News Release| Professional Practice Program; Cal State L.A.

January 30, 2012

CSULA’s Professional Practice Program receives Excellence in Engineering Education Collaboration Award

ASEE Corporate Member Council to honor
CSULA and Boeing for their collaborative efforts

Los Angeles, CA – The American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Corporate Member Council (CMC) announced that California State University, Los Angeles’ (CSULA) Professional Practice Program is the recipient of the 2012 Corporate Member Council Excellence in Engineering Education Collaboration Award.

Picture of a senior design project.This award recognizes CMC member companies that demonstrate best practices in their collaborative efforts with colleges and universities to enhance engineering education. The award ceremony will be held at the ASEE Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration in Orlando, FL, on Wednesday, Feb. 1.

Keith Moo-Young, dean of the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST), said, “The College of ECST is extremely humbled by this award from the Corporate Member Council.  This award for the Engineering Education Collaboration is a testimony to our Industrial Advisory Board and partnering corporations’ commitment to building a world-class partnership with Cal State L.A.”

The Professional Practice Program (also known as the Senior Design Program) was developed to provide CSULA students with a capstone experience, in which students apply their theoretical knowledge to real applications.

The industry-sponsored program was selected for the ASEE award due to The Boeing Company’s extensive collaboration with the CSULA’s ECST. The Boeing Company was one of seven founding partners of the Professional Practice Program and has continued to provide real-world projects and industry liaisons for CSULA students to work on since 2008. Other CMC-affiliated program partners to also be honored include Aerospace Corporation and Northrop Grumman.

Demonstrating successful outcomes in the past three years, the Professional Practice Program has been integrated into the ECST curriculum, which means all students within the College must complete a senior design project before graduation. The current structure of the program exposes students to an industry setting, whereby students work with an industry partner to develop a client-defined product. This product may be a physical prototype, software package or operational algorithm.

 “Thanks to the staff, faculty, and industry sponsors who worked hard to make our program so successful!” said Tammy Chan, director of the Professional Practice Program. “Students really become engineers by using all their knowledge learned from coursework, experience, and interests by working on team-oriented senior design projects sponsored by industry, research grants, or competition events. Such projects are the highlight of their resumes. Many students go on to permanent jobs or internships because of the talents they demonstrated to their industry sponsors, such as Boeing, Space Systems/Loral, etc.”

Every year, the CMC awards recognize companies for excellence for innovation, collaboration and support to collegiate level or pre-college (K-12) education and support to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Founded in 1893, the ASEE is a nonprofit organization of individuals and institutions committed to furthering education in engineering and engineering technology. In pursuit of academic excellence, ASEE develops policies and programs that enhance professional opportunities for engineering faculty members, and promotes activities that support increased student enrollments in engineering and engineering technology colleges and universities.

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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. 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