Campus research continues to grow

Research at Cal State Long Beach has quietly developed into a major operation, which received more than $20 million in federal grants in 1993-94. As of February 1995 a total of 191 projects are in progress at CSULB.

All of the university's seven colleges are involved in some form of research, and the future trend seems to be going toward more CSULB involvement in research.

The university's plan to establish a research park at a former Navy base in Long Beach can only be viewed as another commitment to this cause.

Under the school's proposal the former Navy housing area would be transformed into CSULB transportation and earthquake technology centers, where faculty, students and local businesses would work and experiment together.

Research in these centers would focus on finding solutions for present transportation problems and new technologies to improve structure safety during major earthquakes.

"We are working toward a very large grant for projects like transportation," James Brett, director of University Research, said.

"There is a possibility of getting involved in things like magnetic gravitation rails, or intelligent highways [cars equipped with autopilot and sensors that will transmit feedback from the road]," he said.

Another department that is heavily involved in research is aerospace engineering, where department Chairman Tuncer Cebeci heads a team of students and faculty in solving problems, which include high lift and laminar flow control.

The high lift work focuses on single and multi-element airfoils and predicting their maximum lifting capability under different conditions.

A low speed wind tunnel that averages about 150 mph, is used to run an experimental program, which supplements the computational work for high lift.

The department is also under contract from McDonnell Douglas and NASA to conduct long term durability studies of possible materials for the planned High Speed Civil Transport airplane.

This supersonic plane, according to Cebeci, would fly to Tokyo in about five hours and could reach a top speed of Mach 2.4.

"One of the things this aircraft needs are composite materials because it has to be light and it has to be durable. But not much is known about these materials, so therefore you have to test them," Cebeci said.

High quality testing facilities are required to conduct the research and this led the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and McDonnell Douglas to Cebeci and the CSULB department of aerospace engineering.

"We have probably the best state of the art [testing] facility in the country today, after NASA, and we spent close to $1.5 million to develop it," Cebeci added.

According to Brett, the biggest grant receiver at CSULB is the Center for Behavioral Research and Services, where a number of multimillion dollar long-term and short-term grants fund research and service projects. In one of the center's main projects, PROJECT RESPECT, Director Fen Rhodes heads a multi-site study that tries to evaluate the behavior programs offered to people who are at a high risk of contracting HIV.

Other projects branch out into a variety of other areas of social concern such as spousal abuse and child abuse.

"What we do is do is investigate behavior change programs for drug users, prostitutes and to some HIV testing in the gay community," Rhodes said.

"The very large part of what we do is focused on HIV prevention programs."

The center also offers a variety of service programs such as tuberculosis screening and compliance, mental health services for people with HIV, and community education programs.

The center uses two mobile testing vans to visit drug treatment clinics and test patients for HIV. More than 2,000 clients have received testing so far and if they test positive they also receive counseling.

The two offices of the center, on 1407 E. 4th St. and on 920 Pacific Ave., will move into the proposed research park in west Long Beach according to Rhodes.

"We plan to move to the Navy housing property and rent space from the Research Foundation, hopefully within the next six months," Rhodes said.

Research at CSULB differs in many ways from the manner in which the University of California conducts its research work.

Student training remains a high priority at Long Beach where many research projects involve students.

"It's basically two different beasts. You can't compare them," Editte Gharakhanian, assistant professor in the biological sciences department, said.

"In the Cal State system, in my understanding, the research is there for me to keep myself research active and current, and at the same time train students."

In the UC system the purpose of research is very different, according to Gharakhanian, who focuses her studies on understanding how cells work.

Advancement in the field of studies has the highest priority and the training of the students is secondary.

Most of the researchers in a UC laboratory are not students, whereas in CSULB laboratories, student involvement is crucial.

"Anybody we have to help us [in the laboratories] is basically a student," Gharakhanian said.

The students, who are getting academic credit [units] for their lab work, meet for oral reports on a weekly basis and get the much sought after experience and added bonus of learning how to conduct research.

The university's commitment to research led to the hiring of Michele Curley, a grants specialist who assists faculty with the development of grant proposals.

"My feeling is that there are faculty out there who are not experienced in writing grants, or they are experienced but were not successful [with their proposal], or they are new to the campus and want to write a grant but don't know where to start," Curley said. "As long as they know I'm here it gives a push in the right direction."

As if to reassure any critics of more research at CSULB, President Robert Maxson said: "Strong, disciplined teaching will always be the highest priority at CSULB. I don't believe there is any inherent tension between teaching and research. The best university's do them both well."