California State University, Northridge is on the cusp of reaching 100,000 “Likes” on Facebook. If reached, CSUN would be the first school in the California State University system to do so. Those who are interested in helping CSUN reach that goal can visit www.facebook.com/calstatenorthridge.
California State University, Northridge has always pursued the future of learning. That is one reason why CSUN launched its myCSUNtablet initiative in 2013. Today, CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison is pleased to announce that the initiative has been named an Apple Distinguished Program. The designation is reserved for schools and campuses that demonstrate visionary leadership, innovative teaching and learning, ongoing professional learning, and flexible learning environments.
“Our students are technologically savvy,” President Harrison said. “They appreciate having personal interaction with their professors but also benefit from the addition of powerful technology and resources delivered via their tablets — both in and out of class. CSUN is honored to receive Apple’s Distinguished Program designation as it speaks to the effectiveness of our efforts to equip students for success and push the boundaries of learning.”
To apply, CSUN and other schools and programs create an iBook that highlights their programs and impact. CSUN’s iBook submission was developed by Deone Zell, CSUN’s senior director of academic technology. It includes a description of the program that illustrates the depth of the myCSUNtablet initiative, from the innovative learning and teaching methods being used to the year one assessment with a look toward the future.
“Receiving this Apple Distinguished Program designation is such a wonderful recognition for the myCSUNtablet initiative and reflects the expertise and dedicated work by our CSUN faculty and staff to help our students succeed,” said Hilary J. Baker, CSUN’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer.
A strong proponent of the myCSUNtablet initiative, CSUN Biology Professor Paul Wilson has actively embraced technology to advance his teaching and student learning, publishing various eTexts that can be used with iPads.
“The eTexts that professors are writing are an extension of what CSUN professors have always poured energy into,” Wilson said. “They can be rich in multimedia and fun little activities.”
Students have found the new technology and resources critical to their success.
“It’s nice to be able to interact with the text [of Paul Wilson’s “A Northridge Natural History”] by simply clicking links, entering photo galleries, and easily making notes and highlighting for future reference,” said Dani Amoroso, a graduate student studying under Wilson. “It’s almost like a virtual tour of the natural history of some beautiful Southern California locations.”
Since myCSUNtablet initiative’s launch, 100 instructors have taught more than 200 iPad classes in eight departments (biology, journalism, physical therapy, kinesiology, literal studies, health sciences, psychology and special education). Student enrollment in myCSUNtablet classes has reached more than 8,000 and the program continues to grow.
William Franklin ’87, ’90 (B.A. Psychology, M.A. Educational Psychology & Counseling) is the interim vice president of enrollment management and student affairs at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He’s also in the DNA of the CSU system. Just as the strands of DNA are the building blocks of life, Franklin’s story is part of the growth of the CSU itself. For his dedication to the system and the students of Dominguez Hills, The Wang Family Excellence Award committee awarded Franklin the CSU’s 2015 Outstanding Administrator Award.
To understand what put Franklin on course to excel, you have to look at his history. He grew up in an area that didn’t send many kids to college. When the few did get there, they weren’t often given the tools to succeed. But that wasn’t the case when Franklin got to California State University, Northridge. At CSUN, he found a place where he could shine — and the freedom to do so.
“The CSU system offers access and success,” Franklin said. “They did it for me, as a young, African-American male from South Central who had a lot of strikes against him. The CSU and, most notably, CSUN did not focus on my risk — they saw and nurtured my promise.”
That promise led to his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He says it wasn’t easy, but he had the help of CSUN and administrators like him who truly cared about their students.
“The one in particular that I give a huge amount of credit to is Leroy Geter,” Franklin said. “He worked for EOP [Educational Opportunity Program], and along with that program, he was instrumental in my success. Leroy has retired from CSUN. It was not just a vocation to him — working with students was his avocation! He cared deeply and encouraged us to use every campus and community resource to be successful.
“William Watkins and Jose Luis Vargas are still working at CSUN and no doubt still changing lives daily,” he added. “I owe them a huge debt of gratitude for my current success. They are phenomenal.”
After CSUN, Franklin headed north to Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. with an emphasis in psychological studies in education and a minor in social policy for children and youth. CSUN more than prepared Franklin for the “rigors” of the program, he said. After receiving his Ph.D., he found himself drawn back to the CSU system, becoming one of the founding faculty members of California State University, Monterey Bay and then associate professor at California State University, Los Angeles.
After being lured away from the CSULA faculty ranks to complete post-doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania, Franklin decided to return to the system where he began his educational run, this time at Dominguez Hills as the director of EOP and TRIO (the name of a group of three federally-funded programs encouraged access to higher education for low-income students). He serves as the university president’s chief adviser on student affairs and enrollment management issues. As interim vice president of enrollment management and student affairs, he works with academic and administrative groups to develop a comprehensive, strategic enrollment management plan to make sure the university recruits, retains and graduates an academically prepared, diverse student body. He engages all of the college’s constituencies to ensure students are successful — something he picked up during his time at CSUN, Franklin said.
“I simply tried to bring the same excellence to my EOP students that I received from EOP during my time at CSUN,” he said. “I tried to emulate Leroy Geter and Dr. Jacqueline Jacobs, the EOP director during my time at CSUN.”
It’s this example of excellence that earned him The Wang Family Excellence Award’s 2015 Outstanding Administrator Award.
“I was overwhelmed when [CSUDH] President Hagan nominated me,” Franklin said. “I was floored and humbled. It has always been important for me to give back to the CSU system that provided so much for me during my undergraduate trek at CSUN. This honor and recognition means a lot, and I will continue to pay it forward.”
The paying-it-forward part should not be hard for Franklin. He’s spent his life learning and giving back. The Outstanding Administrator Award is only a small part of the legacy he wants to leave behind. He built the Male Success Alliance at Dominguez Hills, an internal program which aims to find and help the future William Franklins of the world.
“Your ZIP code and income status should not determine your outcome,” he said. “That is why I am most proud of having a hand in creating the Male Success Alliance at CSUDH. As a poor and first-generation African-American male growing up in South Los Angeles, I needed someone to believe that I was more at-promise for success than at-risk for failure. MSA is one of those programs that speaks to the promise of young men of color in this region.”
A company’s chief executive officer, the CEO, guides the business through the highs and lows that any office experiences. A CEO’s success depends on their mastery of a successful management style. That is why the California State University, Northridge branch of the LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI) has teamed up with CSUN’s Research and Graduate Studies Group to launch its LACI@CSUN CEO Speaker Series.
Speakers will share essential tips, tricks and entrepreneurial insights into taking an idea from inception to development and then to the market.
“The CEO Speaker Series is meant to help CSUN faculty, staff, students and alumni build the connection between innovation and market success,” said Erik Steeb, executive director of LACI@CSUN. “The series started with concepts on how to bring innovative thinking into your environment and how to fund development of the innovation that results. [On Feb. 19,] we explore the world of intellectual property and how to approach protecting your valuable innovation. Future sessions will cover how to turn that innovation into value and build a successful business around it.”
The series sessions are scheduled to take place every third Thursday of the month at 3:30 p.m., in the Thousand Oaks Room of the University Student Union (USU) on the CSUN campus. The events are free, and the lineup (subject to change) is as follows:
“Intellectual Property & Protecting Your Innovation”
Jeff Joyner – IP Attorney and Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig (Feb. 19)
“Human Centric Design”
Ravi Sawhney – Founder & CEO of RKS Design (March 19)
“Sex Sells, Dogs Bark & Babies Cry (Lessons in Leadership and Marketing)”
Larry Twersky – CEO of Timer Cap, LLC (April 16)
“So You Wanna Be a CEO”
Jim Goodrich – Dean of the College of Business and Economics at Cal State Los Angeles (May 21)
“Funding & Exits”
Jeff Green – Founder & CEO of NanoH2O (June 18)
To sign up for one of the sessions in the LACI@CSUN CEO Speaker Series, visit the ticket reservation system [LINK: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lacicsun-ceo-speaker-series-tickets-1427969595…].
The LACI@CSUN business incubator is a collaboration between CSUN and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) designed to help startups from CSUN and the San Fernando Valley discover new opportunities, create outstanding enterprises, and connect with our global network of businesses and investors.
Located on campus, LACI@CSUN links LACI’s best practices in developing robust companies with CSUN’s ongoing teaching and research in the areas of technology, manufacturing, education, health and human development, and more. This partnership between CSUN and LACI brings innovative firepower and support to students, faculty and the entire San Fernando Valley Community.
On Feb. 21, the energy was flowing in the University Student Union, Grand Salon at California State University, Northridge. That’s because engineers and researchers descended upon CSUN for the California Renewable Energy and Storage Technology (CREST) Conference. This third edition of the conference at CSUN got those who care about the planet together to “exchange innovative ideas and visions of the future of a “greener” California,” according to its flyer.
The one day conference was sponsored by local chapters of the National Science Foundation and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. CREST was designed to bring together universities, industries, R&D laboratories and Government agencies to propel Renewable Energy and Advanced Energy Storage Technology into the future.
This year’s guest of honor was Tony Cárdenas the United States Representative for California’s 29th congressional district, and himself a former engineer who voted for a resolution in the House of Representatives in support of an Engineer Week. He has also been chosen to represent Los Angeles on the prestigious House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the oldest of the “authorizing” committees in the House in the 114th Congress. S.K. Ramesh, the dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, opened the event, speaking to the roughly 100 attendees, then introduced Cardenas to the crowd.
“I had the pleasure of first meeting Congressman Cardenas last summer to discuss our efforts to broaden participation and enhance degree completion for underrepresented minority students in engineering and computer science,” Ramesh said.”Subsequently we were deeply humbled when he personally attended and spoke about our work honoring our AIMS2 program during the Excelencia in Education celebration in Washington DC in September 2014.
“Armed with an Electrical engineering degree from UCSB, and a business background, he is an experienced elected official who continues to find to find practical and realistic solutions to address the difficult challenges that confront us.”
Rainn Wilson is known for his work on NBC’s “The Office” as Dwight Schrute, the intense paper salesman at the fictional Dunder Mifflin company. But on March 3, Wilson took a less comedic tone when discussing his philosophy about life and his program, “SoulPancake,” in an auditorium filled with California State University, Northridge students and faculty.
“You can’t pursue happiness,” Wilson said to the crowd at CSUN’s Valley Performing Arts Center. “Happiness comes from within — it is something you make a decision about.”
In his presentation, “SoulPancake: Chewing on Life’s Big Questions,” Wilson gave students insight about what it means to be human, from his own spiritual journey.
In his first few moments on stage, Wilson humored the crowd by posing for social media pictures and bantering with the American Sign Language interpreters. Then, he took a poke at the image built around his TV persona.
“That’s not love, that’s appreciation for my dorkishness,” he told the laughing crowd. He then continued to tease the interpreters about how they would sign “dorkishness.”
“This company [SoulPancake] was really an expression of who I am as a human being,” Wilson added. “It is my life’s journey in what I like to call SoulPancake.”
Wilson grew up a member of the Bahá’í faith, which is focused on a sole creator and is built upon a steadfast belief in equality among the masses and the pursuit of afterlife through a lifetime of good works. At 24, he had met his now wife, fiction writer Holiday Reinhorn, and was making a significant living acting in New York.
“But here’s the thing,” Wilson said, “I was unhappy.”
Wilson took some time to reflect and found himself on a spiritual journey that brought him back to his Bahá’í faith roots. In his reflection, he started to develop his own thoughts about true happiness in relation to American culture.
“Buying things will not make you happy,” Wilson said. “We have a very distracted, entertained, materialistic society — and people are more unhappy than ever.”
He views happiness as an overarching feeling that people must find for themselves. SoulPancake, he noted, does not provide answers to life’s big questions. It’s up to everyone to find the answers for themselves, Wilson said.
“I never expected it to be spiritual,” CSUN student Danielle Estrada said of the program. “I thought about a lot of things that I never thought about, so it was really enlightening.”
Many attendees, including faculty and students such as Estrada, left the lecture with a new viewpoint on spirituality and how to find their own sense of joy. Wilson’s parting message to young students was to give themselves a break in the midst of their academic and career pursuits.
“Take some time off to be of service,” he said. “Travel the world, and find a way to take some time and be of service to others.” Estrada took this piece of advice as the most valuable guidance from Wilson’s lecture.
“When he told us to give back to get our own happiness, it spoke to me,” she said. “I’m going through some things personally, and focusing on myself hasn’t worked. I think I am going to try and give back to others to see if that helps me out.”
SoulPancake encompasses various media, from Web to print and live events. In 2010, Wilson released his book, “SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions,” which featured thought-provoking essays, bold questions and mind-bending art. It can be found at soulpancake.com.
“Speaking at CSUN was a sheer delight,” Wilson said. “The students were whip-smart and passionate, ready to explore some deep ideas. I wish I had gone there!”
Dick Enberg is one of the most famous sports broadcasters in the history of television. Even if you don’t know the name, you’ll know the voice of the man who’s covered the World Series, Super Bowls and Wimbledon. With signature calls such as “Touch ‘em all” and “Oh, my!” Enberg has endeared himself to the nation in his 50-plus years of narrating American sports history.
On his way to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Enberg made a four-year stop at California State University, Northridge — or as it was known at the time, San Fernando Valley State College — in the early 1960s. He had been the play-by-play announcer for the Indiana University Hoosiers football and basketball games, but arrived in 1961 at Northridge with a different title: health sciences professor and Valley State head junior varsity baseball coach, then assistant coach for the baseball team under legendary coach Stan Charnofsky.
Enberg would spend five years in Northridge, a span that would see him just missing Valley State/CSUN’s first championship — the 1965 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Championship in baseball. Enberg, now announcing San Diego Padres baseball games, came back to campus recently for a reunion of the 1965 championship team, and he talked about some of his memories of San Fernando Valley State College.
Dick Enberg on… the 1965 Valley State team:
“It’s a special camaraderie, a team that won its first title for this university, San Fernando Valley State College then. I’m a little saddened that my timing was off. I was the assistant coach with Stan Charnofsky in 1963-64, and then Ralph Prator, the president of the college, asked me to be his assistant, so I left the baseball program. And then they win the championship!
“But I knew all the players … and for a non-scholarship program — ’SC, UCLA had their pick, and then Valley State took what was left here in the Valley — they were really good players. I mean, we really had good teams, good talent without having any of the financial reward for those who played.”
… what he got from his time at Valley State:
“It launched my continued love for the game of baseball, and it’s the best game … and to be able to come to a school and be paired with someone I didn’t know — Stan Charnofsky, who in today’s world would’ve made it to the Major Leagues … and to be able to work next to him and watch how he taught baseball to the kids. I learned more in one week about baseball — and I thought I knew a little bit — working with Charnofsky than I had in my life. And I still use it as a broadcaster. There’ll be times within a game, there’ll be an incident and it will take me all the way back to the early ’60s and Charnofsky and the way he coached. I’ll use that myself and sound a lot brighter than I really am, and I’m thankful for that.”
… on how teaching prepared him for broadcasting the Super Bowl:
“[Today] I look into a camera, and all I see is a cold, hard camera and a cameraperson. But I also imagine there to be a classroom for the Super Bowl full of 140 million people. And as I do my work, I’m thinking to myself — are they getting the message clearly and am I doing my job? Are those hands being raised as if to say, ‘Hey Enberg, I didn’t quite get that, explain it a different way.’ So, the experience as an educator is the one great asset I have over those that are in my profession, so thank you CSUN … SFVS College too!”
Watch the full interview, with video of Enberg reminiscing about his time at San Fernando Valley State College, below.
Under a blue San Fernando Valley sky, California State University, Northridge warmly received a delegation from the Special Olympics to celebrate the Valley’s participation in the upcoming Special Olympics World Games Los Angeles 2015 this summer. Before the games begin, however, CSUN will house nearly 500 athletes from Azerbaijan, Greece, Malta, Serbia, Venezuela and Vietnam from July 21-24 as they train and prepare for World Games.
Representatives from CSUN, including President Dianne F. Harrison; the Special Olympics, including former Olympian Rafer Johnson; and delegates from the offices of Los Angeles City Councilmembers Mitchell Englander and Bob Blumenfield spoke at the event. The group outlined the effort, which will involve more than 30,000 volunteers across all of Southern California. It’s an event that will highlight the best of CSUN, according to President Harrison.
“In the same way CSUN lifts our region, the Special Olympics lift the spirits of athletes, families and spectators from around the world,” President Harrison said. “The Special Olympics empowers people and champions access and inclusion. [CSUN is] proud to partner with such a life-changing organization and be a part of the largest sporting event in the world this year.”
After the athletes leave the CSUN campus to participate in the games, they will disperse to stay in various parts of the Valley until their individual and team events in venues across Los Angeles.
Approximately 7,000 athletes and 3,000 coaches representing 177 countries will crisscross Southern California for the World Games, which will take place July 25-Aug. 2. The games may appear, on the surface, to present a major logistical challenge. But Rafer Johnson sees it a different way.
Johnson, the Olympic decathlete who won Gold in the 1960 Games and Silver in the 1956 Games, has helped build up the Special Olympics since the late 1960s. He started the California Special Olympics in 1969 with only 900 athletes. For something he believes in, the fact that Southern California is bursting at the seams with these athletes is a great sign.
“I’ve been on the Board of Directors for the Special Olympics for over 40 years,” Johnson said. “I’ve seen the program grow, and I’m looking forward to what’s about to transpire here in Los Angeles for the 2015 World Games. I think it will be one of the most glorious moments in the history of the program.”
When asked what Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics (and sister of President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy), would think about the growth it’s seen since her passing in 2009, Johnson beamed.
“She would be so proud and so pleased with the growth of the program over these years,” he said. “In terms of special moments, I think this would be one of her most special moments.”
The Special Olympics World Games Los Angeles 2015 will hold many special moments for the thousands of athletes and coaches descending on Los Angeles mid-summer. But rarely will those moments center on winning or race times. They’ll be about being in the moment — experiencing the grand stage. It’s something that San Fernando Valley-born Allen Wales, a Special Olympian and Global Messenger for the World Games Los Angeles 2015, said should be the participants’ main objective.
“Just have fun and experience what we have in Southern California,” he said, flashing a big smile.
There are countless tales from engineers and computer scientists about burning the midnight oil to find the right configuration of a puzzle only they can see. One degree too hot, and a chemical engineer’s product is unusable; one line of code with the wrong sequence of numbers and letters, and the coder’s end result fails.
It’s tireless work, which is why S.K. Ramesh, dean of California State University, Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science (and professor of electrical and computer engineering) is a leader in the field.
If you send him an email on any given Wednesday, he might not get back to you until the next morning — because he might be halfway around the world attending seminars and spreading the word about the caliber of CSUN’s programs. For the past nine years under his direction, the college has gained worldwide acclaim through agreements with schools such as Kumaraguru College of Technology in India to help foster research collaboration and the exchange of expertise in such areas as assistive technology engineering.
“Assistive technology engineering is at the core of what we do as engineers,” said Ramesh. “We are designing products and processes to help improve and sustain the quality of living for all of us in this world.”
It’s this open access to the wonders of engineering and computer science that makes Ramesh a hit with his staff and students.
“Thanks to his support, new faculty like me can get external funding right after we arrive at CSUN,” said electrical and computer engineering (ECE) professor Ruting Jia. “He is also very supportive to send students and faculty to attend conferences and meet the peers in our fields.”
Jia added that one master’s-level student, Ammar Surti, was awarded third place for a 2015 ASEE-GSW (American Society for Engineering Education-Gulf Southwest) Graduate Research Paper, and Surti made it a point to show his gratitude to Ramesh and the ECE department for their support.
It’s that level of dedication to his position that has made the college a hub of innovation and growth. Since taking over as dean in 2006, Ramesh’s vision for the college has brought in millions of dollars in grant funding. Along with that, the college has grown, adding new programs such as Master’s of Science degrees in Software Engineering, Assistive Technology Engineering and Computer Engineering. These new programs have brought in eight new faculty members.
Ramesh is hands-on in the development of programs to ensure they are more inclusive. Under his watch, the college established an outreach program, ACCESS (Accelerated Coursework in Computer Science and Engineering for Student Success), which enables students from area high schools to enroll in the introduction to engineering course at CSUN.
He also has been a strong ally in the fight to attract and support more underrepresented groups into the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. After a recent call from the White House to recruit these students for STEM programs, Ramesh and the college focused on efforts to improve student success and graduation across the college’s diverse student population. They teamed with Glendale Community College and College of the Canyons to establish the AIMS2 (Attract, Inspire, Mentor and Support Students) program with the help of a $5.5 million Hispanic Serving Institution STEM grant from the U.S. Department of Education. It features special mentoring and advisement by faculty, tutoring and peer mentoring, along with social activities and opportunities to participate in summer research projects. It has been a great success thus far, even garnering recognition from the White House.
“The AIMS2 program garnered national recognition from Excelencia in Education for its efforts to support and enhance the graduation of underrepresented minorities in engineering and computer science,” Ramesh said. “CSUN was selected to host one of the four White House STEM workshops, thanks in large measure to these successful ongoing programs.”
“I had the pleasure to travel with Dean Ramesh and other faculty members to celebrate the recognition of our AIMS program as a successful example for serving underrepresented minorities in the engineering and computer science fields,” said civil engineering and applied mechanics faculty member Anwar Alroomi. “I still remember Congressman [Tony] Cardenas’ speech at this event, admiring Dean Ramesh’s professional and personal qualities, and how our education systems are in need of such leaders to improve our educational programs.”
Ramesh also has been a strong advocate for building a diverse team of faculty in the college.
“When I joined CSUN in fall 2014, I was one of five female engineering faculty members hired into four departments in [the college],” said mechanical engineering professor Vidya Nandikolla. “From the beginning, Dean Ramesh took time and individually helped all of us to start on good ground. He acted like a mentor, helping and advising, caring and sharing the opportunities. He knew our strengths and showed us the gateways of how to grow in research and also academically.”
Along with accolades from the White House, booming enrollment and worldwide recognition for the program he helped create, Ramesh is being honored by the STEM community. He was named a fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), one of the most respected associations of technical professionals — and the world’s largest, with more than 400,000 members in chapters around the world, and was recently elected to serve as the 2016 President of IEEE-HKN, the Electrical Engineering Honor Society – which was established in 1904. Even with the recognition, Dean Ramesh would be the first person to tell you that there is work to be done and that it’s all to serve the greater good: the future of STEM.
“It is extremely gratifying to know that your work is valued by your peers,” he said, “and I am very grateful for all the opportunities that the IEEE has provided me to serve our profession.”
On March 26, California State University, Northridge played host to the world, as it usually does. With many different nationalities on campus, Matadors are used to seeing people from different cultures every day. However, this time, the University Student Union brought together a wide array of campus groups to host the 18th annual Carnaval, a Celebration of Global Diversity. The groups involved include: the Armenian Students Association; Kpop Club; Salsa Libre; Lebanese Student Association; Deaf Studies Association co-tabling with Deaf CSUNians; Iranian Student Association; Music Therapy Association; CSUN Cross Cultural Friendship Club; and the Caribbean Club.
The events included shows from various dancers from across the globe, booths where attendees could get henna tattoos and have an Irish tea leaf reading, and displays where one could learn more about Japanese fans, totem poles and evil eye bracelets.
The historic California drought, Los Angeles’ booming tech sector and an expansion of social service programs were just some of the topics covered during the State of the City address given by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti at California State University, Northridge on April 14. His speech took place at the Valley Performing Arts Center in front of more than 1,600 government, business and community leaders.
CSUN President Dianne F. Harrison welcomed the mayor and guests to campus.
“We are proud to host Mayor Eric Garcetti’s State of the City address,” Harrison said. “It is especially fitting that this event is taking place in our performing arts center because this facility symbolizes CSUN’s commitment to serving, enriching and enlightening Los Angeles.
“It is also fitting because Mayor Garcetti has roots in the Valley, and we appreciate him not only as our Mayor, but as our ‘Valley Guy,’” she noted. “His decision to deliver his address here confirms the importance of the San Fernando Valley and CSUN’s own significant economic impact for the city. While we may not be in the heart of downtown L.A., we are its backbone.”
Garcetti also made allusions to the San Fernando Valley as he began the speech, recalling the historic 1994 Northridge earthquake that shook the area and CSUN. He spoke of CSUN and the city’s “unshakeable optimism” that led to their resurgences.
Another resurgence referenced by both Mayor Garcetti and Harrison is Reseda Boulevard, which runs adjacent to the west side of CSUN’s campus. Harrison commended the mayor’s inclusion of Reseda Boulevard in his Great Streets initiative and his commitment to building “a vibrant, sustainable Northridge community.”
In her opening remarks, President Harrison noted that LACI@CSUN — the productive collaboration between CSUN and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator — had launched six startups in the first seven months of its existence. In continuing the tech-emphasis, Garcetti emphasized a major push and tax breaks in the field that has led to companies like Yahoo and eHarmony to relocate their businesses to Los Angeles.
Garcetti announced that ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft will now be able to pick passengers up at LAX, something that had been forbidden under previous zoning laws, and the city will begin a data sharing partnership with the traffic app Waze.
He also highlighted initiatives that will be or have been launched, including the Clean Streets Initiative, expansion of the Summer Night Lights program and the creation of a new LAPD division that centers on relationship-based policing.
Following the address, the crowd gathered outside the VPAC on the Mike Curb Walk to enjoy samples from local produce vendors and restaurants. There also was an area promoting the mayor’s Save the Drop campaign, the executive directive on water conservation, creating strong tools to reduce water use and address the drought, including a $3.75 per square foot rebate for lawn replacement.
Over the past five years, there have been few areas of growth in the worldwide economy bigger than mobile phone and solar panel use. There has been a 418 percent increase in solar photovoltaics (or PV, the technology that converts sunlight into electricity) use across the country between 2010 and 2014. As for mobile’s ascendance, look around at any group of people around the world and count how many of them are staring at their mobile phones.
For LACI@CSUN company Pick My Solar, merging the two made for a groundbreaking app — PVImpact, an app that can calculate exactly how many dollars homeowners are saving in real-time — and a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to make it happen.
Max Aram is the CEO of Pick My Solar, and a graduate of California State University, Northridge. He joined up with LACI@CSUN — the collaborative effort between CSUN and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator — to create a venue to help start-ups from CSUN and throughout the San Fernando Valley discover business opportunities. The company already had a firm foothold in the industry when they began working on PVImpact, which will be the first app to deliver real-time solar data to consumers.
“Homeowners who go solar usually lose the excitement after a few months,” Aram said. “This experience is not as exciting as buying a new car. PVImpact will engage homeowners with their solar system on a daily and weekly basis, showing them the real impact of solar energy on the environment as well as their pocket. The data is real-time, not just rough estimates.”
With LACI’s support and Pick My Solar’s cutting-edge work, Aram found himself ready to pounce when he found the Department of Energy SunShot Initiative’s catalyst competition pop up in his email inbox. Always on the lookout for grant opportunities, they immediately knew they had a product that could take home the prize, $125,000 ($25,000 of which is paid up front, the rest coming after hitting milestones). They had to go through ideation and business plan phases to apply, but luckily they had been working on a concept for the PVImpact app for months before they heard about Sunshot’s Catalyst competition.
“We realized that the timing of this competition was perfect,” Aram said. “We had a great solution for some of the biggest challenges in the solar industry. They released all the submitted ideas to the public and let them vote on the best one. Our idea won this round with the highest number of votes. In the second round, we had to submit a five-minute video to explain our business model. Shawn Showkati, our lead designer and also a CSUN alum, made an amazing video which helped us win this grant which will help us develop PVimpact app.”
“My business partner Chris Blevins is the lead in PVimpact’s development,” Aram says, remembering how they learned about the grant. “We were in New York City for the Christmas Break when we heard about the results of this competition on Christmas Day. Ironically, Chris’s birthday is on the same day! So this grant was a memorable birthday gift for him. We call last Christmas, the ‘DOE Christmas Day.’”
Of course, their mentors at LACI@CSUN had something to do with their Christmas Day present.
“Our advisors helped us refine the application, script of the video and [LACI Entrepreneur in Residence] Bob Musselman did the voice-over on the video,” Aram said. “In general, being part of LACI gives us a lot of legitimacy in every event or competition.”
One of the hidden truths about working in the film and television industry is that you really have to love being in the film and television industry. Sixteen-hour days, a fickle job market and lack of recognition by the outside world are some of the biggest drawbacks of being able to say you worked on a hit show or movie (or straight-to-video movie). It was no different for John Hampian ’05 (CTVA), who worked his way from an unpaid assistant on Entertainment Tonight to the Production Coordinator for one of the most revered shows ever — Mad Men.
The San Luis Obispo native came south to California State University, Northridge with a dream — get into “the industry” by any means necessary. But the main question was which school? It was important to study somewhere that could provide him the best education and opportunity to start out. In a sea of universities that could fit that mold, he found CSUN — which is now on the list of The Hollywood Reporter’s top-25 film schools in the nation. When asked about why he became a Matador, he immediately knew the answer.
“The attitude,” Hampian quickly said. “Film schools can breed snobbery and entitlement, both of which do not exist at CSUN. The teachers and students presented themselves to me as hard working individuals, so when it came time to select a school, CSUN was at the top of my list.” Hard work never fazed him, something his professors quickly noticed.
“John is one of those rare students that embodied both academic and creative excellence,” said CTVA professor Thelma Vickory, who taught Hampian’s television-centered courses. “When I think of John and the handful of his fellow classmates I always smile because they were just so darn creative and funny. They pushed the envelope creatively while they were students. John and his classmates actually helped me lobby to change the curriculum in the TV option to better fit the skills and knowledge they needed to work after graduation.”
It was that uncanny instinct that would be helpful for Hampian as he worked his way up the Hollywood ladder. He began as a production assistant on Entertainment Tonight, but quickly landed at Paramount before finding himself at the business end of layoffs. After being laid off, he found it hard getting work, or even an interview. Then, to his surprise, an old friend from the past led him to his future.
“Out of the blue, a good friend I went to CSUN with got in touch with me,” Hampain remembered. “She was working at Fremantle Media and arranged a meet and greet between the head of HR at Fremantle and I. The idea was this person could help me navigate through this tough time and potentially point me in the right direction.
I arrive in the HR person’s office, sit down, and wait introduce myself, as she is in the midst of an animated phone call and combing through the massive amount of files on her desk. This goes on for what feels like an eternity. When she finally hangs up, the first words out of her mouth are, ‘I’m sorry honey, did you need start paperwork?’ I didn’t hesitate for a minute; I just said ‘Yes!’ To this day, I still don’t know why she thought someone had hired me at the company.”
Slight subterfuge aside, Hampian found himself working for the company — for no one in particular! He busied himself every day until a company executive, who would eventually make him her assistant, found him out. With enough story to fill a screenplay, Hampain found his way out to an actual film set when another former Matador found him a production assistant position (“A real job!” he said) on an independent film shooting in his hometown of San Luis Obispo.
This time, he found his path. Being a production assistant was bringing him the excitement of being on set and, more importantly, constant work. Alas, as his career began taking off, Hollywood came to a screeching halt during the Writer’s Guild strike of 2007. Again, Hampian found himself on the outs, but he would eventually land on the Michael Mann film Public Enemies. It was after that production left for Chicago that he found a job posting on his union’s job board for an APOC (assistant production coordinator).
“It was February and the thought of a 7-month job was something to drool over. I sent my resume in right away. Soon there after, I received a phone call from the POC who set up an interview. At that point, I found out it was for Mad Men. I couldn’t believe it!
“A few days later, I went in for the interview. I was concerned that my lack of TV experience would be a major issue. I had only been told horror stories of how hard TV production was compared to film. The interview itself went quite well; however at one point, I nearly passed out. I don’t think anyone noticed because by Monday of the next week, I was working at Mad Men!” All the hard work had paid off. He had begun work during the second season in 2008, and worked on it until it wrapped last year. As he describes it, working on the set of one of the most prized dramas in television history was as amazing as it sounds.
“From day one, I knew I was home,” he recalled. “Mad Men was the most organized, well thought out, welcoming and professional productions I have ever been a part of. Well before we won the Emmys for season one, there was this feeling in the air that we were doing something extraordinary. It was like our special secret. When we started winning, we were all so very excited for each other, and from that a strong family environment was created. I made some of my best friends on that show and truly looked up to the leadership. We were always firing on all cylinders.”
The heat from those cylinders reached all the way to Northridge. As someone who really believes in the CSUN mission, Hampian decided to give back to the department he helped shape.
“While working on Mad Men, John never forgot CSUN CTVA TV students and provided opportunities for TV students to intern,” Thackery said. “I was proud of the way he handled students applying for this prestigious internship by telling them frankly what they had to do and be to be a contender for this position.”
John Hampian knew what he had to do to prepare Matadors to make that leap into the world of film and television production. He’s suffered the highs and lows and understands what it takes. He’s been working on more films since Mad Men wrapped last year, and even proposed to his longtime girlfriend Kate and rescued a dog. Knowing how much the work takes out of him and his peers, he knew it would be the only time to do so before jumping back into the fray, a career built on the backbone of his time at CSUN. It’s something he readily acknowledges.
“At CSUN I was taught that those in my class made up my professional network, and without them, I had no connections,” he said. “It was with their help that I was able to get my start, and when you combine that with the hard working CSUN mentality, you can have a career in this crazy business.”
California State University, Northridge class of 2015 student-athletes were celebrated May 6 during the Senior Sash ceremony. A group of 73 graduating seniors were presented with a red sash, a sport medallion and a Matador rose. The event started with a reception and ended with a sparkling cider toast, as well as the Tradition of the Rose at the Matador statue.
One of the fastest-growing industries in the world is the solar energy field. It’s fitting, then, that the CSUN-based, Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) firm Pick My Solar would reach such great heights in its relatively short lifespan. It already has picked up a prestigious grant from the Department of Energy, and now it’s been named this year’s Outstanding Small Business by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Center.
“We are very honored to be recognized for the success we have enjoyed in bringing transparency and fairness to the solar market in Southern California,” said Max Aram, Pick My Solar’s CEO and a CSUN alumnus. “As we expand the Homeowner’s Advocate brand nationwide, we look to continue to leverage the tremendous resources that the City of Los Angeles has offered us.”
The LACI@CSUN team also has had an influencing effect on the startup. From its beginning, Pick My Solar has taken advantage of the incubator’s resources to craft its product and opportunities for fundraising. LACI@CSUN has created a venue to help startups from CSUN and throughout the San Fernando Valley discover opportunities, create enterprises and connect with a global network of businesses and investors.
“LACI has supported us all the way since the inception up until now,” Aram said. “They gave us the credibility and advice when we needed, and connected us to amazing people who helped Pick My Solar get to the place we are today.”
While being a California State University, Northridge Matador is forever, there comes a time in every student athlete’s lives where they must hang up their jersey and begin reflecting on their years wearing the black and red. For the seniors of the 2014-15 CSUN Baseball team, that process will begin on May 23 when they will be feted after their game against UC Irvine, the last game of the season.
Of the 35 players on the squad, eight are seniors. They include:
The game begins at 1 p.m. Current CSUN students with a valid ID can get in free.
Gang Lu, Nicholas Kioussis, and Donna Sheng (Physics and Astronomy) have received $476,000 from the National Science Foundation, in continuing support of a project entitled “PREM- Computational Research and Education for Emergent Materials.”
Gary Chapman and Debi Prasad Choudhary (Physics and Astronomy) have received $28,132 from the University of Colorado, in support of a project entitled “Solar Spectral Irradiance: Lyman Alpha, Magnesium II, and Sigma K Proxies (SSIAMESe).”
S.K. Ramesh, Ali Amini, Behzad Bavarian, Hamid Johari, Gloria Melara, Nazaret Dermendjian, and Robert Ryan (Engineering and Computer Science) have received $1,003,681 from the U.S. Department of Education, in continuing support of a project entitled “CSU, Northridge Engineering and Computer Science HSI Initiative.”
Rachel Mackelprang (Biology) has received $281,947 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in support of a project entitled “Life in the Ancient Permafrost: A model for exobiology.”