8 minute read
‘A serendipitous life.’ The right people in the right places were key to Lydia Tapia’s success
RESEARCH ROUNDUP
Advertisement
Francesca Cavallo, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. Cavallo’s project is “Spintronic Devices Using Screw Dislocations in Single-Crystalline Semiconductors.” The project’s goal is to investigate the device physics of a novel spin field-effect transistor while broadening the participation of deaf, Hispanics and Native Americans in nanoscience and engineering. The work will be the first experimental study to focus on the fabrication and characterization of spin FETs that leverage screw dislocations in conventional semiconductors. The improved knowledge and technological advances generated in this project will potentially accelerate very large-scale integration of high-performance spintronic devices, which is required for the practical realization of hybrid and entirely spin-based classical and quantum computers.
Several researchers from the Department of Nuclear Engineering were selected for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for various nuclearrelated projects as part of $61 million awarded to 74 nuclear energy projects across the country. The awards were made as part of the Nuclear Energy University Program support nuclear technology development, infrastructure improvements and career opportunities.
Minghui Chen, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering, is the principal investigator of “ARISE: Advanced Reactors Integral and Separate Effects Tests — An Integrated Research and Education Program.” For this project, he was one of five to receive the Distinguished Early Career Award Program award, which was given out for the first time this year by DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy as the most prestigious award for faculty members beginning their careers.
NEUP funding was also awarded to Mohamed El-Genk, Distinguished and Regents’ Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and founding director of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies, and Timothy Schriener, research assistant professor of nuclear engineering and senior member of the Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies, for “Demonstrating Autonomous Control, Remote Operation, and Human Factors for Microreactors Under Prototypic Conditions in PUR-1.” UNM faculty are collaborating with Curtiss-Wright Nuclear Division and Argonne National Lab on the Purdue University-led project.
Also, Osman Anderoglu, associate professor of nuclear engineering, is a collaborator on the University of Kentucky-led project along with Los Alamos National Laboratory, on “Development of Irradiation and Creep Resistant High-Cr Ferritic/ Martensitic Steels via Magnetic Field Heat Treatment.” The project will develop and test a new generation of ferritic/martensitic steels specifically designed for advanced reactors that will exceed the current limitations due to temperature and irradiation dose.
Researchers from UNM School of Engineering are part of a multi-institutional consortium selected by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to pioneer research into robotic inspection, maintenance and manufacturing of satellites and other structures while in orbit. AFRL and AFOSR selected the Carnegie Mellon Universityled proposal, “Breaking the ‘Launch Once, Use Once’ Paradigm,” as part of the newly established Space University Research Initiative. Rafael Fierro,
UNM is part of a consortium that will pioneer research into robotic inspection, maintenance and manufacturing of satellites in orbit.
a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is leading the project at UNM. The main goal of the project involves developing a way to repair, maintain and upgrade the 6,500 satellites that are currently in orbit.
The Institute for Space and Nuclear Power Studies at UNM has been selected to receive a NASA Early Stage Innovation 2021 research award to develop advanced lightweight heat-rejection radiators for future space nuclear power and propulsion systems. The research will pave the way for future missions to Mars and the moon. The project, “Advanced Lightweight Heat Rejection Radiators for Space Nuclear Power Systems,” is led by Mohamed El-Genk, Timothy Schriener and Osman Anderoglu.
UNM leads National Science Foundation collaborative project to increase diversity among STEM faculty
Ensuring our campuses are as diverse as the population at large has long been a goal of university leaders, especially in the STEM fields, which have historically lagged other disciplines. But while the goal is widely accepted, the pathway to success has been less clear.
Realizing that many top-down guidelines to improve diversity among faculty do not motivate stakeholders to change their behavior, a new research effort led by The University of New Mexico is taking a different approach: seeking the ideas and feedback from faculty first to guide strategic decisions on how to broaden participation.
“AGEP to Engage Leaders to Improve Diversity among STEM Faculty” is a two-year, $195,000 project led by principal investigator Mala Htun, a professor of political science, along with Liz Godwin, a research associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a 2021–22 UNM Inclusive Excellence Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar; and Jesse Alemán, a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the associate dean of Graduate Studies and special assistant for equity and excellence in graduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The UNM team is collaborating with Arizona State University and University of Oregon on the project. The three institutions share several distinctions: they are very high research activity (R1) universities located in Western states; they have a commitment to advancing the success of people who are historically underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and math fields; and two of the three partners have an NSF ADVANCE (Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers) program in place at their institutions.
The ultimate goal of this NSF Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) Catalyst Alliance project is to position the three universities to apply for an Institutional Transformation Alliance award as early as next year. These efforts are important because improving equity and inclusion is critical to advancing STEM faculty, educating America’s future STEM workforce, and fostering individual opportunity, all of which is crucial for a thriving U.S. economy.
Liz Godwin
“We aim to develop a set of strategies and guidelines that can help attract and retain faculty from underrepresented groups in the science and technical fields. Ultimately, we strive for institutional transformation with changes that will impact not just faculty but also graduate students and postdoctoral researchers,” Godwin said.
The catalyst stage of the research will focus on four main activities: diagnosing challenges to broadening Ph.D. student and faculty participation through a quality-of-life survey at each partner institution; creating a pilot program for managerial engagement to build a sense of buy-in and ownership from the leaders; developing a five-year equity plan at each partner institution; and developing and refining an effective working alliance between the three universities.
Godwin said the team is seeking the ideas and input from a large and varied group of deans and department chairs in all the STEM disciplines to listen to their ideas and concerns. After the initial group meeting, the research team will start identifying themes that come out of the meeting and creating a quality-of-life survey to distribute among faculty, graduate students and postdocs that will provide the group with data. The partner institutions will hold similar meetings, and the team will work together to craft the climate surveys to launch by fall 2022.
David Cochrell (left) and participants of the inaugural Industry Roundtable luncheon in August 2022.
The School of Engineering has started a program designed to give corporate partners an inside track to some of our brightest engineers and computer scientists while also providing career opportunities to students.
The Corporate Affiliate Program is addressing the need in high-tech fields to provide companies with skilled and motivated problem solvers and thinkers to work on resolving modern challenges of critical global importance.
Benefits for students include:
Internship and traineeship programs
Professional development, such as participating in regional and national conferences.
Keeping our talent in New Mexico by offering firstyear scholarships to talented New Mexico high school seniors.
Financial assistance with tuition and fees when emergencies arise.
Outreach programs for K-12 students.
Some of the benefits to companies include:
Presence on campus and targeted interactions with students
Dedicated space and time to interview potential employees
Brand visibility
Direct access to internships and jobs coordinator
Promoted information sessions and tabling events
Participation in signature School of
Engineering events
One of the first companies to sign on for the Corporate Affiliate Program was the Department of Energy’s Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC)
managed by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, which includes the New Mexico Operations site.
David Cochrell, engineering manager for the New Mexico Operations site, has been working with UNM as the campus representative. He said that KCNSC is charged with delivering trusted national security products and government services, producing 80% of the country’s non-nuclear components. Creating partnerships with universities is crucial to their success, he said.
“Our company continues to grow at a rapid pace with a growth strategy that includes partnering with universities for recruitment, research, education and outreach,” Cochrell said. “While we have always collaborated with UNM, the Corporate Affiliate Program formalizes that partnership and ramps up our collaboration.”
Since becoming a part of the program, he said that KSNSC has benefitted, particularly in meeting the ever-growing need for engineering talent the organization demands.
“Recruitment has been successful as we have hired engineering and internship positions among many others, creating a pipeline to hire local talent at our New Mexico Operations,” he said.
The proceeds from annual Corporate Affiliate Program memberships provide quality educational and career development opportunities to School of Engineering students.
For more information about the Corporate Affiliate Program, including membership tier packages, contact Elsa Castillo or Nada Abdelhack at Engineering Student Success Center at ess@unm.edu or (505) 277-4354 or visit cap-engineering.unm.edu.
