The Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering offers programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The following degrees are offered: bachelor's of arts, bachelor's of science, bachelor's of science in engineering, master's of science, and master's of science in engineering.

The college is committed to delivering science, engineering, and mathematics education to students through individual attention with emphasis on self-learning, service to society, and ethical behavior. Undergraduate students experience close interactions with the faculty as a result of small class sizes. Students conduct sophisticated state-of-the-art research by working very closely with their professors and they participate in various undergraduate student research conferences and student design competitions.

Graduate programs are offered in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, in environmental science, in computer science, and in engineering management. The programs are directed to full-time working professionals, and are more applied than theoretical. A wealth of experience is brought into the classroom by LMU faculty and by utilizing part-time faculty from local industry.

For more information on the Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering please click here. 

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SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAM (SECOP)

SECOP is a two-week residential pre-college summer program for underrepresented minority students from Southern California. Just having completed its fifth consecutive summer session at LMU, the goal of the program is to encourage underrepresented minority students to study science, technology, engineering or mathematics in college. The success of the program is evident in so far as 100% of the students who have participated and graduated high school are attending college. Of that group, 58% are majoring in these fields (this percentage far exceeds the national average for minority students in general).

SECOP focuses on introducing low income students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers and improving students’ content knowledge in these topic areas. The goal of SECOP is to address the shortage of African American, Latino and Native American and female students studying science, mathematics, engineering and technology at college level by introducing students to pre-engineering and advanced mathematics classes early in their academic careers. The objectives of SECOP are:

• Increasing awareness of opportunities available in science, engineering and technical fields;
• Increasing students’ confidence to grasp mathematics, technology and science subjects;
• Improving student achievement in mathematics, technology and science;
• Mentoring students through the process of applying to college; and
• Increasing the pipeline of underrepresented minorities in STEM majors.

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING MASTERS DEGREE

The two-year old systems engineering masters degree focuses on the integration of various components into larger systems - systems integration – a technology vital for the security of our country. Programs like this are crucial to the United States to retain superiority over China and India. Typically, students in this program are enhancing their education while working at an aerospace or manufacturing company. Northrop Grumman values this educational opportunity for its employees and has donated to the program.

There are 52 students currently enrolled in the Systems Engineering program. Of the 52 students, 44 are employed by local aerospace companies. Twenty-one of these students are pursuing dual degrees in the Engineering and MBA programs. In addition, the first graduating class had six students and all six of the graduates are employed in the aerospace business; five locally and one in Pennsylvania.

The College of Science and Engineering signed a memorandum of understanding with the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), an accredited academic institution, in June of 2005. This MOU was signed specifically for Air Force officers only and allows Air Force officers to get a Masters in Systems Engineering from LMU after completing the Systems Engineering Certificate Program at the AFIT.

AFIT is located in Dayton, OH. The AFIT certificate program is a distance-learning program allowing officers throughout the United States to obtain an SE Certificate. Those officers who do a tour of duty at the Los Angeles Air Force base will find it convenient to attend on-campus Systems Engineering courses at LMU and obtain the MS in Systems Engineering degree from LMU. LMU counts the AFIT academic work toward the Masters in Systems Engineering.

The systems integration technology that students learn from this program is vital for the security of our country. The United States leads the world in this technology, but there are too few practitioners in both U.S. industry and government to fill the needs of our highly sophisticated defense systems. LMU is doing its part to fill that need and with new facilities we will be able to grow the program and offer the degree to more students that will enhance the industry both locally and nationally.

MOU WITH BAE SYSTEMS

The College of Science and Engineering signed and MOU with BAE to offer the employees of BAE a way to supplement the courses they learn from the in-house training from BAE to earn a Masters in Systems Engineering from LMU. BAE Systems Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of BAE Systems plc, an international company engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced defense and aerospace systems in the air, on land, at sea and in space.

The John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth uses the College of Science and Engineering facilities for their summer workshop in Biology. The center’s summer programs are designed to immerse students in a subject that is both challenging and stimulating. LMU has been active with this program for the past 15 years. Two three-week sessions are conducted for approximately 350 students who reside on campus. The students (typically under the age of 16) take one course everyday. These students come from across the country and internationally.

THE REU PROGRAM (RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR UNDERGRADUATES)

LMU has a Research Experience for Undergraduates Program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Twenty-four students have been organized into six teams during the summers of 1998-2000, 2001-2003 and 2004-2006 for a 10-week session each year. Using the materials and processing engineering laboratories in the College of Science and Engineering, each team conducts extensive research.

Twenty-four undergraduate students, 18 from community colleges in Los Angeles and six from LMU live on campus and conduct the investigations during an intensive 10- week period. The 18 community college students are chosen from 14-15 community colleges. The focus of the program is on community college students because they strongly fit the profile that the NSF establishes for REU program participants. The remaining 6 participants come from LMU. The LMU students already have had extensive hands-on experience with the equipment that is used in the research. Because of this experience and their familiarity with the LMU campus environment, they serve as peer mentors and team leaders for the community college students.

Since community colleges represent an economical and high quality alternative for the first two years of college, they attract a diversified population of students who aspire to continue their education and prepare themselves for career opportunities. To accomplish their goals, they must matriculate into a university that offers bachelor’s degrees. The purpose of the REU Site program is to provide encouragement, support and motivation to community college students who have the potential and desire to pursue studies in engineering.

During the final two weeks, each of the student teams completes their research work and drafts a report describing their findings. The participants receive instructions in written and oral presentation skills, particularly as they relate to technical communications. The concluding activity of the proposed program is a research symposium (please see attached for the symposium of 2006) at which the participants make a presentation on their work to the other participants, the program staff, invited representatives from their community colleges, invited engineering faculty and administrators from LMU, invited research scientists and engineers from local industry, national laboratories and professors from other universities.

All the projects researched in the REU site for the last nine-years have been provided by national laboratories and industry. In 1998 until 2001, each team researched one project. From 2001 until 2006, each team researched two-three projects. The technical mentors from industry and national laboratories were impressed with the work produced by the students and they kept on coming year after year with more projects.

Research equipment includes an NSF-funded x-ray diffractometer with a pole figure attachment, a rolling mill, metal cutting equipment, micro-hardness machinery, density apparatus, two universal mechanical testing machines, a fracture mechanics system, 21 furnaces, two light-optical microscopes, a scanning electron microscope, an electro discharge machining unit, rapid prototyping and computer-aided manufacturing and wear laboratories that enabled students to engage in higher level research. Faculty and project staff trained students in the safe use of the research equipment in the University’s state-of-the-art materials and processing research laboratories.

Local industrial laboratories invited students to tour their research facilities (Hughes Research labs, JPL, Cal Tech, TRW and NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility).

Every single team in the three sets of summers of 1998-2000, 2001-2003 and 2004-2006 had their work either published or will be published in refereed journal articles or conference proceedings.