Cal State Long Beach Dean Honored as ‘Distinguished Dean of Engineering’ By Los Angeles Council of Engineers and Scientists

Forouzan Golshani, dean of the College of Engineering (COE) at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB), was recently honored with the prestigious “Distinguished Dean of Engineering” award from the Los Angeles Council of Engineers and Scientists (LACES) during National Engineers Week (E-Week) 2010.

National Engineers Week and the National Engineers Week Foundation work to nurture the future work force of innovative engineers through education outreach initiatives to expand the pool of skilled, creative engineering talent.

Golshani received the award Feb. 18 during LACES’ E-Week business mixer at the LAX Flight Path Museum. The event’s theme was “Engineering, Making a World of Difference,” and its focus this year was “Introducing a Girl to Engineering,” which reflects the work done through CSULB’s renowned Women Engineers @ the Beach conferences and programs.

“This was an unexpected award and its news came as a complete surprise,” said Golshani, who has overseen the COE’s 12 engineering programs, five departments and more than 3,500 students since 2007. “With over a dozen other engineering deans in close vicinity, many with a vast portfolio of accomplishments, I was pleased that our efforts in expanding the engineering pipeline received this recognition.”

Hallmarks of Golshani’s tenure at CSULB have been to expand the academic advising and first-year student experience, which had resulted in a 40 percent increase in graduating classes, from 500 in 2007 to more than 700 in 2009. He has been credited with the overhaul of technology infrastructure for research and teaching within the COE and for enhancing support for faculty and student research, scholarship and creative activity.

Golshani and his staff at the College of Engineering also spearheaded Women Engineers @ the Beach, a biannual conference at CSULB designed to attract young girls to engineering. Last year, the conference (now in its 10th year) was awarded the prestigious “Kimberly-Clark Outreach Event Award” by the National Society of Women Engineers (SWE).

At the conference, students are involved in hands-on activities in a variety of workshops designed to teach them about engineering technology and related disciplines, such as human behavior-based product design, mechanical/robotics design, structural engineering and several others.

“For this nation to continue its innovative edge, it is incumbent upon education leaders at all levels to emphasize to America’s youth, particularly young women and persons in underrepresented groups, that studying science and engineering can prepare them as leaders,” said Golshani.

Before CSULB, Golshani served as the NCR Distinguished Professor and the chairman of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Wright University in Ohio. He held the positions of center director and professor at Arizona State University, as well as research fellow at Imperial College in London.

Golshani has registered 10 inventions and is the author and co-author of more than 200 articles. He has served on the editorial board of IEEE Multimedia journal since 1994 and was its editor in chief for two terms. He has founded several successful company start ups, including the Corporate Enhancement Group, Roz Software Systems, Inc. and RFID Integrated Solutions, Inc.

His senior management and technical consulting experience includes working for such companies as Motorola, Intel, Honeywell, McDonnell Douglas Helicopter, Bull Worldwide Systems and Sperry. He is also a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Golshani received a bachelor’s of science degree from Arya Mehr University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, and a Ph.D from the University of Warwick in England.

-- Paul Browning