By Hamid Mansouri Rad, Ph.D., Senior Proposal Development Specialist, RAS

Congratulations to Drs. Muhammad Dawood, Jason Jackiewicz, and Wanda Bulger-Tamez for each submitting a proposal exceeding a million dollars in the month of January.

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Dawood in collaboration with Margaret Campos, the manager of the Telemetry and Missile Systems R&D department at Physical Science Laboratory (PSL), and PSL R&D engineers Shayan Abotalebi and Jacob Wilson submitted a $2.4 million proposal to the NSF Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program to secure a spheric electromagnetic anechoic chamber. The chamber will advance NMSU’s teaching and research capabilities in several areas including the advancement of Internet of Things hardware security, low frequency and Ultra-Wide Band antennas, novel biological sensors, novel 3-D printed volumetric circuits/antennas, 5G and crowded spectrum control, Unmanned Aircraft Systems, broadband connectivity for rural regions, Earth and disaster preparedness monitoring, High-Altitude Platform Stations, satellite antennas, and hypersonic antennas. The chamber will also enable collaborative research opportunities with faculty at New Mexico Tech and the University of Texas at El Paso. For more information, please contact Dr. Dawood at dawood@nmsu.edu.

Dr. Jason Jackiewicz, professor of Astronomy, submitted a $1.3 million proposal to NSF MRI to acquire instrumentation for a node in the global Stellar Observations Network Group (SONG) observing network for ultra high-precision seismology of bright stars. According to Dr. Jackiewicz, the proposed SONG in New Mexico facility will be an extremely valuable asset for our undergraduate and graduate students, as well as our astronomy faculty. As he puts it, the instrumentation will be some of the most precise in the world for asteroseismology, and offers many research opportunities for decades. The international collaboration aspect is also exciting for NMSU, with SONG in New Mexico being the only U.S. node of the network, enabling the broader U.S. astronomy community to participate in important long-term observations of some of the most interesting stars in the sky. Dr. Jackiewicz can be reached at jasonj@nmsu.edu. 

Dr. Wanda Bulger-Tamez, NMSU's STEM Outreach Center and the Mathematically Connected Communities program, in partnership with the New Teacher Center, have submitted a proposal in response to High Plains Regional Education Cooperative’s Focus on Algebra – Professional Learning Support Services solicitation. The proposal aims to effectively build the content and skills of grade 6-9 mathematics teachers and the instructional leaders who support them across the state of New Mexico through the following activities:

• Summer Academies to develop deep content expertise among math teachers and their instructional leaders, ensuring that math teachers and the leaders deeply understand the Common Core State Standards for Math (CCSS-M), the arc of learning across grades, and high-quality instructional materials that can support them in differentiating instruction to each diverse learner.
• Fall and Spring Convenings for teachers and instructional leaders to study core pedagogical concepts aligned to the Universal Design for Learning, ensuring all students have equitable access to grade-level content through culturally/linguistically responsive instruction.
• Virtual Sessions for teachers and instructional leaders for teachers to delve deeper into these pedagogical practices as well as the supportive structures that instructional leaders should be implementing in their school communities. Teachers completing these virtual sessions will have the opportunity to earn micro-credentials as a result of their participation.

Dr. Muhammad Dawood, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dr. Jason Jackiewicz, Professor of Astronomy

Dr. Wanda Bulger-Tamez, Director, STEM Outreach Center and the MC² program