It was a dream come true for two California State University, Northridge sisters when they opened the doors of their custom branded apparel and fashion business in 1989. The sisters, alumnae Roya ‘82 (Civil Engineering) and Rochie Saberzadeh (Business) envisioned fashion as the perfect method to help build a strong visual identity for CSUN student community — to provide groups such as sororities, fraternities and school clubs with affordable advertising. “Fashion is a universal language” was the sisters’ belief.

Rochie’s Originals, as it is known today, has always been in Northridge. Originally, the store was located on Reseda Boulevard, north of Roscoe. Then, when the business took off, Rochie found a bigger location at the corner of Reseda and Plummer Streets, just a short walk from campus.

At the time, Roya, 29, and Rochie, 20, were inspired to start their business by the dedication and hard work of their parents and their parents’ philanthropic efforts and emphasis on giving back. “I would be nowhere today without the support of my parents,” Roya said. “They made everything flourish in my life.”

In college, Roya participated in the Society of Women Engineers among others, and Rochie was a member of the Sigma Kappa Sorority and a Little Sister to the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. Rochie’s love for the Greek community and the lack of customized apparel and accessories was the source of her inspiration of starting the business.

Rochie’s promising life was cut short when she was killed during a scuba diving class in 1991, when she was 22, just short of graduation. Roya, then 31, was left to maintain the business. More than 27 years after her sister’s death, the bustling storefront and online business still bears Rochie’s name in her honor and legacy, and Roya carries her younger sister in her heart.

To honor Rochie’s memory, the Saberzadeh family contributes regularly to the sisters’ alma mater to assist CSUN students following a similar path: aspiring entrepreneurs. The family’s most recent contribution to CSUN was a Career Center Endowment in the Division of Student Affairs. The $25,000 pledge will provide long-term support to the university’s Career Center, which enhances the experience of CSUN students.

Career Center staff provides guidance to undergraduates on choosing a major and advice on making decisions, setting goals and planning. The center also offers multiple employment programs such as the On-Campus Interview Program, which encourages student job searches and connects students with professionals in the workforce, internships and other employment opportunities.

On Feb. 7, in recognition of the Saberzadeh family’s gift, Career Center officials named an interview room after them to honor their commitment to the university and its students. Programs supported by the family’s endowment will provide students with opportunities to gain the career readiness, leadership and entrepreneurial skills needed to be competitive in the job market.

“It’s an honor and privilege for my family as well as myself being a CSUN alum to make this contribution. For as long I can remember, we have been supporters of good education and empowering people. We strongly believe in the power of transforming lives through education and skills,” Roya Saberzadeh said. “We feel that the Career Center plays a crucial role in providing the tools and support needed for students to make the transition between learning and applying their knowledge in real life. As the future is crafted by empowered learners with a can do attitude and relevant skills, the Career Center is that catalyst to bridge the gap.”

“The great thing about our line of work is that we get to meet alumni and community members who do amazing things, that have wonderful stories about success, like the Saberzadeh family,” Director of Development Jerry De Felice ‘99 (Marketing), M.A. ‘02 (Education) said.

Career Center Director Ann Morey ‘97 (Education) agreed. “We’re really fortunate to have this gift, because over 400 students get interviewed here a year — it’s a really, really important part of what we do,” she said.

“It was a great honor and a great day to be able to dedicate a great space,” added William Watkins ‘74 (Urban Studies and Planning), vice president for student affairs and dean of students. “It really is a great inspiration to us to have an alumna who can come back as a role model.”

Roya said she will never forget the struggles she and her sister endured as young women starting a business, the trail she blazed and the lessons she learned — which inspired her to give back to Matadors today and for years to come. “Business is a sacrifice,” she said. “And it takes vision, perseverance and courage.

“My family and I are touched, humbled and delighted to be part of the career journey of many students that will come through these doors. We wish for this interview room to be the gateway to shape a magnificent future for all of them and their families.” she continued.

For more information on giving to CSUN’s Career Center, please contact jd@csun.edu or visit csun.edu/advancement/development

You can’t fight fake news without real people — someone has to review dubious posts to decide on whether the standards of journalistic due diligence were followed.

But Michael McNally ’88 (Computer Science), Facebook’s director of engineering: news feed science and integrity, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to accelerate the process of weeding out misinformation within the hundreds of billions of stories posted on Facebook every day. McNally writes algorithms that look for telltale signs of the systematic spread of dishonesty, identifying posts and pages that seek to profit or gain influence from sensationalism and falsehoods.

It was a challenge McNally felt he had to accept after several years of fighting fraud within Google’s advertising service.

“I moved from Google to Facebook with a sense of social purpose or meaning,” said McNally. “I felt that harm had been done to the public sphere, that there had been misinformation, polarization, deception. It’s a privilege to join a team of leaders to defend the public interest.”

McNally returned to his alma mater, California State University, Northridge, on March 7 to inspire a new generation of students interested in careers in technology. He gave a talk titled From CSUN, to defending Google and Facebook against fraud and abuse, hosted by the CSUN Alumni Association, in a packed University Student Union Grand Salon. McNally discussed his current fight against misinformation, his past successes and the role CSUN played in preparing him for it all.

McNally was born in Burbank and attended Valley Alternative School in Van Nuys. He’s a second-generation Matador: His mother completed a Master of Fine Arts at CSUN. He called himself a “classic nerd, classic geek,” who loved animation and “things that beeped and whistled and so forth.” He initially taught himself computer programming, pestering the staff at a computer store until they gave him access to the machines in the back. In high school, he taught his school’s only computer programming class.

At CSUN, he studied computer science with a minor in English and creative writing — he thought he might write science fiction one day. He parlayed his programming skills into jobs programming and developing computer games in two of California’s most prominent valleys, San Fernando and Silicon. He became interested in the problem-solving possibilities of AI, and went to UCLA to get a master’s degree and completed all but the dissertation of a Ph.D.

He said the computer programming skills he developed at CSUN were directly relevant to his roles at Google and Facebook. But he also learned things beyond the academic foundation. He took dance classes and public speaking to push himself past his comfort zone. In other words, CSUN taught him the value of embracing big challenges.

“College was a wonderful place to go out and do hard things,” McNally said. “I just pushed myself into things that are really, really hard. When I talk about fake news, well, that’s really, really hard.”

When users log in to Facebook, the content they see in their news feed is determined by an algorithm that ranks posts from their friends, groups and “liked” pages. The ranking is based on individual and group data: content the user has liked, and content that users with similar interests have liked.

The downside to a free and open platform such as Facebook, McNally said, is that bad actors will try to exploit it. Businesses can profit by attracting cheap traffic through attention-grabbing, sensational posts. The more attention a post gets — whether it’s from people who agree with it or who are scandalized by it — the more money the post makes. A recent attention-grabbing post McNally cited was about a lost ship reappearing in the Bermuda Triangle — completely untrue, but the story spread quickly through social media.

Fake news posts also are created by individuals who want to influence a debate by spreading misinformation. (Given the political meaning now attached to the term “fake news,” Facebook chooses to refer to “fake news” as “false news,” McNally said.) As a recent example, McNally pointed to posts created in response to the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., including posts that described student survivors as “crisis actors” who are paid to travel to the scenes of tragedies to advance a political agenda.

McNally asked audience members to reflect on their reactions when they first heard about the shooting.

“Can you remember what passed through your mind when you heard someone had taken an assault rifle, broken into a school, and murdered 17 people — students and faculty?” he asked the audience, then repeated some of their responses. “‘Sadness.’ ‘Anger.’ ‘Shock.’ ‘Frustration.’

“Try this on for size: How would you think about people who responded not like you did, but they responded, ‘Yes, this is a great opportunity to make a buck’?” he said. “Some people responded to tragedy with a desire to exploit the community. And that’s what we’re fighting.”

McNally supports two Facebooks teams, News Feed Science and News Feed Integrity. The Feed Science team studies how users interact with content, determining what people like and what they don’t, with the goal of showing users content that they are most likely to enjoy. The Feed Integrity team works to reduce misinformation, spam, clickbait and other material that Facebook users consider low quality.

Facebook uses multiple professional fact-checking services to make the final call on whether articles were written using good-faith journalistic practices. If the fact checkers determine an article was not written using journalistic standards, Facebook can demote it in its rankings and it will be less likely to appear in people’s news feeds.

Algorithms can find telltale signals of accounts pushing misinformation and hate speech, identify the entities responsible, track down their relationships and categorize them into groups. (In technical terms, machine learning can form bottom-up clusters based on data relationships between entities.) The Site Integrity Team can then choose how to respond, including taking down accounts that are found to be in violation of policy.

Another issue: Some purveyors of misinformation have figured out ways to manipulate Facebook’s algorithm, which rewards engagement. Therefore, memes ask you to engage — “like,” tag friends, say “amen.”

“It’s not wrong in itself,  but if you do it a lot, it gets spammy,” McNally said. “If it tells you to engage, it’s more likely to go viral.”

McNally said AI also helps identify spammer pages that are covered with ads that can eat up bandwidth and slow down a user’s experience. Facebook can demote both engagement bait posts and low-quality pages. Facebook also enforces stricter ad policies, and tries to prevent pages and domains with sketchy reputations from advertising.

“We try to fight it on every point of the chain,” McNally said. “[The efforts] all stack on top of each other, to have the aggregate effect to deprive them of income and influence.”

At the end of McNally’s talk, CSUN students lined up at microphones on both sides of the Grand Salon to ask questions. For example, when asked what roles may exist for non-programmers in a digital economy, McNally mentioned public relations, marketing, legal and designers focused on user experience.

“There’s quite a bit of diversity of roles,” McNally said.

Hamid Johari, interim dean of CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, who introduced McNally at the event, said it was important for students from a variety of backgrounds to see McNally as an example.

“One of the biggest benefits of this event is the engagement of students, and to see how a technical background can take them to some important things that affect really large numbers of people,” Johari said. “Facebook has over a billion users. To be able to do something good for a large number of people is an amazing impact.”

For Andrew Anagnost, president and CEO of ubiquitous design and engineering software firm Autodesk, the path to success was lit by a notable failure on his California State University, Northridge senior design project.

At the time, Anagnost ’87 (Mechanical Engineering) was a co-op student working with composite materials at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems Company development center. As his CSUN team worked on their Human Powered Vehicle project, Anagnost suggested they make the vehicle’s fairing — an outer shell — out of composite materials, which would be lightweight and aerodynamic.

A great idea, but there was a problem: when they poured their carbon fiber material into the Styrofoam mold and placed the fairing in a giant oven to set, they had not removed all the moisture, and the composites expanded and cracked in the heat.

“The composite fairing was a total failure, but an amazing learning experience about balancing innovation with what you need to know to execute,” Anagnost said. “Your own personal journey of discovery and amazing things starts right here at CSUN. That was absolutely true for me.”

That project, Anagnost told an audience of approximately 100 CSUN students, professors and alumni on April 26 in Kurland Lecture Hall, contained all the lessons Anagnost needed to succeed in roles as an engineer, a marketer and a CEO. Throughout his talk, titled A Journey to the Future of Making Things, Anagnost, who minored in computer science at CSUN, frequently returned to the lessons of that project to reinforce his message.

It was a funny, informative and inspirational presentation that included photos of Anagnost’s 1980s fashions, CSUN’s role in propelling him into a successful career, the role of automation in the future of design and engineering fields, and tips on how students can prepare themselves for the new careers that will be necessary in an age of automation.

“The real discussion of automation is not about scarce jobs, but having the right skills to thrive and grow,” said Anagnost.

In 2017, Anagnost’s 20-year rise through Autodesk culminated in his selection as president and CEO. Anagnost held numerous positions at the company — leading teams of software developers, helping to transition software and services into the cloud, shifting the business-model to be subscription-based. The common denominator of these positions was change.

Autodesk software has been used to design bridges, roads and buildings such as One World Trade Center in New York City, for special effects in movies such as ​Avatar and the ​​Harry Potter series, and for designing popular video game series such as Call of Duty and Halo.

Autodesk’s popular programs include Fusion 360 for manufacturers, Maya for computer animators and Revit for architects and structural engineers.

“It’s basically used in all engineering majors,” said Rifaat Kouaider, a computer engineering senior who attended the presentation. “If you’re going to design any kind of technologies like devices, machines, microprocessors, you’re going to need to use their software and present it to your professors and managers in the future.”

CSUN professors helped launch Anagnost’s career by helping him get his co-op job at Lockheed, where he was a small part of the team that wrote algorithms for a supercomputer that was an early version of the cloud.

His professors also wrote recommendation letters to help him get into Stanford University, where he earned a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics, and earned a National Research Council fellowship at NASA Ames Research Center. There, he worked on the Mars Pathfinder rover, developing a simulation of air flow around the craft as it went into the Martian atmosphere. The Pathfinder was largely overshadowed by NASA’s Curiosity rover, Anagnost said, at least until the movie The Martian was released.

“I can honestly say that I worked on the rover that saved Matt Damon,” he said.

CSUN also helped him formulate his leadership philosophy of courage, scholarship and empathy, which could largely be illustrated with his Human Powered Vehicle senior project.

“First is the courage to do things that might not work, like try to do carbon fiber for the fairing,” Anagnost said. “Then there’s this important piece of scholarship; make sure you know what it takes to get it done, but understand what could happen if you get it wrong, like paying attention to the fact that plaster cracks at 140 degrees when it has too much moisture in it. It expands, it cracks, it pops.”

He also elaborated on empathy.

“You have to understand the impact of the decisions you make on people,” he said. “You don’t stop doing what you’re doing because someone might have a bad day. But if you understand the impact, you can get them more engaged in the outcome. For instance, helping people understand we’re going to try to do a carbon fiber fairing, and if we don’t get there we’ll just do it out of Styrofoam. You know that somebody is going to be staying up really late at night cutting the Styrofoam to turn it into fairing two days before we’re actually competing in Reno for the Human Powered Vehicle Competition.”

The human impact is also why Anagnost said his company has a moral obligation to help people whose lives will be disrupted by increased use of automation. Although some jobs will be displaced, others will take their place. For example, the rise of online banking apps is reducing the number of bank teller jobs. But software developers were needed to create those apps.

Engineers, manufacturers and software developers who can efficiently make things will be in demand in the coming decades, as the world’s population approaches 10 billion people. With that growth comes the pressure to improve processes, and to dramatically reduce waste and the need for raw materials.

Autodesk is currently automating several time-consuming processes, including the creation of geometry in engineering designs. The company is also working on tools to help its customers build buildings the same way airplanes are created — in a series of pre-manufactured components that are assembled at the construction site, which would dramatically reduce materials waste.

“We’ve really bought in to this idea of building more, better, with less negative impact,” Anagnost said. “The world can’t handle more, but more is inevitable. That’s why I think automation can actually save us.”

Hamid Johari, interim dean of CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, called Anagnost a great role model for CSUN students. “It’s very important for engineering students to see that one of their own has made it this far in the world, and how the lessons they learn at CSUN can help them in their future careers,” he said.

The automated world of the future will need computer scientists, mechanical engineers and people with well-rounded backgrounds who can see the big picture. Speech classes are important, as is the ability to tell stories, he said.

He urged students to work in the real world to find out what they love and what they are good at. Above all, Anagnost asked his audience to remain flexible and look for ways to use their skills to make an impact. He said he didn’t start his career planning to work at Autodesk, or to be a CEO, but always pursued the opportunities that enabled him to make a difference.

“Don’t try to plan your course by imagining taking a path that leads to some grand outcome,” Anagnost said. “I encourage you to choose the path that you feel like you can make a difference on, something that ignites your passion and really, really consumes your abilities. And I think great things will happen to you.”

California State University, Northridge has long been a hub of innovation. This spring, talented engineering students wowed attendees at a project showcase featuring a concrete canoe, a laser-powered printer, a scooter that transforms into a crutch and more.

On April 27, the College of Engineering and Computer Science hosted its ninth annual Senior Design Project Showcase. This year’s event featured 29 senior design projects from all the undergraduate programs within the college. As in past years, the projects were judged by a distinguished panel of industry experts.

Participants competed for cash prizes in oral presentation and project display categories, as well as an overall grand prize of $1,000.

“This is a wonderful event for our college,” said Hamid Johari, interim dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “Engineering is an area where students can show off their projects. Students have been working very hard for about a year now, and [in this event], they showed the outcome of their senior projects. This is the fruit of their studies.

“I was extremely impressed to see such brilliant projects,” Johari continued. “Each year it gets better and better. The students are looking forward [to the showcase] when they start their senior year. They’re excited to be able to come out here and present their work.” 

“This event is great,” said judge and CSUN alumnus Dr. Andrew Anagnost ’87 (Mechanical Engineering), CEO and president of engineering software firm Autodesk, known for design and modeling software such as AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, Maya and Revit. The programs are used by architects, civil engineers, mechanical engineers and other design professionals. “It’s a great forum for the students, [because] it’s more like the real world. Students learn a lot of things doing these [projects], because they’ve got time pressure, they’ve got constraints, they’re trying to build something real.”

Choosing the showcase winners was difficult for Anagnost and the 26 other judges. Ultimately, it came down to specific criteria.

“The first thing I look for is, can they articulate what problem they’re solving? Because a team that can articulate what problem they’re solving really knows what they’re trying to accomplish,” Anagnost said. “The second thing I look at is, have they looked at the project across the board? Are they building something that’s actually practical in terms of cost and manufacturability, and have they taken into account all the things that can actually make their product successful or fail?

“Finally, are they able to communicate all of that effectively to the judges?” he continued. “Engineers don’t just go into a room and build something. They have to understand what they’re building, why they’re building it and what the implications are. They have to be able to sell to people on the idea.”  

The winning project in the oral presentation category was Ultra-Violet Digital Light Bioprinter, from CSUN’s Department of Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management.

3-D bioprinting has opened the doors to new methods of printing, especially the methods used for tissue engineering and the production of artificial organs and tissues. For the CSUN students’ bioprinter project, the printer was used to create a precise placement of cell-laden hydrogels in a layer-by-layer fashion.

“The time it took to complete this project required a minimum of 400 hours,” said project team captain Juliana Bermudez. “Just the design took approximately 150 hours, because our project is the newest technique that has been done in current research. Luckily, my team was very collaborative. They were there if I needed them. They were there for me every single time.”

Some projects that were recognized in the project display category were Concrete Canoe, from the Department of Civil Engineering, and Foldable Knee Scooter, from the Department of Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management.

The Concrete Canoe team was able to analyze and develop an efficient canoe design that withstands hydrodynamic forces, is stable and can propel across coastal waters. At the event, they displayed their canoe, decked out with images from team members’ favorite show, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

“It was a tedious process to construct this,” said team captain Armil Allahyarian. “We made the canoe by designing it in AutoCAD, and we used the stations that we designed and cut out foam blocks. We sanded it down, and eventually, we poured concrete in three different layers. We had to design it so that it was light enough to carry four people inside, in a dynamic race across water. This took about nine months. We started on Aug. 29.”

The aim of the Foldable Knee Scooter project was to design and manufacture a unique solution for people with lower-leg injuries. The team of students created a transformable knee scooter that can be folded into a crutch, allowing patients to move in a more stable way by helping them climb stairs or stand steadily.

“We did rigorous design processes, where we did extensive research and analysis,” said team captain Faisal Binblaihed. “After that, we did 3-D modeling with multiple durations, to find the perfect one and the easiest to manufacture. Then, we used the skills that we learned in the machine workshops to make this with metal scraps that we found in the shop.

“The manufacturing process took about three weeks,” he continued. “The design process took the longest, which was about two months.”
The day’s grand prize winner was Smart Prosthetics, which was also recognized with oral presentation and project display category awards.

Smart Prosthetics focused on designing, analyzing, building and testing advanced, lightweight biomimetic prosthetic devices. The team’s prosthetic hand design features life-like skeletal 3-D-printed plastic bone structure, flexible elastic joints and a silicone “flesh” cover that protects the internal components, provides restoring force and enables better gripping capability.

“We wanted to build a biomimetic prosthetic, which means something that mimics biology as closely as possible in the human body,” said Jonathan Fontana, a member of the Smart Prosthetics team. 

“This event was nerve-wracking, but it’s great for everyone to be able to display their work,” he said. “It’s been a huge pleasure for me, and it’s even more incredible to win three awards. My team and I have been working hard on this since fall 2016, so it’s a really great validation. It’s a real climax for my college career.”

Oral Presentation Winners:

Civil Engineering ‎and Construction: Earthquake-Resistant Design

Computer Science: Carbcap

Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering: Ultrasonic Radar

Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management: Ultra-Violet Digital Light Bioprinter

Mechanical Engineering: Smart Prosthetics

Project Display Winners:

Civil Engineering and Construction: Concrete Canoe

Computer Science: Carbcap

Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering: Aerial Vehicle

Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management: Foldable Knee Scooter

Mechanical Engineering: Smart Prosthetics

Grand Prize Winner: 

Smart Prosthetics

Records continued to fall during California State University, Northridge’s commencement proceedings, as an all-time high of more than 11,500 graduates reached this life-changing moment. Starting with Honors Convocation on May 12 and continuing May 18 to 21 with seven commencement ceremonies, CSUN celebrated the close to another successful academic year, with the true stars being the graduates themselves.

World-renowned artist Judy Baca ’69, M.A. ’80 (Art) received an honorary doctorate on May 18, during the commencement proceedings for the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication. A day later, entrepreneur and philanthropist Younes Nazarian was honored with an honorary doctorate of his own during the commencement for the college named after his son, the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics.

The energy was high during each of the celebrations, with students at the apex following years of hard work and study before taking the first steps toward their future. Here is a collection of photos from all the ceremonies.

David Mullich ’81 (Computer Science) has shared his creative talents and storytelling tactics with the video gaming industry since 1978.

Working as a video game producer and design consultant, Mullich’s experience has ranged from the Walt Disney Company to working with legendary fantasy and science fiction author Harlan Ellison, who wrote classic episodes of television shows such as Star Trek and The Outer Limits.

Mullich came to California State University, Northridge in the late 1970s as an undecided major and planned to take a variety of general education classes until he figured out what he wanted to do. He knew he would gravitate toward a creative field, but wasn’t sure which one.

“I wound up taking a computer course to fill a general education requirement and, at first, I was totally confused,” he said. “I was more of a creative thinker, so thinking logically and using the computer did not come naturally to me until a few weeks into it. It was like a light switch went off in my head. I learned to think completely differently and to figure out how to get a computer to do what I wanted.

“It suddenly occurred to me that I could use a computer to do storytelling,” he said. “I ended up typing out a Star Trek game, and that got me all excited about interactive storytelling.”

He spent part of his academic journey at CSUN at The Daily Sundial student newspaper, working as an editorial cartoonist. The newspaper gave him free rein. Mullich drew cartoons reflecting the political climate of the late ’70s and early ’80s.

He also took a business programming language class, where his instructor, Gene Sprouse, noticed Mullich — a huge Star Trek fan — printing out pictures of the show’s starship Enterprise, which Mullich used as inspiration for science fiction poetry.

“My instructor saw what I was doing, and I thought I was going to get in trouble, but instead he offered me a job,” Mullich said. “He and a couple other CSUN professors owned a store called Rainbow Computing that sold personal computers. He asked me to do some programming for him.”

During his time at the store, Mullich networked with other video game publishing companies, which commissioned him to write video game stories.

“I ended up writing some video games based on some of the classes I took at CSUN,” he said.

The first video game Mullich wrote was a role-playing game called Space II, based on an anthropology class. The game was about colonizing planets in the Milky Way galaxy.

As Mullich worked his way up the career ladder, he had the opportunity to work for Disney, which he called one of the best periods of his career. Disney hired Mullich as the company’s first video game producer in 1987.

“I applied for the position [listed] in the want ads of the newspaper, and they brought me in. They asked if I could name all Seven Dwarves,” he said. After he answered the question correctly, he got the job, Mullich said. “For the first three months [of my new position], I was in heaven.”

He worked at Disney for four years, on properties such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and DuckTales, and he created video games of some of Disneyland’s theme park attractions.

Mullich gained notoriety when he worked with Ellison in 1995. He wanted to work with the famous author, he said, when he learned that the video game company Cyberdreams was designing a game based on one of Ellison’s most famous short stories, I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream. Mullich worked with Ellison to create the game, now considered a classic.

Today, Mullich is lead faculty in the Los Angeles Film School’s game production program. He also serves as a guest speaker at various colleges, writes blogs and continues to be a consultant in the video game industry. His son, Timothy Mullich is attending CSUN and following in his father’s footsteps, majoring in computer science.

Over Mullich’s long career, he has worked on more than 65 game titles.

“If it was not for the computer science classes I took at CSUN, I would not have found my way into the video gaming industry,” Mullich said.

For more information about David Mullich, please visit https://davidmullich.com

California State University, Northridge’s AIMS2 program has been recognized as a 2018 Examples of Excelencia Finalist in the baccalaureate program category. Examples of Excelencia is a national effort by the nonprofit Excelencia in Education to bring attention to evidence-based practices that work for Latino students in higher education.

The AIMS2 program is one of 21 finalists selected from more than 139 nominated programs from 27 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Excelencia honors four programs annually, one in each of four categories (associate, baccalaureate, graduate and community-based organizations). The Examples of Excelencia will be announced Oct. 11 at the annual Celebración de Excelencia in Washington, D.C.

The AIMS2 (Attract, Inspire, Mentor and Support Students) program is led by the College of Engineering and Computer Science at CSUN, in partnership with Glendale Community College, College of the Canyons, Los Angeles Pierce College and Moorpark College. It was established in 2011 with a $5.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education and is the brainchild of the project director, CSUN professor of electrical and computer engineering S. K. Ramesh, who served as dean of the college from 2006-17.

Students enrolled in the cohort-based program have access to a wide range of academic resources such as faculty and peer mentors, tutors, educational field trips, workshops, career opportunities and travel grants to participate in conferences. Additionally, all AIMS2 students are eligible to receive a stipend each semester, and they work closely with faculty mentors as paid research assistants. Students showcase their research projects at an annual research symposium, which is open to the public. This year’s symposium is scheduled for Sept. 11 at the CSUN University Student Union Grand Salon.

The retention rate of the students in the AIMS2 program is 94 percent, and the three-year transfer graduation rate is over 70 percent, almost double the college average. The success of the program was instrumental in its selection for a sequel grant of $6 million from the U.S. Department of Education in 2016, and it has now expanded to serve more than 350 students across partner institutions, including freshmen and transfer students.

Ramesh said he is proud of the AIMS2 students’ work.

“It is deeply humbling to be recognized by Excelencia for our work to improve student success and close the achievement gaps for underrepresented minorities,” he said. “It is a testament to the dedication and commitment of our team of over 30 faculty and staff, and industry partners who have been working collaboratively to support students.”

Excelencia in Education awarded AIMS2 with an honorable mention in 2014, and the CSUN program earned a Bright Spot in Hispanic Education award in 2015 from the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

In 2017, Excelencia recognized the work of the CSUN program PUMP (Preparing Undergraduates through Mentoring toward Ph.Ds.) for increasing the number of Latino students who enroll in graduate programs in the mathematical sciences.

For more information about AIMS2, please visit: http://www.ecs.csun.edu/aims2/

Students, faculty and staff across California State University, Northridge are conducting groundbreaking research and participating in innovative efforts to tackle one of the biggest challenges of the last several decades: water conservation.

Cities around the globe, including Los Angeles, have implemented conservation campaigns to avoid running out of water, a resource that is increasingly scarce as urban populations boom and global temperatures rise. Earlier this year, Cape Town, South Africa, in the midst of a three-year drought, came within weeks of shutting off its taps and forcing residents to ration water — until conservation efforts delayed that dire scenario for at least another year. Similar situations could eventually play out in India, Iraq, Morocco and Spain, according to the Washington, D.C.-based global research organization the World Resources Institute.

Located in Los Angeles — where conservation efforts continue even after California Gov. Jerry Brown declared the end of a three-year drought emergency — CSUN is in a prime position to be a global leader on water conservation.

Dozens of CSUN faculty members and administrators have developed expertise in water issues across a wide range of disciplines. Civil engineering professors brainstorm water-saving designs, psychology professors consider ways to influence consumer water-use decisions and political scientists consider how research can be used to entice communities to invest in environmentally friendly projects. Water research touches nearly every academic department on campus, including geological sciences, geography and environmental studies, physics, chemistry, education, and environmental and occupational health.

In 2017, CSUN demonstrated its commitment to the issue of water conservation with its inaugural cluster hire dedicated to water science. This new interdisciplinary focus on water science research started with two full-time tenure-track faculty positions — Erin Bray, a professor of geography and environmental studies, and Priya Ganguli, a professor of geological sciences, as well as a soon-to-be-added new engineering position — devoted to conducting water-related research and engaging with stakeholders across California and the western United States. The ultimate goal: using water science to inform conservation policy.

CSUN’s cross-disciplinary experts, including the new Water Science faculty members, meet about once a semester to discuss ongoing projects and water-related news. The group is facilitated by administrators in Tseng College, including Joyce Feucht-Haviar, university senior international officer and dean, and Sherry Sidick, associate director of external relations.

“Given the relevance and connection of the field of water to diverse departments and disciplines at CSUN, it was important to create a group of faculty from across the university to foster collaboration,” Feucht-Haviar said. “Research across fields and disciplines can inform and guide choices and strategies to benefit the region and state. In that light, CSUN is committed to providing forefront education for those in influential roles in this area.

“This collaboration will inform the development of courses and programs and, in turn, result in expanded, innovative options and strategies to benefit the urban Los Angeles region, California and beyond,” she said. “The university’s impact has been recognized nationally — CSUN was recently honored as an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.”

Potential Community Partnerships

CSUN faculty and staff have existing water-related community partnerships that give students real-world experience and contribute to beneficial water management efforts. CSUN’s Center for Geospatial Science and Technology has contracts with key resource agencies, such as the California Department of Water Resources on a project to update maps of all surface water features in the state, as well as a similar project for the US Forest Service focusing on the southwestern United States, said Danielle Bram, the center’s director.

The CSUN water group meeting evolved as a way to identify more partnerships, originating from an invitation from Sidick to members of the city of Los Angeles’ One Water LA team to meet with campus experts in fall 2017 to explore the possibilities of working together to meet common goals. This included CSUN faculty possibly assisting with preparation of the One Water LA 2040 Plan, a city strategic plan aimed at providing a roadmap to fiscally responsible water planning solutions. One Water LA’s presentation to CSUN researchers included bullet points of its research needs, and requested proposals from anyone in the room with expertise in those areas.

CSUN experts now hold regular cross-disciplinary meetings, where faculty, staff and administrators can discover opportunities to work together on projects requiring various fields of expertise, potentially opening up the possibility of shared grants.

“This forum gives access for faculty to share and discover what each person is doing in water-related research,” Sidick said. “We have faculty and staff from various disciplines across campus collaborating and building relationships. Faculty often comment that it’s really illuminating to explore the wide range of research interests and expertise among colleagues.”

Meeting attendees also discuss the campus’ innovative sustainability and conservation measures, many of which are spearheaded by the CSUN Institute for Sustainability.

In 2013, the Institute for Sustainability finalized the CSUN Sustainability Plan, which established 10 key areas of focus for improvements including water conservation; the campus is working towards a 15 percent reduction in water consumption by 2023, said Misha Kouzeh, the institute’s project coordinator.

Erica Wohldmann, the institute’s interim director, said the campus offers research opportunities for water quality testing, drought tolerant planting, medicinal gardens and more. She worked with CSUN Facilities this summer to add an 850-gallon cistern at the Chicano House to catch rainfall and support campus irrigation.

“I see a world where CSUN could be capturing rain and stormwater, serving as a model and resource for the community,” Wohldmann said. “I’m thrilled about the cistern we installed at the Chicano House. Not only will it reduce the need for potable irrigation water for their garden, it will also provide countless learning opportunities and discussions around issues pertaining to social justice and water rights, among others.”

CSUN Water Science Research

The two new water science researchers aim to further research and establish public and private partnerships to advance water-related policies.

Ganguli, an assistant professor of geological sciences, studies how contaminants — especially mercury — travel through ecosystems. She also is interested in the long-term effects of environmental remediation projects, such as those in Malibu Lagoon and the New Idria Mercury Mine Superfund project.

“Climate change has resulted in longer droughts, more severe rain events, and an increase in wildfires — these changes impact both the quantity and quality of water,” she said.

Bray, an assistant professor of geography and environmental studies, focuses on rivers, including how sediment moves, water temperature patterns and what features make riverbeds suitable habitat for fish and incubating fish eggs.

“We have a real opportunity at CSUN to work on water science and water policy issues, broadly across the state and throughout the western United States,” Bray said. “Really, [our research] is about science for solutions.”

Ganguli and Bray are establishing partnerships with individuals in departments  across campus (such as political science, engineering, biology and health sciences) and with local stakeholders and environmental resource agencies to expand CSUN’s growing research presence. The water science professors, for example, are collaborating with professor Tyler Hughes in the Department of Political Science, who is working to understand how policies are implemented and to identify ways to better use science to inform policy debates.

Benefit to Students

CSUN’s water-related research, which is conducted in collaboration with state, regional and even international organizations, helps prepare students for innovative careers, Feucht-Haviar said.

Every semester, the Center for Geospatial Science and Technology utilizes about 15-20 students who perform the bulk of the project work. Hughes, the political science professor, is working with an undergraduate student to study the policy history of Malibu Lagoon, which will inform future coastal restoration projects.

CSUN students also are able to volunteer for opportunities related to the Institute of Sustainability, including the annual Water Day event, which will next take place on March 26, 2019. Wohldmann received a grant from the Metropolitan Water District to explore the effectiveness for reducing irrigation water on turf grass fields by comparing biodegradable polymers to compost produced on campus from green waste.  Students interested in assisting with this, and other projects, can contact the Institute for Sustainability.

Ganguli chose to conduct her research at CSUN in part because the university values diversity and undergraduate research, and her projects always have benefitted from the work of undergraduate student assistants, she said.

“My research is very applied. Therefore, the students I work with gain skills that give them a jump start for jobs in environment consulting and resource management, as well as research experience that makes them more competitive for graduate programs,” she said.

The Art of Innovation Conference will cover a range of topics to engage the community in conversations centering changing sectors tech, healthcare and transportation industries.

Modern industries are continuously changing – particularly when it comes to technology – leaving students and professionals with an ability to consistently gain more knowledge.

California State University, Northridge aims to help future leaders enhance technology and entrepreneurship by engaging with current industry leaders at its fifth semi-annual Art of Innovation Conference on Friday Nov. 2.

The Art of Innovation Conference is expected to take place from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. in CSUN’s Grand Salon, located in the University Student Union on the east side of campus. The panel-style event will include networking and cover a broad range of trends and opportunities regarding 21st century entrepreneurship. Featured panels include big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, innovation in healthcare and the future of transportation.

“All of these are issues that affect us in our daily lives,” said Shereazad Jimmy Gandhi, CSUN professor of manufacturing systems engineering and management. “It’s not something that is interesting just for business or engineering. Big data and artificial intelligence are fields that all industries are involved with. Since we are in LA county, the future of transportation is also a key issue.”

The conference is hosted by the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Health and Human Development and the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics to gain perspectives of each college’s respective industries.

The conference will cover a range of topics, including big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, innovation in healthcare and the future of transportation.

To follow the diversity amongst industries, CSUN chose a broad range of entrepreneurs and business owners to discuss technology and entrepreneurship in today’s society.

Speakers include: Harry Sefton III, senior leader in Space, Platforms and Payloads at Boeing; Kimberly Sanders, director of global TV distribution at NBCUniversal; Ian Gardner, president at Chanje; Seyed Sajjadi, systems engineer, NASA JPL; Jeff Joyner, intellectual property attorney / gov’t affairs / Cleantech; Terenig Topjian, founder of Have A Go; Flaurel English, founder of Gridlock Solutions and an executive advisor to the Toyota Mobility Foundation; Rick Teebay, fleet & transportation specialist at the LA County Office of Sustainability; Dale Deardorff executive leadership & innovation consultant; Lou Rubino, health sciences department chair, CSUN; and Sal Esparza, associate professor of health science at CSUN.

“Innovation often occurs at the intersection of disciplines,” said Ryan Holbrook, entrepreneurship program director for the David Nazarian College of Business and Economics. “Accordingly, we designed the conference to encourage attendees with different backgrounds and skills to connect, while learning about opportunities in new and emerging technologies from some of the top minds in those fields.”

Holbrook and Gandhi said they hope the Art of Innovation Conference can spark ideas for entrepreneurial ventures or interests and help build networks for all attendees.

Complimentary breakfast and lunch will be provided. For more information about the conference visit: www.csunaoi.com

To register for the Art of Innovation Conference visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2018-csun-art-of-innovation-conference-tickets-45864309384.

CSUN biochemistry major David Romero. Photo by Patricia Carrillo.

The shirt and tie were not the customary look for David Romero, an aspiring astrobiologist who said he typically wears a “groovy” tie-dye lab coat in a biochemistry lab as he tries to understand life on Earth before searching for it beyond.

Romero had dressed up to be honored on Sept. 28 alongside 26 other Northridge Scholars, among the hardest-working and highest-achieving students at California State University, Northridge. Romero, a third-year biochemistry major, said his schedule can be daunting — lots of classwork, hours of research — but he and other scholars can see their work paying off as they march ever closer to their dreams.

“At the end of each semester, I just feel a sense of fulfillment,” he said.

Romero and his fellow Northridge Scholars received a significant measure of validation when they were honored at the University House, home to CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison. The scholarships include financial assistance and access to mentors who can guide students on their paths to success.

Out of 127 applicants, just three students were awarded Presidential Scholarships, and 24 were recognized as University Scholars.

Harrison congratulated each scholar on their academic accomplishments and dedication to their studies. Even though they came from a wide variety of academic focus areas, they shared the commonality of achieving at the highest levels.

“You have the opportunity to network with each other and understand that right here you have a support group of other students who are very serious and aspirational about academic achievements,” Harrison said.

The Presidential Scholarship includes $10,000 and the opportunity to work on yearlong projects with faculty mentors. The scholars will display these projects at a culmination event in the spring.

Each University Scholar is awarded $7,500. University Scholars engage in scholarly development activities such as attending conferences, participating in internships and taking leadership roles in clubs and organizations as they deeply explore their field of interest.

“The Northridge Scholars program is really one of our marquee academic areas and programs and areas of focus, where we get a chance to select some pretty fabulous students to be mentored and to undertake learning activities and engagement throughout the year,” said Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students William Watkins.

Lana Zimmerman, a junior political science major with a sustainability minor, is a University Scholar for the second time. She said she received valuable mentorship from faculty and administrators that enhanced her chances for success as a first-generation college student. Networking with other Northridge Scholars has also helped, she said.

“Meeting other like-minded people who are extremely driven helps in those difficult moments,” Zimmerman said.

Natasha Carlson, a Presidential Scholar, is a senior biotechnology major studying how antibiotic-resistant bacteria is spreading and what makes it resistant. The scholarship is evidence that CSUN supports its students, she said.

“It’s obviously a very good school, by the fact that it encourages students not only to excel but to enjoy what they’re doing,” Carlson said.

The University Scholarship award is funded by the Bayramian Family Scholarship Endowment. The Presidential Scholarship award is funded by Associated Students, the Bayramian Family Scholarship Endowment, the Blenda Wilson Scholarship, the Diane Ryan Scholarship Endowment and the Medtronic Minimed Endowment.

Many of the scholars said the awards help ease financial stress and allow them to focus on their work. Adriana Bachmeier, a music industry studies major and University Scholar, said she wouldn’t have been able to afford to finish her senior year, during which she will work for the student-run, faculty-advised record label Five of Five Music Entertainment.

“I wouldn’t have been able to graduate without this scholarship, which would have been devastating,” Bachmeier said. “I’m very grateful. It’s changed my life.”

From left, Greg Easton, James L. Easton, Phyllis Easton, and Robert Gunsalus, CSUN’s vice president for university advancement, at the celebration on Oct. 22 marking the opening of a new archery range and the creation of a fellowship in CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science.  The Easton family, through the Easton Foundations, have given CSUN $1.5 million for the creation of the fellowship and to bolster resources for the Olympic-style sport of archery on campus. Photo by Lee Choo.

The sporting goods manufacturing company Jas. D. Easton, Inc., has had a decades-long relationship with California State University, Northridge — from offering students hands-on training through internships to its staff working alongside faculty to investigate and solve many materials engineering challenges.

Easton is taking the relationship to the next level with a $1.5 million gift from its philanthropic arms — the Easton Foundations — for the creation of an endowment for faculty in CSUN’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. Money from the gift also will be used to bolster resources for the Olympic-style sport of archery on campus.

“California State University, Northridge and the Easton companies have enjoyed a long and highly beneficial history of working together,” said CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison. “Industry involvement has played a key role in the development of our materials engineering program, and the Easton companies have been exemplary partners. The collaboration between Easton and CSUN has made an indelible imprint on Los Angeles and beyond, and this latest gift from the Easton Foundations will extend the positive impact in perpetuity.

“James L. Easton’s legacy and the Easton name will be an important part of CSUN forever,” she continued, “and hundreds of students each year will be positively affected by the engineering fellowship and the enhancements to our archery programs.”

Greg Easton said the gift honors the long relationship Jas. D. Easton, Inc. and his father, James L. Easton, had with the university over the years.

Reynaldo “Rene” Paguia, archery head coach for Associated Students sports clubs, takes the first ceremonial shot in celebration of then opening of CSUN’s new archery range. Photo by Lee Choo.

“My dad directly worked with professors at the university over the years on different projects, trying to improve materials for sporting goods,” Greg Easton said. “The question was always, how do we make a better product to bring out the best in the athletes?

“This also is a great opportunity to enhance the archery program on campus,” Easton added. He and his father are well known for their passion for the sport. Easton noted that studies have shown that young people who do archery are better able to concentrate and focus in school.

“With this gift, we’ll be able to expand the opportunities for students to take part in the sport,” he said

More than $1 million of the gift will go toward the creation and support of the James L. Easton Fellowship in Engineering Endowment in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. The college’s dean will select one faculty member from any of the college’s engineering programs to be the “Easton Foundation Engineering Fellow” for one academic year. During that time, the Easton Fellow will receive financial support for his or her teaching, research and service activities.

The remainder of the gift will be used to support CSUN’s student archery club, the creation of an on-campus archery range not far from the baseball diamond and an archery class in the Department of Kinesiology in the College of Health and Human Development.

Robert Gunsalus, CSUN’s vice president for university advancement and president of the CSUN Foundation, said the gift not only creates an opportunity for students to explore archery, but it also creates a wide variety of career opportunities.

“Countless Northridge students have served in internships and pursued successful professional careers in the Easton companies,” Gunsalus said. “Several of these Matadors have returned to their alma mater to serve on advisory boards, judge engineering competitions, and support the engineering college in other ways. This gift builds on the great relationship CSUN has had with the Easton Companies and amplifies their tremendous positive impact.”

Created by James L. Easton., the Easton Sports Development Foundation (www.esdf) was founded in 1984 with the mission of introducing the Olympic-style sport of archery to more people in Southern California. The success of that effort led to the formation in 2006 of a second Easton foundation, Easton Sports Development Foundation II. Today, the Easton foundations continue to further the sport of archery by bridging the gap between first experience and elite experience. The goal of the Easton foundations is to promote and maintain the viability of archery by growing the sport as a mainstream activity at the state, regional and national level.