News and Announcements
Jailen Daniel-Dalton, a senior men’s basketball student-athlete, received the CalHOPE Courage Award for October.
The award, presented monthly since February 2022, honors student-athletes at California colleges and universities who have overcome the stress, anxiety and mental trauma associated with personal hardships and adversity. In addition to the recognition, a donation will be made on behalf of all honorees to support on-campus mental health services.
Technology is constantly evolving, which means industries — and the people who work for them — must change to keep up. SFSU faculty want to make sure their students have the skills and flexibility they need to compete in these growing, ever-shifting fields such as civil, mechanical and computer engineering and quantum computing.
Three new grants — two from the Department of Defense (DOD) and one from the Department of Energy (DOE) — will expand the research capabilities of SFSU students and better prepare them to achieve their academic and career goals. The faculty leading these projects are in SFSU’s School of Engineering (SOE) and Department of Computer Science.
Structural hazard mitigation research
A $541,541 DOD grant was awarded to SOE Professor Zhaoshuo Jiang, who leads the Intelligent Structural Hazard Mitigation lab. The funds support purchasing two state-of-the-art shake tables (Quanser Corporation’s six-degrees of freedom hexapod motion platforms) and a high-throughput data acquisition system (DAQ). This new equipment will significantly advance the capacity of performing experimental testing with accurate sensing and control, thereby enhancing the institution’s ability to support diverse research areas that are of interest to DOD. The new tables can hold a load of up to 100 kg per platform and shake objects in all three axes, a significant step up from the currently available tables, which only move along a single direction and can accommodate a maximum of 7.5 kg. This means researchers can assess larger prototypes under more realistic conditions. The DAQ system from Crystal Instruments is a high-performance, modular platform designed for real-time dynamic signal analysis, offering flexibility in channel configurations and real-time processing capabilities. The DAQ system will be integrated with the shake tables to assemble a complete instrumentation that supports a wide range of state-of-the-art research and offer unprecedented research capacity in SOE at SF State.
“This new equipment will allow students to gain hands-on experience with common research purpose of characterizing, modeling, and testing various systems,” Jiang said. “By working directly with state-of-the-art technology, our students will develop skills that make them highly competitive and well-prepared for careers in these fields.”
The new instrumentation will be housed in the applied project space in the University’s new Science & Engineering Innovation Center (SEC). Jiang’s collaborators include SOE Professors Cheng Chen and Xiaorong Zhang, Associate Professor David Quintero and Assistant Professors Jenna Wong and Zhuwei Qin.
Human-machine performance lab
DOD awarded another $409,433 grant to School of Engineering Associate Professor David Quintero to acquire state-of-the-art instrumentation for a human-machine performance lab. The new equipment will include a treadmill, markerless motion capture and human-machine interaction equipment like a robotic leg, hip exoskeleton and rehabilitation robot. Combining these instruments will help establish a research system that integrates humans and machines to enhance human physical and cognitive performance.
Quintero leads the University’s CARE (Controls for Assistive and Rehabilitation Robotics) lab, which focuses on designing wearable robotic systems that can be viable solutions for movement assistance for people with limited mobility, such as amputees or people with impaired limbs from neuromotor control deficiency. Current projects include an exoskeleton glove to help individuals with limited mobility. For this new interdisciplinary lab space, Quintero is collaborating with School of Engineering faculty Professors Xiaorong Zhang and Zhaoshuo Jiang and Assistant Professors Sanchita Ghose and Alyssa Kubota, and Department of Kinesiology faculty Professor Kate Hamel and Associate Professor Leia Bagesteiro.
“This equipment is an important accomplishment for having SF State students access to get hands-on research practice using such equipment that will allow our students to be competitive in the job market and/or pursue Ph.D. programs,” Quintero explained. “The robotic leg alone has only be at R1 institutions and the company has stated we are the first West Coast region to acquire the robotic leg.”
Quantum computing comes to SFSU
SFSU, along with Lawerence Berkeley Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, is part of new multi-institutional project funded by the DOE. Associate Professor of Computer Science Wes Bethel and Assistant Professor Daniel Huang were awarded $250,000 as part of the larger five-year grant aiming to bridge the gap between theoretical quantum advantages and practical scientific applications.
Researchers will develop quantum algorithms and quantum machine learning methods applicable across diverse scientific domains. Quantum algorithms might help overcome limitations of classical data encoding such as its high computational expense of time and memory. Unfortunately, these quantum approaches have not yet improved speed. The scientists will therefore focus on efficient quantum data encoding and error mitigation. Their project will study the relationship between scientific data analysis algorithms, data types, quantum data encoding and current quantum hardware. In addition to introducing new research prospects at SFSU, this project provides students new opportunities to collaborate with prestigious national labs.
“The grant also results in new opportunities for SFSU students in the form of education and research,” Bethel said. “The SFSU Computer Science department offers a new course in quantum computing, and the grant provides support for a limited number of students to work as part of the multi-institutional team.”
Learn more about opportunities in SFSU’s School of Engineering and Department of Computer Science.
Photo by Paul Asper
Join the Institute for Civic and Community Engagement (ICCE) in spreading cheer this holiday season with a toy drive. Donations will be accepted through Wednesday, Dec. 11, in HSS 206. ICCE welcomes donations of new, unwrapped toys and gift cards.
All donations will be distributed to youth and families in the Lakeview, Oceanview, Merced Heights and Ingleside communities of San Francisco at the annual OMI Holiday Extravaganza. This community-led event, hosted by Youth First, Invest Black SF and the OMI and Lakeshore Community Collaborative, will serve over 1,200 families.
The legal landscape surrounding reproductive rights is evolving rapidly in the wake of the Dobbs decision. Between legislative state bans, state-level ballot amendments and court cases, abortion and reproductive health care are changing every few months in the U.S. In response to these shifting policies and their broader implications, the Health Equity Institute (HEI) will launch a working group focused on “Reproduction and Health Equity.” This group aims to foster interdisciplinary discussions on the intersection of reproductive justice, health-care access and legal frameworks, providing faculty a space to explore how these changes impact health equity across diverse communities.
HEI hopes to foster a community of engaged scholars to explore broad themes in reproductive justice, spanning topics such as assisted reproductive technologies to abortion. The goal is to create a space for discussing a wide range of issues related to reproduction and health equity through shared readings, roundtable discussions and guest speakers. Faculty members with any level of interest in reproductive health — whether past, present or future — and from diverse perspectives are encouraged to participate.
HEI plans to hold four to six events on Tuesday afternoons during the spring 2025 semester. Active working group members will receive a stipend of $500 from HEI for participating. Please share your interest, availability and potential topics by completing the Qualtrics survey.
HEI will circulate a summary of responses to the interested faculty in early spring and anticipate the group’s first meeting in February.
Collaborative sites in iLearn will no longer be supported as of March 2025 as part of the Canvas transition at SF State.
To get assistance migrating collaborative site content to Canvas, please email Academic Technology at at@sfsu.edu with the name of the site as it exists in iLearn.
Read more on Academic Technology Central.
CampusMemo will go on winter hiatus after the Monday, Dec. 9, edition. It will resume publication on Tuesday, Jan. 21. For questions, please email the Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications at marcomm@sfsu.edu.
The Lam-Larsen Distinguished Lecture Series presents a discussion on “Public Policy and Corporate Strategy in the Age of AI and a Changing World” on Tuesday, Dec. 3, noon – 2:30 p.m. The discussion will feature Lenny Mendonca, senior partner emeritus at McKinsey & Co. and former chief economic adviser to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and will be led by Chris Larsen (B.S., ’84), co-founder and executive chairman of Ripple.
Expand your generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) toolkit. Academic Technology hosts “Beyond Chatbots: GenAI Images and Meetings,” a hands-on workshop to harness the power of GenAI for image creation and virtual meeting transcription and support. Open to both beginners and advanced users, this event is a great opportunity to elevate your GenAI skills in a supportive environment.
Please visit the SFSU GenAI website to learn more and register.
Ready to take your AI skills to the next level? Academic Technology hosts “Going Further with Generative AI,” a workshop designed for faculty and staff comfortable with AI chatbot basics. It takes place Thursday, Dec. 5, 10:30 – noon, via Zoom.
Learn advanced prompting techniques, explore powerful chatbot features, and practice applying them to real-world challenges like streamlining communication, improving project management, or automating routine tasks. Through hands-on activities and collaboration, you'll gain practical skills and a toolkit of advanced AI prompts that can save you time and empower you to do your best work.
Please visit the SFSU GenAI website to learn more and register.
The Lam Family College of Business, in collaboration with the School of Theatre and Dance, is pleased to bring to the campus community a staged reading of Professor of Marketing Sanjit Sengupta’s play, “Turbulence.” It will be held Sunday, Dec. 15, 3 – 5 p.m., in the Little Theatre, Creative Arts building.
Admission is free. Please reserve your seats via Eventbrite.
Information Technology Services (ITS) is excited to offer another Microsoft Copilot training session, this time in person! This session dives into Copilot’s latest features and tips to enhance workflow. It takes place Thursday, Dec. 19, 11 a.m. – noon, in Library 282.
Participants can expect a comprehensive overview of Copilot’s functionalities, hands-on demonstrations, practical tips and an interactive Q&A with expert trainers. This training is an opportunity to improve skills and boost productivity with Copilot’s tools.
SF State Spotlight
Counseling Professors Emeritae Wanda Lee and Graciela Orozco and Professor Kwong-Liem Karl Kwan are the authors of the fourth edition of “Introduction to Multicultural Counseling for Helping Professionals” (Routledge, 2024). They announced the publication during the 75th anniversary celebration of the Department of Counseling. Since the first publication in 1999, all revisions of this book have been a recurring collaborative effort that unites various cohorts of Department faculty to promote multicultural counseling education through academic publication.
This latest edition further provided mentorship to more than two dozen current and former students who participated in the research of theoretical and practitioner perspectives related to counseling ethnically diverse and culturally marginalized peoples. The textbook takes an ecological, social justice approach to multicultural counseling and incorporates contributions from other fields, such as ethnic studies and health care, to give beginning Counseling students a broad overview of the history, American experiences, current issues, practice guidelines and case studies relevant to multicultural counseling.
The mission of the Department of Counseling is to train the next generation of counselor leaders who recognize that the liberation of all communities is only possible when an intersectional, participatory, community-driven approach to counseling is practiced. Its training program is grounded in the belief that counseling, as a field of practice, affords professionals the knowledge and skills needed to carry out social justice work via strengths-based healing and wellness, advocacy, critical consciousness development and action-oriented scholarship and research.
Professor of Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts Scott Patterson has been named a fellow of the College Music Society and will be honored at the North American Music Marketing conference in January.
Associate Professor of Public Administration Ernie Joaquin and Northern Illinois University Professor Emerita Irene Rubin call on public servants at all levels of the American government to urgently examine the changed political landscape for upholding their oath to the Constitution. They wrote a a joint piece for the PA Times, the international newsletter of the American Society for Public Administration, on Nov. 22.
“Employees at all levels of government may be asked, or commanded, to do some things with which they disagree, that may be unethical, possibly even immoral, illegal or unconstitutional, that harm the public,” they wrote. “‘I was simply carrying out orders’ doesn’t compensate for the harm done. Now, before it happens, is the time to decide how you will respond if asked or ordered to do something you know to be unacceptable, possibly unforgivable.”
Joaquin has written about a “rehearsal of defenses” in previous columns for the PA Times.