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Modifications of Engineering Management Program at California State University Northridge

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Conference

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Publication Date

June 23, 2013

Start Date

June 23, 2013

End Date

June 26, 2013

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Engineering Management In The Classroom

Tagged Division

Engineering Management

Page Count

9

Page Numbers

23.912.1 - 23.912.9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--22297

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/22297

Download Count

472

Paper Authors

biography

Alireza Kabirian California State University Northridge

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Alireza Kabirian is currently an assistant professor of Engineering management at California State University Northridge. He obtained a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University in 2009. After graduation, he taught in the Business School of the University of Alaska Anchorage for two years before leaving the Last Frontier to join CSUN. His research areas are focused on Operations Research, Applied Statistics, and Engineering Education.

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biography

S. Jimmy Gandhi California State University, Northridge

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Dr. S. Jimmy Gandhi is currently an assistant professor in the Manufacturing Systems Engineering & Management (MSEM) Department at California State University, Northridge. He teaches courses in quality management, entrepreneurship and systems engineering. Prior to coming to Cal State, he was with the School of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens Institute of Technology and also taught at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, which is part of the City University of New York (CUNY). Dr. Gandhi has research interests in the fields of globalization, risk
management and sustainability. He is an active member of ASEM, ASEE and participates in their conferences on a yearly basis. He has a PhD in Engineering Management from Stevens Institute of Technology, a M.S. in Engineering Management from California State University, Northridge and a B.S. in Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.

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biography

Ileana Costea California State University, Northridge

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Ileana Costea is currently Professor of Automation Engineering and Chair of the Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Computer Science, California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Ileana has a Ph.D., in Decision Analysis/Operations Research from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She has done undergraduate instruction in Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Engineering Management and graduate instruction in Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Professionally active internationally, including Visiting Professor appointments at several universities in Europe and membership on organizing committees for international conferences. Researched and published extensively on artificial intelligence, interactive computer graphics, and other areas associated with CAD/CAM/CAE, and recipient of the Engineer's Council Merit Award for work in these areas. She was a reviewer for NSF and IEEE and editor of several special journal issues. She has been actively involved with the WESTEC manufacturing Trade Show and Conference of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). She has organized numerous technical sessions and session tracks at various national and international events, and has been a judge several years for the Manufacturing Challenge student competition of SME. Ileana is a member of ASEE, ASQ and SME.

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Ahmad R Sarfaraz California State University, Northridge

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Dr. Ahmad Sarfaraz gives undergraduates instruction in Manufacturing Systems Engineering and graduates instruction in Engineering Management. Dr. Sarfaraz's current research focuses on operations research and operations management, AHP and FAHP applications, and economic analysis. Dr. Sarfaraz is the author and co-author of numerous publications in international journals including international journal of production research and journal of engineering design. Extensive industry experience and consulting, Recipient of Engineer’s Council Merit Award for the year 2002. Director of MSEM Solutions Center and Facilities-VEDC community service learning.

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Mark Rajai CSUN

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Abstract

Modifications of Engineering Management Program at California State University NorthridgeThis paper discusses an innovative restructuring of the graduate program in EngineeringManagement (EM) at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) which includes revisedrequirements as well as new methods of teaching. A number of new core and elective courseshave been introduced, at the graduate level, to shift our old program from an emphasis ontheories that are typically learnt in traditional Engineering Management programs, to skills thatengineers need for managing technical professionals in modern corporations. Some of our newcourses focus on globalization of engineering practices as well as other industry requirements,which would expose students more to real-life situations and thus make them moremarketable.Our EM delivery techniques are also switching the focus from teaching by lecturing, to learningby application. This is done by splitting our courses into a number of mini projects; any theorythat our students need to learn will be taught as one or several of the mini projects analyzed.The mini-projects are intentionally selected to contain a lot of data and information, notnecessarily all of which are used for addressing the key questions about the project. This willhelp our students to gain hands-on experience and confidence in tackling the challenges thatthe ambiguity of real-world problems present.The authors also discuss in this paper their experience in creating a student association of EMnamed Engineering Management Student’s Association (EMSA) which promotes establishingrelationship of practitioners of EM in industry with EM students/faculty at CSUN. Among otheractivities, EMSA has so far conducted a number of seminars and workshops at CSUN by invitingprominent figures in industry to come to campus present their industry experiences to classesin our program.

Kabirian, A., & Gandhi, S. J., & Costea, I., & Sarfaraz, A. R., & Rajai, M. (2013, June), Modifications of Engineering Management Program at California State University Northridge Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--22297

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