The College of Engineering & Computer Science launched several new initiatives in 2022 thanks to philanthropic support. With gifts from Edison, Amazon, and MacKenzie Scott, ECS is empowering students to become more developed professionals, capable of changing their communities and the world.

Embracing Sustainability and Real-World Challenges With Edison

The Edison grant, which supports student projects that focus on alternative energy, is powering the college’s focus on providing innovative project-based learning opportunities connected to sustainability and energy transformation. The Orange County Sustainability Decathlon (OCSD) challenges university teams to design and build model energy-efficient, net-zero homes that are affordable and market-ready. This competition will include 18 collegiate teams from the U.S. and China, including CSUF’s team, all tasked with building a 1,200-square-foot, net-zero-energy home. More than 25 CSUF students will be engaged in the project campuswide, and the home will be showcased in October 2023 at the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.

“Though ECS students are doing much of the work, input from geology, art, business, and other students will be integral to various parts of the design,” says Susan Barua, dean of ECS. “We’re also bringing on industry partners, advisors, and consultants, though students will be the ones to design, assemble, and discuss the home they develop.”

She also notes that while the Edison grant supports the project, additional fundraising will be needed for the $400,000 design and build.

The second program is the Edison Sustainability Energy Collaborative, which will empower ECS to support student projects that focus on sustainable and alternative energy in the 2022-2023 academic year. Support will include research fellowships and direct student funding for projects. It’s estimated that 25 students will participate in the Collaborative, which will involve mentorship and career education for students interested in entering these fields of engineering.

Amazon Supports Underrepresented Students

Amazon is also providing generous support for ECS, with an intentional focus on underrepresented students. The Amazon Software Development Collaborative will select 10 upper-level, highly motivated, and ambitious ECS students for fellowships designed to deliver enriching, immersive software development experiences as students work in interdisciplinary teams to solve real-world challenges. Each team will be mentored by ECS faculty members.

“We want our students to have a broad understanding of the career paths available – to make them aware of all the possibilities they have with their engineering or computer science degrees.”

Susan Barua, Dean of the College of Engineering & Computer Science

“Amazon is a leading technology company, with a presence across the globe,” Barua says. “They hire a lot of our graduates, so it’s great to bring some of their technology and collaboration opportunities to our students.”

Through this competitive experience, students will undergo training in human-centered design, user experience (UX) design, and various coding platforms; gain project management skills; explore the connections between a challenge, technology, user feedback, and relevant solutions; and get other real-world experience that can give them a competitive advantage when they enter the workforce.

Engineering Social Justice and Success in STEM, Thanks to Scott-Jewett

In the summer of 2021, philanthropist and author MacKenzie Scott and her ex-husband, Dan Jewett, gave CSUF a historic, extremely generous $40 million gift. A portion of this gift was set aside to support the Scott-Jewett Fund for Innovation and Student Success. ECS participated in a campuswide competitive selection process and had two projects selected for seed funding: Engineering Social Justice and Cultivating Success in STEM Internships.

Engineering Social Justice encourages ECS students to engineer solutions that viably address or significantly reduce inequities in their communities, such as lack of access to food or suitable housing. During Social Justice Week 2023, students will present their projects to industry judges, and the winners will be awarded seed funds to develop prototypes of their solutions, with assistance from advisory board members, industry partners, and faculty mentors.

“We will put out a call for proposals and challenge student teams to look at the social inequities that exist in the community, then present a design to help reduce them,” Barua says. “They need to identify the issue they’ve observed and propose a solution using their engineering knowledge and technical capacity.”

The other Scott-Jewett-funded program, Cultivating Success in STEM Internships, will give underrepresented and first-generation students opportunities to attend professional development workshops, network with industry professionals, and visit local companies to expose them to real industry environments and career paths in STEM.

“We want our students to have a broad understanding of the career paths available – to make them aware of all the possibilities they have with their engineering or computer science degrees,” Barua says. “This funding allows us to bring in people working in a variety of engineering- and computer science-related professions to expose students to what people can do with these degrees, opening their minds to more opportunities and new horizons. This program will also help develop students into more valuable applicants when they begin pursuing careers through workshops and one-on-ones with industry mentors. Financial incentives are provided so students can commit the time.”

Preparing Students for Impactful Careers

These three recent investments are examples of how philanthropic support can help the college fulfill its goals of providing an outstanding educational experience that prepares our graduates for fulfilling careers. Our communities and the world need our graduates to be socially conscious and, with the help of our donors, we are launching initiatives that will enable our students to improve the world – one project at a time.