Engineering, business colleges get grant for
labs
By Yoko Ito-Peterson
Daily Forty-Niner
The colleges of Engineering and Business
Administration celebrated on Thursday receiving a $400,000 grant in equipment
from Hewlett-Packard Co.
The ceremony was held simultaneously at
the Hewlett-Packard Interdisciplinary Learning Laboratories in CB-243 and
ECS-405.
"I think this is the first significant
grant of equipment this university has received," said Dianne Appel, director
of development at CBA.
The grant is comparable to grants given
to colleges such as Harvard, Yale and Massachussettes Institute of Technology,
said Terri McDermot, director of development at the engineering college.
"Engineering computers and our [information
systems] computers are connected by a campus network," said Michael Chung,
director of CBA.
"That's why we call it interdisciplinary."
Starting this semester, information systems
and computer science students are working on a joint project.
The Interdisciplinary Learning Laboratories
Program enables two different classes from two different majors who are
seniors and studying similar technology to work together, said Wayne Dick,
professor of computer engineering and computer science.
In the new project, students from two different
classes called "Introduction to Database Management" and "System Analysis
and Design" first write individual reports and then get together to write
one group report on risk management at the end of the semester, Dick said.
The new project enables information systems
students and computer science students to work together, said Sandra Cynar,
chairwoman of computer engineering and computer science.
"They [computer science technicians and
computer engineers] work together in the industry," Cynar said.
"But at college they are separate majors,
and they do not really work together."
"When you go into work, you have to work
as a team and that is real life," said McDermot, adding that the interdisciplinary
program will give students team-building skills.
The interdisciplinary program may expand
to other classes, including the master's of business administration program
once faculty members learn more about the program, Appel said.
The ultimate goal is "to come up with an
advanced undergraduate and graduate center that brings together students
from multiple disciplines to develop truly commercially viable Web sites
and other applications," Dick said. |
![[news]](http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/Icon/news.gif){kind=icon}
![[opinion]](http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/Icon/opinion.gif){kind=icon}
![[Sports]](http://www.csulb.edu/~d49er/Icon/sports.gif){kind=icon}