October 8, 2007

Martin-Vega Motivates Middle School Students with Speech at Global Connectivity Demonstration

Dean Martin-Vega

Dr. Louis Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University, had the opportunity to mentor over 1,000 Tampa Bay area middle school students on October 4, as part of a long-term “Global Connectivity” collaboration between students at Centennial Campus Middle School on NC State’s campus in Raleigh and the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa, Fla.

The goal of the collaboration is to foster an excitement in middle school students for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by integrating technology such as video conferencing, virtualization of computing resources and science simulation applications.

This first collaborative event was highlighted by Martin-Vega’s motivational and partly bilingual presentation to his young, largely Hispanic audience about science and engineering. During his presentation two groups of students interacted via video conferencing to solve an engineering problem about water quality in their respective communities. The group of Tampa students was on their stage in Florida while the Centennial Campus Middle School students made their presentation in the “discovery room” at the Friday Institute on the campus of NC State. Using software virtualization tools, the students worked with a water ecology SAS simulation application to help identify the scientific problem. They then worked on developing engineering solutions to improve the water conditions for both communities.

The student collaboration illustrated the goal of the event — learning about science and engineering together and interactively can be fun and "cool."

As part of his visit to Tampa, Martin-Vega received the 2007 National Hispanic Scientist of the Year Award from MOSI during a gala award ceremony on October 6 (see related story). The award recognizes “outstanding national Hispanic scientists who promote a greater public understanding of science and encourage Hispanic youths' interests in science.”

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