The Center for Intelligent Systems Engineering at the UNM School of Engineering is giving graduate students a chance to conduct intelligent research and gain real world experience.
Peter Dorato, an electrical and computer engineering professor, is the director of the Center for Intelligent Systems Engineering and said the program has two primary functions for students. He said the center encourages minority students to attend graduate school and design and develop projects for NASA.
Dorato said the funding level from NASA for the project is about $1 million per year with mandatory yearly renewals.
"The money that we get from NASA goes toward salaries for faculty, research assistants, equipment for research and travel accommodations for conferences," Dorado said.
The focus of the center is on the design of technological systems that are intelligent, Dorato said.
"Because NASA cannot always put people in space, they are very interested in intelligent systems that can be used for those type of things," he said.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Dorato said the program consists of seven master's degree students and three doctoral students who are working on research projects in three departments including Electrical and Computer Engineering, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.
Dorato said the areas of research include investigation of cooperative satellite arrays, cooperative robotics, diagnostics of turbulent flow, fuzzy-logic modeling, and intelligent image processing.
"One of our projects, cooperative robotics, deals with creating robots that can communicate with each other while working on a specific problem," Dorato said.
John Sanchez, a 1997 graduate from St. Pius X High School, assisted a graduate student involved in the program last school year with the cooperative robotics project.
Sanchez said he is actually involved in the PURSUE program, which is the undergraduate version of Intelligent Systems Engineering.
"We created a group of robots which can cooperate and communicate with each other," Sanchez said.
After he graduates in December, Sanchez said he has plans to go to graduate school and participate in the program.
"The experience I gained in these programs is the most valuable experience I have gained during my entire time at college," Sanchez said. "These programs are very challenging but very beneficial."
He said the type of experience he gained is not common among most students studying engineering.
"This is one of the only opportunities for hands-on experience," Sanchez said. "I have gained the experience of taking on a real engineering project while still attending college."
Dorato said that being involved in the program is a very valuable experience for graduate students and for faculty.
"The students are getting paid for being research assistants by a program that strongly supports graduate students and minorities" Dorato said. "The faculty gets release time from classes and can get a summer salary."
Dorato said North Carolina A&T, New Mexico State University and New Mexico Highlands University are three partner schools and receive a portion of the funding that NASA gives to UNM.
