CSULB engineering heads restruction

Cal State Long Beach's College of Engineering is leading a federally- funded effort to restructure Southern California's defense industry.

If the restructure is a success, Southern California could then become competitive in the worldwide market of high-technology manufacturing.

With $8 mil lion from federal, state and industry sources, the college is working with four other engineering schools in the region to retrain defense workers and develop new degree programs for future engineers.

At companies like Hughes Aircraft and McDonnell Douglas, professors teach engineers to work as a team at every stage of manufacturing, from idea development and machine tooling to marketing, said Richard Williams, dean of CSULB's College of Engineering.

In exchange for professors' time, defense companies agreed to contribute $2 million in resources (equipment and money) to the project. At least $400,000 of the resources will be invested into engineering laboratories at CSULB, Williams said.

Although a degree option has not yet been appr oved, CSULB faculty members are working to establish a manufacturing engineering program on campus.

The program, which could begin Fall 1995, would include courses taught by faculty at other universities and then sent to CSULB on video.

The ot her universities working with CSULB on the project are UCLA, USC, Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Los Angeles.

Once engineers learn to manufacture more efficiently, the United States can regain its edge on worldwide technological development, Will iams said.

"There's a tremendous need in the (defense) industry for people who know the methods and modern techniques of manufacturing," Williams said.

The College of Engineering proposed the project in July 1993, and it was approved in April by a group of federal agencies. The coalition granted the project $4 million, which was followed by a pledge of $2 million from the state and $2 million in donations from private companies.

Williams said CSULB was among few winning proposals in a fiel d of almost 3,000, because of the need in Southern California to turn Cold War defense technology into marketable technology.

"There's no place where the need is [as great] for manufacturing engineering," Williams said.