text: Once the enemy was deemed sufficiently weakened, the noyans would give the order. The drums would beat and the signal flags wave, telling the lancers to begin their charge. Often, the devastation of the arrows was enough to rout an enemy, so the lancers were only needed to help pursue and mop up the remnants. At the Battle of Mohi, the Mongols left open a gap in their ranks, luring the Hungarians into retreating through it. This resulted in the Hungarians being strung out over all the countryside and easy pickings for mounted archers who simply galloped along and picked them off, while the lancers skewered them as they fled.


title: Mongol military tactics and organization

text: Mongol armies practised horsemanship, archery, and unit tactics, formations and rotations over and over again. This training was maintained by a hard, but not overly harsh or unreasonable, discipline.


text: Officers and troopers alike were usually given a wide leeway by their superiors in carrying out their orders, so long as the larger objectives of the plan were well served and the orders promptly obeyed. The Mongols thus avoided the pitfalls of overly rigid discipline and micromanagement, which have impeded armed forces throughout history. However, all members had to be unconditionally loyal to each other and to their superiors, and especially to the Khan. If one soldier ran from danger in battle, he and his nine comrades from the same arban would face the death penalty together.


text: Six of every ten Mongol troopers were light cavalry horse archers; the remaining four were more heavily armored and armed lancers. Mongol light cavalry were extremely light troops compared to contemporary standards, allowing them to execute tactics and maneuvers that would have been impractical for a heavier enemy (such as European knights). Most of the remaining troops were heavier cavalry with lances for close combat after the archers had brought the enemy into disarray. Soldiers usually carried scimitars or halberds as well.


text: The Mongols protected their horses in the same way as did they themselves, covering them with lamellar armor. Horse armor was divided into five parts and designed to protect every part of the horse, including the forehead, which had a specially crafted plate, which was tied on each side of the neck.


text: A warrior relied on his herd to provide him with staple foods of milk and meat; hide for bowstrings, shoes, and armor; dried dung to be used as fuel for his fire; hair for rope, battle standards, musical instruments and helmet decorations; milk also used for shamanistic ceremonies to ensure victory; and for hunting and entertainment that often served as military training. If he died in battle, a horse would sometimes be sacrificed with him to provide a mount for the afterlife.


text: All horses were equipped with stirrups. This technical advantage made it easier for the Mongol archers to turn their upper body, and shoot in all directions, including backward. Mongol warriors would time the loosing of an arrow to the moment when a galloping horse would have all four feet off the ground, thus ensuring a steady, well-aimed shot.


text: Each soldier had two to 10 horses—so when a horse tired they could change to one of the others. This made them one of the fastest armies in the world, but also made the Mongol army vulnerable to shortages of fodder. Campaigning in arid regions such as Central Asia or forested regions of Southern China were thus difficult and even in ideal steppe terrain, a Mongol force had to keep moving to ensure sufficient grazing for its massive horse herd.


text: Mongol armies traveled light, and were able to live largely off the land. Their equipment included fish hooks and other tools meant to make each warrior independent of any fixed supply source. The most common travel food of the Mongols was dried and ground meat "borts", which remains common in Mongolian cuisine today. Borts were light and easy to transport, and can be cooked with water similarly to a modern "instant soup".


text: To ensure they would always have fresh horses, each trooper usually had 3 or 4 mounts. The horse is viewed much like a cow in Mongolia, and is milked and slaughtered for meat as such. Since most of the Mongols' mounts were mares, they were able to live off their horses' milk or milk products as they moved through enemy territory. In dire straits, the Mongol warrior could drink some of the blood from his string of remounts. They could survive a whole month on only drinking mare's milk combined with mare's blood.


text: Heavier equipment was brought up by well organized supply trains. Wagons and carts carried, amongst other things, large stockpiles of arrows. The main logistical factor limiting their advance was finding enough food and water for their animals. This would lead to serious difficulties during some of the Mongol campaigns, such as their conflicts with the Mamluks, the arid terrain of Syria and the Levant making it difficult for large Mongol armies to penetrate the region, especially given the Mamluk's scorched earth policy of burning grazing lands throughout the region. It also limited the Mongol ability to exploit their success following the Battle of Mohi, as even the Great Hungarian Plain was not large enough to provide grazing for all the flocks and herds following Subutai's army permanently.


text: The Mongols established a system of postal-relay horse stations called "Örtöö", for the fast transfer of written messages. The Mongol mail system was the first such empire-wide service since the Roman Empire. Additionally, Mongol battlefield communication utilized signal flags and horns and to a lesser extent, signal arrows to communicate movement orders during combat.


text: The basic armor of the Mongol fighting man consisted of a heavy coat fastened at the waist by a leather belt. From the belt would hang his sword, dagger, and possibly an axe. This long robe-like coat would double over, left breast over right, and be secured with a button a few inches below the right armpit. The coat was lined with fur. Underneath the coat, a shirt-like undergarment with long, wide sleeves was commonly worn. Silk and metallic thread were increasingly used. The Mongols wore protective heavy silk undershirts. Even if an arrow pierced their mail or leather outer garment, the silk from the undershirt would stretch to wrap itself around the arrow as it entered the body, reducing damage caused by the arrow shaft, and making removal of the arrow easier.


text: The boots were made from felt and leather and, though heavy, would be comfortable and wide enough to accommodate the trousers tucked in before being laced tightly. They were heelless, though the soles were thick and lined with fur. Worn with felt socks, the feet were unlikely to get cold.


text: Lamellar armor was worn over the thick coat. The armor was composed of small scales of iron, chain mail, or hard leather sewn together with leather tongs and could weigh if made of leather alone and more if the cuirass was made of metal scales. The leather was first softened by boiling and then coated in a crude lacquer made from pitch, which rendered it waterproof. Sometimes the soldier's heavy coat was simply reinforced with metal plates.


text: Helmets were cone shaped and composed of iron or steel plates of different sizes and included iron-plated neck guards. The Mongol cap was conical in shape and made of quilted material with a large turned-up brim, reversible in winter, and earmuffs. Whether a soldier's helmet was leather or metal depended on his rank and wealth.


text: Mounted archers were a major part of the armies of the Mongol Empire, for instance at the 13th-century Battle of Liegnitz, where an army including 20,000 horse archers defeated a force of 30,000 troops led by Henry II, duke of Silesia, via demoralization and continued harassment.


text: The primary weapon of the Mongol forces was their composite bows made from laminated horn, wood, and sinew. The layer of horn is on the inner face as it resists compression, while the layer of sinew is on the outer face as it resists tension. Such bows, with minor variations, had been the main weapon of steppe herdsmen and steppe warriors for over two millennia; Mongols (and many of their subject peoples) were extremely skilled with them. Some were said to be able to hit a bird on the wing. Composite construction allows a powerful and relatively efficient bow to be made small enough that it can be used easily from horseback.


text: Quivers containing sixty arrows were strapped to the backs of their cavalrymen and to their horses. Mongol archers typically carried 2 to 3 bows (one heavier and intended for dismounted use, the other lighter and used from horseback) that were accompanied by multiple quivers and files for sharpening their arrowheads. These arrowheads were hardened by plunging them in brine after first heating them red hot.


text: The Mongols could shoot an arrow over . Targeted shots were possible at a range of , which determined the optimal tactical approach distance for light cavalry units. Ballistic shots could hit enemy units (without targeting individual soldiers) at distances of up to , useful for surprising and scaring troops and horses before beginning the actual attack. Shooting from the back of a moving horse may be more accurate if the arrow is loosed in the phase of the gallop when all four of the horse's feet are off the ground.


text: The Mongols may have also used crossbows (possibly acquired from the Chinese), also both for infantry and cavalry, but these were scarcely ever seen or used in battle. The Manchus forbade archery by their Mongol subjects, and the Mongolian bowmaking tradition was lost during the Qing Dynasty. The present bowmaking tradition emerged after independence in 1921 and is based on Manchu types of bow, somewhat different from the bows known to have been used by the Mongol empire. Mounted archery had fallen into disuse and has been revived only in the 21st century.


text: Mongol swords were slightly curved Turko-Mongol sabers, which they used for slashing attacks but could also use to cut and thrust, due to its shape and construction. This made it easier to use from horseback. Warriors could use the sword with a one-handed or two-handed grip. Its blade was usually around in length, with an overall length of approximately .


text: The first concerted Mongol invasion of Jin occurred in 1211 and total conquest was not accomplished until 1234. In 1232 the Mongols besieged the Jin capital of Kaifeng and deployed gunpowder weapons along with other more conventional siege techniques such as building stockades, watchtowers, trenches, guardhouses, and forcing Chinese captives to haul supplies and fill moats. Jin scholar Liu Qi (劉祈) recounts in his memoir, "the attack against the city walls grew increasingly intense, and bombs rained down as [the enemy] advanced." The Jin defenders also deployed gunpowder bombs as well as fire arrows ("huo jian" 火箭) launched using a type of early solid-propellant rocket. Of the bombs, Liu Qi writes, "From within the walls the defenders responded with a gunpowder bomb called the heaven-shaking-thunder bomb (震天雷). Whenever the [Mongol] troops encountered one, several men at a time would be turned into ashes." A more fact based and clear description of the bomb exists in the "History of Jin": "The heaven-shaking-thunder bomb is an iron vessel filled with gunpowder. When lighted with fire and shot off, it goes off like a crash of thunder that can be heard for a hundred li [thirty miles], burning an expanse of land more than half a mu [所爇圍半畝之上, a mu is a sixth of an acre], and the fire can even penetrate iron armor." A Ming official named He Mengchuan would encounter an old cache of these bombs three centuries later in the Xi'an area: "When I went on official business to Shaanxi Province, I saw on top of Xi'an's city walls an old stockpile of iron bombs. They were called 'heaven-shaking-thunder' bombs, and they were like an enclosed rice bowl with a hole at the top, just big enough to put your finger in. The troops said they hadn't been used for a very long time." Furthermore, he wrote, "When the powder goes off, the bomb rips open, and the iron pieces fly in all directions. That is how it is able to kill people and horses from far away."


text: Heaven-shaking-thunder bombs, also known as thunder crash bombs, were utilized prior to the siege in 1231 when a Jin general made use of them in destroying a Mongol warship, but during the siege the Mongols responded by protecting themselves with elaborate screens of thick cowhide. This was effective enough for workers to get right up to the walls to undermine their foundations and excavate protective niches. Jin defenders countered by tying iron cords and attaching them to heaven-shaking-thunder bombs, which were lowered down the walls until they reached the place where the miners worked. The protective leather screens were unable to withstand the explosion, and were penetrated, killing the excavators. Another weapon the Jin employed was an improved version of the fire lance called the flying fire lance. The "History of Jin" provides a detailed description: "To make the lance, use chi-huang paper, sixteen layers of it for the tube, and make it a bit longer than two feet. Stuff it with willow charcoal, iron fragments, magnet ends, sulfur, white arsenic [probably an error that should mean saltpeter], and other ingredients, and put a fuse to the end. Each troop has hanging on him a little iron pot to keep fire [probably hot coals], and when it's time to do battle, the flames shoot out the front of the lance more than ten feet, and when the gunpowder is depleted, the tube isn't destroyed." While Mongol soldiers typically held a view of disdain toward most Jin weapons, apparently they greatly feared the flying fire lance and heaven-shaking-thunder bomb. Kaifeng managed to hold out for a year before the Jin emperor fled and the city capitulated. In some cases Jin troops still fought with some success, scoring isolated victories such as when a Jin commander led 450 fire lancers against a Mongol encampment, which was "completely routed, and three thousand five hundred were drowned." Even after the Jin emperor committed suicide in 1234, one loyalist gathered all the metal he could find in the city he was defending, even gold and silver, and made explosives to lob against the Mongols, but the momentum of the Mongol Empire could not be stopped. By 1234, both the Western Xia and Jin dynasty had been conquered.


text: The Mongol war machine moved south and in 1237 attacked the Song city of Anfeng (modern Shouxian, Anhui Province) "using gunpowder bombs [huo pao] to burn the [defensive] towers." These bombs were apparently quite large. "Several hundred men hurled one bomb, and if it hit the tower it would immediately smash it to pieces." The Song defenders under commander Du Gao (杜杲) rebuilt the towers and retaliated with their own bombs, which they called the "Elipao," after a famous local pear, probably in reference to the shape of the weapon. Perhaps as another point of military interest, the account of this battle also mentions that the Anfeng defenders were equipped with a type of small arrow to shoot through eye slits of Mongol armor, as normal arrows were too thick to penetrate.


text: By the mid 13th century, gunpowder weapons had become central to the Song war effort. In 1257 the Song official Li Zengbo was dispatched to inspect frontier city arsenals. Li considered an ideal city arsenal to include several hundred thousand iron bombshells, and also its own production facility to produce at least a couple of thousand a month. The results of his tour of the border were severely disappointing and in one arsenal he found "no more than 85 iron bomb-shells, large and small, 95 fire-arrows, and 105 fire-lances. This is not sufficient for a mere hundred men, let alone a thousand, to use against an attack by the ... barbarians. The government supposedly wants to make preparations for the defense of its fortified cities, and to furnish them with military supplies against the enemy (yet this is all they give us). What chilling indifference!" Fortunately for the Song, Möngke Khan died in 1259 and the war would not continue until 1269 under the leadership of Kublai Khan, but when it did the Mongols came in full force.


text: Blocking the Mongols' passage south of the Yangtze were the twin fortress cities of Xiangyang and Fancheng. What resulted was one of the longest sieges the world had ever known, lasting from 1268 to 1273. For the first three years the Song defenders had been able to receive supplies and reinforcements by water, but in 1271 the Mongols set up a full blockade with a formidable navy of their own, isolating the two cities. This didn't prevent the Song from running the supply route anyway, and two men with the surname Zhang did exactly that. The Two Zhangs commanded a hundred paddle wheel boats, travelling by night under the light of lantern fire, but were discovered early on by a Mongol commander. When the Song fleet arrived near the cities, they found the Mongol fleet to have spread themselves out along the entire width of the Yangtze with "vessels spread out, filling the entire surface of the river, and there was no gap for them to enter." Another defensive measure the Mongols had taken was the construction of a chain, which stretched across the water. The two fleets engaged in combat and the Song opened fire with fire-lances, fire-bombs, and crossbows. A large number of men died trying to cut through chains, pull up stakes, and hurl bombs, while Song marines fought hand to hand using large axes, and according to the Mongol record, "on their ships they were up to the ankles in blood." With the rise of dawn, the Song vessels made it to the city walls and the citizens "leapt up a hundred times in joy." In 1273 the Mongols enlisted the expertise of two Muslim engineers, one from Persia and one from Syria, who helped in the construction of counterweight trebuchets. These new siege weapons had the capability of throwing larger missiles further than the previous traction trebuchets. One account records, "when the machinery went off the noise shook heaven and earth; every thing that [the missile] hit was broken and destroyed." The fortress city of Xiangyang fell in 1273.


text: The next major battle to feature gunpowder weapons was during a campaign led by the Mongol general Bayan, who commanded an army of around two hundred thousand, consisting of mostly Chinese soldiers. It was probably the largest army the Mongols had ever utilized. Such an army was still unable to successfully storm Song city walls, as seen in the 1274 Siege of Shayang. Thus Bayan waited for the wind to change to a northerly course before ordering his artillerists to begin bombarding the city with molten metal bombs, which caused such a fire that "the buildings were burned up and the smoke and flames rose up to heaven." Shayang was captured and its inhabitants massacred.


text: Gunpowder bombs were used again in the 1275 Siege of Changzhou in the latter stages of the Mongol-Song Wars. Upon arriving at the city, Bayan gave the inhabitants an ultimatum: "if you ... resist us ... we shall drain your carcasses of blood and use them for pillows." This didn't work and the city resisted anyway, so the Mongol army bombarded them with fire bombs before storming the walls, after which followed an immense slaughter claiming the lives of a quarter million. The war lasted for only another four years during which some remnants of the Song held up last desperate defenses. In 1277, 250 defenders under Lou Qianxia conducted a suicide bombing and set off a huge iron bomb when it became clear defeat was imminent. Of this, the "History of Song" writes, "the noise was like a tremendous thunderclap, shaking the walls and ground, and the smoke filled up the heavens outside. Many of the troops [outside] were startled to death. When the fire was extinguished they went in to see. There were just ashes, not a trace left." So came an end to the Mongol-Song Wars, which saw the deployment of all the gunpowder weapons available to both sides at the time, which for the most part meant gunpowder arrows, bombs, and lances, but in retrospect, another development would overshadow them all, the birth of the gun.


text: In 1280, a large store of gunpowder at Weiyang in Yangzhou accidentally caught fire, producing such a massive explosion that a team of inspectors at the site a week later deduced that some 100 guards had been killed instantly, with wooden beams and pillars blown sky high and landing at a distance of over 10 li (~2 mi. or ~3 km) away from the explosion, creating a crater more than ten feet deep. One resident described the noise of the explosion as if it "was like a volcano erupting, a tsunami crashing. The entire population was terrified." According to surviving reports, the incident was caused by inexperienced gunpowder makers hired to replace the previous ones, and had been careless while grinding sulfur. A spark caused by the grinding process came into contact with some fire lances which immediately started spewing flames and jetting around "like frightened snakes." The gunpowder makers did nothing as they found the sight highly amusing, that is until one fire lance burst into a cache of bombs, causing the entire complex to explode. The validity of this report is somewhat questionable, assuming everyone within the immediate vicinity was killed.


text: By the time of Jiao Yu and his "Huolongjing" (a book that describes military applications of gunpowder in great detail) in the mid 14th century, the explosive potential of gunpowder was perfected, as the level of nitrate in gunpowder formulas had risen from a range of 12% to 91%, with at least 6 different formulas in use that are considered to have maximum explosive potential for gunpowder. By that time, the Chinese had discovered how to create explosive round shot by packing their hollow shells with this nitrate-enhanced gunpowder.


text: Gunpowder may have been used during the Mongol invasions of Europe. "Fire catapults", ""pao"", and "naphtha-shooters" are mentioned in some sources. However, according to Timothy May, "there is no concrete evidence that the Mongols used gunpowder weapons on a regular basis outside of China."


text: Shortly after the Mongol invasions of Japan (1274–1281), the Japanese produced a scroll painting depicting a bomb. Called tetsuhau in Japanese, the bomb is speculated to have been the Chinese thunder crash bomb. Japanese descriptions of the invasions also talk of iron and bamboo "pao" causing "light and fire" and emitting 2–3,000 iron bullets.


text: Traditionally the first appearance of the hand cannon is dated to the late 13th century, just after the Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty. However a sculpture depicting a figure carrying a gourd shaped hand cannon was discovered among the Dazu Rock Carvings in 1985 by Robin Yates. The sculptures were completed roughly 250 km northwest of Chongqing by 1128, after the fall of Kaifeng to the Jin dynasty. If the dating is correct this would push back the appearance of the cannon in China by a hundred years more than previously thought. The bulbous nature of the cannon is congruous with the earliest hand cannons discovered in China and Europe.


text: Archaeological samples of the gun, specifically the hand cannon (huochong), have been dated starting from the 13th century. The oldest extant gun whose dating is unequivocal is the Xanadu Gun, so called because it was discovered in the ruins of Xanadu, the Mongol summer palace in Inner Mongolia. The Xanadu Gun is 34.7 cm in length and weighs 6.2 kg. Its dating is based on archaeological context and a straightforward inscription whose era name and year corresponds with the Gregorian Calendar at 1298. Not only does the inscription contain the era name and date, it also includes a serial number and manufacturing information which suggests that gun production had already become systematized, or at least become a somewhat standardized affair by the time of its fabrication. The design of the gun includes axial holes in its rear which some speculate could have been used in a mounting mechanism. Like most early guns with the possible exception of the Western Xia gun, it is small, weighing just over six kilograms and thirty-five centimeters in length. Although the Xanadu Gun is the most precisely dated gun from the 13th century, other extant samples with approximate dating likely predate it.


text: One candidate is the Heilongjiang hand cannon, discovered in 1970, and named after the province of its discovery, Heilongjiang, in northeastern China. It is small and light like the Xanadu gun, weighing only 3.5 kilograms, 34 cm (Needham says 35 cm), and a bore of approximately 2.5 cm. Based on contextual evidence, historians believe it was used by Yuan forces against a rebellion by Mongol prince Nayan in 1287. The History of Yuan states that a Jurchen commander known as Li Ting led troops armed with hand cannons into battle against Nayan. It reports that the cannons of Li Ting's soldiers "caused great damage," but also created "such confusion that the enemy soldiers attacked and killed each other." The hand cannons were used again in the beginning of 1288. Li Ting's "gun-soldiers" or "chongzu" () were able to carry the hand cannons "on their backs". The passage on the 1288 battle is also the first to coin the name "chong" () with the metal radical "jin" () for metal-barrel firearms. "Chong" was used instead of the earlier and more ambiguous term "huo tong" (fire tube; ), which may refer to the tubes of fire lances, proto-cannons, or signal flares.


text: Even older, the Ningxia gun was found in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region by collector Meng Jianmin (孟建民). This Yuan dynasty firearm is 34.6 cm long, the muzzle 2.6 cm in diameter, and weighs 1.55 kilograms. The firearm contains a transcription reading, "Made by bronzesmith Li Liujing in the year Zhiyuan 8 (直元), ningzi number 2565" (銅匠作頭李六徑，直元捌年造，寧字二仟伍百陸拾伍號). Similar to the Xanadu Gun, it bears a serial number 2565, which suggests it may have been part of a series of guns manufactured. While the era name and date corresponds with the Gregorian Calendar at 1271 CE, putting it earlier than both the Heilongjiang Hand Gun as well as the Xanadu Gun, but one of the characters used in the era name is irregular, causing some doubt among scholars on the exact date of production.


text: Another specimen, the Wuwei Bronze Cannon, was discovered in 1980 and may possibly be the oldest as well as largest cannon of the 13th century: a 100 centimeter 108 kilogram bronze cannon discovered in a cellar in Wuwei, Gansu Province containing no inscription, but has been dated by historians to the late Western Xia period between 1214 and 1227. The gun contained an iron ball about nine centimeters in diameter, which is smaller than the muzzle diameter at twelve centimeters, and 0.1 kilograms of gunpowder in it when discovered, meaning that the projectile might have been another co-viative. Ben Sinvany and Dang Shoushan believe that the ball used to be much larger prior to its highly corroded state at the time of discovery. While large in size, the weapon is noticeably more primitive than later Yuan dynasty guns, and is unevenly cast. A similar weapon was discovered not far from the discovery site in 1997, but much smaller in size at only 1.5 kg. Chen Bingying disputes this however, and argues there were no guns before 1259, while Dang Shoushan believes the Western Xia guns point to the appearance of guns by 1220, and Stephen Haw goes even further by stating that guns were developed as early as 1200. Sinologist Joseph Needham and renaissance siege expert Thomas Arnold provide a more conservative estimate of around 1280 for the appearance of the "true" cannon. Whether or not any of these are correct, it seems likely that the gun was born sometime during the 13th century.


text: Technology was one of the important facets of Mongolian warfare. For instance, siege machines were an important part of Genghis Khan's warfare, especially in attacking fortified cities. The siege engines were not disassembled and carried by horses to be rebuilt at the site of the battle, as was the usual practice with European armies. Instead the Mongol horde would travel with skilled engineers who would build siege engines from scratch from materials on site.


text: The engineers building the machines were recruited among captives, mostly from China and Persia, led by a Han general Guo Kan. When Mongols slaughtered the whole population from settlements that resisted or did not surrender, they often spared the engineers and other units, swiftly assimilating them into the Mongol armies.


text: Engineers in Mongol service displayed a considerable degree of ingenuity and planning; during a siege of a fortified Chinese city, the defenders had taken care to remove all large rocks from the region to deny the Mongols an ammunition supply for their trebuchets, but the Mongol engineers resorted to cutting up logs which they soaked in water to make suitably heavy spheres. During the siege of the Assassins' fortress of Alamut the Mongols gathered large rocks from far and wide, piling them up in depots a day's journey from one another all the way to their siege lines so that a huge supply was available for the breaching batteries operating against the mighty citadel. The Mongols also scouted the hills around the city to find suitable higher ground on which to mount ballistas manned by northern Chinese engineers, allowing these to snipe into the interior of the fortress. The Mongols made effective use of the siege technologies developed by their subject peoples; Genghis Khan utilized the Chinese engineers and traction trebuchets he had gained from his victories over the Jurchens and Tanguts during his Khwarezmian campaign, while Kublai Khan later called upon Muslim engineers from his Ilkhanate cousins to build counterweight trebuchets that finally concluded the six year siege of Fancheng and Xiangyang.


text: A commonly used Mongol tactic involved the use of the "kharash". The Mongols would gather prisoners captured in previous battles, and would drive them forward in sieges and battles. These "shields" would often take the brunt of enemy arrows and crossbow-bolts, thus somewhat protecting the ethnically Mongol warriors.


text: The Mongol battlefield tactics were a combination of masterful training with excellent communication and discipline in the chaos of combat. They trained for virtually every possibility, so when it occurred, they could react accordingly. The Mongols also protected their ranking officers well. Their training and discipline allowed them to fight without the need for constant supervision or rallying, which often placed commanders in dangerous positions.


text: Whenever possible, Mongol commanders found the highest ground available, from which they could make tactical decisions based on the best view of the battlefield as events unfolded. Furthermore, being on high ground allowed their forces to observe commands conveyed by flags more easily than if the ground were level. In addition, keeping the high command on high ground made them easier to defend from sudden attacks and invasions.


text: The Mongols carefully scouted out and spied on their enemies in advance of any invasion. Prior to the invasion of Europe, Batu and Subutai sent spies for almost ten years into the heart of Europe, making maps of the old Roman roads, establishing trade routes, and determining the level of ability of each principality to resist invasion. They made well-educated guesses as to the willingness of each principality to aid the others, and their ability to resist alone or together. Also, when invading an area, the Mongols would do all that was necessary to completely conquer the town or cities. Some tactics involved diverting rivers from the city/town , closing supplies/resources to the city and waiting for its inhabitants to surrender, gathering civilians from the nearby areas to fill the front line for the city/town attack before scaling the wall, and pillaging the surrounding area and killing some of the people, then letting some survivors flee to the main city to report their losses to the main populace to weaken resistance, simultaneously draining the resources of the city with the sudden influx of refugees.


text: The Mongols used psychological warfare extremely successfully in many of their battles, especially in terms of spreading terror and fear to towns and cities. They often offered an opportunity for the enemy to surrender and pay tribute, instead of having their city ransacked and destroyed. They knew that sedentary populations were not free to flee danger as were nomad populations, and that the destruction of their cities was the worst loss a sedentary population could experience. When cities accepted the offer, they were spared, but were required to support the conquering Mongol army with manpower, supplies, and other services.


text: If the offer was refused, however, the Mongols would invade and destroy the city or town, but allow a few civilians to flee and spread terror by reporting their loss. These reports were an essential tool to incite fear in others. However, both sides often had a similar if differently motivated interest in overstating the enormity of the reported events: the Mongols' reputation would increase and the townspeople could use their reports of terror to raise an army. For that reason, specific data (e.g. casualty figures) given in contemporary sources needs to be evaluated carefully.


text: The Mongols also used deception very well in their wars. For instance, when approaching a mobile army the units would be split into three or more army groups, each trying to outflank and surprise their opponents. This created many battlefield scenarios for the opponents where the Mongols would seem to appear out of nowhere and there were seemingly more of them than in actuality. Flanking and/or feigned retreat if the enemy could not be handled easily was one of the most practiced techniques. Other techniques used commonly by the Mongols were completely psychological and were used to entice/lure enemies into vulnerable positions by showing themselves from a hill or some other predetermined locations, then disappearing into the woods or behind hills while the Mongols' flank troops already strategically positioned would appear as if out of nowhere from the left, right and/or from their rear. During the initial states of battlefield contact, while camping in close proximity of their enemies at night, they would feign numerical superiority by ordering each soldier to light at least five fires, which would appear to the enemy scouts and spies that their force was almost five times larger than it actually was.


text: Another way the Mongols used deception and terror was by tying tree branches or leaves behind their horses. They dragged the foliage behind them in a systematic fashion to create dust storms behind hills to appear to the enemy as a much larger attacking army, thereby forcing the enemy to surrender. Because each Mongol soldier had more than one horse, they would let prisoners and civilians ride their horses for a while before the conflict, also to exaggerate their manpower.


text: As they were conquering new people, the Mongols integrated into their armies the conquered people's men if they had surrendered - willingly or otherwise. Therefore, as they expanded into other areas and conquered other people, their troop numbers increased. Exemplifying this is the Battle of Baghdad, during which many diverse people fought under Mongol lordship. Despite this integration, the Mongols were never able to gain long-term loyalty from the settled peoples that they conquered.


text: The tumens would typically advance on a broad front, five lines deep. The first three lines would be composed of horse archers, the last two of lancers. Once an enemy force was located, the Mongols would try to avoid risky or reckless frontal assaults. Instead they would use diversionary attacks to fix the enemy in place, while their main forces sought to outflank or surround the foe. First the horse archers would lay down a barrage of arrow fire. Additional arrows were carried by camels who followed close by, ensuring a plentiful supply of ammunition.


text: In all battlefield situations, the troops would be divided into separate formations of 10, 100, 1,000 or 10,000 depending on the requirements. If the number of troops split from the main force was significant, for instance 10,000 or more, these would be handed over to a significant or second-in-command leader, while the main leader concentrated on the front line. The leader of the Mongols would generally issue the tactics used to attack the enemy. For instance the leader might order, upon seeing a city or town, "500 to the left and 500 to the right" of the city; those instructions would then be relayed to the relevant 5 units of 100 soldiers, and these would attempt to flank or encircle the town to the left and right.


text: The main point of these maneuvers was to encircle the city to cut off escape and overwhelm their enemies from both sides. If the situation deteriorated on one of the fronts or flanks, the leader from the hill directed one part of the army to support the other. If it appeared that there was going to be significant loss, the Mongols would retreat to save their troops and would engage the next day, or the next month, after having studied the enemies' tactics and defenses in the first battle, or again send a demand to surrender after inflicting some form of damage. There was no fixture on when or where units should be deployed: it was dependent on battle circumstances, and the flanks and groups had full authority on what to do in the course of battle - such as supporting other flanks or performing an individual feigned retreat as conditions seemed appropriate, in small groups of 100 to 1000 - so long as the battle unfolded according to the general directive and the opponents were defeated.


text: The Mongols very commonly practiced the feigned retreat, perhaps the most difficult battlefield tactic to execute. This is because a feigned rout amongst untrained troops can often turn into a real rout if an enemy presses into it. Pretending disarray and defeat in the heat of the battle, the Mongols would suddenly appear panicked and turn and run, only to pivot when the enemy was drawn out, destroying them at their leisure. As this tactic became better known to the enemy, the Mongols would extend their feigned retreats for days or weeks, to falsely convince the chasers that they were defeated, only to charge back once the enemy again had its guard down or withdrew to join its main formation. The most famous battle involving this tactic was during the Battle of Kalka river.


title: Nucleation

text: Nucleation is the first step in the formation of either a new thermodynamic phase or a new structure via self-assembly or self-organization. Nucleation is typically defined to be the process that determines how long an observer has to wait before the new phase or self-organized structure appears. For example, if a volume of water is cooled (at atmospheric pressure) below 0°C, it will tend to freeze into ice, but volumes of water cooled only a few degrees below 0°C often stay completely free of ice for long periods. At these conditions, nucleation of ice is either slow or does not occur at all. However, at lower temperatures nucleation is fast, and ice crystals appear after little or no delay. Nucleation is a common mechanism which generates first-order phase transitions, and it is the start of the process of forming a new thermodynamic phase. In contrast, new phases at continuous phase transitions start to form immediately.


title: Nucleation

text: Nucleation is often very sensitive to impurities in the system. These impurities may be too small to be seen by the naked eye, but still can control the rate of nucleation. Because of this, it is often important to distinguish between heterogeneous nucleation and homogeneous nucleation. Heterogeneous nucleation occurs at "nucleation sites" on surfaces in the system. Homogeneous nucleation occurs away from a surface.


title: Nucleation

text: Nucleation is usually a stochastic (random) process, so even in two identical systems nucleation will occur at different times. A common mechanism is illustrated in the animation to the right. This shows nucleation of a new phase (shown in red) in an existing phase (white). In the existing phase microscopic fluctuations of the red phase appear and decay continuously, until an unusually large fluctuation of the new red phase is so large it is more favourable for it to grow than to shrink back to nothing. This nucleus of the red phase then grows and converts the system to this phase. The standard theory that describes this behaviour for the nucleation of a new thermodynamic phase is called classical nucleation theory. However, the CNT fails in describing experimental results of vapour to liquid nucleation even for model substances like argon by several orders of magnitude.


title: Nucleation

text: For nucleation of a new thermodynamic phase, such as the formation of ice in water below 0°C, if the system is not evolving with time and nucleation occurs in one step, then the probability that nucleation has "not" occurred should undergo exponential decay. This is seen for example in the nucleation of ice in supercooled small water droplets. The decay rate of the exponential gives the nucleation rate. Classical nucleation theory is a widely used approximate theory for estimating these rates, and how they vary with variables such as temperature. It correctly predicts that the time you have to wait for nucleation decreases extremely rapidly when supersaturated.


title: Nucleation

text: It is not just new phases such as liquids and crystals that form via nucleation followed by growth. The self-assembly process that forms objects like the amyloid aggregates associated with Alzheimer's disease also starts with nucleation. Energy consuming self-organising systems such as the microtubules in cells also show nucleation and growth.


title: Nucleation

text: Heterogeneous nucleation, nucleation with the nucleus at a surface, is much more common than homogeneous nucleation.


title: Nucleation

text: For example, in the nucleation of ice from supercooled water droplets, purifying the water to remove all or almost all impurities results in water droplets that freeze below around −35°C, whereas water that contains impurities may freeze at −5°C or warmer.


title: Nucleation

text: This observation that heterogeneous nucleation can occur when the rate of homogeneous nucleation is essentially zero, is often understood using classical nucleation theory. This predicts that the nucleation slows exponentially with the height of a free energy barrier ΔG*. This barrier comes from the free energy penalty of forming the surface of the growing nucleus. For homogeneous nucleation the nucleus is approximated by a sphere, but as we can see in the schematic of macroscopic droplets to the right, droplets on surfaces are not complete spheres and so the area of the interface between the droplet and the surrounding fluid is less than a sphere's formula_1. This reduction in surface area of the nucleus reduces the height of the barrier to nucleation and so speeds nucleation up exponentially.


title: Nucleation

text: Nucleation can also start at the surface of a liquid. For example, computer simulations of gold nanoparticles show that the crystal phase nucleates at the liquid-gold surface.


title: Nucleation

text: Classical nucleation theory makes a number of assumptions, for example it treats a microscopic nucleus as if it is a macroscopic droplet with a well-defined surface whose free energy is estimated using an equilibrium property: the interfacial tension σ. For a nucleus that may be only of order ten molecules across it is not always clear that we can treat something so small as a volume plus a surface. Also nucleation is an inherently out of thermodynamic equilibrium phenomenon so it is not always obvious that its rate can be estimated using equilibrium properties.


title: Nucleation

text: However, modern computers are powerful enough to calculate essentially exact nucleation rates for simple models. These have been compared with the classical theory, for example for the case of nucleation of the crystal phase in the model of hard spheres. This is a model of perfectly hard spheres in thermal motion, and is a simple model of some colloids. For the crystallization of hard spheres the classical theory is a very reasonable approximate theory. So for the simple models we can study, classical nucleation theory works quite well, but we do not know if it works equally well for (say) complex molecules crystallising out of solution.


title: Nucleation

text: Phase-transition processes can also be explained in terms of spinodal decomposition, where phase separation is delayed until the system enters the unstable region where a small perturbation in composition leads to a decrease in energy and, thus, spontaneous growth of the perturbation. This region of a phase diagram is known as the spinodal region and the phase separation process is known as spinodal decomposition and may be governed by the Cahn–Hilliard equation.


title: Nucleation

text: In many cases, liquids and solutions can be cooled down or concentrated up to conditions where the liquid or solution is significantly less thermodynamically stable than the crystal, but where no crystals will form for minutes, hours, weeks or longer. Nucleation of the crystal is then being prevented by a substantial barrier. This has consequences, for example cold high altitude clouds may contain large numbers of small liquid water droplets that are far below 0°C.


title: Nucleation

text: In small volumes, such as in small droplets, only one nucleation event may be needed for crystallisation. In these small volumes, the time until the first crystal appears is usually defined to be the nucleation time. Visualization of the initial stage of crystal nucleation of sodium chloride was achieved through atomic-resolution real-time video imaging. Calcium carbonate crystal nucleation depends not only on degree of supersaturation but also the ratio of calcium to carbonate ions in aqueous solutions. In larger volumes many nucleation events will occur. A simple model for crystallisation in that case, that combines nucleation and growth is the KJMA or Avrami model.


title: Nucleation

text: The time until the appearance of the first crystal is also called primary nucleation time, to distinguish it from secondary nucleation times. Primary here refers to the first nucleus to form, while secondary nuclei are crystal nuclei produced from a preexisting crystal. Primary nucleation describes the transition to a new phase that does not rely on the new phase already being present, either because it is the very first nucleus of that phase to form, or because the nucleus forms far from any pre-existing piece of the new phase. Particularly in the study of crystallisation, secondary nucleation can be important. This is the formation of nuclei of a new crystal directly caused by pre-existing crystals.


title: Nucleation

text: For example, if the crystals are in a solution and the system is subject to shearing forces, small crystal nuclei could be sheared off a growing crystal, thus increasing the number of crystals in the system. So both primary and secondary nucleation increase the number of crystals in the system but their mechanisms are very different, and secondary nucleation relies on crystals already being present.


title: Nucleation

text: It is typically difficult to experimentally study the nucleation of crystals. The nucleus is microscopic, and thus too small to be directly observed. In large liquid volumes there are typically multiple nucleation events, and it is difficult to disentangle the effects of nucleation from those of growth of the nucleated phase. These problems can be overcome by working with small droplets. As nucleation is stochastic, many droplets are needed so that statistics for the nucleation events can be obtained.


title: Nucleation

text: Nucleation occurs in different droplets at different times, hence the fraction is not a simple step function that drops sharply from one to zero at one particular time. The red curve is a fit of a Gompertz function to the data. This is a simplified version of the model Pound and La Mer used to model their data. The model assumes that nucleation occurs due to impurity particles in the liquid tin droplets, and it makes the simplifying assumption that all impurity particles produce nucleation at the same rate. It also assumes that these particles are Poisson distributed among the liquid tin droplets. The fit values are that the nucleation rate due to a single impurity particle is 0.02/s, and the average number of impurity particles per droplet is 1.2. Note that about 30% of the tin droplets never freeze; the data plateau at a fraction of about 0.3. Within the model this is assumed to be because, by chance, these droplets do not have even one impurity particle and so there is no heterogeneous nucleation. Homogeneous nucleation is assumed to be negligible on the timescale of this experiment. The remaining droplets freeze in a stochastic way, at rates 0.02/s if they have one impurity particle, 0.04/s if they have two, and so on.


title: Nucleation

text: These data are just one example, but they illustrate common features of the nucleation of crystals in that there is clear evidence for heterogeneous nucleation, and that nucleation is clearly stochastic.


title: Nucleation

text: The freezing of small water droplets to ice is an important process, particularly in the formation and dynamics of clouds. Water (at atmospheric pressure) does not freeze at 0°C, but rather at temperatures that tend to decrease as the volume of the water decreases and as the water impurity increases. Thus small droplets of water, as found in clouds, may remain liquid far below 0°C.


title: Nucleation

text: An example of experimental data on the freezing of small water droplets is shown at the right. The plot shows the fraction of a large set of water droplets, that are still liquid water, i.e., have not yet frozen, as a function of temperature. Note that the highest temperature at which any of the droplets freezes is close to -19°C, while the last droplet to freeze does so at almost -35°C.


title: Nucleation

text: In addition to the nucleation and growth of crystals e.g. in non-crystalline glasses, the nucleation and growth of impurity precipitates in crystals at, and between, grain boundaries is quite important industrially. For example in metals solid-state nucleation and precipitate growth plays an important role e.g. in modifying mechanical properties like ductility, while in semiconductors it plays an important role e.g. in trapping impurities during integrated circuit manufacture.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: Howard Kaylan (born Howard Lawrence Kaplan, June 22, 1947) is an American musician and songwriter, best known as a founding member and lead singer of the 1960s rock band The Turtles, and, along with bandmate and friend Mark Volman, a member of the 1970s rock duo Flo & Eddie, where he used the pseudonym Eddie. Moreover, he also was a member of Frank Zappa's band, The Mothers of Invention.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: Kaylan was born in the Bronx to a Jewish family and grew up in Utica, New York, and Westchester, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. He studied choral music and clarinet, and won a Bank of America Fine Arts Award at age 16. He graduated early (as valedictorian) from Westchester High School, and briefly attended University of California, Los Angeles on a scholarship.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: Kaylan and Mark Volman founded The Turtles, a popular band of the late 1960s. At the end of 1970, Kaylan and Volman signed on as members of Frank Zappa's band, The Mothers of Invention. The pair recorded tracks on five albums, toured to support them, and appeared in the film "200 Motels", a semi-documentary film directed by Zappa. They were compelled to use the names Flo & Eddie ("Flo" being shortened from "Phlorescent Leech") and were not allowed legal use of their own names, or that of The Turtles, until multiple lawsuits from that band were settled in 1985.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: In 1985 the name "The Turtles" reverted to Kaylan and Volman after fifteen years in litigation, as well as all of the master recordings they made. Thanks to Burger King, the NFL, Sony PlayStation, and countless other television advertisements and motion pictures, the Turtles' catalog remains a staple for licensing and reproduction in the twenty-first century.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman joined The Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa's band, after the Turtles broke up, but were contractually prevented from using their real names, and were thus given the names "The Phlorescent Leech" (Mark Volman) and "Eddie" (Howard Kaylan).


title: Howard Kaylan

text: Phlorescent Leech and Eddie appeared on Frank Zappa's 1970 album "Chunga's Revenge" and in 1971 as lead vocalists on Zappa's Fillmore East album as Howard Kaylan/Mark Volman where they sang "Happy Together", then on "Just Another Band From L.A.", "200 Motels" and much later "Playground Psychotics" and other Zappa compilations of old live concerts from 1970–71.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: Kaylan and Volman left The Mothers of Invention after an irate fan pushed Zappa into the orchestra pit at the Rainbow Theatre in London during a concert on December 10th, 1971, seriously injuring him. With Zappa using a wheelchair and unable to sing or play guitar for a year, The Mothers of Invention were on hiatus so Kaylan and Volman set out on their own as Flo & Eddie, never officially returning to the Mothers.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: Kaylan and Volman signed with Columbia as Flo & Eddie. In his autobiography "Shell Shocked", Kaylan revealed that upon receiving the cover art for their first album, they were appalled to learn that the printer had mistakenly printed the duo's stage names in the wrong order above their photograph. Volman was identified as Flo, which had been Kaylan's stage name in Zappa's band, and Kaylan was identified as Eddie, Volman's stage name. The label refused to reprint the cover, saying that it would cost too much money. Thus, Kaylan and Volman decided to professionally swap stage names.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: Flo & Eddie released nine albums on Warner Bros. Records and Columbia Records in music; in film they provided music and voices for animated films like "Down and Dirty Duck"; and they appeared in radio broadcasting.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: In the 1980s, "Rock Steady With Flo and Eddie" was recorded in Kingston, Jamaica, and the partners began writing comedy and script with Chris Bearde, Larry Gelbart and Carl Gottlieb. Simultaneously, they began writing regularly featured columns for "Creem," "Phonograph Record Magazine" and the "Los Angeles Free Press".


title: Howard Kaylan

text: They also produced many albums for other bands and artists, as well as singing backing vocals on over 100 albums. Flo and Eddie can be heard singing with John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Ramones, Blondie, Duran Duran, The Psychedelic Furs, T.Rex, Alice Cooper and many more.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: In the mid-1990s, Kaylan turned his attention to the collecting and writing of dark fantasy literature and science fiction. He wrote two short stories, by way of experimentation, and both were published in the best-selling anthologies, "Phantoms of the Night" and "Forbidden Acts".


title: Howard Kaylan

text: In 2006, Kaylan released a solo album, "Dust Bunnies", described as songs "hand-picked by Kaylan from years of seldom-heard B-sides and album cuts recorded by many of his favorite artists and supplemented by new arrangements of more familiar pieces and a rock original or two." It includes covers of The Honeycombs' "Have I the Right?", Barry Ryan's "Eloise", and The Left Banke's "Love Songs in the Night" and "Two by Two".


title: Howard Kaylan

text: He portrayed an orthodox minister who "married" Laura to Stavros in a dream sequence on "General Hospital", an old hippie on "Suddenly Susan", and a younger one on the "It's Garry Shandling's Show".


title: Howard Kaylan

text: In 1983, Kaylan appeared in the comedy "Get Crazy", starring Malcolm McDowell and Daniel Stern. Kaylan played the part of Captain Cloud, a spiritual guru type of character, leader of a caravan of time-lost, gypsy-like hippies. In 1987, Kaylan and Volman appeared in a new music video of the song "Happy Together", made to promote the romantic comedy "Making Mr. Right", which featured the song during its end credits.


title: Howard Kaylan

text: In 2001, Kaylan wrote a treatment for a very short film about his first night on tour in London. After taking it to his friend (and Rhino Records president) Harold Bronson for input, the project was lengthened and shot as a one-hour movie. The following year, scenes were added, and it was back into the movie studio again to complete a full-length feature. "My Dinner with Jimi" thus became the first film written by Kaylan. It was produced by Bronson for Rhino Entertainment and directed by Bill Fishman ("Tapeheads", "Car 54, Where Are You?") for Fallout Films. In 2005, Kaylan appeared in a featured role in Stephen King's "Riding the Bullet".


title: Howard Kaylan

text: Kaylan's autobiography "Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, Etc." was published by Backbeat Books in March 2013. The book was written with Jeff Tamarkin, and included a foreword by Penn Jillette and cover art by Cal Schenkel.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: Servando Carrasco (born August 13, 1988) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defensive midfielder.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: Carrasco spent his childhood living in Tijuana, Mexico, and attended St. Augustine High School in San Diego, California. Until the age of 19, he played for his high school and San Diego Surf Soccer Club, one of the most competitive soccer clubs in California. During that time, he was recognized as Western League Player of the Year, CIF Player of the Year, and the San Diego Union-Tribune All-County Player of the Year. He also participated in the Olympic Development Program and the Premier Development Program.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: In 2007, Carrasco accepted a scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley. During his first year, Carrasco recorded seven points on two goals and three assists. He scored his second goal of the season against Washington in the opening minutes of the game; he added an insurance goal for Cal against San Diego increasing the Bears' lead to 2–0; and he earned several assists against UCLA, Stanford and University of San Francisco.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: In 2008, Carrasco was named All-Pac-10 second team and Pac-10 All-Academic second-team. He started in all but one game and scored three goals for the year, tying him for second best on the team. He was one of two Cal players to have seven assists during the season, including one assist on the game-winning goal against Oregon State University.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: In 2009, despite suffering an ankle injury that sidelined him for a number of games, Carrasco still earned a second straight All-Pac-10 second-team selection and a Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention. He had one goal.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: In 2010, Carrasco was senior co-captain of the Berkeley squad with good friend A. J. Soares, a defender with Viking FK. He was named NSCAA Third Team Far West Region, First Team All-Pac-10, Third Team Pac-10 All American, and Pac-10 All-Academic honorable mention. Carrasco scored seven goals and had three assists.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: On January 13, 2011, Carrasco was drafted in the second round (27th overall) of the 2011 MLS SuperDraft by Seattle Sounders FC. He signed with Seattle on March 2, 2011, and made his debut on March 19, in a game against the New York Red Bulls.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: Carrasco scored his first career goal for Seattle on June 8, 2013, on a penalty kick in a 3–2 win against Vancouver Whitecaps FC.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: Carrasco was traded to the Houston Dynamo from Seattle in exchange for Adam Moffat on September 13, 2013. Carrasco was then traded from the Houston to Sporting Kansas City for the 30th pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft. On July 20, 2015, Carrasco was traded to Orlando City SC in exchange for midfielder Amobi Okugo. On April 9, 2017, Carrasco scored his first goal for Orlando and second overall career goal when he headed home from a corner in a 1–0 win v New York Red Bulls.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: At the end of the 2017 season Carrasco entered the 2017 MLS Re-Entry Draft after Orlando City declined his contract option. On December 21, 2017, he was selected by LA Galaxy in Stage Two of the draft. He signed with the club on January 11, 2018. After his contract was declined at the end of the 2019 season, Carrasco signed with Fort Lauderdale CF in USL League One.


title: Servando Carrasco

text: While born in the United States, Carrasco spent most of his early childhood growing up in the nearby Mexican city of Tijuana. When he was seven, his family moved back to the United States. His mother, Gloria, is a two-time survivor of breast cancer. On December 31, 2014, Carrasco married Alex Morgan, a professional soccer player for the United States Women's National Team. The couple's first child, Charlie Elena Carrasco, was born on May 7, 2020.


title: Paul Wesley filmography

text: The filmography of American actor Paul Wesley comprises both film and television roles. He has appeared in over fourteen feature films, and twenty-seven television films and series.


California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, and four doctoral degrees: a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in special education in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and a Doctor of Audiology (AuD). It also offers 22 teaching credentials.


title: California State University, Los Angeles

text: In fall 2018, Cal State LA received the 5th-most applications of any CSU campus for incoming freshmen, and had the 4th-lowest admission rate. Cal State LA has a student body of 26,342 as of fall 2020, which includes 22,566 undergraduates, primarily from the greater Los Angeles area, and 3,776 graduate students. While Cal State LA previously operated on the quarter system, the university transitioned to the semester system starting in fall 2016, with each academic year now consisting of two 15-week semesters. Cal State LA is organized into nine colleges that house a total of four schools and approximately 50 academic departments, divisions and interdisciplinary programs, offering a variety of majors. The university’s forensic science program is one of the oldest in the nation. The Early Entrance Program (EEP) in the Honors College for gifted students as young as 12 is the only one of its kind in the United States in promoting a direct transitional scheme from middle and high school to college without intermediary remedial education. Cal State LA is a Hispanic-serving institution and is eligible to be designated as an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander serving institution (AANAPISI).


text: The hilltop campus core is home to the nation's first Charter College of Education, the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs, the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, the Hydrogen Research and Fueling Facility and the Luckman Fine Arts Complex.


text: It is also home to two high schools: the Marc and Eva Stern Math and Science School and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), the only arts high school in Los Angeles that allows students from any district within Los Angeles County to attend.


text: The university is located on the site of one of California's 36 original adobes, built in 1776 by Franciscan missionaries and destroyed by fire in 1908. When the Spanish Franciscans founded the San Gabriel Mission in 1771, they dubbed the small river El Rio Rosa de Castillo. These lands once were part of a Mexican land grant known as Rancho Rosa Castilla, given to Juan Batista Batz, a Basque rancher from northern Spain and his wife, Catalina who settled here in the 1852. Batz used the land for farming and intensive sheep ranching. The inspiration for the name of the ranch, according to local historians, was the abundant amount of native wild Wood roses ("Rosa californica") that grew near the ranch home along the creek. The Tongva Indians named this area, "Ochuunga" (Place of Roses). The main drive through the campus is known as Paseo Rancho Castilla, in acknowledgment of the university's historic heritage.


text: Cal State LA was founded on July 2, 1947, by an act of the California legislature and opened for classes as Los Angeles State College (LASC) on the campus of Los Angeles City College (LACC). LACC is a public community college in East Hollywood, Los Angeles located on Vermont Avenue south of Santa Monica Boulevard the former campus of UCLA and originally a farm outside Los Angeles. As president of LACC, P. Victor Peterson became the acting president of the state college. Since the college had opened in September, 1947, with 136 students, it had grown in two years to over 2,000 students. Most were studying under the GI Bill, which had been largely responsible for establishment of the college. The first class of seven students graduated in 1948.


text: In 1949, when Howard S. McDonald became president of both Los Angeles State College and Los Angeles City College, the state college upper division classes were being taught in borrowed spaces on the City College campus by mostly part-time faculty. He hired administrators to help him formally organize the colleges. Then he found a site within LA to house the new "Los Angeles State College of Applied Arts and Sciences" (LASCAAS), which replaced the Los Angeles State College also in 1949 after being reconstituted by the Legislature. Howard S. McDonald enjoyed telling how some influential supporters of the University of Southern California (USC) opposed his selection of a piece of land in Baldwin Hills, and how the then Los Angeles Mayor Norris Poulson ran him out of Chavez Ravine so that he could lure the Dodger baseball team to Los Angeles. The college opened in its new location in 1958, Howard S. McDonald becomes first full-time president. When McDonald retired in 1962, seven academic buildings on the new campus were completed and an eighth structure (North Hall, later named King Hall) was nearing completion. North Hall opened in September 1962.


text: In 1952 the state proposed a new satellite campus for Cal State LA, at the time known as Los Angeles State College, and in July 1958, the campus separated from Cal State LA and was renamed San Fernando Valley State College (now known as California State University, Northridge). The first master’s degrees were awarded in 1952.


text: Since 1954, Cal State LA has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). The university's credential programs are approved by the Commission for Teacher Credentialing Committee on Accreditation.


text: In 1955, officials broke ground on the current location, dubbed the Ramona site at the time. The college then moved to its present campus in the northeastern section of the City of Los Angeles, east of the Civic Center.


text: 1957 the first Cal State LA time capsule is sealed in corner of Administration building (now Student Affairs) and a second Time capsule was buried during the Cal State LA 50th anniversary celebration September 1998.


text: In 1962 the college welcomed its third president Albert D. Graves who was vice president of Academic Affairs of LASCAAS. The college also entered into its first contract to prepare students for the U.S. Peace Corps. The first group of 65 volunteers was trained for service in the Dominican Republic in the areas of teacher training, music teacher training and urban community action. The first Commencement at new site takes place in June 1963.


text: On December 6, 1963, the California State College (now California State University) Board of Trustees named the library after the late 35th president of the United States John F. Kennedy. An edifice plaque was unveiled during the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library naming ceremony on February 12, 1964, and in November 1969 the library North Wing is dedicated.


text: In 1964, the Board of Trustees of the California State Colleges changed the name of the college to the "California State College at Los Angeles" (CSCLA), and in 1968 to "California State College, Los Angeles", when it became part of the California State College (CSC) system. In 1972, CSCLA was awarded university status and was renamed California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA).


text: In fall 1970 the South Tower and South Hall were completed and opened. July 1976 the CSU Board of Trustees approved the renaming of South Tower to Simpson Tower, in memory of Floyd R. Simpson, first dean of the School of Business and Economics. South Hall was renamed Salazar Hall in memory of slain Los Angeles Times journalist and news director for KMEX-DT Ruben Salazar.


text: The original mascot of the school was the Diablo. In 1980, new university president James Rosser adopted a new mascot, Eddie the golden eagle, designed to be more reflective of the campus' highly diverse community. The theme was extended to student facilities such as the student union and bookstore.


text: A Statue of Confucius, a gift of the Republic of China in Taiwan, was dedicated June 1987. The statue was moved to a new campus location in summer 2005. Its home is now on the grassy area, south of the State Playhouse.


text: In 1993, the California State University (CSU) Chancellor and Trustees approved development of Cal State LA's Charter College of Education, creating the first such college of higher education in the nation.


text: In October 1998, the Center for Environmental Analysis (CEA-CREST), first of its kind funded by the National Science Foundation on the West Coast, opened on campus.


text: In September 2000, California Governor Gray Davis chose the Cal State LA campus to hold a press conference at which he signed the historic bills expanding the Cal Grant program.


text: Cal State LA departments of Social Work and Nursing, located within the university’s College of Health and Human Services, were granted the status of School in Winter 2002.


text: Cal State LA Downtown is a satellite campus opened in January 2016. Programs are provided through the university's College of Professional & Global Education.


text: Naming of the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services took place during the university's 69th Commencement on June 11, 2016. The naming recognized the largest gift in the university's history and named in honor of the late Dr. Rongxiang Xu, who was a surgeon and expert in regenerative medicine.


text: The Patricia A. Chin School of Nursing was dedicated as the first named school at Cal State L.A. in April 2018. Patricia Chin taught nursing at the university, later serving as director and, upon her retirement, professor emerita.


text: A statue of Cal State LA alumna and world champion tennis legend Billie Jean King was installed on the grassy area in front of the Physical Education building. When Billie Jean King was in school at Cal State LA, she had already won Wimbledon.


text: As of the fall of 2016, Cal State LA switched over from the quarter to the semester system. Tuition and fees for in-state is $6,745, $17,245 for out-of-state and room and board $11,723 as of the 2018–2019 academic year with a student/faculty ratio of 25:1. Classes are scheduled Monday through Saturday from 7 am until 10 pm.


text: Near the edge of the city of Los Angeles, adjacent to the western San Gabriel Valley cities of Alhambra and Monterey Park, the campus affords views of the mountains to the north, the San Gabriel Valley to the east, metropolitan Los Angeles to the west, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Catalina Island to the south.


text: The Harriet and Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex, the campus' northern gateway, was dedicated in 1994. An architectural tour-de-force, the buildings house a 1,100-seat theater, a fine art gallery and the black box Intimate Theater, completed in 2004.


text: Construction on a $30 million University-Student Union (U-SU) building began in 2005; it opened in January 2009. The facility offers a place for students and faculty to congregate and interact before or after class. It replaced the 1975 U-SU building that was closed in 2004 due to seismic concerns. The U-SU offers a theater, a fitness center, and an array of other services dedicated to the student body. Its meeting rooms connect to those of The Golden Eagle building via a third floor bridge. The Golden Eagle includes a food court, a Barnes & Noble-operated bookstore and major conference facilities. The university food court is owned by the Coca-Cola Company, offering a selection of fast food restaurants that include El Pollo Loco, Carl's Jr., The Spot, and Juice It Up. The U-SU facility houses additional fast food options that include Sbarro and Starbucks. Various places inside the campus also serve food and coffee.


text: Cal State LA is one of only eight institutions in North and South America selected as a Rockefeller Foundation humanities fellowship residency site.


text: As of fall 2018 Cal State LA has the second largest enrollment percentage of Mexican Americans and Other Latino Americans that are not Mexican-American in the Cal State University system. Other Latinos Americans having heritage from Central America, South America and the Caribbean.


text: California State University, Los Angeles offers a number of student services including nonremedial tutoring, a women's center, a job placement service, a day care, health services, and health insurance. Cal State LA also offers campus safety and police services like 24-hour foot and vehicle patrols, late night transport/escort service, 24-hour emergency telephones, lighted pathways/sidewalks, and student patrols.


text: Students, faculty, and staff can get a wireless connection to the Internet by interconnected Wi-Fi hot spots throughout the campus.


text: Associated Students Incorporated (ASI) is the student government of California State University, Los Angeles. ASI is governed by a student board of directors who are elected each year by the student body of Cal State LA. ASI represents the interests of the student body and acts as the officially recognized voice of the students. In addition, ASI sponsors a number of campus events and activities using mandatory student fees.


text: Eagle Advocates, or ASI's Lobby Corps, is the sole student advocacy group representing the entire student body of the school. Each CSU campus has a lobby corps and is open to all students. Students are trained in advocacy and lobbying throughout the school year. A focus is aimed at the state legislature although local and federal issues are followed as well.


text: Cal State LA dedicated the Janice Cordova Garden of Well-Being in April 21, 2022, named in honor of the late wife of alumnus Richard Cordova. The garden is located in the heart of campus, between the Center for Engagement, Service, and the Public Good and the Student Health Center. It is a peaceful space that features a meditative walking path, artwork, and more than 50 types of plant life that promote relaxation, healing, and transcendence. The idea for the garden initially came from students participating in WellBeingU roundtables, during which students in the university’s Introduction to Higher Ed courses developed action plans for improving well-being on campus. “Student teams repeatedly imagined the creation of a space on campus defined by natural beauty where they could reflect, recharge and come together,” said First Lady Covino said at the garden dedication. In many gardens, people have a practice of “forest bathing” in order to experience physical and mental well-being. The Garden can generate a sense of wonder and awe from experiencing something bigger than ourselves. Nature therapy, or ecotherapy, can strengthen the immune, respiratory, and cardiovascular systems. Relaxation can also improve blood sugar, mood, concentration, and sleep. Studens can relax by sitting quietly in the garden and looking at the beautiful nature around them. The images in the garden have been reproduced from original oil paintings with permission from the artist Mika Cho. Mika M. Cho is a faculty member at Cal State LA and the director for the Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery at the university.


text: From 1964 to 1972, developer Louis Lesser built six off-campus, 10-story high-rise residential halls to house 3,600 students. The campus lacked space for horizontal expansion, following the California State University expansion plan started in 1959. This doubled the university's housing capacity, making Cal State LA the largest in the California State University system. Maxwell Starkman & Associates, AIA, of Beverly Hills, designed the development plan. Unlike other components of the Cal State University system being developed in the 1960s, the residence halls were privately financed by Louis Lesser Enterprises, Inc. The first residential life complex phase I on-campus housing was opened in June 1984, and three years later, a second residential life complex Phase II was opened. Cal State LA has a student-housing complex where students can rent a house at double occupancy for $655.00 per month (as of November 2009). During 1984 Summer Olympics that took place in Los Angeles, Cal State LA student houses were upgraded and expanded because it housed the athletics of the 1984 Summer Olympics.


text: Lesser also pioneered underground parking, with his Cal State LA development, at the time considered unusual enough to merit a separate newspaper section header, "Parking Underground", which described a two-level underground parking lot as a "concept" of "subterranean spaces".


text: The housing expansion the Golden Eagle Apartments (GEA) for Graduate and Upper-Division Students are located one block north of campus.


text: The Student Housing East project was completed in 2021. The North Campus Project provides for new student housing facilities, new soccer fields, and a parking structure within the northern portion of the Cal State LA campus. Scope of the Work: The student housing facilities provide 1,500 beds for freshmen and sophomore students, as well as an associated dining facility.


text: The goal of Resident Scholars Housing is to provide Cal State LA Honors College and academically achieving students with themed housing that supports the mission and vision of the Honors College and the Institutional Learning Outcomes by forming a strong community of students through shared Honors classes, providing learning opportunities and social engagement beyond the classroom and engaging in a student-directed community. It also increases the following: student interaction with Honors faculty, staff and fellow students; involvement in the larger Los Angeles and Cal State LA community; and retention and graduation rates.


text: Gender Inclusive Housing is for students interested in living with people of all gender identities and expressions. The Cal State LA Housing and Residence Life community defines Gender Inclusive Housing as an environment where students may choose to share a room with any other student regardless of sex, biological gender, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.


text: The Halisi Scholars Living Learning Community is designed to enhance the residential experience for students who are a part of or interested in issues regarding the Black community living on campus by offering the opportunity to connect with faculty and peers, and engage in programs that focus on academic success, cultural awareness and civic engagement.


text: Cal State LA's parking received press coverage for pioneering the concept of underground parking to deal with the limitations of ground space for expansion under the initial California State expansion plans of the early 1960s. Developer Louis Lesser developed "underground parking” in his off campus residential housing development for the university in 1964, with only a two level underground parking structure considered so unusual as to merit a separate newspaper section header, "Parking Underground", and calling the parking “subterranean spaces."


text: Structure E, a 5-story open parking garage provides over 2,000 parking spaces and hosts electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, including 3 fast chargers for the Cal State LA community. Structure E is accessible to the upper level of campus through the existing Structure C in Lot 5. The Solar PV System installed atop Structure E generates 1 megawatt (MW) of renewable energy.


text: The school is home to the first commuter train station on a college campus, the station of the same name on Metrolink's San Bernardino Line, which opened in October 1994. The school is also accessible from the namesake station on the El Monte Busway; both stations are located at the south end of the campus. Metro Local lines 106, 256, 258 & 665, as well as neighborhood shuttles serve the school.


text: Construction is completed on a hydrogen fueling station on campus. The station will operate as a teaching resource for classes on alternative energy and fuel systems, as well as a public accommodation selling and dispensing hydrogen to those driving fuel cell vehicles. Cal State LA is one of only three organizations in the state to be awarded CARB funding for such a facility.


text: The displaced parking surface by The Student Housing East project facility with soccer fields was accommodated by a new parking structure located next to the existing Parking Structure C, on the site that is currently used as a surface parking lot. The four-level parking structure provides approximately 1,650 parking spaces, including up to 100 new parking spaces.


text: Cal State LA is one of 23 campuses in the California State University system. The CSU system is administered by a 25-member board of trustees, which adopts regulations and policies governing the entire system. The system’s chief executive officer is Chancellor Timothy P. White, who assumed office in 2012. Joseph I. Castro was appointed on September 23, 2020, by the CSU board of trustees to succeed White starting on January 4, 2021.


text: The chief executive of Cal State LA is President William A. Covino. The leadership team includes an executive vice president who also serves as chief operating officer and provost, and four vice presidents.


text: Cal State LA is a member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. The latter organization designated Cal State LA in 2018 as one of 33 U.S. universities that serve as “anchor institutions” driving economic growth in their communities.


text: Cal State LA's College of Business and Economics (CB&E) is divided into six departments: Accounting, Economics & Statistics, Finance Law & Real Estate, Information Systems, Management and Marketing. CB&E is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International).


text: The College of Ethnic Studies, Racial, and Social Transformation opened during the fall 2020 semester. It houses the university's three ethnic studies departments: Asian and Asian American Studies, Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies, and Pan-African Studies.


text: The Charter College of Education's Division of Special Education and Counseling has a joint PhD program in Special Education with University of California, Los Angeles, and an independent Ed.D. program in Educational Administration as part of the Division of Applied and Advanced Studies in Education.


text: Cal State LA's School of Nursing launched the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) in the fall of 2012. The DNP has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). The Patricia A. Chin School of Nursing, forms part of the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services. The graduate program offers a nursing education option and nurse-practitioner options in adult gerontology primary care, adult gerontology acute care, family, and family psychiatric/mental health.


text: With the nation's first Chicano Studies department (established in 1968), Cal State LA is a top source of bachelor's and master's degrees for Hispanic students in California.


text: The American Historical Association awarded the 2022 Institutional Equity Award to the Department of History at Cal State LA. For recruiting and retaining underrepresented racial and ethnic groups into the historical discipline.


text: The five most popular majors for 2020 graduates Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services at 19%. Health Professions and Related Programs at 10%. Social Sciences at 10%. Education at 7%. Psychology at 6%. Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, Firefighting and Related Protective Services at 6%. Parks, Recreation, Leisure, Fitness, and Kinesiology at 6%. Engineering at 5%. English Language and Literature/Letters at 5%. Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services at 4%.


text: The Television, Film and Media Studies Center, houses the Cal State LA Studios part of the College of Arts and Letters, offers students access to state-of-the-art technology, along with innovative creative opportunities. The site of the former Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints includes a two-level parking structure and a multi-use room, classrooms, conference rooms, and office space.


text: LA BioSpace at Cal State LA gives bioscience startup companies the springboard they need to succeed. Created by grants from Los Angeles County and the U.S. Economic Development Administration, LA BioSpace is a university incubator in the heart of Los Angeles.


text: The LA BioSpace incubator equips entrepreneurs to turn scientific advances into job-creating businesses.


text: LA BioSpace is part of a larger grant project based out of Cal State LA, LABioStart. This project hosts networking events and runs a Bioscience Entrepreneur Boot camp in addition to this incubator.


text: Opportunities for study in the coastal environment are provided by the Ocean Studies Institute (OSI), which comprises eight State University campuses: Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona, San Bernardino, San Marcos and Dominguez Hills. The OSI operates out of the docks and laboratory facilities of the Southern California Marine Institute (SCMI), Fish Harbor, Terminal Island in the Los Angeles - Long Beach Harbor.


text: The OSI participates in training managers and scientists and educating the public by coordinating and facilitating marine educational and research activities. Seagoing research laboratory and instructional facilities are provided aboard the R. V. Yellowfin, oceangoing research vessel.


text: Several courses within the departments of Biological Sciences, Geological Sciences, Psychology and the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology, among others, utilize the Yellowfin and other Consortium facilities. In addition, the eight campuses offer a course of study each fall at the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies on Santa Catalina Island. Courses cover topics in marine biology and ecology, and a research experience.


text: The Desert Studies Center is a field station of the California State University located in Zzyzx, California in the Mojave Desert. The purpose of the center is to provide opportunities to conduct research, receive instruction and experience the Mojave Desert environment. Is officially operated by the California Desert Studies Consortium, a consortium of 7 CSU campuses: Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, Long Beach, San Bernardino, Northridge, Dominguez Hills and Los Angeles.


text: Cal State Los Angeles' faculty include two presidential award-winning professors and 13 faculty members honored with the CSU Trustees' Outstanding Professor Awards.


text: In December 1999 Raymond Landis, Dean of Engineering and Technology, was honored by the White House for outstanding student mentoring. The recognition earned the university its second presidential award.


text: In September 1996 chemistry professor Carlos G. Gutiérrez was among the first honorees named by President Bill Clinton to receive the newly established annual Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, at a White House ceremony.


text: In fall 1995 chemistry professor Thomas P. Onak, was named California Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.


text: In 1992 chemistry professor Phoebe K. Dea, was named California Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.


text: Hal Fishman served as an assistant adjunct professor of political science for two years. Fishman won the Associated Press Television-Radio Association's first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a Los Angeles local (KTLA) news anchor.


text: The 2021 "U.S. News & World Report"s “America’s Best Colleges” issue included the following rankings for Cal State LA in the category of regional universities in the Western United States: tied for 9th among public universities, tied for 26th among public and private universities, and ranked 11th in Best Value Schools. The business program in the College of Business and Economics continues to be one of the top 10 in California among public institutions. In a separate category, Cal State LA’s undergraduate computer science program is ranked among the top 20 in California.


text: "Washington Monthly"s 2020 College Ranking Guide named Cal State LA 10th out of 614 schools nationally in the Master's University category. The magazine rates universities based on their contribution to the public good, considering factors that include research, service and social mobility. Also in the 2020 issue by "Washington Monthly", Cal State LA ranked 3rd for "Best Bang for the Buck" out of 215 schools in the U.S. Western region.


text: "Money" ranked Cal State LA 31st for Best Colleges for Engineering Majors and 31st in its evaluation of its 2020 Best Colleges ranking.


text: "Business Insider" ranked Cal State LA #12 for its Best Return on Investment Business Insider 2020 rankings.


text: "Forbes" ranked Cal State LA 139th in its 2019 ranking of America's Best Value Colleges out of the 300 universities that were included.


text: In 2018, Cal State LA was ranked the 14th top college in the United States by Payscale and CollegeNET's Social Mobility Index college rankings.


text: In January 2017, Cal State LA was ranked #1 in the country for the upward mobility of students. The Equality of Opportunity Project followed 30 million students enrolled at over 2,200 colleges and universities, from 1999 to 2013, and concluded that the institution with the highest "mobility rate" was Cal State LA.


text: Cal State LA was ranked 8th in the nation in the amount of B.A. degrees awarded in 2017 to Hispanics by "Hispanic Outlook on Education Magazine".


text: The National Science Foundation lists Cal State LA as the top baccalaureate institution of origin for Latino science and engineering Ph.D. recipients among all undergraduate and master's colleges and universities in the continental U.S. The most recent findings cover 2008 through 2012 and were published in the NSF report, Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2015. The data come from surveys conducted by the NSF, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Labor.


text: In 2014 Cal State LA was listed as one of "Time" magazine's top 100 colleges and universities, according to new criteria proposed by the White House that is based solely on accessibility, affordability, and graduation rate. Ranked at #24, Cal State LA is one of the seven CSU campuses that made the list.


text: The American Council of Trustees and Alumni gives Cal State LA's General Education an overall score a B.


text: Founded in 1953 as the Department of Engineering, today's College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology (ECST) was established in 2001. ECST was funded by NASA to advance aerospace technology and space research. Cal State LA's NASA University Research Center is the only one of its kind in the state of California. The objective of the program is to design and build a segmented reflector test-bed. The College of Engineering and Technology added the Department of Computer Science and officially became the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology in June 2001.


text: Cal State LA's College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology is divided into five departments: the Departments of Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Technology. Collectively, these departments offer 12 undergraduate programs, four graduate programs and two teaching credentials in collaboration with the Charter College of Education.


text: The college has achieved international recognition with its advanced vehicles. Cal State LA's Team Solar Eagle has built three cars that competed in solar car races in the United States and Australia, winning a national championship at the American Solar Challenge in 1997. The 1997 champion Solar Eagle III was the first solar and only Hot Wheels reproduction of a student-built vehicle. The Solar Eagle II is on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles it place third in the nation. Cal State LA’s Solar Eagle, the first solar-powered electric car designed and built by Engineering and Technology students, placed fourth in the nation and is first among California competitors in the transcontinental GM Sunrayce USA. The Solar Eagle is in display at the Cal State LA's Engineering, Computer Science and Technology building lobby.


text: In April 2011 Cal State LA was chosen to become part of the 3-year AVTC EcoCAR2: Plugging into the Future competition managed by Argonne National Laboratory and sponsored by the US Department of Energy and General Motors. EcoCAR2 tasks 15 universities to modify a Chevrolet Malibu into a plug-in hybrid while maintaining safety and consumer acceptability. The university has chosen a parallel-through-the-road architecture as part of the competition. The competition is a collaboration between the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology and the College of Business and Economics, with Engineering handling the design and implementation of the vehicle systems and the Business handling budgeting, fundraising and promotion of the program.


text: In May 2013 Cal State LA's EcoCAR 2 team came home 2nd place overall in Year Two of the EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future collegiate engineering competition.


text: Continuing their participation in AVTCs, Cal State LA is involved with General Motors' new competition series called EcoCAR3. This is a four-year competition where 16 universities across northern America were donated a 2016 Chevy Camaro and are focused on converting this traditional fossil fuel vehicle into a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Cal State LA's team has focused on developing a post-transmission parallel architecture for their vehicle. Additionally, the team has decided to deviate from the standard expectation of marketing their developed vehicle to consumers and is instead targeting law enforcement fleets as a business to business focus. The EcoCar3 team will have four years (2014–18) to redesign and re-engineer a Chevy Camaro in an effort to reduce the energy consumption and greenhouse emissions of the vehicle, while maintaining consumer acceptability, performance, utility and safety. At the end of the four years, the student-built vehicles will participate in an over-the-road event, raising the stakes for vehicle, dependability and safety.


text: In August 2006 Cal State LA became the first university west of the Mississippi and second overall to achieve successful flight powered by fuel cells. The unmanned aerial vehicle was developed by a team of mechanical engineering students working in Cal State LA's Multidisciplinary Flight dynamics and Control Laboratory (MFDCLab).


text: The Early Entrance Program (EEP) is an early college entrance program for gifted individuals of middle school and high school ages. The unique educational program is specifically designed to permit young, highly gifted students to enroll in college as full-time students. The Early Entrance Program was established at California State University, Los Angeles in 1982. The program allows qualified students as young as 12 years of age the opportunity to excel at the university level. The program maintains a population of approximately 130 full-time highly gifted teenaged students known as "EEPsters." Every year, approximately 100 academically gifted students from all over the United States apply to EEP, with around 30 applicants admitted. Students must achieve a minimum score of 550 on the evidence-based reading and writing section and 570 on the mathematics section of the SAT; or at least a 22 in English and a 23 in mathematics on the ACT. After a preliminary interview with the EEP director, prospective students must also undergo a rigorous assessment period called a Provisional Quarter (or "Provie Summer") before final admission.


text: Cal State LA's growing forensic science program has been a part of the university curriculum since the founding of the school. It is home to one of the few and the longest-operating graduate Criminal Justice and Criminalistics program west of the Mississippi river, located in the new Los Angeles Regional Crime Lab. The new Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, which was dedicated on May 11, 2007, jointly house the LAPD's Scientific Investigation Division, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department Scientific Services Bureau and Cal State LA Criminal Justice and Criminalistics programs.