Note to editors and news directors: To request a photo or to arrange an interview with Professor Helen Ryaciotaki-Boussalis, call the CSULA Public Affairs office in advance at (323) 343-3050.
CSULA professor garners NASA Faculty Research Award
Ryaciotaki-Boussalis recognized for her research, leadership of NASA-funded Center
Los Angeles, CA – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Office of the Chief Information Officer recently honored Cal State L.A.’s Professor of Electrical Engineering Helen Ryaciotaki-Boussalis (Glendale resident) with the 2011 Faculty Research Award for her innovation in NASA-related research.
“I am very honored to receive this award,” said Ryaciotaki-Boussalis. “I am deeply grateful to NASA for supporting my research at CSULA since 1994. I appreciate very much the continuous support I have received from my collaborators, faculty and aerospace engineers, and last but not least, I cherish the time I spent all these years with my student research assistants.”
She shared, “I would like to add that the saying of the Greek philosopher Aristotle about education is strictly applicable to research: ‘Its roots are bitter but its fruits are very sweet.’”
A CSULA faculty member since 1985, Ryaciotaki-Boussalis is also director of CSULA’s NASA-funded University Research Center (URC), officially named as the “Structures, Propulsion, Aerospace and Control Engineering (SPACE) Center.”
Housed in Cal State L.A.’s College of Engineering, Computer Sciences, and Technology, the SPACE Center comprises the Structures, Pointing and Control Engineering Lab (SPACE Lab) and the Multidisciplinary Flight Dynamics and Control Lab (MFDC Lab).
Since 2003, the URC has provided more than 500 undergraduates and graduates—from CSULA and other colleges, including Ph.D.-granting institutions—the opportunity to conduct multidisciplinary research.
Professor Ryaciotaki-Boussalis, who earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from New Mexico State University, is an expert in the areas of areas of decentralized and adaptive control, neural networks, nonlinear systems, and vehicle dynamics and control. She served as the chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at CSULA from 1995 until 2006. Ryaciotaki-Boussalis received CSULA’s Outstanding Professor Award in 1995 and the CSULA Electrical Engineering department’s Professor of the Year award in 1988. A senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer, she is also an author/co-author of more than 180 research papers in the areas of controls, neural networks, and nonlinear dynamical systems.
The NASA awards were recently presented at its 2011 IT Summit in San Francisco, in recognition of the outstanding efforts of those who have incorporated NASA technology into their educational efforts.
The NASA IT Summit is a forum to exchange ideas, share best practices, and learn what is new and cutting edge on the internal and external IT landscape. For a listing of IT Summit 2011 award winners: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/itsummit/awards2011.html
NASA was created by Congress in 1958 “to provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth’s atmosphere, and for other purposes.” Led by the Administrator, the agency is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with 10 field centers, and other facilities around the nation. NASA’s vision is to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown so that what we do and learn will benefit all humankind.
# # #
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 220,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to the Honors College for high-achieving students, opening in fall 2011. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu