engineer educator of the year

February 25, 2000

 

 

02/25/00

 


CONTACT:
Margie Yu
Public Affairs Asst.
(323) 343-3047

 


Calendar
of Events

Cal State L.A. Professor Named
"Educator of the Year"
by the San Fernando Valley
Engineers Council

Los Angeles, CA-California State University, Los Angeles electrical and computer engineering professor Helen Boussalis will be honored by the San Fernando Valley Engineers Council as "Educator of the Year" at its annual banquet on Saturday, February 26, at the Sportsman's Lodge. Daniel S. Goldin, the head of NASA, will be the speaker for the event.

Helen Boussalis, who joined the Cal State L.A. faculty in 1985, received a B.S. degree from New York Institute of Technology, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from New Mexico State University. Boussalis is an expert in the areas of control systems and automation specializing in decentralized control, stability and large-scale systems. She has authored more than 60 publications on topics in her field. Boussalis is currently serving as chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at Cal State L.A.

Boussalis is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member of the National Engineering Department Heads Association. Her recent awards include the Cal State L.A. Outstanding Professor Award (1995), NASA Technical Brief (1991), Cal State L.A. ECE Department Professor of the Year award (1988), and Department of Energy Fellow (1988). Among her honorary memberships are the Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi, Who's Who in Frontiers of Science and Technology, Who's Who in the World, 2,000 Notable American Women, and Distinguished Leadership Award for Excellence in Engineering Education.

Boussalis' unprecedented research activity has brought the University nearly six million dollars in grants. The projects funded by these grants are of national importance and have brought Cal State L.A. students in touch with scientists and other researchers at NASA, USC, and UC Berkeley as well as JPL.

Most notably, Boussalis has been recognized for the development of a major $5.3 million NASA-funded project at Cal State L.A. that established a Control and Structures Research Laboratory (CSRL) on campus for design and fabrication/assembly of a test-bed (model) of a space-segmented reflector telescope. Advanced technologies for decentralization, precision pointing, vibration attenuation, fault identification, controller reconfiguration, adaptive/robust control, neuro-fuzzy control, system identification and reflector shape control, will be developed and experimentally validated on the test-bed. These new technologies are of immediate interest to NASA, to the aerospace industry, and the commercial sector.

San Fernando Valley Engineers' Council, Inc. (SFVEC) is a not-for-profit public benefit corporation organized by engineers in 1955 to: advance the art and science of engineering for the general welfare of humankind, advance the welfare of the general public through the creative resources and abilities of the engineering professions, inform the general public of the advantages and capabilities of engineering in advancing human welfare, and provide suitable public recognition of engineering achievement through the coordinated efforts of: Academia, Corporate, Government Agency, Individual, and Technical Society Affiliates.

 

# # #