Mechatronics Laboratory Experience for Undergraduates. She said the series is often the only opportunity to identify the work of other colleagues.

“The series is a very good way to find out what everyone is doing,” Nandikolla said. “We might not know the faculty in other departments and even within our own departments, we are so busy that we sometimes don’t get a chance to talk to each other about our research.”

Professor Maryam Tabibzadeh, who teaches in the department of manufacturing systems engineering and management, gave a seminar in the fall of 2015. Her presentation, The Role of Human and Organizational Factors in the Safety and Reliability of Complex Technological Systems, gave her an opportunity to share her research into the human organizational errors that contributed to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She said the series provides a unique opportunity for faculty in the college with similar and different backgrounds to connect.

“The [Brown Bag series] provides a place for people to exchange ideas and give an opportunity for people with similar backgrounds to ask each other questions,” Tabibzadeh said. “You as a presenter can encourage outside the box thinking for those who attend the session.”

The next seminar is scheduled for Oct. 24 at noon. To RSVP for the event, contact Kathleen Pohl at kpohl@csun.edu.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is known for its in-depth work in space exploration and research. But space is not its final frontier.

CSUN CORAL technician Sam Ginther, left, works alongside professor Bob Carpenter, right, to put a measurement tool at a coral reef site in Australia. Photo provided by Bob Carbenter.

California State University, Northridge marine biology professor Bob Carpenter is among a team of 20 international researchers and engineers who are taking NASA on a voyage to the depths of the ocean as part of a $15 million, three-year project to go where no NASA technology has gone before.

Carpenter explained the project, known as the Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL), could have momentous effects on the way Earth’s oceans are explored in the future.

“There are people along the political spectrum who think NASA should always be looking out and not in,” he said. “This [project] is definitely looking in, and underwater. Today, we scientists have looked at maybe 1 percent of the area of coral reefs in the world. In this project, if we can establish relationships between what the images we are collecting tell us and what we determine is there and how it is functioning … theoretically you could get 100 percent coverage of the coral reefs in the world.”

CORAL uses spectrometers created by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena that are generally used on the Mars Rovers. Spectrometers are placed on a plane to take aerial photos of the reefs while a dozen scientists are scuba diving at the same location and making measurements of the coral ecosystems.

Carpenter explained the project is expected to provide more coverage of coral reefs than any other project he has ever done.

“The big picture is to try to correlate reef condition — what’s there and what it’s doing, how that reef is performing,” he said. “If we can correlate that with what latitude it’s at, how close it is to major humans populations, the prevailing swell and water motion, it’s going to give us a much broader understanding of how reefs are doing relative to a suite of environmental drivers.”

The team recently returned from its first of four campaigns in the Pacific Ocean — the Great Barrier Reef. Carpenter and his two team members from CSUN, postdoctoral researcher Chiara Pisapia and technician Sam Ginther, placed instruments which measure water flow, calcification and oxygen of the corals, at reefs on both the north and south ends of the GBR.

Pisapia said one of the biggest benefits of the project will be an understanding of how to better protect coral reefs in a changing global climate.

The logo of NASA’s international collaboration effort, Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory. Image provided by Bob Carpenter.

“The most important application of this research is the management and preservation of the reefs,” she said. “When you know where different [corals] are, you can manage them better.”

Ginther said the best part of the project is working alongside researchers from a variety of disciplines.

“I came from a fish ecology background, but I wanted more exposure to different marine backgrounds so it’s a little bit of oceanography, biology and a lot of everything else in this project,” he said. “It’s interesting to see it all work together, you get a different perspective on different locations, too.”

The next campaign begins in February at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology. Carpenter said if NASA approves the results of the first four campaigns, the project could receive additional funding to research reefs beyond the Pacific, and possibly have the spectrometer placed on a satellite instead of a plane.

“A longer-term outcome would be to develop the capability of putting a sensor on a satellite,” he said. “You could cover all the reefs of the world, and you could start doing time series as well. You could survey [the reefs] yearly. It would be an unparalleled data set.”

For now, project CORAL is providing scientists from countries including Australia, Italy and the United States with the opportunity of a lifetime.

“The chance to be involved in this project in some ways could change our understanding of how reefs are structured over a broad spatial scale,” Carpenter said. “We can better see how coral reefs function relative to these important environmental factors. And in reality, we are creating new knowledge through research.”

CSUN held its fourth annual Art of Innovation Conference at California State University, Northridge’s Grand Salon in the University Student Union on Oct. 14. The College of Engineering and Computer Science and the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics sponsored the event and invited CSUN students, faculty, staff and other members of the local community to learn about current technology trends, 21st century entrepreneurship and the future of innovative thinking.

The conference was a featured event of InnovateLA, a two-week celebration of innovation, entrepreneurship and technology in Los Angeles.

The keynote speaker was Adad M. Madni, former president, chief operating officer and chief technology officer of BEI Technologies Inc. As a major player in the development of multiple aerospace, military, commercial and transportation advancements, Madni talked about the technologies needed to address today’s challenges.

“These are not going to be solved by classical disciplines,” he said, emphasizing that true innovative approaches require diversity, collaboration and effective communication. “Challenges are not solved by individuals anymore, but by teams.”

Madni shared his predictions on the progression of wireless sensor networks, intelligent cars, telehealth, nanotechnology, clean technology and artificial intelligence. He referred to computer scientist Alan Kay, quoting his words, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Following the keynote speech, experts in the fields of technology, entrepreneurship and startups explored various trends and innovation opportunities with three panel discussions: Intrapreneurship and Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship: Balancing Purpose with Profit, and The Future of Technology.

The panelists repeatedly stressed the importance of passion, ambition, curiosity and communication for entrepreneurs to be successful.

“No matter how well a product is built, without drive and passion, there is no development,” said panelist Doug Parker, a startup expert and engineer at Aerojet Rocketdyne.

“I’d rather [work] with an OK engineer but great communicator than with a great engineer with poor communication skills,” added creative and innovation consultant Tim Leaker.

More than half of the attendees were CSUN students seeking professional advice for their careers. Juan Xing, an international student from China, said she was able to connect her chemistry background with her current studies as a graduate student in engineering management.

“It was great to see the opportunities out there and how to approach them,” she said. “I really learned a lot through the keynote speaker and the panelists.”

“You don’t meet these kinds of people everywhere,” added engineering management graduate student Aniket Kelwadkar. “I’m thankful that CSUN exposes students to those people — they’re a good benchmark. When [Madni] gave the speech, introducing all these technologies, I actually thought — ‘I can do that, too.’ It was a good feeling.”