Persistence
Pays Off
$1.35 Million Grant Enhances Science and Technology Programs
By Melissa Longoria Goonan
Dr. Carl Steidley and
his fellow professors from the College of Science and Technology
at Texas A&M University-Corpus
Christi were on a mission to secure a $1.5 million grant to build
the department’s infrastructure. “It’s a lot of hard work and persistence,” said Steidley, the director of the project. “You’ve got to pay attention to what the reviewers say critically and positively. You’ve got to keep your nose there - you read it over and over and try to figure out how to make this proposal better.” Some
of the professors had worked on previous grants and thus brought their experience
and knowledge to the process. “You have one page to explain in detail the
budget for the next five years,” Dr. Stephen Dannelly, the project’s
principal investigator, said. |
Shown with pioneer robot is Dr. Stephen Dannelly, principal investigator of the $1.35 million grant. |
After the NSF received the grant application,
they announced plans to make a
site visit to A&M-Corpus Christi. Site visits, which are not done often,
allow the NSF to meet the faculty and tour the campus. “You have one day
to convince them why they should fund you, how brilliant you are and what great
plans you have,” Steidley said.
After their visit in May 2002, the NSF was impressed with the department, but
it took another year before the award was finally granted. Besides being a large
sum, the grant is significant because it is the first Minority Institution Infrastructure
grant that A&M-Corpus Christi has ever received.
Dean of the College of Science and Technology Dr. Diana Marinez boasts about
her department’s success. “Like most of what we do, getting this
grant was a team effort. This grant demonstrates that when you have a vision
and are persistent you can make good things happen for South Texas.”
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Co-principal investigators pictured above l to r are Drs. John Fernandez, Mario Garcia, Dulal Kar and Jim Nystrom. |
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The grant, entitled “Extending and Strengthening
the Pipeline in Computer
Science,” will work to get more minorities interested in computer science.
A&M-Corpus Christi’s location and status as a minority serving institution
made it eligible to apply under the MII clause. Currently, the science and technology
program does not reflect the campus student population. Out of 1,858 S&T
students enrolled for Spring 2003, 40 percent were Hispanic. The goal is to reach
51 percent.
“When I was hired by Dean Marinez, it was our goal to enroll more minorities
and women,” Steidley said.
Upon the advice of the NSF, the department plans to start introducing computer
science to students as early as elementary school. Dr. John Fernandez, a computer
science professor working on the NSF-MII grant, will immediately begin recruiting
middle and high school students to the field. He will serve as a role model for
potential South Texas students.
“We want to reach students who haven’t thought about going to college
and help them realize that they can do it,” Steidley said.
The College of Science and Technology has many long term goals for the NSF-MII
grant, Steidley said. “We want to encourage local students in the computer
science department to serve as role models to middle and high school students
in the community.”
When asked what the ultimate compliment would be Steidley grinned and said, “It
would be a feather in the cap for all the professors involved if one of our students
went off, got their Ph.D. and came back to teach. That would be a terrific thing
to happen.”
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| Other professors who collaborated on the grant shown top to bottom l to r above are: Drs. Ray Bachnak, Grady Price Blount, Gary Jeffress, Stacy Lyle, Patrick Michaud, Alex Sadovski and George Tintera. | ||||||
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