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FALL QUARTER | DECEMBER 10, 2015
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Cal State LA Faculty & Staff Holiday Celebration coming soon:
Dec. 14 | 11:00am to 1:00pm @ Golden Eagle Ballroom. Prize drawings will be held at 11:30am and 12:15pm. Join the fun.
Please confirm your attendance
by Dec. 9.
Campus Closure: Dec 21 to 25, 2015 and January 1, 2016
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Faculty & Staff Spotlight
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Getting to know the great individuals who make up our College is an important part of building a greater sense of community. This week we are featuring faculty member, and CS department chair, Dr. Raj Pamula.
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| Dr. Raj Pamula and his family on a Napa Valley wine tasting limo trip. |
Wh
at is your role at ECST?
I am the Chair of the Department of Computer Science and have been so for over 15 years. I see my role as a manager/leader on two fronts: 1) Dealing with curricular issues (Accreditation, Scheduling). 2) Acting as an essential link in dealing with various constituencies: Students, Faculty, Staff, and Administration. These generate conflicting interests at times. I usually focus on exploit the strengths of the various people involved to ensure a smooth departmental operation.
What was your first job out of College/University?
My first job (1980) was a software engineer at one of the premier consultancy (Tata Consultancy Services) group in Mumbai, India. I was programming in Fortran/Cobol interacting with DB2 database. After a few debugging steps, I was delighted when the large program ran successfully on an IBM main frame environment. After some initial training, I was to work on diverse industries and technological domains by travelling to USA. This was the time I decided to quit my job in order to pursue higher education
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What is your favorite food?
I love all types of south Indian food as it is a vegetarian's delight. I find it tastier because of the various spices, lentils and other accompaniments such as pickles and curries. Many of these food items can be incorporated as snacks, commonly known as tiffins, that can be eaten at any time of the day. Some examples are Dosa, Puri, Idli, and Wada (shown in that order)
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Where is your favorite place you've ever visited?
My favorite places to visit are all over in India. India is often mentioned as a continent and not merely a country. The history, architecture, food, and people changes from place to place. I grew up in a city called Hyderabad which is approximately in the middle of India. One of the recent places I visited was Varanasi (also known as Benaras or Kashi). Varanasi is referred to as the religious capital of India with ancient temples. It lies on the bank of the holy Ganges River (which does not look clean). According to the religious traditions, one should make one trip in their lifetime to take a holy dip in Ganges River to wash away all sins.
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Congratulations to the following faculty for successful research proposals!
Cal State LA Creative Leave Award:
Gustavo Menezes
, Associate Prof, Civil Engineering (Advancing Research on Fate and Transport of Contaminants in the Subsurface at CalStateLA)
Cal State LA Minigrant Awards:
He Shen
, Assistant Prof., Mechanical Engineering (Eagle Transformer: A Transformable Flying Wing UAV for Next Generation Sustainable and Precision Agriculture Management).
David Raymond, Assistant Prof., Mechanical Engineering (Evaluating Brain Response under Helmeted Head Impacts).
Arturo Pacheco-Vega, Prof., Mechanical Engineering (Numerical Optimization of Fuel Cell Systems: Improving Energy Conversion towards Urban Sustainability).
Arezoo Khodayari, Assistant Prof., Civil Engineering (Air Quality Management through Alternative Approaches).
Zilong Ye, Assistant Prof., Computer Science (Information-Centric Networking Based WiFi Service for Outdoor Areas)
Cal State LA Assigned Time Awards for Research:
He Shen, Assistant Prof., Mechanical Engineering (Development of a Modeling, Simulation, and Training Center for STEM Research and Education).
Arturo Pacheco-Vega, Prof., Mechanical Engineering (Numerical Optimization of Fuel Cell Systems: Improving Energy Conversion towards Urban Sustainability).
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Faculty & Staff Supporting Student Success
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Monday morning, December 7, the FYrE@ECST Team observed as Mauricio Castillo held the first SeaPerch underwater rover competition among the pilot cohort of Engr 1500 students. As everyone gathered at the edge of the campus swimming pool, we could see the result of the students' teamwork and ingenuity. Kudos to the Engr 1500 team: Mark Tufenkjian, Mauricio Castillo, Zanj Avery, Mohsen Eshraghi and Arash Jamehbozorg. When asked about the value of the FYrE program, one student said,
"Working in teams helps me understand the material better. Working in groups gets you more engaged in the project and you learn how to work with others and to be open to other peoples' ideas."
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EPIC Toy & Food Drive:
Support families in our community by donating new or used toys in good condition and non-perishable/canned food to the EPIC Toy and Food Drive. Donations will be collected until
Dec. 11
. For a list of drop-off sites, call EPIC at extension 3-3380.
Flu shot at the Student Health Center: The Student Health Center is now offering flu shots to the University community, including faculty and staff, for $20. Call extensions 3-3302 or 3-3303 to schedule an appointment.
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Have a great news idea? Or received an award?
We'd like know about it! Please share ongoing work or achievements including publications, presentations, and more. Simply write a few sentences for a summary, including links and photos if applicable and shoot it out to
hsimon@calstatela.edu
or
submit
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These notices allow us to acknowledge and celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty and staff within the Cal State LA community, and may also be used in our publications or shared with outside media and organizations.
Talking About Research: A quick reminder that ECST has a dedicated webpage to
faculty research
where you may upload any new or ongoing research. We'd love to hear about it!
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Quarter 2 Semester News
California State University, Los Angeles is converting to semesters. The first term on the semester calendar will be Fall 2016. Q2S
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