Grant aids in engineering careers

Cal State Long Beach has received $1 million from the National Science Foundation to plan, operate and manage the Manufacturing Learning Center, an engineering training center in the Los Angeles area.

Richard Williams, dean of CSULB's engineering department and the center's principal investigator, said the center will be geared toward providing at-risk youth opportunities to pursue a career in engineering.

"Our focus is to attract young people in the Los Angeles area who are at risk," Williams said.

According to the contractual agreement, the learning center will have five principal components:

Center for Advanced Technologies, a learning/teaching facility, will provide participants with engineering education. Manufacturing Career Academy will provide students from 10th grade to their first year of college with manufacturing training.

Industrial Park will provide space for development and will lease space to provide income for the academy. Fast Track Program will provide remedial education for high school graduates who wish to enter the MLC training program. Manufacturing Teacher Training Institute will provide training for the instructional staff of the MCA.

MLC will provide students with education and work experience for the six-year program. After completing the program, students will have a high school diploma, a baccalaureate degree and work experience.

The National Science Foundation is a federal group that allocates money to universities across the nation for scientific research.

Out of the 2,858 universities who applied for this type of grant, CSULB was one of only 200 schools that were accepted, Williams said.

"It puts CSULB as a major player in the Los Angeles area," he added.

The money will be allocated over a three-year span. The university will be given $350,000 for each of the first two years and $300,000 the last year.

Williams said the $1 million grant is not enough to get the project going in full motion.

"We can't build an industrial park with $350,000," Williams said. "We're applying for [additional] grants this very moment." Williams said that he hopes the MLC will someday be comparable to Focus Hope in Detroit.

Williams said Focus Hope was founded in 1968, in an effort to feed the needy in the inner cities of Detroit. In the early 1980s, the Detroit project's founder decided that people in those areas "needed more than just food."

Focus Hope has an annual budget of $80 million, and provides at-risk residents of Detroit with job training as well as food, Williams said.