University members, dignitaries, and guests participate in the ribbon cutting. Photograph by Jeff Farsai, courtesy of California State University, Dominguez Hills.
California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on January 14 to open its new Orthotics and Prosthetics Education Center in Los Alamitos, California. As part of the event, students from the university’s O&P master’s degree program led tours of the 12,000-square-foot center for elected officials, industry professionals, faculty, alumni, and campus leaders to learn about the applications, techniques, and equipment available to the students. The O&P program had been housed at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Long Beach Healthcare System hospital since 2009.
“We custom designed and built this center and program. It’s a fantastic facility and is the second largest of its type in a public university in the United States,” said Scott Hornbeak, MBA, CPO, FAAOP, director of the O&P center and program. “That’s something to be proud of because we serve thousands of patients, not only locally, but throughout the nation. We are also proud because we prepare orthotics and prosthetics professionals to go into the workforce and serve in urban, underserved, and rural communities….”
The student-guided tours included the center’s patient examination room, its gait analysis area, machine and plastics fabrication labs, its library, and its mechatronics and CAD/CAM room.
