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ffENGINEERING BRIGHT FUTURESRetirement launched Ted Nye into a second career teaching engineering and connecting students to employment.When Ted Nye retired from Northrop Grumman, he began a new career – sharing his experience with engineering students at the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at California State University, Los Angeles.Almost immediately, he saw that while most students were giving their best effort, the engineering facilities and Senior Design Program had been hit hard by state budget cuts. Nye decided he wanted to help provide the resources the students needed to vie for competitive jobs post-graduation.“I started volunteering here almost exactly three years ago, and I became the Northrop Grumman Endowed Chair this September,” explains Nye. “The establishment ofa state-of-the-art engineering lab has been one of my primary goals for the College. Although we are a small school, our students should have the access to the same modern resources and equipment that they would at a larger university.”Nye says he’s had a very exciting and rewarding career, and he wanted to share his experiences and abilities with others. He was determined to affect engineering education in a unique way.“I like to work on problems in which help is needed and to offer solutions that will make a difference,” he says. “I could have accepted offers from larger, well-funded campuses like USC or Loyola Marymount, but I wouldn’t be able to have the same impact there. This campus is providing opportunities to students who work hard but don’t have extensive financial resources. That’s where I came from– a large family, no money, and we were on our own.”Nye continues, “I started school at American River Junior College in Sacramento at 19 and left MIT 10 years later, after earning my bachelor’s and master’s from Purdue. The educational system had a staggering impact on my life, and now I get to work with others who are exactly where I was 30 years ago.”12