Dr. Veronica Martinez-Acosta, professor of Biology, was recently recognized by the Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native American Scientists (SACNAS) as their 2024 Outstanding College/University Mentor. SACNAS is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans be successful in the world of STEM.
For University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) Assistant Professor Dr. Charles Fermaintt the fight against breast cancer is personal. His mother was diagnosed and survived breast cancer in 2016. Now, Fermaintt is taking on one of the most aggressive forms of the disease in his research being done right here at UIW. That research has just been awarded a grant of more than $500,000 over the next three years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
UIW engineering students from the University’s Autonomous Vehicles Systems (AVS) Research and Education Laboratories traveled to Toronto in Ontario, Canada to participate in Quanser’s 2024 American Control Conference Self-Driving Car Student Competition, held July 12-14.
In honor of Safer Internet Day, UIW’s Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) student chapter recently tabled outside of the Student Engagement Center to spread awareness on how UIW community members can better ensure their safety online.
Four UIW Meteorology majors, Sabrina Gonzales, Fatima Hernandez, Christian Schell and Katelyn Simenson, recently had the privilege of attending the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). The AMS is the world’s largest yearly gathering for the weather, water and climate community. It brings together great minds from a diverse set of scientific disciplines, helping attendees make career-long professional contact and life-long friends while learning from leading experts in the atmospheric sciences.
Juliana Garza, a junior Cybersecurity Systems student at the University of the Incarnate Word, was recently honored with the “Cybersecurity & The Latinx Community Scholarship,” a financial award presented to only five students across the country each semester. The scholarship aims to financially support undergraduate Latinx students seeking an education and prospective career in the field of cybersecurity. As a Latinx individual, Garza says that she hopes to break boundaries to help make the cybersecurity industry more diverse and inclusive, a goal that her recent scholarship award will help her achieve.
At COMM Extravaganza, many students presented their research, which marked a significant milestone for them in their higher education journeys. Evelyn Torres expressed her joy in presenting her work, which represented her learning during her time in Communication Arts. She congratulated her Communication Arts family and looked forward to graduating next week.
Dr. Acosta is a supporter of diversity and inclusion in STEM. She has developed programs to promote diversity in STEM at UIW and beyond. According to her biography, she strives to speak up for those who cannot and advocate for those who have limited resources.
Amanda Roberts has come full circle. She began her studies in Biology at the University of Incarnate Word as an undergraduate and earned her bachelor’s degree in Chemistry with a minor in Biology in 2010. In August, more than a decade after she first stepped foot on campus, she joined the UIW faculty as a visiting assistant professor of Chemistry.
Project Helios was inspired by issues that grew out of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of the Spring 2022 semester, Broadway Campus students were required to go online for two weeks of virtual instruction. Students were often forced to be close to charging outlets to power their laptops while in their dorm rooms or hallways, which did not always allow for social distancing.
UIW's Oceanography class, under the instruction of Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Dr. John Hooker, boarded the RV Katy, a research vessel operated by the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, on Nov. 18 for an educational excursion .
Dr. Veronica Acosta, Biology professor at UIW, has had various leadership roles during her 14-year tenure at the University. Recently, she was selected to participate in the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) Leadership Institute to hone her leadership skills.
Dr. Carlos Garcia, dean of the School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering, has been at UIW for more than a decade. He started his career teaching ocular pharmacology, but since then he has spent time as a researcher and president of a community college. Hear more about Garcia’s leadership style, projects he is currently working on, and his role with UIW’s Sustainability Advisory Board below.
UIW, along with St. Mary’s University, Trinity University and Our Lady of the Lake University, have been awarded an almost $2.5 million grant by the National Science Foundation. The goal of the grant-funded project from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program is to increase the number of historically underrepresented students and those from lower-income backgrounds to obtain bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
“I was proud to be part of a cosmopolitan organization that drew intelligent, driven people from across the world.” Those are the words Orion Jones, a senior Meteorology student, shared about the recent 41st AIAA/IEEE Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC) several UIW students and faculty attended. At the conference, held in Portsmouth, Virginia, the Autonomous Vehicle Systems (AVS) Research Lab submitted a variety of papers on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs).
Dr. Gonzalo Parra, assistant professor of Cyber Security Systems in the School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering, received $95,000 as part of a grant from the National Science Foundation for the project Collaborative Research: CISE-MSI: Active and Passive Internet Measurements for Inferring IoT Maliciousness at Scale, which focuses on cybersecurity. Parra is collaborating with UTSA and the San Diego State University Foundation (SDSU) on the project. The total grant provided the trio of Hispanic-Serving Institutions with $600,000.
With my senior year before me, I can say that choosing to attend the University of the Incarnate Word has greatly impacted my life, and I have learned a lot these past three years. One of my main reasons for attending UIW is that it emphasizes its Catholic faith as the foundation of the school’s history. UIW has helped me grow deeper in my faith because the Catholic identity is prominent throughout campus and participation in church celebrations is encouraged.
The UIW Autonomous Vehicle Systems (AVS) Lab-sponsored outreach program, Girls in Engineering Math and Science (GEMS), is preparing to participate in a drone competition as part of the Digital Avionics Systems Conference. The conference, scheduled for the fall, is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Aerospace and Electronics Systems Societies (AESS) and hosted by St. Mary’s University.
Nadia (learner) and Scheel (faculty member) Nayar reflect on what it meant to them to be part of UIWSOM’s inaugural cohort together
UIW’s Community Health Education (CHED) program, an interdisciplinary program housed in the Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing and Health professions, has earned full accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).
UIW’s Autonomous Vehicle Systems Laboratories (AVS Labs), in association with the UIW Girls in Engineering, Math, and Science (GEMS) program, launched its second annual summer internship initiative in partnership the Army Education Outreach Program (AEOP) on Monday, June 6. The internsip program consists of two educational opportunities for local high school girls.
From June 20 - July 1, 12 high school students attended the GearHeads San Antonio Summer Research Academy (GearHeadsSA SRA), a project-based learning summer program provided by the UIW School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering (SMSE).
For Dr. Ricardo Carrion ’98, the decision to attend the University of the Incarnate Word was an easy one. In addition to his family’s bond with the Sisters, he loved the school’s Catholic identity and small class sizes, as well as the enthusiasm of the instructors who encouraged his passion for biology.
Summer is often a time for relaxation, rest and rejuvenation for college students. But for Emma Vequist, a rising junior Biology major at the University of the Incarnate Word, this summer is a time for research and discovery. For 11 weeks spanning June, July and August, Vequist is participating in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Biological Discovery in Woods Hole.
UIW is proud to announce it has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund further research into kidney disease and diabetes. The $300,000 grant will specifically go into research regarding an enzyme, Duox2, and how it effects those with kidney disease.
As the spring semester comes to a close, academic departments from around the University of the Incarnate Word have been hard at work, wrapping up major projects and celebrating big wins.
Thirty students from University of the Incarnate Word School of Math, Science and Engineering attended the Texas Academy of Science’s (TAS) 125th annual meeting at the University of Houston Clear Lake. Sixteen of the 30 students presented, sharing posters and research projects.
Veronica G. Martinez Acosta, PhD, professor of Biology and director of the UIW Honors Program, is part of a group that received grant funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Equitable Pathways program. The landmark $5 million grant will support 20 different partnerships across various organizations to build equitable pathways, helping Black, Indigenous and Latina/o students advance into STEM graduate studies.
Each spring, the University of the Incarnate Word community comes together as “One Word” to work towards “One Goal” – raising funds to support current and future UIW students. UIW’s fourth annual Day of Giving, known as “One Word. One Goal.,” will be celebrated for 1881 minutes, in honor of the University’s founding year, during Incarnate Word Week beginning March 23.
Wynette Keller, director of TRiO Student Support Services at the University of the Incarnate Word, was recognized by the Texas TRiO Association with a 20 Year Service Award at the organization’s conference. We caught up with Keller to discuss how rewarding her work is and how it aligns with the Mission of UIW.
The University of the Incarnate Word’s Autonomous Vehicle Systems (AVS) Research Lab is excited to announce that the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word has funded the GEMS after-school miniGEMS clubs for the upcoming FIRST LEGO League (FLL) competitions. A generous $5,000 award from the CCVI “Sisters supporting women for a better world” grant will help support the GEMS after-school programs.
Seven UIW faculty members assisted the Texas Academic Decathlon team from Travis Early College High School prepare for the state academic decathlon competition, which will take place Feb. 25-27.
Chance Trentman-Rosas chose UIW for the opportunities in education and football, but he soon realized that joining the ROTC and the Texas National Guard would help him leave a greater legacy.
Dr. Suleyman Tek, professor of Mathematics and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, hosted a Cardinal Math Talk session on Oct. 28 with guest speaker Dr. Md Rafiul Islam, postdoc research associate of Mathematics at Iowa State University. Islam’s topic was a “Mathematical model of COVID-19 transmission with vaccination and optimal vaccine allocation strategy with limited supply.”
Ben Garza, a graduate student in UIW’s Nutrition program, grew up in McAllen, Texas but he has grown to love San Antonio. As an undergraduate student at Trinity University looking into what his next steps would be, he began taking more of an interest in his personal health through exercise and nutrition. During one of his Psychology classes, Lifespan Development, he examined how certain foods affect the human body.
The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) is proud to announce that its Biochemistry program in the School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering has received full accreditation from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB).
The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) is proud to announce it has received a grant in the amount of $32, 992 from the Grass Foundation in support of Neuroscience education in the Biology and Engineering departments.
Three summer STEM programs at the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) continued to help students stay ahead of their preparation programs amid the pandemic.
The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) is pleased to announce that the Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded two grants this summer totaling more than $1.2 million to two research projects in the School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering.
The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) is pleased to announce that the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Army Research Office has awarded $643,759 to a research project led by Dr. Michael Frye, professor of Electrical Engineering in the School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering.
The Harp and Shamrock Society of Texas has honored University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) Associate Professor Dr. Gerald Mulvey with its Cusack Family Award.
