College of Engineering and Computer Science to Participate in NASA Autonomy Research Center STEAHM
(adapted from the original Media Release by Carmen Chandler at CSUN Today and announcements from partnering colleges)
NASA has awarded California State University, Northridge a three-year, $3 million grant to establish a multidisciplinary research center at the university to study all aspects of Increasingly Autonomous (IA) systems. The grant will fund the creation of the NASA Autonomy Research Center for STEAHM (Science, Technology and engineering, Entrepreneurship, Arts, Humanities and Mathematics) at CSUN.
Director of the NASA Autonomy Research Center for STEAHM (ARCS) and mechanical engineering professor, Dr. Nhut Ho said CSUN will use its grant money to create a multidisciplinary center that will examine all aspects involved in IA.
"ARCS" vision is to be an international leader in education, research and commercialization regarding increasingly autonomous (IA) systems,” Ho said. “In the next three years, ARCS will use a Convergence Research (i.e., bringing together of multiple disciplines) model to: a) execute a portfolio of 10+ research projects per year in collaboration with JPL and NASA Armstrong to address challenges in drone package delivery and doing construction in space; b) annually involve 150+ students in NASA-related research and fund 30+ students to do 10-week internship at NASA; c) provide professional development workshops to help ARCS 12+ professors become Convergence Research leaders; and d) collaborate with the CSUN Innovation Incubator to disseminate and commercial innovations.”
The center will involve faculty from multiple colleges across campus, including the College of Engineering and Computer Science where its faculty and students will work in tandem with students across campus, combining their work to ensure that their engineering and designs provide positive impacts on society.
“The future of our world must include interdisciplinary work and that will mean research across the academic spectrum,” said, Houssam Toutanji, Dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “With the rapid advances in technology and design, we must work across campus and industry to fully understand the implications of our work and the impact it can have on our world.”
“This opportunity for our students at CSUN, on such a deeply collaborative level and involving so many disciplines, is one of the defining differentiators for us,” Toutanji said. “In the end, the research and work this NASA grant entails will help create more holistic and efficient solutions, not to mention an even greater and more well-rounded future workforce.”
Joining Ho are faculty from six of the university’s colleges, including from the College of Engineering and Computer Science: electrical and computer engineering professor Ashley Geng; computer science professors Li Liu and Kyle Dewey and computer engineering graduate student Seyed Sajjadi.
"ARCS offers so many opportunities for CSUN faculty and students to work on projects aligned with the current missions of NASA,” Dr. Geng said. “As a professor in Engineering, I am especially excited to have opportunity to interact with professors and students in Arts, Humanities and other disciplines.”
For more information on the grant, please read the original release here.