You're watching Local Edition, my name is Brad Pomerance. We thank you so much for
joining us. Our guest is Reza Abbaschian. Reza is the dean of
the School of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside.
Sir thank you so much for joining us we appreciate it. [Abbaschian] Thank you. [Pomerance] UCR, since it's
inception has always been a great friend of the City of Riverside
and I want to talk to you about the relationship that's been formed between the
UCR School of Engineering
at the City of Riverside. It's a great one.
[Abbaschian] Well, yes, we are very
proud of our relationship. In fact, our former chancellor, Ray Orbach
coined the phrase of
"honest broker" in
describing relations that should exist between university, government and
industry.
And, of course
we take all
the work that we do, research we do,
in serving
the society,
as an honest broker.
As an example is the partnership that we have
formed with the City of Riverside,
Riverside Public Utilities,
in addressing the needs of
the region.
[Pomerance] So, for example, I understand one of the
programs you partner with deals with biosolids, and converting
biosolids. Explain
[Abbaschian] Well, we have faculty members in our
Center for Environmental Research and Technology,
and the scientists in that center have
developed a technology
that takes the biosolids
and converts it to diesel fuel.
Now we have started a program in collaboration with the city
that we take the city's biosolids from solid waste treatment plants,
mix it with green waste,
and set up a pilot scale
production that will convert it to diesel fuel.
[Pomerance] I mean it is a win-win. UCR benefits,
the city benefits, the environment benefits. What more could you ask for?
[Abbaschian] Well, that's our mission, that's what we do in our college.
[Pomerance] Very exciting development. You're about to build,
or are you have built, I believe, a new facility. Talk to us about this
$56 million dollar complex.
[Abbaschian] Well, that complex is Materials Science and Engineering,
and as you know materials have always played an important role
in economics,
security and well-being of nations throughout history.
Because of that, different periods
are named after materials
Age of Bronze,
Copper Age, Iron Age... [Pomerance] No doubt! Industrial age. [Abbaschian] That's it. Now we live in the age of
advanced materials.
So, what we are doing now,
building materials from ground-up, designing and creating
from atomic level,
so that they formed the functions that we demand these materials to
perform and deliver.
Look at cell phones, look at TVs, look at cars.
So all these are based on advanced materials. So what we have done is
come up with a synergistic relations between
our faculty members,
faculty members from the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, to address the
materials needs of the country. [Pomerance] And this new complex is surely helping to advance
those programs.
[Pomerance] As we conclude, I want to talk to you about an award that your school recently
received.
I think it's fair to say some people believe that engineers are kind of
monolithic, but not UCR.
[Abbaschian] Not at UCR. As you know UC Riverside,
among the university system, is the most diverse
campus and we are proud of
that. In the College of Engineering we are also proud of what we do in training diverse
students. [Pomerance] And you won, if I may say just as we conclude,
the Claire L. Felbinger - did I say it right? - Award for
Diversity. [Abbaschian] From ABET, one of the three
universities in the country that received that award. [Pomerance] Congratulations. Thank you
for joining us.
For Local Edition, I'm Brad Pomerance, back to CNN HLN.