Sacramento State students looking for a major that will guarantee them a career after graduation may want to look into the programs offered by the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences.

There is a severe shortage of engineers in the state of California, said Emir Macari, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences. Traditionally, the state needs approximately 20,000 new engineers a year.

The California State University, the University of California and the state’s private universities typically graduate around 10,000 engineers a year, he said. This leaves the state and its companies looking outside of the state for engineers.

“When I meet with representatives of industry, they are not asking for engineers – they are yelling for them,” Macari said.

In an effort to train more engineers in the state to help deal with California’s $42 billion infrastructure needs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formed the California Engineering Education Council last year, of which Macari is a board member.

Infrastructure includes roads, highways, bridges, dams, canals, water treatment plants, public schools and universities and government buildings. The purpose of the council is to encourage, promote and recruit students to pursue higher education and enter the professional field of engineering to support California’s infrastructure.

In order to fill the jobs, the state brought in engineers from foreign countries, Macari said. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, this has been more difficult to do because of national security reasons, he said. Now the state is focusing on educating more of its citizens to take those positions.

The question is: Why does the state have a problem getting students to pursue degrees in engineering?

Macari said the problem is two-fold.

The first problem is counselors in California’s secondary schools do not do a very good job of steering students into engineering programs, he said. One of the goals of the California Engineering Education Council is to implement change in the educational system to better prepare K-12 students for an engineering course of study at the college level.

The second problem is retaining students once they enter college engineering programs. Only one in three students who began an engineering program obtains a degree in engineering, Macari said.

Engineering majors typically do not take any engineering classes until their junior year, spending their first two years taking a heavy load of mathematics and science courses in order to prepare them for engineering classes, Macari said.

“Many freshmen and sophomores get disillusioned and disinterested,” Macari said. “They can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

To help retain students in Sac State’s engineering programs, Macari implemented a peer coaching program. The program teams upper-division engineering students with lower-division students meeting once a week to help keep students motivated.

Macari based the peer-coaching program on a similar program established by the Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement program.

He wants to begin offering freshmen and sophomores engineering courses to keep them interested.

Van Tsan, junior civil engineering major, said he worked through several classes, like statistics and surveying, that weed out many engineering students.

“The program takes a lot of hard work,” he said. “Most people don’t want to work that hard to enter the field.”

The College of Engineering and Computer Science makes efforts to connect its students with private companies and state agencies that are in massive need of engineers, including an interactive website and an annual career fair.

Director of Career Services for the College of Engineering and Computer Science Cici Mattiuzzi and her webmaster Richard Mark have developed a website that brings companies looking for engineers and engineering students together. The website allows students to get career and job interview advice, look at job postings and create and post their résumés. The Engineering and Computer Science Career Services website allows employers to post job offerings, view student résumés and schedule interviews with students.

A major effort by the college to connect students and employers was the annual College of Engineering and Computer Science Career Fair that was held March 3.

A total of 130 companies and state agencies, including Pacific Bell, Hewlett Packard, Caltrans, Intel, C.C. Meyers, Inc. and Altec Industries, participated in the event. Employers participating in the event had a combined 4,136 job openings.

Director of Recruiting and Administration for C.C. Meyers, Inc. Terrence McNamara said his company has six full-time openings and eight summer internship positions. This is the third year McNamara was involved with the career fair.

“I spend as much time as I can at this event talking with sophomores and juniors about what their options are,” McNamara said. “Talking with students and finding out what their interests are is what makes this event fun for me.”

Debbie Muhl of Human Resources for Altec Industries said her company usually fills its positions through events like the career fair. This year, Altec Industries has five engineering positions it is trying to fill.

Seminars on engineering and computer science at this year’s career fair were put on by PG&E, Caltrans, Intel, the California Air Resources Board, the Franchise Tax Board and AT&T on topics ranging from building and maintaining California’s infrastructure to telecommunication services.

More than 100 students from the college volunteered to help at the event, Mattiuzzi said. Much of the recruiting and coordinating of the volunteers was done through the career services website, she said.

“The logistics of putting this event together is like a military operation,” Mattiuzzi said. “Using innovative technology like the website has made it much easier and more efficient.”

President of the Association for Computer Machinery and senior computer science major Marcus Watstein said the organization had 20 students volunteer at the event. While he thinks the career fair will help him to get a job, Watstein wishes there were more firms at the event looking for computer science majors.

“I feel that I have made an excellent life choice with a career set in front of me as I graduate,” Watstein said.

Sarah Hilenan, junior civil engineering major, volunteered to greet and help representatives of the participating firms set up booths.

“I volunteered because I thought it would give me a chance to get some one-on-one time with the representatives and get to know their firms better,” Hilenan said.

Raju Nair, senior electrical and electronic engineering major, handed out résumés to AT&T, NEC Electronics America Inc. and Intel in the hopes of finding a summer internship.

“I want to get some real-world, hands-on experience before I graduate,” Nair said.

Greg Holden of NEC Electronics America Inc. said his company is looking for students’ talents and breadth in their résumés. Holden is also talking with students to gauge their ability to communicate, he said. NEC is looking to fill three engineering positions and is not offering any internships this year.

“I came to the career fair to see what direction the engineering field is going in,” said Aman Gahoonia, junior electric and electronic engineering major. “I want to know what kind of jobs are available in this tough economic climate.”

Van Tsan said the career fair helped him decide where to apply for internships in the future.

The College of Engineering and Computer Science Career Services website can be accessed at http://hera.ecs.csus.edu/career/.

Todd Wilson can be reached at [email protected].