CSUCI will welcome first Engineering majors in fall 2018

CSU Chanel Islands News

July 18, 2017 — It’s official. CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) will launch its Mechatronics Engineering program in fall 2018.The program will accept 24 students for fall 2018, increasing that number by 24 each year until the total number of Mechatronics majors admitted each year is just under 100.With about 300 engineering jobs available in Ventura County each year, University administrators, faculty, lawmakers and the community saw the need for qualified engineers and began working toward adding the major at CSUCI years ago.“We are all delighted to move from the planning to the implementation stage,” said Professor and Chair of the Computer Science program Michael Soltys, Ph.D. “We feel like the community has trusted us with this initiative, and we want to mount a superb program.”The program comes to the University during newly invested President Erika Beck’s tenure. Once the engineering major is launched, CSUCI will be one of less than a dozen universities in the nation that offers a Mechatronics degree.“We are so enthusiastic about the addition of Mechatronics at CSUCI,” Beck said. “This new engineering major is an example of the deep and wide-ranging skill set that will prepare our graduates for a 21st century job market. We have a talented faculty, state-of-the-art laboratories and an excellent curriculum ready for our first cohort of engineering majors.”Mechatronics is a quickly-growing area of engineering that includes aspects of control theory, computer science, electronics, and mechanics.Plans are already in the works to apply for accreditation from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), a nonprofit, non-governmental accrediting agency for programs in applied science, computing, engineering technology and related fields.ABET accreditation provides assurance that a college or university program meets the quality standards of the profession each graduate intends to enter.“We have a strong offering in Computer Science, Mathematics, and Physics, and with some effort we could have a ...

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