Prof. Dr. Ileana Costea

 

Ileana Costea is a full professor of Automation Engineering at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She has a Master Degree of Architecture from the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning “Ion Mincu”, Bucharest, Romania (1972), a Master of Art in Industrial Design from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA, 1975), and a Doctorate in Design Analysis from UCLA (1982). She has been the Chair of the Manufacturing Systems and Management department at CSUN (2011-2014). She has been active and in leadership positions with many organizations: National Computer Graphics Organization (NCGA), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) – Man Systems and Cybernetics Society, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), American Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences (ARA), and Viitorul Roman Society (VRS – Romanian Society in Los Angeles, California). She created several Wikipedia pages, websites, and videos/youtubes. She has published numerous papers and book chapters, organized sessions, and made presentations at conferences in the fields of: computer graphics (CG), computer-aided design & manufacturing (CAD/CAM), artificial intelligence (AI), and art. Since 1998 she has published articles on her self-imposed mission of “discovering Romanian cultural presence abroad” in various Romanian magazines and journals. In 2015 she has published the 1st volume of her articles “Exercitii de Neuitare” (that can be found on Amazon). She is working now on the 2nd volume of articles, and on two books on the commercial and fine art of American heterogeneous artist Jerry W. McDaniel. She lived for one year in Paris, France (1972-1973), where she worked as an architect. She then moved to Los Angeles, California, where she married her late husband, Nicolas V. Costea, MD, Hematologist-Oncologist, Professor of Medicine, at UCLA. Along the years she organized numerous Romanian events in Los Angeles, among which The ARA Congress in 1992 at CSUN, sculpture exhibitions of Patriciu Mateescu (1985 & 2005), an exhibition of photographs of sculptures by Constantin Brancusi (2005) and Patriciu Mateescu, and a poetry event on the occasion of Ana Blandiana and Romulus Rusan’s visit to the US West Coast (2015). She lives in Los Angeles, and divides her time into teaching manufacturing engineering at CSUN and working in the field of her other passion, art. Not being able to forget the first place where she landed as a refugee, she spends every year some months in Paris, France. She also returned to visit Romania often after 1989. Ileana has been very active in the American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Science (ARA) throughout the years. She was the General Chair of two ARA Congresses, #19 (in 1992 at CSUN), and #43 at Iasi, 2018. Currently she is the Interim President of ARA.