LAunchPad Program 2021

Computer Science is So Diverse

Computer science (CS) touches every field and inspires creativity with its endless possibilities and applications. Students receive a high-level introduction to the diverse world of Computer Science during this event, focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data Science (DS). Faculty and industry professionals reveal how these powerful technologies surround us today and discuss how they might evolve in the future. Explore CS/DS/AI applications solving real-world problems, from predicting cancer and natural disasters to the infinite potential of teaching computers to "see" the world through computer vision.

Get to Know Today's Speakers.

Scroll down to the "MEET THE SPEAKERS" section below to view and learn more about all the LAunchPad 2021 faculty and Industry speakers.

Making California Safe

Everybody wants to feel safe when disaster strikes. During this event, students will learn about how engineers design to prepare for fires, earthquakes, and other emergencies with Cal State LA faculty and industry professionals.

Get to Know Today's Speakers.

Scroll down to the "MEET THE SPEAKERS" section below to view and learn more about all the LAunchPad 2021 faculty and Industry speakers.

Environmental Engineering

How do engineers work with soil science, biology, and chemistry to keep our environment safe and healthy?  What does it take to prevent, control or remediate environmental hazards? During this event, students will earn about engineering a solution to LA air pollution with Cal State LA faculty and industry professionals.

Get to Know Today's Speakers.

Scroll down to the "MEET THE SPEAKERS" section below to view and learn more about all the LAunchPad 2021 faculty and Industry speakers.

Biomedical Engineering

What if you could use engineering to help someone regain the ability to walk or talk? Imagine designing a device to improve sight, keep a heart beating, create artificial organs, and more! Students will get an overview of how electrical and computer engineering is applied to the medical field with Cal State LA faculty and industry professionals during this event.

Get to Know Today's Speakers.

Scroll down to the "MEET THE SPEAKERS" section below to view and learn more about all the LAunchPad 2021 faculty and Industry speakers.

Futurathon

Students tasked to build a solar car!  During this event, student teams lead by College of ECST student assistants will be showcasing their work building and designing a solar car that can travel the most vertical height going uphill.

We hope you enjoy your two weeks on our virtual LAunchPad program and that you consider applying to ECST this Fall when it’s time for your college applications.

Get to Know Today's Speakers.

Scroll down to the "MEET THE SPEAKERS" section below to view and learn more about all the LAunchPad 2021 faculty and Industry speakers.

 MATERIALS SCIENCE (FRI • JULY 16)

Emily Allen, Ph.D.

Dr. Emily Allen has served as Dean of the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at California State University, Los Angeles, since 2013. She previously served San José State University as Associate Dean of the College of Engineering, Chair of Chemical and Materials Engineering, Professor of Materials Engineering, Director of the Northern California regional affiliate of Project Lead the Way, and Founding Director of both the SJSU Materials Characterization and Metrology Center and the SJSU Microprocess Engineering Laboratory. She earned her BS in Metallurgy and Materials Science from Columbia University and her MS and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

She has worked with faculty and staff to create a summer engineering and computing program for high school girls, LAunchPad, as a platform to increase the number of women pursuing STEM fields in college. Throughout her academic career, Dr. Allen has endeavored to create inclusive environments through mentoring students, staff, and faculty.

 MATERIALS SCIENCE (FRI • JULY 16)

Chris Bachman, Ph.D.

Dr. Bachman is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Cal State LA. He received his B.S. (2010) and M.S. (2012) from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and his Ph.D. (2017) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At MIT, he performed research under the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the MIT Mechanical Engineering Department Fellowship. He has performed research in batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, wind energy, and engineering education. His work has been featured in Nature Materials, Nature Communications, and Chemical Reviews and has been cited over 700 times in the previous five years. He has taught experimental methods, control systems, and mechanical design at UC Davis; physics and calculus at MIT; fluid mechanics and mechanical vibrations the Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT); and Introduction to Engineering and Technology, Introduction to Mechanical Design, Thermodynamics, and Senior Design at Cal State LA. He also currently advises both the Baja SAE and Formula SAE competition teams, directs the ECST Makerspace, and runs the Sustainable Technology Lab researching inexpensive and safe energy storage.

 MAKING CA SAFE (TUE • JULY 20)

Xiaolei (Lily) Chen, Ph.D.

Dr. Chen received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and joined Cal State LA as an assistant professor in Fire Protection Administration and Technology in 2015. Her major field is fire protection engineering, with a focus on building fire performance evaluation. In addition to teaching, she conducts research in performance-based design approach, fire modeling and simulation, fire safety in green building, etc.

 ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING (WED • JULY 21)

Arezoo Khodayari, Ph.D.

Dr. Khodayari is an Assistant professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, and the founding director of the Environmental Sustainability and Pollution Control (ESPC) research lab, and her research is focused on developing sustainable engineering solutions for air and water pollution prevention and control, quantifying air quality and climate effects of various natural and human-made emissions, integrated environmental impact assessment, environmental sustainability, and energy-water-climate nexus.

 WHAT MAKES A CITY RUN? (TUE • JULY 13)

Sonya Lopez, Ph.D.

Dr. Lopez is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering at Cal State LA. Her research specializations are Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering; Physically-based and Conceptually-based hydrologic modeling; Remote Sensing of the Environment.

 ROCKET PROPULSION (MON • JULY 12)

Mario Medina, Ph.D.

Dr. Medina is an assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department at California State University, Los Angeles.  He received his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan (UM). His research focused on characterizing fuel sprays for advanced internal combustion engine strategies using optical techniques. He has conducted research at various institutions, including Robert Bosch LLC in 2018 and Centro Motores Termicos at the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia in Spain in 2019. Mario was an active leader at UM, heavily involved with the Society of Hispanics Professional Engineers (SHPE) chapter.

 MAKING CA SAFE (TUE • JULY 20)

Maryam Nazari, Ph.D.

Dr. Nazari is an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at Cal State LA. She received her Ph.D. in Structural Engineering with a Minor in Engineering Mechanics from Iowa State University in 2016. Prior to joining Cal State LA in Fall 2020, she worked as a faculty member at a sister CSU, Fresno State, for four years. Dr. Nazari has taught a variety of courses in the areas of Engineering Mechanics and Structural Analysis and Design. Her research interests lie in the area of earthquake engineering, including techniques that ensure economical, resilient, and sustainable design of civil infrastructures against seismic hazards. She has been recognized with several research awards including from the ASCE ‐ San Francisco Section, the Fresno Regional Transportation Innovations Summit, and Iowa State University. In 2019, she was one of the recipients of an ASEE award for “Best Diversity Paper,” which aims to enhance the CSU Women Engineering Faculty Support Network.

 COMPUTER SCIENCE IS DIVERSE (MON • JULY 19)

Mohammad Pourhomayoun, Ph.D.

Dr. Pourhomayoun is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at California State University Los Angeles Cal State LA). He is the founder and director of the Artificial Intelligence & Data Science Research Lab at Cal State LA. Dr. Pourhomayoun’s research interests focus on Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning for healthcare and biomedical applications. Before joining Cal State LA, he was a Technical Project Manager and Senior Data Scientist at WANDA Inc., working on Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Large-scale Machine Learning for Healthcare applications. At the same time, he was also a Research Scientist at UCLA. Prior to this position, he was a Post-Doctoral Associate and Research Manager at the UCLA Computer Science Department. His postdoc research focused on Predictive Analytics and Advanced Machine Learning for mobile health and biomedicine. Before joining UCLA, he was a Research Scientist with Cornell University working on Large-scale Machine and Deep Learning. Dr. Pourhomayoun has more than 70 peer-reviewed conference and journal papers in his research field. He has received 3 “Best Paper Awards” in different conferences so far

 ROCKET PROPULSION (MON • JULY 12)

Jeffery Santner, Ph.D.

Dr. Santner is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Cal State LA. His research is in combustion, with a focus on combustion chemistry and flame initiation/propagation. He is currently working on NOx formation, kinetic model reduction, design of optimal experiments, and extraction of reaction rates from literature experiments.

 ROBOTICS (WED • JULY 14)

He Shen, Ph.D.

Dr. Shen received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with the Best Dissertation Award from the College of Engineering and Computer Science in 2014 from the University of Central Florida. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his research interests are in robotics, control systems, dynamics, and instrumentation. He is the founder and director of the Robotics Laboratory and an advisor of two student organizations – American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) at Cal State LA. He is also a recipient of the 2017 “Exceptional Levels of Service to Students Award” and 2020 “Faculty Mentor Honoree” at Cal State LA.

 BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING (THU • JULY 22)

Curtis Wang, Ph.D.

Dr. Wang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cal State LA. His research areas are in embedded systems, high-performance computing, and biomedical engineering.  He is interested in the way mammalian spinal cords perform computation and ways to improve medical therapies, robotics, and computers using inspiration from the spine.

 BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING (THU • JULY 22)

Deborah Won, Ph.D

Dr. Won is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cal State LA. Her research area is in biomedical engineering. Broadly speaking, her main research interests are in intelligent medicine, where machine learning, computational modeling, and signal processing intersect with medical device therapies.  For example, she has investigated the cognitive effects of deep brain stimulation; engineered a neuromuscular electrical stimulation therapy to restore stepping capability after spinal cord injury; and developed electromyography-based monitoring systems on mobile devices for facilitating exercise in wheelchairs.

 WHAT MAKES A CITY RUN? (TUE • JULY 13)

Illary Archilla

Illary Archilla Graduated from Universidad La Salle, Mexico City, with her Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Energetic Systems in 2003, a minor in Marketing and Business in 2006, and received her master's in Mechanical Engineering from Cal State Long Beach in 2012. She is the Founder, President, and CEO of Terravanta Inc, a project, construction, and sustainability management consulting firm. With over 15 years of international experience, Illary has become a leader in the energy /construction industry.   Her vision is a future where it is natural to see women in technical fields, where there is no bias based on gender, race, or social status, and where sustainable projects are not a trend but a part of regular life. To that end, she commits a portion of her company's revenue and her time to support programs that further this vision.  She enjoys traveling and outdoor activities, such as mountain biking, cycling, hiking, and paddleboarding, to name a few.

 ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING (WED • JULY 21)

Heidy Arriola

Heidy works as a sales engineer for SUEZ Water Technologies & Solutions with primary responsibilities in water treatment services for refineries and power plants in Southern, CA. As a seasoned business development professional, Heidy works on fostering strong partnerships with customers as well as building strategy and tactics to maximize Suez technology solutions. Heidy started her career at USFilter/Siemens Water Technologies (now Evoqua) and moved onto work with Aggreko where she provided temporary utilities to petrochemical clients. Before joining Suez, Heidy worked for Envirogen Water Technologies where she focused on waste water treatment for Food & Beverage customers as well as Chromium remediation for municipal drinking water agencies. Heidy’s technical background stems from her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from UCLA. She firmly believes engineering is a solid foundation that opens many doors to various careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

In addition to her full-time job, Heidy is highly involved with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) where she has served the organization on many levels for many years. Most recently she was elected as the Vice-President of External Affairs for the SHPE Los Angeles chapter and served on SHPE’s National Board of Directors as Regional Vice President from 2013 – 2016. SHPE’s mission is to change lives by empowering the Hispanic community to realize its fullest potential and to impact the world through STEM awareness, access, support and development. Heidy is passionate about their mission and making an impact in her community.

Heidy lives in Pasadena, CA and is most happy when she is with family or giving back to her community.

 COMPUTER SCIENCE IS DIVERSE (MON • JULY 19)

 SOFTWARE + ELECTRICAL ENGR (THU • JULY 15)

Andrea Allen

Andrea Allen graduated with her Bachelor's in Mathematics from Oberlin College in 2017. She is currently working on her Master's in Complex Systems and Data Science at the University of Vermont. Her focus is in disease modeling and network science. Between her bachelor's and master's degrees, she worked for 3 years as a Software Developer at ThoughtWorks in New York City, working on a range of projects spanning healthcare, finance, and the power grid. She enjoys running, hiking, and spending time with her family and her dog.

 SOFTWARE + ELECTRICAL ENGR (THU • JULY 15)

Natalie Deo

Natalie Deo graduated from Cal State LA through the Early Entrance Program with her Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering at 19; she is currently working on her Masters of Science in Astronautical Engineering at USC.  She previously interned at Northrop Grumman and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and she is currently interning at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a Systems Testbed Engineer Intern.  Her expertise is in Computer Engineering with Space.  Natalie enjoys spending time with friends and family in her free time, watching sitcoms, and sharing her experiences on social media.

 ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING (WED • JULY 21)

Saron Gebreslassie

Saron is an undergraduate student at Cal State LA graduating in May 2022 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. She is now interning at John Deere as a supply management intern this summer. Her expertise is in material engineering and product engineering. She has plans to pursue a graduate degree in Materials Science. Outside of school she enjoys discovering new places in her city.

 ROBOTICS (WED • JULY 14)

Sidra Gibeault

Sidra Gibeault graduated from Cal State LA with her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 2020, with minors in Physics and Mathematics. She began her studies as an Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. student in the following semester at the University of Maryland, College Park. She works as a teaching assistant while doing research in the area of Computer Architecture. She enjoys reading books, building robots, and spending time with her cats.

 COMPUTER SCIENCE IS DIVERSE (MON • JULY 19)

Aliannea Sherman

Aliannea Sherman graduated from Cal State LA with her Bachelors of Science in Biochemistry in 2019.  She is working on her Masters of Science in Computer Science and plans to graduate Spring 2022. This summer she is working as an Analyst Intern/ Software Engineering Intern at American Express. Her expertise is in databases, software architecture, and web development.  She also worked as a student assistant web developer at Cal State LA library in Spring 2021. She enjoys swimming, biking, roller skating, video games, and comedy shows.

 KEYNOTE SPEAKER & BOEING: BUILDING OUR FUTURE TOGETHER (MON • JULY 12)

Susan Doniz

Susan Doniz is the chief information officer (CIO) and senior vice president of Information Technology & Data Analytics at The Boeing Company. She leads all aspects of information technology, information security, data and analytics for the world’s largest aerospace company. She also supports the growth of Boeing's business through IT- and analytics-related revenue-generating programs

Prior to joining Boeing in May 2020, Doniz was the Group CIO of Qantas Airways, where she focused on expanding the airline’s digital ecosystem and adopted new technology to support the needs of the business and its customers.

Previously, during a 17-year career at Procter & Gamble, she led IT programs in support of the supply chain, research-and-development and sales, as well as a cross-functional program to digitize the company. She’s also worked at SAP and Aimia. At SAP, she was a strategic advisor to the Global CEO on transformation and technology issues in support of customers.

Doniz has been a champion and self-starter of a variety of diversity networks for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as for Hispanics in business leadership. In 2012, she was named as a national diversity champion in Canada. She has been a board member of multiple non-profit organizations including The Women’s College Hospital Foundation, Salvation Army, and Engineers without Borders.

She serves as an advisor to the Center for Digital Transformation at the University of California, Irvine, and vice chair of the Digital Transformation Advisory Council of the International Air Transport Association. In 2011, she was named one of Canada’s most powerful women by WXN.

An honors graduate of the University of Toronto with a degree in Engineering, she has lived and worked in Australia, Canada, Spain, most of the countries in Latin America and the United States. Her first language is Spanish, which she speaks at home with her family. She also is fluent in French and English.

 BOEING: BUILDING OUR FUTURE TOGETHER (MON • JULY 12)

Justene Noelle Karimi

Justene has over 10 years of engineering experience. She worked in Civil Engineering after earning her Bachelor of Science degree. Today, she’s been at Boeing for 8 years where she has experience in Certification, Customer Support Stress Analysis and Service Engineering, the Aircraft on Ground (AOG) support team, and was recently promoted (right before the COVID19 outbreak in 2020) to lead a Mechanical & Structural Engineering Modifications team.

Justene holds a BS degree in Civil Engineering from UC Irvine and MS degree in Product Development Engineering from USC.

 BOEING: BUILDING OUR FUTURE TOGETHER (MON • JULY 12)

Jomya Lei

Jomya is a Lead Hardware Engineer and Integrated Product Team Lead for multiple products for satellites.  She is responsible for the design, manufacturing, and test of space-qualified hardware ranging from non-flight research & development products to flight-ready products.  

Jomya started at Boeing after graduating from Caltech with a BS in Electrical Engineering and Chemistry and later received a MS in Electrical Engineering from USC through Boeing’s Learning Together Program.  In her spare time, she is a member of SSPI-WISE (Space and Satellite Professional International – Women In Space Engagement), a grantmaker for Boeing’s Employees Community Fund supporting non-profits, and a semi-professional taiko drummer.

 BOEING: BUILDING OUR FUTURE TOGETHER (MON • JULY 12)

Diana B. Lopez

A first-generation college graduate, Diana Lopez grew up in modest circumstances and dreamed of financial independence.  Earning a bachelor’s degree would end up being the path she’d take to reach her dreams.

“I did well in school, but even in my senior year, I didn’t really know what to do.  I had been working a full time job since the age of 16 yrs. and I knew then that I’d need more than high school to be fully independent.”  A college counselor at John C. Fremont High School in South Los Angeles spoke to Lopez about attending college and suggested she try engineering.

She applied to California State University-Los Angeles and was accepted into the Electrical Engineering (E.E) program.  After three years, Lopez was offered the Dean’s scholarship to transfer to the University of Southern California where she completed her studies and earned her E.E Bachelor of Science degree in 2003.  In 2012 Lopez earned a master’s degree in Information Systems Technology from Claremont Graduate University. Between 2003 to the present Lopez has continued her educational development and earned additional leadership, project and program management and technical certificates.

Lopez joined Boeing as an intern and became a full-time employee upon graduation. Lopez has worked on several programs: the Future Combat Systems program and Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Communications Network in system engineering roles; the Ground Mobile Radio (GMR) program as Communications and Networks Systems Engineer; the Joint Tactical Radio System Enterprise Network Manager (JENM) program working on Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) Integration and Test and Software Development. On JENM, Lopez worked closely with government and  Army customers to help them prepare and troubleshoot their Network Integration Evaluation field exercises.  Lopez also worked as a network designer in the Information Technology – Core Infrastructure services group where she led a team that provided support to more than 10,000 applications operating across Boeing. Most recently she became a manager and in addition to managing a team that supported a variety of Acoustics projects, had the opportunity to work and travel to Japan on an international assignment.  Lopez now works in the Maritime Undersea Platform Programs office with a variety of responsibilities spanning across multiple program functions.

Lopez married her high-school sweetheart and they have 15-year-old twins, a boy and a girl. Lopez has been and continues to be active with STEM programs. In her spare time, Lopez enjoys spending time with her family, boogie boarding, working out and most recently learning about real estate investments.

 BOEING: BUILDING OUR FUTURE TOGETHER (MON • JULY 12)

Kia Lorece Smith

Kia L. Smith is s Senior Project Engineer at The Boeing Company in El Segundo, California. She is responsible for production and integrations of cool products such as satellites, space vehicles and more. Kia has held management and engineering roles at The Boeing Company, Eaton Aerospace Corporation and Raytheon.

Prior to her current Program Manager II role, Kia was a Senior Product Test Engineer in Jackson, Mississippi. Kia was previously a professor in the Mathematic Department at Jackson College in Jackson, Michigan as well as is a volunteer Self-Esteem and Confidence speaker through the Multicultural Relations Department at Jackson College.

Kia holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics, and Minor in Mathematics from HBCU Southern University, A&M College, where she was a NASA Scholar and a member of the Honors College. Kia also earned her Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management. She has worked with the following organizations: National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), National Black MBA Association Inc. (NBMBAA), Women In Aerospace (WIA) and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Kia is the author of the self-published book “How To Love Yourself” and has been active in pageantry for 6 years, holding the following titles: Miss Louisiana Plus 2010 and Miss Elegant U.S. United 2012. Kia was part of the Miss California Plus 2017 Team.  She has also volunteered as a pageant Coach as well as became a leader in the “#LoveYourself” movement in 2016. In Kia’s spare time, she loves to sing (especially in choirs), dance, and travel. Kia is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.