Department News
September 12, 2016
Announcement 1:
Dear students,
I am pleased to announce that we have received a grant from National Institution of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), USDA to support undergraduate research at CSUB ($274,728 for four years). This project will develop experiential learning, research and extension opportunities for underrepresented students. It will offer extensive hands-on training to students and prepare them for a successful career in a transforming agricultural environment.
For Fall 2016, we are looking to hire 5 students with interest in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. They will participate in a 10-week research program (up to 20 hours per week) and receive a $1,500 stipend.
Mentors/Supervisors: Dr. Y. Ampatzidis and Dr. S. Jafarzadeh.
The selection will be based on criteria below:
- Major related to the food and agricultural sciences (e.g. ag engineering emphasis) (30%)
- Hispanic or underrepresented student (20%)
- Female (20%)
- Essay indicating interest in food and agricultural sciences/Desire to pursue a career at USDA or in food and agricultural sciences (10%)
- Leadership activities and community service (10%)
- G.P.A. (10%)
Requirements:
- Be a citizen or national of the United States
- Must be attending a public or other non-profit Hispanic-Serving Institution (e.g. CSUB)
Please, submit your application package (including your CV, essay etc.) to Dr. Ampatzidis at yampatzidis@csub.edu
Application forms should consist of the following materials:
- Personal information: name, email, phone number
- Essay indicating interest in food and agricultural sciences/Desire to pursue a career at USDA or in food and agricultural sciences
- GPA and anticipated major (priority to students with interest in agricultural engineering)
- Short bio or CV
- Leadership activities and community service
- Proof of “Hispanic or underrepresented student”
Announcement 2:
Dear students,
I am pleased to announce that we offer financial support ($25,000 for four years) to one eligible student to complete a bachelor’s degree in BAE (Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering emphasis/ BS in Engineering Sciences). It will support student’s participation in extra-curricular activities related to BAE such as undergraduate research, professional conferences, workshops, and government and industry internships (e.g. stipend, travel, books and supplies, computer and peripherals).
The selection will be based on criteria below:
- Major related to the food and agricultural sciences (e.g. BAE emphasis) (30%)
- Hispanic or underrepresented student (20%)
- Female (20%)
- Essay indicating interest in food and agricultural sciences/Desire to pursue a career at USDA or in food and agricultural sciences (10%)
- Leadership activities and community service (10%)
- G.P.A. (10%)
Requirements:
- Be a citizen or national of the United States
- Freshmen
Application forms should consist of the following materials:
- Personal information: name, email, phone number
- A statement of purpose describing what you hope to gain by this scholarship program, your career interest, etc.
- GPA and anticipated major (priority to students with interest in agricultural engineering)
- Short bio or CV
Submit your application package via email to yampatzidis@csub.edu
For more information, please contact Dr. Ampatzidis (yampatzidis@csub.edu).
April 26, 2016
Dear all,
I am pleased to welcome California State University, Bakersfield Student Engineering Branch as an authorized Student Branch of ASABE (American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers).
This Student Branch exists to promote professional relationships for students; familiarize students with technical interests and developments; and provide a basis for professional aspirations and transition from academic to professional carries!
Official website (draft): http://csubasabe.wix.com/engineering
Officers:
Omar Samara-President
Fabian Acuna-Vice President
Thomas Snowden-Treasurer
Daryl Trudeau-Secretary
ASABE Student Engineering Branches: http://www.asabe.org/membership/preprofessionalsstudents/academic-programsstudent-branches/engineering-branches.aspx
Regards
--
Yiannis Ampatzidis
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics and Engineering
April 11, 2016
CSUB announces summer REU in engineering.
August 2014 The Physics Group in the REVS-UP (Research Experience Vitalizing Science University Program) funded by Chevron Corp. had again a great time this year. Drs. Gasparyan and Meyer organized the four-week event around the Faraday Rotation experiment. We had a number of challenges, such as our laser was broken to start with (giving us the opportunity to learn much about lasers and polarization), we wanted to increase the sensitivity of the equipment (this worked very well by using half-way mirrors to increase the effective length of our sample), and we wanted to measure the wavelength dependence of the Verdet constant - and failed, because we didn't have light sources with other wavelengths. In all, we produced four great posters. Some of the other experiments we did were:
Measurement of the speed of light
Measurement of the temperature dependence of blackbody radiation
Millikan's Oildrop Experiment, which measures the charge of the electron
Measurement of Planck's constant using the photoelectric effect
Bragg scattering of crystal lattices
Studying and photgraphing spectra of various atoms
High precision diffraction
Measurement of the muon lifetime
The members of the Physics Group were (this was the largest group we ever had):
Geoffrey Bartz Cesar Cabato Padraic Castillo
Raven Dean Tyler Ferris Kathryn Morales
Andrew Ramirez Leslie Soledad Jonathan Soto
Kian Talaei Aime Torres
Jerod Moore, teacher at Arvin High School
Michael Medrano and Josh Lofy, CSUB Student Assistants
Faculty Advisors: Dr. Vladimir Gasparyan, Dr. Thomas Meyer
For a view of the four posters presented at the 2014 CSUB Chevron REVS-UP poster presentations click the links below:
- Faraday Rotation
- Testing a Randomly Polarized Laser
- Atomic Spectra
- Millikan't, But We Can (aka Millkan's Oil Drop Experiment)
June 2014.
We would like to congratulate Michael Medrano and Emmanuel Medina Lopez, who graduated with Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics. Emmanuel was accepted at the University of Oregon for graduate school in Physics. Michael will attend Cal State Northridge for graduate studies in Mechanical Engineering. We wish both of them the best for their future endeavors.
June 2014. Honors in Washington DC
Hi all,
I hope you are enjoying the summer break. I am in DC with a USDA fellowship.
I have some good news. The Editors of Computers and Electronics in Agriculture Journal awarded me with a Certificate of Reviewing Excellence. This is a great honor!!! I am really happy (it's the best journal in my field).
"Only awarded once a year to a small hand-picked selection of reviewers, as identified by our journal Editors and Editor-in-Chiefs, this accolade is recognition of your hard work and contribution to the publication of scientific and medical research.
We thank you for your help and hope that you will continue to assist your fellow researchers, clinicians, doctors, engineers and scientists in the following years in continuing to peer-review manuscripts for ours and other journals."
This is my second award for this year. The other one was my paper "Training System Affects Sweet Cherry Harvest Efficiency"[HortScience 48(5):547-555] has been named the ASHS Extension Publication Award winner for papers published in 2013.
Regards,
Yiannis Ampatzidis
April 2014. Physics and Valley Fever???
Dear physics student,
An article appears in the May 2014 issue of the popular science magazine Discover. The article references some work we did on valley fever. Some students, Dr. Lauer (in the Biology Department), and I downloaded satellite images taken by NASA, and did some analysis to try to figure out where in the Southern San Joaquin Valley you might expect to find the fungus which causes the disease. See below. The image quality is downgraded because I downloaded it from the online magazine, but if you are interested, you can look for the printed magazine in the reading room in the library. Prior to that, we had done some work to find statistical connections between fluctuations in weather patterns and incidence of valley fever.
I am not telling you all this to brag. (Well, OK. Maybe just a little.) But I wanted to illustrate how training in physics gives you skills which you can apply to other areas. In fact, it is not uncommon at all for physicists to do interesting things other than physics. (Nothing wrong with that!)
Have a great quarter.
All my best,
Dr. Talamantes
June 2013. Congratulations to Jack Brault who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. Jack gave an interesting series of lectures on superconductivity during Senior Seminar. We wish him the best for the future.
June 2013. The Academic Senate has approved two additional Emphases to our degree program in Engineering Sciences. They cover the areas of Petroleum Engineering as well as Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering. Both programs will begin offering advanced courses this coming Fall. Look elsewhere in our webpage to see the detailed descriptions of the programs. The Department already offers the Emphasis of Engineering Management, in conjunction with CSUB's School of Business and Public Administration, which is now completing its first year.
May 2013. The Department of Physics and Engineering is happy to announce that Dr. Dayanand Saini has agreed to join Drs. Abouelnasr and Cabrales to further develop our Engineering Sciences programs, particularly in the area of Petroleum Engineering.
Dr. Saini received a Ph.D. in Petroleum Engineering from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA.He is presently Research Manager - Reservoir Engineering at the Energy & Environmental Research Center of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, ND. His research interests are focused on numerical and experimental investigations of gas injection enhanced oil recovery processes, carbon dioxide-oil miscibility, and geologic storage of carbon dioxide.
May 2013. Dr. Gasparyan has published two papers.
1) The first article appeared in the journal Solid State Communications and is entitled: Localization length in the quasi one-dimensional disordered system revisited. Co-author is Emilio Cuevas from the Universidad de Murcia in Spain.
2) The second article appeared in PHYSICAL REVIEW A 87 with the title: Faraday rotation in a disordered medium. Its co-author is Zh. S. Gevorkian of the Yerevan Physics Institute in Armenia.
April 2013. The following is from a press release regarding the Grand Opening of CSUB's new Engineering Complex.
April 3, 2013 - CSU Bakersfield held a grand opening celebration this morning of their new Engineering complex with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The new buildings were funded by two grants from the US Department of Education. The 5,000 square foot complex includes laboratory and classroom space that will house more than one million dollars of the necessary equipment to be used in the three Engineering Programs currently available at CSUB: Computer Engineering, which began in fall of 2011, and Electrical Engineering and Engineering Sciences, which began fall of 2012. Although the programs are fairly new, they have already surpassed the enrollment numbers that were not expected until 2015.
"These Engineering Programs have become some of the fastest growing programs in the university now," said Julio Blanco, Dean of the School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering. "We are way ahead of the curve, and we could not offer these programs without these buildings and the equipment they house. This allows us to provide Engineers to this community that are prepared and locally trained."
In attendance at the ribbon cutting ceremony were: the Honorable Mayor of Bakersfield Harvey Hall, CSUB President Dr. Horace Mitchell, CSUB Vice President of Academic Affairs Soraya Coley, Dr. Blanco, CSUB NSME faculty and staff, Representatives from the offices of Congressman Kevin McCarthy and the Kern County Board of Supervisors, CSUB faculty and staff, CSUB students and Bakersfield community members.
February 2013. Drs. Lewis and Meyer, with the help of former departmental Administrative Support Coordinator Penny Lamkins organized this year's Regional Science Bowl Competition - for the 17th time. The event ran smoothly and the winner was Tehachapi High School, who will represent our area at the National Science Bowl Competition in Washington DC this coming May. Thanks to all the Science Departments at the CSUB, who presented interesting displays and demonstrations. Thanks also to Occidental Petroleum of Elk Hills, Aera Energy, and the US Department of Energy for supporting and sponsoring this exciting event.
August 2012 The Physics Group in the REVS-UP program completed its work after completing a number of experiments, all of which led to to the transition from Classical to Modern Physics. Here is the list of experiments:
- Measurement of the speed of light
- Measurement of the temperature dependence of blackbody radiation
- Millikan's Oildrop Experiment, which measures the charge of the electron
- Rutherford Scattering Experiment, which led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus
- Measurement of Planck's constant using the photoelectric effect
- Bragg scattering of crystal lattices
- Measurement of Planck's constant by measuring the Balmer series in hydrogen
- Measurement of the muon lifetime
- One Photon at a Time: A measurement of wave-particle duality of photons.
The members of the Physics Group were:
- Mei Mei Chan
- Travis Christolear
- Kevis Ozel
- Alex Pearson
- Christian Perez
- Luke Singleton
- Po Tsui
- Colin Smith, teacher at Centennial High School
- David Lao, CSUB Student Assistant
- Faculty Advisors: Dr. Vladimir Gasparyan
- Dr. Thomas Meyer
For a view of the two posters presented at the 2012 CSUB Chevron REVS-UP poster presentation
The two posters won First and Third Prize at the poster competition.
July 2012. Drs. Gasparyan and Meyer organize a Physics program as part of the REVS-UP (Research Experience Vitalizing Science University Program) funded by Chevron Corp. The four-week program begins on July 9. Seven Kern County high school students and one teacher will perform a number of important experiments that led to the development of modern physics at the beginning of the 20th century.
June 2012. The University has broken ground for the new Engineering facility at CSUB. The first stage, to be completed in August 2012, consists of a 1200 sq ft lab for Material Sciences, an 800 sq ft lab for student projects and student research, and a 750 sq ft storage facility. A second stage, to be completed in March 2013, will consist of a Fluid Dynamics Lab and a Power Semiconductor Lab, as well as a technician's office and restrooms.
June 2012. Congratulations to Brittany Camirand, LuisGonzalez, David Lao, and Michael Newell for graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from CSUB. Mike Newell graduated with a double major in Physics and Mathematics and he has been accepted to graduate school in Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
June 2012. The Department of Physics and Engineering is happy to announce that Dr. Dana M. Stevenson Abouelnasr and Dr. Luis Cabrales Arriaga have agreed to join our faculty to develop and implement the new program in Engineering Sciences.
Dr. Abouelnasr received a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Master of Public Health From Emory University. She is presently the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the American University of Sharjah (United Arab Emirates). Her research interests include the study of environmental contamination at petroleum waste sites.
Dr. Cabrales received a Ph.D. in Plant and Soil Science from Texas Tech and a MS in Chemical Engineering, also from Texas Tech. He is presently a Research Associate at the Fiber and Biopolymer Research Institute at Texas Tech. His research interests include the surface functionalization of materials with plasma, chemical vapor and atomic layer deeposition processes, the nanotechnology applied to textile materials and the manufacturing of nanofibers and nanomaterials.
April 2012. The Chancellor of the California State University gave final approval to the new Engineering Sciences Program at CSUB. The program will become operational in Fall 2012.
