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It is only the first day of April and it is already proving to be an eventful month, as we all prepare for the end of the semester and welcoming our spring 2024 graduates to our alumni community. There are several opportunities for students and faculty to take advantage of throughout this month, and I hope that you are all able to take time out of your busy schedules to join in on some of them.
First up is the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Conference (UROC) on April 12. All of our Arts & Sciences Support for Undergraduate Research Experiences (ASSURE) Fellows will be in attendance to share the projects they have been working so hard on throughout the year and I highly encourage you to attend. Applications for the Fall 2024 cohort of ASSURE Fellows are now open and submissions are due April 30. If you have a student who is interested in applying, please send them this link and encourage them to attend UROC, as it will be an excellent opportunity for them to talk to ASSURE fellows firsthand.
We will also be kicking off AI@UNM this month with AI-April. Every Wednesday beginning on April 10, the College will be hosting a new event dedicated to the use of artificial intelligence in education. We are proud to be hosting José Bowen, renowned educational innovator, for this first event titled, “Teaching & Working With AI”. On April 17, “AI & Research @ A&S” will feature lightning presentations by A&S faculty on how they use AI in their research. And finally, on April 24, we’re excited to share the expertise of five UNM faculty at “AI, Public Discourse, & Elections.” More information, including links to register, is here.
Our industry partnerships are vital to our successful research efforts, and because of this, I am excited to share an important new partnership between A&S and Sandia National Laboratories called, “Sandia@UNM”. This new speaker series will feature presentations by Sandia employees interested in collaborating with UNM faculty on projects. The first event will take place on April 27 and will feature 2021 alumnus of Physics & Astronomy, Dr. Aaron Jones. Aaron is a Senior Member of Technical Staff in Applied Cognitive Science at Sandia National Laboratory, and his presentation titled, “Using extended reality to study human behavior - Wait - Sandia does that?” will explore how extended reality (XR) tools can help improve training and create a testbed for research scientists to study human performance under more realistic conditions. More information, including the link to register, is here.
I look forward to connecting with you at one or all of these events, and I hope that these last few weeks of the semester are productive for you.
Lastly, I want to thank you all – it has been one of the great pleasures of my career to work with and learn from you all as Associate Dean for Research over the past three years. Thanks to all of you, the exceptional and dedicated staff in the college, and the leadership of Dean Malat as we reflect on our future through strategic planning, I leave for my next opportunity confident that the college’s best days lie ahead. I look forward to working with all of you to ensure as much.
Until next month,
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