The Brief

The Autodesk Technology Engagement Center is now open to students at Cal State Northridge. It's goal is to expose more students to the tech career paths and better prepare them for the workforce.

The $62.7 million center offers hands-on STEM and AI skills training, is open to all students on campus and extends to K-12 students.

“The reality is that schools like CSUN serve students who haven’t always had access to the latest technology, mentorship or high-tech, hands-on learning,” said Dara Treseder, chief marketing officer at Autodesk.

Nearly 70% of CSUN's incoming students in the fall of 2024 were the first in their families to attend college. This year's fall class is nearly 58% Latinx/Hispanic, according to the school.

The center will also host equity-focused STEM programming and be home to the Global Hispanic Serving Institution Innovation Hub, to open more pathways to tech careers.

What we know about the center

The ATEC will also house six labs where students can study augmented reality and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and earthquake resiliency at the High Bay Structural Lab.

Peter Bishay, mechanical engineering professor at CSUN, said the space used to be a small parking lot.

“I'm really glad that we managed to use the space wisely,” Bishay told LAist. “This will support a lot of civil engineering students doing different projects.”

Students are working with Bishay on projects including prosthetic arm design and control, morphing drones that mimic birds in flight, and smart structures that can change shape.

“Of course, we’ll have a lot of possibilities with this new building,” Bishay said.

The $63 million hub is intended to expose more students to tech careers and better prepare them for the workforce.

(

Courtesy CSUN and Autodesk

)

Why it matters 

Treseder said students don’t feel adequately prepared for tech jobs.

Autodesk’s Career Readiness Report found that nearly half of U.S. college students don’t believe they’re learning the right AI skills to land a job, and 70% want more classes focused on solving real-world problems. Fewer than 40% feel they have access to the industry-grade tools they’ll be expected to use.

“Spaces like the ATEC are designed to change that, giving students the technology, mentorship and hands-on learning they’ve been asking for,” Treseder said.

CSUN President Erika Beck said this experience is also reaching younger students through the hub’s K-12 outreach.

“If we wait until the students get to Cal State Northridge, in many regards, it's too late for them to be thinking about these really in-demand careers,” Beck said. “We also have family programming. It's that level of exposure and that broad representation from our students and our faculty to help them really see themselves in these jobs that many of them don't know.”

Grade school students will have access to mathematics and science courses to introduce them to the STEM fields.

“We have maker space and all kinds of projects and technologies and robotics for young students to come to the university and play with them, use the 3D printers, engage in collaborative design spaces and really see their future in this industry,” Beck said.

Part of a larger AI push

The hub’s opening comes as the CSU system and California strengthen their partnerships with big tech companies to fold AI into more campuses.

Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a deal with a slew of companies that include Adobe, Google and Microsoft to make their products and AI courses more available to the state.

CSU leaders also launched a landmark initiative in February to make AI tech available to all 23 universities. The initiative is intended to work and connect students across the state with hands-on partnership opportunities with some companies.

The Orange County District Attorney dropped murder charges in a decades-old case tainted by the so-called jailhouse snitch scandal, instead accepting a lesser guilty plea of voluntary manslaughter.

Why it matters

A decade ago, in the wake of the county’s biggest mass murder, the O.C. Public Defender’s Office discovered that local law enforcement had been illegally using informants — sometimes called snitches — to get information and confessions from defendants in jail. The discovery has unraveled close to 60 criminal convictions to date and tainted the reputations of the O.C. District Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Department.

What's the backstory?

Paul Smith was convicted of murder in 2010 for stabbing his childhood friend Robert Haugen to death in 1988 and then setting the body on fire in the victim’s Sunset Beach apartment. A decade later it came to light that O.C. law enforcement illegally used jailhouse informants to bolster their case against Haugen, and then hid that from the defense, ultimately leading a judge to throw out the conviction and order a new trial.

Now that trial won’t happen. Under a plea deal struck with the current District Attorney’s ffice, Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday and will serve another five years in prison before being released.

‘Reprehensible’ behavior from prosecutors

In a ruling last year, a San Diego judge overseeing Smith’s case said Orange County prosecutors had shown “reprehensible” behavior in pursuit of convicting Smith. He also said Ebrahim Baytieh, a former prosecutor and, now, Superior Court judge, was “not truthful” during court proceedings.

The takeaway?

Current District Attorney Todd Spitzer has repeatedly said his office has implemented reforms to ensure the rights of criminal defendants to a fair trial. He released a statement saying his office has taken steps to reverse the "cheat to win" missteps of an earlier administration and lamented that a murder defendant will now have an easier path to release:

What does the defense say?

Scott Sanders, Smith’s attorney and the former assistant public defender who uncovered the so-called “snitch scandal,” says not enough has been done to reexamine cases in which tainted evidence may have been used to convict people.

Go deeper:

• Judge rips into OC prosecutors and calls their misconduct 'reprehensible'
• Is the OC snitch scandal over? Why there’s no easy answer
• OC Snitch Case: An Orange County judge is accused of a criminal cover-up
• Jailhouse informants: Has Orange County reformed its ways?

Orange County’s biennial count of people experiencing homelessness starts on Tuesday.

Over the course of three days, volunteers will fan out across the county to determine how many people are experiencing homelessness so officials can decide what services are needed and keep track of changing demographics and trends.

Around 17,000 people in Orange County lost their housing and fell into homelessness in 2025, according to data from United to End Homelessness, a coalition of business, civic and political leaders.

The last point in time count in Orange County saw a spike of around 28% in the number of unhoused people, with around 7,300 people experiencing homelessness. Results for the point in time count usually come out in May.

This year’s count will be the first since the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass ruling in 2024 which made it illegal for unhoused people to camp on public properties even if they don’t have a place to sleep. Since then, Orange County cities like Newport Beach, Anaheim and Fullerton have ramped up anti-camping laws by making it illegal for people to lie down on park benches, sleep on sidewalks or even lay your bag down on the sidewalk. Late last year, the county also followed suit.

The count also comes as Orange County grapples with potential federal funding cuts and increased costs for homelessness programs.

If the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development cuts Continuum of Care funds, around 1,400 households will not have a home, Nishtha Mohendra, chief program officer for Families Forward, said at United to End Homelessness’ recent 2026 State of Homelessness.

“That would mean that we run the risk of having an even higher two-digit increased literal homelessness in our community. That has the ripple effect of everything that impacts our system,” she said.

How the count works

Volunteers, including service providers and law enforcement, will fan out from six locations over three days in the morning and evening. Tuesday is dedicated to central cities, including Santa Ana and Fountain Valley, Wednesday for the northern region and Thursday for the southern cities.

It’s still not too late to volunteer, with the county looking for people to take on different roles, including for set up and clean up. To learn more about how to get involved, click here.