Offering undergraduate and graduate programs and an interdisciplinary PhD. The flagship campus for the nation’s largest and most diverse university system, California State University, Long Beach is a leader in student-centered learning, attracting talented students and teacher-scholars who mirror the extraordinary diversity of our state, our country, and our world. Founded in 1949 with just 169 s
tudents, CSULB now enrolls more than 34,000 Forty-Niners and has matured into a vibrant, comprehensive urban university that is consistently singled out for recognition by such national opinion leaders as U.S. News & World Report, The Princeton Review, the National Science Foundation, Kiplinger’s, and Diverse Issues in Higher Education. As CSULB has matured into a campus that is recognized in California and throughout the West as a “University of Choice,” its College of Engineering has likewise experienced remarkable growth. In just 50 years, COE has evolved from a single degree program operating out of “leftover” World War II buildings into a nationally ranked professional school that today enrolls some 3,000 students, occupies more than 130,000 square feet of ultramodern teaching and laboratory space, and offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in all major disciplines of engineering and computer sciences — “from rockets to roller coasters” — as well as a joint Ph.D., 12 minors and certificates, and an option in Biomedical and Clinical Engineering. Today COE stands not only as one of the largest and most respected programs of its kind in the western United States but also as a national leader in affordable, high-quality engineering education. Over the years, the college’s more than 20,000 graduates have strived to “develop ways to utilize economically the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind” by contributing their immense talents to the creation of such life-enhancing technological advances as earthquake-resistant structures, orbiting satellites, seatbelts and airbags, and wireless communications. Forouzan Golshani, who became dean in 2007 and recently received the 2010 “Distinguished Dean of Engineering Award” from the Los Angeles Council of Engineers and Scientists, now seeks to build on this momentum and leverage the advantages of the college’s cultural, social, economic and physical setting to ensure that COE grows in its role as a driving social-economic force for the entire region.
