President Jolene Koester at Commencement

In May, California State University, Northridge honored an estimated 10,300 graduating students in eight college graduation ceremonies.

While the cap and gown ceremony may be the most visible part of the higher education experience, as everyone who has arrived at that moment knows, it’s a journey that begins long before and continues long after the diplomas are handed out.

With over 200,000 alumni already active in the region, California and the nation, our graduates are among the vanguard of leaders—confident, resourceful, optimistic—committed to personal and professional success. Many have persevered in the face of daunting obstacles. They bring a hands-on, can-do spirit to the companies, institutions and communities they serve.

The university and its alumni have matured into a powerful force in Southern California.

Thus it was with bittersweet feelings I announced this past spring my plans to step down as president of California State University, Northridge by the end of December 2011 and subsequently retire from the California State University. I became president 11 years ago with a clear set of priorities that would allow our university to build on the excellence of our faculty and our academic programs. We have achieved much in the past decade, from increased enrollment and improved graduation rates to notable fundraising successes and an enhanced reputation and stature in the greater Los Angeles community.

The opening of the Valley Performing Arts Center at California State University, Northridge, creating access to world-class performing artists for a population of nearly three million people in the San Fernando Valley and surrounding region, is emblematic of these accomplishments. The public face of this dynamic new venue enjoyed its media close-up during our star-studded opening gala in January, and in this issue you’ll find red carpet photos from that memorable evening, along with rave reviews from members of the press and performing artists.

One of our stories takes you behind the scenes to explore how the Center serves our students and the community in significant new ways.

I recently had the pleasure of attending a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Cal State Northridge’s Experimental Theatre, one of the Center’s exciting new features. Here Department of Theatre faculty and students collaborate on seasonal productions presented to the public and to local school groups through our student matinee program, serving thousands of K–12 students annually.

Shakespeare can be a hard sell to the Facebook generation, so I was deeply impressed by the teenage audience’s rapt attention, giddy laughter and sighs of empathy as the talented ensemble brought this multilayered love story to life through the power of imagination.

The future demands imagination and nothing sparks it like quality education and experiential learning. School groups that come for a performance also receive a tour of the campus and the opportunity to visit a class, for many students their first introduction to the idea of college.

Young people like these represent our collective future, and the relationships the university is building with them and their schools could not be more vital.

It’s this kind of impact that makes me proud of California State University, Northridge every day. In diverse disciplines and contexts, our forward-looking faculty, students and alumni are creatively applying their knowledge and skills, and you’ll read some of their remarkable stories in these pages. From our research laboratories, where students and faculty are developing a cutting-edge wheelchair, to our athletics program, where mutual need blossomed into mutual support and friendship between two students; from Ecuador, where an alumna serving as a Peace Corps volunteer has participated in revising the national constitution to support women’s rights, to NASA, where an alumna is helping to lead missions to Mars and Jupiter; and at Santa Monica High School, where our graduates are spurring their own students on to business success and environmental action…Cal State Northridge is making a difference.

Thank you for being an active part of our California State University, Northridge community, and for all the ways that you are making a difference as we collectively meet the challenges of our times.

Jolene Koester
President, California State University, Northridge

Keep up with the president by visiting her blog, http://blogs.csun.edu/president/

A bold new presence in the architectural and cultural landscape of Greater Los Angeles, the $125 million building, fronted by a four-story wall of glass, has been called an “instant landmark” and the Valley’s “crown jewel” of the arts.

As the Valley Performing Arts Center (VPAC) gears up for its first full season beginning in September, audiences have already had a chance to savor some of the world’s most exciting musicians, dancers and performers now coming to Northridge from across the country and around the world.

The 2011–12 season will feature 30 programs, including humorist and author David Sedaris, the Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, legendary Broadway singer Bernadette Peters, Los Tigres del Norte, tap sensation Savion Glover, Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell and country music superstar Wynonna Judd.

The VPAC’s inaugural season was launched in February with the presentation of the Russian National Ballet’s Swan Lake, Shawn Colvin, Marvin Hamlisch, Betty Buckley, Joan Rivers, Rosanne Cash, The China Philharmonic Orchestra, Patti Lupone, Mandy Patinkin and others—many of them with sold-out performances.

“We need the arts in our lives—to be uplifted, to be inspired, to be entertained, to be transported to another place that is good for our souls,” said University President Jolene Koester. “California State University, Northridge has been a part of this community for more than 50 years and we are very proud to be the home of this magnificent facility.”

Presenting full spectrum of performing arts

VPAC is the realization of a decades-long dream by Cal State Northridge and civic officials to build a world-class regional performing arts center in the San Fernando Valley. For the first time, the Valley’s two million residents can now experience the full spectrum of professional performing arts programming—orchestra, opera, Broadway, film, spoken word, contemporary music and dance—in a venue befitting a community of its size and cultural diversity.

The Valley Performing Arts Center joins the Los Angeles Music Center and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Orange County as one of the leading performing arts institutions in Southern California.

The stunning new facility was made possible through a combination of public funds and individual, foundation and corporate philanthropic support. It features a dramatic and elegant signature design by the Minneapolis-based architectural firm of HGA Architects and Engineers.

The building’s centerpiece is a 1,700-seat concert hall wrapped in undulating ribbons of acoustic wood panels that, for one architectural writer, evoke “the elegance of a cello.”

The hall provides artists and audiences alike with exceptional visual quality, superbly designed tunable acoustics and state-of-the-art theatrical systems. In addition to creating unparalleled opportunities for visitors to experience the arts, the Center also offers premier facilities for educating and training the next generation of arts professionals.

In July, the Valley Performing Arts Center was honored with a “Star of the Valley” award, given by the Valley Economic Alliance in recognition of VPAC’s vital contributions to the region.

American Ballet Theatre dancers Gillian Murphy and José Manuel Carreño at the Valley Performing Arts Center’s opening gala in January.

“ELEGANT. Sublime. Soaring. Awesome. World-class. State of the art. Marvelous. These are just a few of the words called to mind by those first experiencing the Valley Performing Arts Center that opened last week on the California State University, Northridge [campus]. With the opening of the arts center, the Valley now has a venue that it richly deserves—a top-notch cultural center that can compete with Disney Hall and the other downtown venues to attract major musical and theatrical productions. At long last.”

Los Angeles Daily News editorial

“This is the most incredible theatre I’ve performed at in 4,000 years—and to think, it’s in the Valley!”

Shirley Maclaine, Academy Award-winning actress, dancer and author

“We’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a cultural venue second to none, and a tremendous economic engine for the Valley. This is going to pay dividends for decades to come.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky as quoted in the Los Angeles Daily News

“The performance space is, appropriately, the star of the show….[Architect Kara] Hill worked with acousticians and engineers to create an interior that has the elegance of a cello and the versatility that every user demands….The sightlines are excellent, particularly in the upper gallery, and the seats wrap around in a horseshoe to embrace the open stage…a space that delights the eye and the ear, while serving performers and audience in equal measure.”

Michael Webb, Form magazine

“I am very impressed with the Valley Performing Arts Center. It’s an incredible structure. Sustainable materials were used to build it. Energy efficiency was built into it. It’s good in every way. It’s good in an artistic sense…and it’s good in an environmental sense.”

Ed Begley Jr., actor and environmental activist

“The first thing that I look for [in a concert space] is the quality of the sound, and there was nothing but good stuff at the Valley Performing Arts Center. I think it’s comparable to some of the best halls I’ve played in the country. And the look is very modern but has a warm feel to it.”

Doc Severinsen, jazz musician and former “Tonight Show” band leader, as quoted in “27 Reasons to Love L.A. Now,” Condé Nast Traveler

“I must admit that this hall is really wonderful to sing in. It has such beautiful acoustics.”

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, opera singer and Founder of the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation

“The building sparkles.…[T]he big wow is the lobby, whose soaring glass wall curves asymmetrically across the front of the building. The stone floor continues under the glass and, once outside, dips to become the bottom of a shallow reflecting pool that causes the facade to shimmer, day and night, with reflected light. A staircase sheathed in the same stone climbs up through the lobby—a simple, necessary element that doubles as the space’s focal point, drawing visitors’ eyes up toward a lively ceiling of suspended rectangles.”

Lawrence Biemiller, Chronicle of Higher Education

Guests close out the evening at a $1,000 per plate dinner to the sounds of the Cowling Band.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_12.jpg

la

At the opening reception, guest presenters Andy Garcia and Benjamin Bratt, with Bratt’s wife actress Talisa Soto.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_11.jpg

la

Gala Committee and Foundation Board member Wayne Kent Bradshaw and wife, Mary Regas.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_10.jpg

la

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavksy and his wife, Barbara.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_09.jpg

la

Mike Curb ‘63, Hon. D ‘09 and his wife Linda, gala co-chairs, with President Jolene Koester and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_08.jpg

la

Celebs gather outside the VPAC.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_07.jpg

la

Actor Calista Flockhart, one of the celebrity presenters.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_06.jpg

la

Campaign donors and CSUN alumni Sheila ‘78 and Stan ‘75 Kurland.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_05.jpg

la

Executive committee member Philip S. Magaram, Hon. D ’03 and his wife, Sally, the gala chair.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_04.jpg

la

Cal State Northridge singers wrap up the performance at the gala opening.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_03.jpg

la

David Fleming, Hon. D ’09 and his wife Jean, gala co-chairs.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_02.jpg

la

Actors Steven Weber, Jane Kaczmarek and Keith David all performed at the gala.

http://www.northridgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/celebs_at_vpac_01.jpg

la

On Saturday night, Jan. 29, 2011, California State University, Northridge threw a red carpet gala to formally celebrate the opening of the Valley Performing Arts Center and the launch of its inaugural season.

The university’s most committed friends and supporters, donors and local dignitaries were among 1,700 guests on hand for the star-studded evening that featured a two-hour gala show followed by a black-tie reception.

From Shakespeare to Broadway, from opera to ballet, from comedy to jazz, the program was “a celebration of the artistic possibilities of this magnificent space,” Calista Flockhart, one of the evening’s many celebrity presenters, told the audience. Other presenters and performers included Benjamin Bratt, Tyne Daly, Nancy Cartwright, Dave Koz, Sandra Oh, Arturo Sandoval and a 30-piece orchestra conducted by music director and CSUN alumnus Richard Kaufman ’77 (Music).

Featured Video

Several of the evening’s performers proudly claimed their association with Cal State Northridge.

Cheech Marin, who attended the school in the late 1960s when it was San Fernando Valley State College and was honored as a distinguished alumnus in 2004, delivered a comedy and song routine. Opera great Carol Vaness MA ’76 (Music), Hon. D ’98 (Fine Arts) dedicated an aria to emeritus music professor David Scott, whom she credited with much of her success.

Student matinee performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (L–R) Actors Mike Viruet, Julia Aks and Amanda Gulack.

“Here’s a marvellous convenient place for our rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage.”

William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene 1

The opening gala of the Valley Performing Arts Center (VPAC) at California State University, Northridge celebrated the birth of a major new cultural destination.

Meanwhile, out of the public eye, a whole other world has stirred to life as faculty, staff and students have taken up residence in new spaces designed specifically to serve their academic needs.

In addition to the concert hall, the 166,000-square-foot complex includes a 178-seat Experimental Theatre, four theatre laboratories (for costume, set, lighting and design), studio facilities for the university’s award-winning KCSN-FM (88.5) public radio station, and the 230-seat Kurland Lecture Hall (whose use is not limited to those in the performing arts field). An enormous rehearsal studio boasts a sprung wood floor that makes it ideal for dance and other movement arts and one entire wall of glass that can be raised to fully open the room onto the central courtyard.

“Here new work will be created, new artists will be discovered and nurtured, and new careers will be launched,” says W. Robert Bucker, dean of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication and VPAC’s executive director.

In designing the building to serve both the community and the campus, project architect Kara Hill, with Minneapolis-based HGA Architects, drew on in-depth focus group meetings with the theatre department and other faculty and staff.

More than 275 CSUN students are enrolled as theatre majors, the majority as undergraduates. Rather than selecting a narrowly focused specialty, students in the program are required to take one-third history, one-third design/technical and one-third performance courses.

Featured Video:

Delivering the curriculum

According to Garry D. Lennon, who joined the CSUN theatre faculty in 1999 and was named chair of the department in 2011, this type of multidisciplinary education teaches students “to have a vision and know how to execute it.” Graduates of the pre-professional training program have applied their skills not only in theatre, film and academia, but in fields as diverse as law, education and landscape architecture.

Lennon, a veteran of the department’s former quarters in one of the oldest buildings on campus, describes what the new building means to him and his colleagues.

“In theatre you always make do. You get used to too small, to no natural light, to old equipment. You make it work. But now,” he says of the facilities, “it’s a whole new world. VPAC raises the respect for what we do, it elevates the whole enterprise philosophically and literally. It says this is a valid thing to be teaching. It’s a hard time for the arts right now and this kind of boost makes a big difference.”

Hands-on learning, enhanced within the new building, reinforces academic studies across the theatre arts curriculum and gives students a future advantage in the job market.

Community outreach and education

Leaving their cars and the city behind, visitors approach the gleaming new VPAC complex along a wide, welcoming path through a verdant orange grove, past ducks paddling in a pond and couples relaxing on park benches. They are going to see a play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a magical love story that unfolds in two separate but dynamically interconnected worlds.

As part of its opening-season repertoire in VPAC’s new Experimental Theatre, faculty and students presented a six-week run of the play, with evening performances for the public and matinee performances for school groups. In the 2010–11 school year, nearly 11,000 students attended the matinee performances at CSUN.

Low-water courtyard garden at the energy-efficient Valley Performing Arts Center.

“In addition to our shows that travel out to high schools, we invite local school groups to tour the campus and attend a show here in the new theatre,” says Sandra B. Chong, director of arts education and evaluation, which includes the student matinee program, a collaboration between VPAC and the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication. “Because teenagers are often reading Shakespeare for the first time and most have never seen a live performance of his plays, CSUN provides teachers with professional development training and a helpful classroom study guide.”

The actors, on the other hand, may have surprisingly deep, even personal, connections to the Bard.

“I grew up with Shakespeare,” says CSUN student William Potter, whose mother and father—an actress and a theatre director—named their son after the playwright. Like most of the cast in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Potter plays more than one part, in his case two of the leading roles: Theseus, ruler of Athens, and Oberon, king of the fairies.

“My dad has directed this play more than 16 times,” says Potter, “and neither of us expected I would get the part of Theseus.” But he was delighted that he did and is grateful to the play’s director, Melissa Chalsma, CSUN lecturer since 2003 and co-director of the nonprofit Independent Shakespeare Company, for being a great teacher and collaborator.

“I’m in Melissa’s movement class and we spend a lot of time on the topography of the stage. That class taught me so much about working in a space like this, in the round.”

Backstage areas bustling with activity

Suspended on a tension grid 25 feet above the Experimental Theatre, students Cara Failer, Jeffrey Sabino and Daniel Rivera learn about lighting. Design and technical experience is part of the curriculum for all theatre students.

An hour before the matinee performance is scheduled to begin, student actors and dancers begin arriving backstage. Dressing rooms, green rooms, rehearsal spaces—all are modeled after identical spaces on VPAC’s professional operations side.

In the clean and spacious women’s dressing room, a floor-to-ceiling frosted-glass window lets in the bright, late-morning sun (natural light being a rare commodity in the cramped, windowless rooms that typically constitute backstage areas). The walls are lined with long mirrors, sleek black countertops and rolling ergonomic chairs. A young actress strums a ukulele, while several of her cast mates chat in clusters, putting on their make-up. Velvet, puffy-sleeved Elizabethan gowns share a tall costume rack with colorful contemporary fashions from a local H&M boutique, hinting at the play’s two disparate worlds and this production’s creative mash-up of historical periods. Beside a glittery pair of gold-painted platform boots worthy of Lady Gaga, a wardrobe assistant sets down a basket of freshly laundered white shirts.

Next door in the men’s dressing room, the camaraderie is several decibels louder. Music blares from a boombox as one student sails across the polished white floor on a fast-moving chair and two others engage in mock combat. Another taps away on an open laptop, oblivious to the ruckus. Despite the roughhousing and off-color jokes—perfectly in keeping, one realizes, with Shakespeare’s own often bawdy humor—the actors begin to focus, donning make-up and running lines as they slip into their costumes and characters. The actor who plays the young lover Lysander wears jeans and a sky-blue T-shirt with GREECE spelled out in white letters, a cheeky nod to the play’s Athens setting by the costume designer, department chair Lennon.

“Twenty minutes to places, everyone!” shouts stage manager Eduardo Arteaga, having pulled out his cell phone to double-check the time. With a cane and a commanding stride, he prowls the third-floor backstage corridor. “Doing my rounds,” he explains, “making sure everyone’s here and that there aren’t any problems.” In May, Arteaga completed a double major in English literature and theatre arts, and decided to stay on at CSUN to work on a teaching credential. Like many of his colleagues in the program, he often juggles work on several productions at a time, in addition to a full course load.

Arteaga is also a paid, part-time staff member of the new theatre. Other part-time student jobs at VPAC include ushering and staffing the concessions during performances in the main concert hall.

Introducing new audiences to the performing arts

Local high school students enjoy a live performance in VPAC’s Experimental Theatre.

Downstairs in the first-floor Experimental Theatre, children arriving by bus from several local middle and high schools have filed in and filled most of the 156 seats, rising up on all four sides of the theatre, configured for this performance in-the-round. The stage itself is bare but for a few cut-out paper stars, draped in painted lace and delicately illuminated, suspended from a tension grid high overhead.

“In Shakespeare’s age they had no scenery,” says theatre manager William Taylor. “That’s why the plays always open with the actors painting the set with their words, simply but efficiently.”

Accessible via catwalks on the second floor, the woven-steel grid soars 25 feet above the stage and allows the technical crew to hang scenery and position lights without using ladders, reducing the risk of accident while opening up new aesthetic possibilities—for example, in this production using ladders themselves as a creative solution to a limited budget for set design. Here, a ladder serves variously as a tree, a boat, an outdoor stage, a royal bed.

“Melissa brought in three of her own ladders to start, and asked the students to improvise with them,” recalls Taylor. “She was very open as we tried things out in the rehearsal lab. Her students went at it with zeal. In the final production, the way the ladders are used in a few scenes came directly out of the actors’ ideas and inspirations.”

Taylor also credits Melissa with making the production accessible to younger audiences who might be seeing Shakespeare for the first time.

“In Shakespeare’s time, he peppered the performances with popular songs and ballads of the day,” says Taylor, “and so did Melissa.” In a scene, the chart-topping “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry sets one of the forest fairies leaping into an exuberant solo dance number.

With each two-hour performance, youthful audiences have been captivated by the music and dance, the well-played characters and plot twists and even the language itself. Laughter increases steadily as the play progresses and audience members fall under its spell; more than once they’ve even delivered a standing ovation.

After taking their bows at the end of the show, the ensemble returns to the stage for a Q&A, answering audience questions with humor and insight. Asked what it’s like to work in the round as compared to a proscenium stage, one actor says candidly, “It’s intimidating! We can see your faces, we can see if you’re liking it or not liking it.” Another offers, “It’s awesome. Every side of the stage gets a different view, a different story.”

Teachers’ feedback on the performances has been overwhelmingly positive. They say that seeing the play brings their studies to life. “It opened my students’ eyes to the humor inherent in Shakespeare,” one teacher wrote in response to a survey, “and to the vitality of live theatre.”

“My students came to me with a dislike of drama, Shakespeare in particular,” wrote another. “They left your theatre excited, asking questions and wanting more. Bravo CSUN. You’ve shown Valley students that the world is bigger than an iPod screen.”

For design faculty, a dream come true

In the the Sherry and Albert Lapides Costume Lab, Adrienne Gomez builds a costume for Cabaret.

Lecturer Paula Higgins has taught costume technology at CSUN for 26 years. As she works with students in her pattern making and draping class—busily preparing for an upcoming production of Cabaret replete with leather corsets, plaid mini skirts and 1920s kimonos—she recalls that in her old classroom, four or five students at a time would share a single sewing machine. Here in her bright and spacious new lab, the Sherry and Albert Lapides Costume Lab, in a class as large as 20 students, each has their own sewing machine.

“Costume design is a very hands-on class,” says Higgins. “For so long we’ve been cramped in our space, and with this facility we can really do more. I’ve been waiting for this, things we never had before,” she adds, gesturing toward separate closed-door spaces off the main room, “a fitting room, a dye room, a laundry room. And we finally have a shop that was intended to be a shop.”

Junior Kelsey Porter pushes a headless mannequin wearing a silvery sequined dress the 46-foot length of the costume lab. Porter plays leading lady Sally Bowles in Cabaret, while also building costumes for the production and working on the tech crew.

“It’s a lot of responsibility,” she says, now seated on the floor putting finishing touches on the hem of the dress to be worn by one of the male actors. “Here in Theatre, if you don’t follow through on a deadline you put not only your own grade in jeopardy, but the whole production.”

Energy efficient, educationally extraordinary

If the CSUN campus were a ship, the Valley Performing Arts Center would be its impressive southern prow.

As Dean Bucker leads a first-time visitor on a walk-through of the building, he stops along the way to point out energy-efficient features that are helping the building qualify for LEED Gold certification—for example, the fluorescent lights high up in the vaulted ceiling, embedded behind horizontal white panels in a staccato arrangement. “It reminds me of a piano keyboard,” he says, lifting his eyes toward the ceiling.

Bucker, who also holds the title of music professor at CSUN, is former director of education for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. A passionate advocate for the arts and education, he has played a major role over the past four years in guiding the building toward completion, marrying its public operations and its academic functions into one synergistic and vibrant whole.

The tour culminates at the Porter Pavilion on VPAC’s breezy rooftop terrace, with its modern wooden deck, adjacent catering kitchen, cozy seating nooks and ornamental olive trees. Gazing out from this lofty vantage point, one savors panoramic views of the university campus and, in the distance, the spring-green hills and mountain ranges that define the San Fernando Valley.

“The topography of the Valley is so horizontal,” says Bucker, “that any kind of verticality gives you such great perspective.”

Gaining perspective. Some might call that a central purpose of higher education, and the Valley Performing Arts Center—now teeming with life and learning—stands as an extraordinary testament to CSUN’s commitment to fulfilling that purpose, today and for generations to come.

Lee Hern, a graduate student in computer science, test-drives wheelchair he helped to design.

Imagine that a paraplegic, with just a simple thought, is able to control his or her wheelchair and send it in any direction without assistance from anyone else.

With a concentrated glance at a computer screen, the person in the wheelchair can direct the machine down a hallway and around obstacles as he or she makes his or her way to class or a meeting. A couple of hours later, with a mental command to the onboard computer, that same person can put the chair on “autopilot” and enjoy a casual stroll through a park with a friend.

The concept of brain-computer interface (BCI)—harnessing brainwaves to control external devices remotely with a computer serving as intermediary—is usually reserved for science fiction. But a team of California State University, Northridge researchers is making it a reality, and in the process hoping to provide a new level of independence to those with physical and cognitive disabilities.

Mechanical engineering professor C.T. Lin and seven graduate and undergraduate students from Northridge’s College of Engineering and Computer Science have spent the past year working on an ambitious BCI project designed to make movement easier for people in wheelchairs.

They already have a functioning prototype and plan to spend the next several months working out the kinks. At the end of that period, Lin expects to have a model ready for manufacture.

“That’s what we do, what engineering is all about—finding solutions to problems to benefit the greater community,” Lin said. “In this instance, we have created a solution for an important segment of our community, people with disabilities.”

The goal is to help people with physical impairments move around more easily in dynamically changing environments—whether they are navigating a crowded corridor on the way to class or strolling through the park with friends.

“This wheelchair gives them the ability to control where they go by themselves. It’s a level of independence many people in wheelchairs do not have yet,” he said.

Earlier this year, Cal State Northridge launched a new master’s degree in assistive technology and Lin is heading the engineering component. The new program builds on the university’s international reputation as a leader when it comes to meeting the needs of persons with disabilities. In addition to the extensive services the university provides to accommodate students with disabilities on campus, CSUN is home to the acclaimed National Center on Deafness and sponsors the annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference. The 26-year-old conference is the largest gathering of its kind, drawing thousands of people from around the world interested in exploring new ways assistive technology can make life better for persons with disabilities.

Enhancing independent mobility

Professor C.T. Lin (center) with graduate students Craig Euler (Mechanical Engineering) and Lee Hern (Computer Science).

Project member Lee Hern, a graduate student in computer science who uses a wheelchair, appreciates how liberating the BCI wheelchair could be to someone dependent on others to help them get around.

“Having grown up in an environment where the manual wheelchair is the only option, if you get into a situation where your mobility is limited, it’s extremely frustrating,” Hern said. “I can only imagine what it’s like for those who have to depend on others to help them get around. We want to give those people a chance to move about on their own.”

Alan Shewmon, a neurologist at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, called the project “exciting.”

“This is a pilot project but it’s proof that this concept—that brain activity can be transformed into commands to govern a wheelchair—can be turned into a reality,” said Shewmon, who has consulted on the project.

In addition to Lin, Hern and Shewmon, the research team includes mechanical engineering graduate students Craig Euler, Alfie Gil and Yunsong Shen, electrical and computer engineering senior David Prince and mechanical engineering seniors Ara Mekhtarian and Joseph Horvath.

Their prototype is a modified motorized wheelchair outfitted with a laser sensor about a foot from the ground, a stereo camera mounted on a frame over the chair’s occupant, a laptop computer and an EEG headset designed to read the occupant’s brainwaves.

The sensor and camera continually scan the areas in front and about 270 degrees around the wheelchair and send the data to the onboard computer, which processes the information, noting any obstacles—from the legs of a table or chair to a person standing in the way—that may exist and any openings that can accommodate the wheelchair. The EEG headset sends the wheelchair user’s brainwaves—which are focused on such commands as forward, back, right or left—to the computer.

The computer is programmed to process the data from both sets of commands—one created by the user and the other generated by a sensor-based analysis by the onboard computer.

The wheelchair can then run in autonomous mode, where the computer makes all the decisions, or in hybrid mode, where the commands from the user are augmented by sensor analysis. The hybrid mode was created, in part, to help those who may have some visual or cognitive impairment that would interfere with their ability to see everything in their path.

“It will be up to the user to decide which one they want,” Lin said. “Concentrating is hard work, so the person in the wheelchair may want to do a combination of both, starting out with the hybrid mode as he or she makes their way through a crowd down a corridor to class. But once they are on a clear path, they may decide to switch over to the autonomous mode so they can relax and enjoy the company of the people they are with and the walk.”

Lin said training people to use the wheelchair only takes a few days while the onboard computer’s software learns to adapt to the EEG headset wearer.

“Each person is unique so the software is designed to gather data and continue to adapt to the person who is using the wheelchair,” he said. “The machine is always learning.”

Technology informed by personal experience

Hern, who is focused on improving the responsiveness of the EEG headset and its interface with the onboard computer, said his unique experience as a wheelchair user helps add a dose of “reality” to the project.

“I’m working with a bunch of engineers who are really good at building things, but they don’t always see the big picture,” he said. “They may not see things that someone in a wheelchair might see and realize they need.”

Among his suggestions: the BCI wheelchair needs to be able to adapt as its owner becomes more experienced using it. “For example, with a novice user, the chair might be limited to a quarter of its speed and have a safety margin much greater than somebody with more experience in using it,” he said.

As with any piece of equipment that gets used by one person over and over again, Hern said, a BCI wheelchair owner will eventually “become one” with his or her chair and will know its individual capabilities in many ways better than its creators.

“We need to be able to accommodate that,” he said.

Team member Craig Euler called Hern’s input “invaluable.” “It’s been amazing what he’s been able to do with the headset and bring to the table with his own personal experiences.”

Euler, who is focused on designing the software to ensure that the cognitive components of the wheelchair work well together, said his experiences with the BCI wheelchair have sparked an interest in exploring other projects in the burgeoning field of assistive technology.

“What we may be able to accomplish with this project—give someone a level of independence they never had before—is very cool,” Euler said.

Walking home from a day of initial in-country training. Cayambe, Ecuador 2007. L–R: Hannah Cook, Edith Castillo, Jenifer Zabala, Stephanie Theriault, Grace Harrison. Back row: Roberto Reyes and John Coleman.

Alumni and students, as Peace Corps volunteers, become global agents of change.

When Edith Castillo ’06 (Communications Studies) took the women and gender studies class “Women as Agents of Change,” she had no idea she was preparing for her own role as an agent of change.

She took the class to fill a graduation requirement in her senior year at California State University, Northridge. A year later, as a Peace Corps volunteer she used the course material as inspiration in helping rewrite the Constitution of Ecuador to include more rights and protection for women against sexual abuse.

“I loved the course. I was interested in women’s studies but I never really had time to get involved in any real work,” Castillo said. Suddenly she had a high-impact opportunity “to practice what I’d learned.”

Castillo is one of hundreds of CSUN alumni who have taken what they’ve learned at the university to improve people’s lives around the world. More than 450 CSUN alumni have served as volunteers since the Peace Corps was founded in 1961, including 14 who are working overseas today.

Castillo served from 2007 to 2009 in Ecuador, where more than half of the country’s rural population lives in poverty. She was based in Machala, a commercial center for the region’s agriculture industry which produces a major portion of the world’s bananas.

Indigenous women organizing at a Women’s Political Participation Summit in Quito, Ecuador in 2008.

Now a human resources professional in Los Angeles, Castillo says CSUN gave her the tools she needed to be an effective volunteer—how to make decisions, how to be organized and resourceful. She helped to revise the national constitution through her work with a feminist organization that advocated for laws supporting women’s sexual health and against human trafficking. She also worked as a middle and high school social studies teacher during her service in Ecuador.

CSUN graduate Alan Kawamura ’09 (Deaf Studies) is using the skills he gained at Northridge as a Deaf education teacher in Kakamega, Kenya. Since October 2010, he has been teaching students aged 3 to 21 sign language, science, social studies, creative arts and life skills.

“I’m very thankful for a bunch of kids who love to learn, who have the passion and desire to continue their studies,” said Kawamura in his blog. He said the students are grateful to have a teacher who can speak to them in sign language.

Peace Corps director visits campus

Earlier this year, CSUN initiated a Peace Corps Master’s International (MI) Program, sponsored by CSUN’s Graduate Studies, Research and International Programs. Northridge students interested in doing community service overseas can do so while working on their master’s degrees at the university.

Under the parameters of the new partnership, students must first apply to CSUN’s graduate degree programs either in mathematics or secondary education; once admitted, they can apply to the MI program.

Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams visited the campus in March to launch the new program. He noted that Cal State Northridge is one of the largest and most diverse universities in the nation. According to CSUN data, more than 150 languages are spoken on campus; more than half of Northridge students are from a minority group, and six percent are international.

Professor Carol Shubin (standing, far left), coordinator of the CSUN Peace Corps Master’s International Program, joined CSUN officials, students and alumni Peace Corps volunteers in welcoming Peace Corps director Aaron S. Williams (seated, fourth from left) during his visit celebrating the Peace Corps’ 50th anniversary and the launch of the new master’s degree program for graduate students in mathematics and education who will have the opportunity to serve abroad. Standing behind Williams’ shoulder is former Peace Corps volunteer Edith Castillo ‘06.

“We know that CSU Northridge students have a great deal of the cross-cultural skills and experiences—not to mention language abilities—that make successful Peace Corps volunteers,” Williams said.

According to mathematics professor Carol Shubin, coordinator of the program, the Peace Corps is a wonderful opportunity for CSUN students.

“The students have to navigate obstacles they have never seen before,” Shubin said. “The experience tests everything they have learned in the classroom as well as their perceptions of what they want to do and can do with their lives.”

She added that the Peace Corps is a particularly good fit for CSUN because of its culturally rich student body. Many of the students come from immigrant families and are the first in their families to go to college; they have a lot to contribute as Peace Corps volunteers. Shubin describes the type of student typically interested in the program as “adventure-bound” and possessing “a certain curiosity about the world.”

Castillo is bilingual in English and Spanish and  the daughter of Honduran immigrants who came to the United States in search of a better life. Her father died when she was six months old, leaving her mother to raise her by herself with income earned as a laborer in a sweatshop and then as a nanny.

Castillo said it was the kindness exhibited by her mother’s affluent, Holmby Hills employers who took her in like a daughter that has in part inspired her to serve in the Peace Corps.

“I’ve been so blessed my entire life,” says Castillo. “I just feel like I should share that blessing.”

President Jolene Koester greets students at 2011 Commencement.

Jolene Koester, president of California State University, Northridge, has announced her plans to retire at the end of December 2011. Koester became Northridge’s fourth president in July 2000.

“This is a university committed to fostering change in lives, families and the region,” Koester said. “My time at the university has involved a personal engagement with a mission I care deeply about and faculty, staff and students who inspire me daily. The spirit of collaboration makes my work here productive and fulfilling. It has been a most exhilarating and satisfying professional responsibility.”

The next issue of Northridge magazine will look back on her achievements as a leader in higher education and in the community.

President Koester’s retirement plans include some rest and rejuvenation, along with the pursuit of research around the role communication plays in the efforts to deal with the challenges that university presidents and chancellors currently face.

Charles B. Reed, chancellor of the 23-campus California State University system, will announce plans for selecting Koester’s successor, following procedures and policies established for the selection of CSU presidents by the CSU Board of Trustees.

Many interviews have already been collected and additional dates will be announced.

For more information, visit www.csun.edu/storycube.

Muhammad Ali with Boy (ca. 1962), a photograph by Harry Adams, will be featured in the fall 2011 exhibition Identity and Affirmation at CSUN.

The Getty Foundation has awarded CSUN’s Institute of Arts and Media $80,000 to cull its rich collection of photographs and create an exhibition as part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980, a regional initiative led by the J. Paul Getty Trust.

From October 2011 through March 2012, more than 60 cultural institutions throughout Southern California will come together to tell the story of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene.

At CSUN, the University Art Galleries will present Identity and Affirmation: Post War African-American Photography from Oct. 23 to Dec. 10, 2011. The exhibition will feature 125 images by more than a dozen artists who captured the vibrant development of the arts, music, politics, family and social life in the African-American community and Los Angeles at large.