Ana G. Méndez University’s Gurabo Campus gets $5M U.S. Dept. of Energy grant
The Gurabo Campus of the Ana G. Méndez University received a grant of nearly $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Safety Administration to develop the “Consortium of Hybrid Resilient Energy Systems” project.
The CHRES initiative is one of several consortiums of universities and national laboratories sponsored by the federal agency’s Minority Institutions Collaboration program.
CHRES efforts are aimed at providing professional development and educational strengthening experiences in the area of energy by facilitating research, educational, and internship opportunities throughout the year and summer for students at high school, undergraduate and graduate levels.
The participating institutions and collaborators of the consortium are the Ana G. Méndez University Gurabo (the leading institution), University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez, University of Texas at El Paso and University of New Mexico. CHRES will also join forces with Sandia National Laboratories, National Energy Technology Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.
“Our campus is proud to have highly qualified professionals to develop growth and development opportunities for the island’s youth,” said David Méndez Pagán, rector of the Gurabo Campus.
“Right now, it’s important to help them, motivate them and encourage them with projects and initiatives that strengthen their academic and professional interest so that they can move forward with their goals,” he said.
With the funds, research and education capacities in the area of engineering training can be strengthened, encouraging minority students to excel in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by providing them with practical experiences and training through research. In addition, the scientific and technical resource base in engineering will be expanded, school officials said.
The activities are designed to reach 1,758 high school students, 755 undergraduate students, and 70 graduate students. In addition, dissemination activities and symposia, summer camps, course redesign and the outreach of professors for research will be carried out. The project hopes to promote new collaborations with national laboratories and between the different universities of the consortium.
