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New Mexico State University
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The College

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NMSU first offered courses in civil engineering in 1891, and the NMSU College of Engineering was founded in 1914. Today, the school grants degrees in ten areas:

It is the only college of engineering in New Mexico to offer degrees in surveying engineering, industrial engineering, information and communication technology and engineering technology. Aerospace engineering will be offered beginning in the fall of 2005

The college has a reputation for graduating outstanding students who are highly sought after by corporations across the country. Major employers include Intel, Hewlett Packard, General Motors, Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratories, NASA, IBM, CH2M-HILL, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Highway Administration and Lockheed Martin. Other notable distinctions for the college include:

• The college was ranked 13 th nationally by the National Science Foundation based on federally funded research expenditures

• The college currently has nine endowed faculty positions – two endowed chairs and seven endowed professorships

The school’s Engineering Research Center coordinates more than $18 million of sponsored research projects. Areas of research expertise include:

  • Technology to expand the lifespan of bridges
  • Technology to improve the quality and quantity of water in New Mexico
  • Near and deep-space communications
  • Power grid reliability and power generation
  • Alternative energy sources including full cells, wind and solar
  • Environmental issues and applications for both nuclear and non-nuclear technologies
  • Modeling and optimization of manufacturing and service industries

 

Notable programs and centers within the college include:

• The Center for Space Telemetering and Telecommunication Systems, which is funded by a variety of federal programs. Faculty and students in the program are involved in leading edge technologies associated with earth-based, near-space and deep-space communication systems.

• The Electric Utility Management Program, which was founded in 1967 by Professor William Kersting. The program provides an advanced education program for future engineering managers wishing to work in the electric utility industry. More than 230 students have graduated from the program, of which seven have become CEOs of major electric utilities.

• The Bridge Research Program has worked to solve technological problems with bridge systems for more than 25 years. Areas of focus include bridge inspection, bridge testing and monitoring, and bridge security.

• The Institute for Energy and the Environment is the focal point for faculty-based research and outreach in water, energy and the environment. It serves as an umbrella to the following significant programs:

  • The Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring and Research Center, which was established in 1991 with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). CEMRS is a 26,000 square-foot radiochemistry facility that includes environmental and radiochemistry laboratories, a plutonium-uranium lab, an in vivo bioassay facility, mobile laboratories, computing operations and offices. The facility can perform a wide range of environmental and radiochemistry work, characterization, monitoring (particularly in the vicinity of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a DOE facility that serves as a repository for waste generated by the federal government’s nuclear defense research and production activities), feasibility studies in support of performance assessment, radiological and environmental training and public education, subsurface flow and transport experiments, nuclear energy issues, and issues involving homeland security, especially those surrounding dirty bombs or radiation dispersal devices (RDD).
  • The Southwest Technology Development Institute, which was established in 1977 as the New Mexico Solar Energy Institute. Today, the institute is internationally recognized as an applied research and development center in the areas of energy and environmental systems.
  • WERC: A Consortium for Environmental Education and Technology Development was established in 1990 with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. NMSU serves as the lead partner for the consortium, in its mission to develop the human resources and technologies needed to address environmental issues.

• The Manufacturing Technology and Engineering Center (M-TEC), which links the college with industries in New Mexico. The college provides resources such as technical expertise, equipment and facilities that allow M-TEC to educate and train students and employees for New Mexico manufacturing jobs and provide technical support for these industries.

The college also serves as the headquarters for a variety of programs designed to interest students in pursuing careers in math, science and engineering. These include:

• The Southern New Mexico Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace Academy (SNM SEMAA), which was developed at NMSU with a $400,000 grant from NASA. The academy works with public elementary, middle and high schools in Southern New Mexico that primarily serve minorities who are underrepresented in science and engineering fields.

• The Prefreshman Engineering Program (PREP) is primarily funded by NASA through the Proyecto Access program. Other supporters include Intel, the Hewlett Foundation, the Wolslager Foundation, and Jerome and Joyce Shaw. The program brings middle and high school students onto campus for seven weeks during the summer for intensive studies in math, science, and engineering.

• The New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation (NMAMP), a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation to increase the enrollment and graduation rate of underrepresented ethnic minorities in science, mathematics, engineering and technology. New Mexico AMP was launched on November 1, 1993, and is a partnership of the state's two-year colleges and four-year universities. The program is open to all undergraduate ethnic minority students who are working towards a B.S. degree in science, mathematics, engineering or technology.

• The Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology (BEST) robotics competition. The College of Engineering has hosted the local competition of this national program each fall since 2001. The competition gives middle and high school students in New Mexico and El Paso a feel for what engineering is about as well as what is required to run a business.

• The Southwestern New Mexico Regional Science and Engineering Fair, which is affiliated with the International Science and Engineering Fair administered by Science Service in Washington, D.C.

• The Regional Alliance for Science, Engineering and Mathematics Squared for Students with Disabilities, a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation that provides financial, mentoring and technical support to students in technical fields who have disabilities.