|
The academic area
of interest for COSMIAC begins at the high school
level and never ends. We believe time spent
promoting our education programs pays countless
benefits.
High School Program
COSMIAC is strongly
committed to the advancement of education in
all areas of Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM) studies. It is our belief
that most resources currently devoted to this
area of interest usually fall into one of three
(sometimes overlapping) areas. COSMIAC advances
all three of these areas: recruitment, motivation
and preparation.
Recruitment
- This is the process of helping young people
find available information about the high quality
New Mexico schools including: CNM, UNM, NMT
and NMSU. Since COSMIAC has ongoing activities
at most schools in New Mexico, we have points
of contact to assist with referral activities.
Motivation
- This is energizing a potential student to
be excited about the possibilities of choosing
a STEM career path. We help in this area through
our support of the AFRL Junior Space Scholars
program and our summer digital academies. FPGA
technology is important in this area as programming
reconfigurable systems is often exciting for
students.
Preparation
- Having students excited about a STEM track
serves little purpose if they are not prepared
for the rigors of a college. COSMIAC strongly
feels that there is insufficient time, money
or effort devoted to this third (and possibly
most critical) portion of the triangle. To satisfy
this need, COSMIAC teaches a series of high
school programs with local schools called the
"Young Technologists for a New Century" that
covers the following topics:
| -
Algebra without mistakes |
| -
Differential and Integral Calculus |
| -
Linear Algebra (matrices) |
| -
Relationship of e-i-pi |
| -
Differential equations |
| -
Dynamics |
Where possible,
FPGA technology is inserted into this and
other high school programs. FPGA introduction
at this level is good for motivation but it
is not probably critical in terms of "preparation."
We have condensed a three year program down
to a one semester course. For additional information
or if you are interested in having discussions
with the COSMIAC staff about what we can do
for your school, please contact us.
 High
school students firing the trebuchet
Shown above are
students from Rio Rancho High School that
participated in our after school program.
Community College
Nothing touches our
era of exponential growth and change more
than digital electronics. This unprecedented
growth in technology has led to entirely
new design techniques where traditional
schematic designs have been replaced with
Hardware Description Languages (HDLs), which
look like computer code, but are actually
descriptions of hardware. Our work greatly
advances community college education by
bringing technicians up-to-date with this
technology. We have ongoing projects with
the following schools:
| -
Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
(NM) |
| -
Central New Mexico Community College
(NM) |
| -
Mesa Community College (AZ) |
| -
San Juan College (NM) |
| -
Chandler-Gilbert Community College
(AZ) |
| -
Glendale Community College (AZ) |
| -
Central Arizona College (NM |
| -
Northern New Mexico College (NM) |
| -
J.F. Drake State Technical College
(AL) |
| -
Dona Ana Community College (NM) |
University
From
Undergraduate to Graduate students, COSMIAC
is involved. We are first and foremost
a university research center at the University
of New Mexico. We are actively involved
with assisting in course curriculum development
and teaching courses. We sponsor graduate
students performing a wide range of research
focus areas including: space radiation
mitigation, space weather, image processing
and dynamic RF capabilities for the Air
Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles
Directorate.
We have an active National Science
Foundation's Research for Engineering
Undergraduate student program to help
advance Space Weather Research. This
is a major interest item for AFRL's
Battlefield Environment Directorate.
Space weather is a research area for
the center. In addition to these focus
areas, we have active programs with
all the major research universities
in New Mexico.
We work with AFRL to facilitate the
success of the Space Scholars Program.
This program provides meaningful research
opportunities for undergraduate and
graduate students.
Postgraduate and Workforce Development
Education and training don't end when
people graduate from college and neither
does our work to support them. COSMIAC
has an ongoing series of short courses
that helps continuously improve the
skills of local workers.
|
