Education:

The Center will have a great impact on the education and research training capabilities of NMSU in BCB.

Curriculum Development: The Center activities will lead to the development of new courses of interest to the NMSU academic community. These courses will draw directly from the Center research, thus providing integration between research and education. The courses will primarily target seniors/graduate students and will help in training and recruiting students for BCB research. The Center will support these course development activities, by providing graduate and undergraduate assistants to the researchers for preparation of the course material. It will also support the development of Web-based course materials suitable for distance education. The NMSU Office of Distance Education has committed its support to this initiative.

Pre-College and Undergraduate Preparation: The Center will develop a program to attract highschool students into college studies in BCB. The program, in collaboration with the Las Cruces Public Schools, includes visits by researchers to schools, presentations, programming and science competitions, support for science fairs, and summer experiences on NMSU campus. The Center will also develop coordinated programs with local community colleges (Do˜na Ana) and tribal colleges (e.g., Crownpoint Institute of Technology) to improve STEM preparation of their students and facilitate their transition to a 4-year program. The objective is to identify in advance talented students with interest/potential for careers in BCB, and target their preparation to increase retention and success. The activities will involve preparatory and training workshops for instructors, creation of coordinated plans of study, and summer and distance education activities for the selected students. These activities will build on existing collaborations, e.g., the Native Americans in CS program. Both programs will rely on continuous contacts and interactions between selected students, high-school and college instructors, and the Center’s researchers. The Center will invite visiting scientists to offer exciting talks to an audience composed of high-school and undergraduate students. The Center will also provide assistance— in the form of expertise, access to resources, student support—to NMSU faculty in developing and improving undergraduate courses related to BCB, thus further strengthening undergraduate preparation in this field.

Graduate Minor and Master in BCB: The course development activities will be part of a coordinated effort to create a comprehensive graduate training program in BCB. During the first two years, the curriculum development effort will strengthen the Graduate Minor in BCB, by offering support and opportunities for the offering of the required courses and stimulating students’ interest in this program. The Graduate Minor in BCB has been recently established as a collaborative effort among Biology, Biochemistry, and CS. The strengthening of the graduate minor will ultimately contribute to the development of a proposal for a Master’s degree in BCB, that the Center will develop and submit to NMSU and the New Mexico Commission for Higher Education by year 3 of the project. The Master degree’s curriculum will include 3-4 core courses (e.g.,Computational Biology, Computational Genomics, Biological Modeling), 5 electives (initially from 3 areas— biology, biochemistry, and CS—and drawn from the current courses available in these departments), and two semesters of Master Thesis. The Master will be articulated in alternative tracks tailored to the backgrounds of the graduate students. The Minor and the Master will be coordinated to facilitate student transition from the first to the second. The Center is expected to formalize and supervise the development of this program, including (i) the coordination between the different academic units and the regular offering of the required courses; (ii) development of new courses; (iii) faculty incentives (e.g., RAs); and (iv) porting of the graduate program to Web-based format and the creation of a distance education program in BCB.

Research Training: The Center will organize and supervise the delivery of training sessions open to researchers and students associated with the Center. The training sessions are specialized short courses delivered by Center personnel or visiting researchers. We envision three types of training: Basic Research Training: aimed at undergraduate or beginning graduate students, these sessions will provide basic training in BCB research methodologies. These sessions will prominently target the students associated to the research subprojects (e.g., graduate and undergraduate assistants, summer trainees). BCB Preparatory Courses These will be offered on a regular basis (e.g., twice a year) and will provide training in basic issues in BCB to students and new researchers interested in joining this field of research. Advanced Research Topics: These courses will tackle cutting-edge research aspects of BCB, such as new accomplishments (e.g., obtained by researchers associated with the Center or by visitors).

Educational Pipeline: The Center will develop an educational pipeline towards advanced degrees in BCB, with the collaboration of Las Cruces high schools, Do˜na Ana Branch Community College, various tribal colleges in the region and the participating NMSU academic units. The pipeline will be composed of seminars, workshops, and demonstrations for high schools and 2-year college students—aimed at gaining interest in BCB and providing them with exposure to basic concepts in biology and computing. The Center will work in 4 cooperation with the community colleges in designing a pathway for talented students to access 4-year degrees in BCB fields at NMSU main campus—counselors and advisors at the colleges will identify excellent students, direct them towards a plan of study that includes the necessary prerequisites, as well as immediate contact with instructors in the Center. The Center will assist the relevant NMSU units in advising the students entering the pipeline and provide support (e.g., assistantships) to the most promising ones.

Integration of Research and Education: Integration of research and education is a driving force behind the Center activities. The integration strategy will bridge research to education through curriculum developments that reflect new research directions in the field of BCB. Students will be encouraged to participate in research activities through various opportunities (e.g., fellowships and assistantships), extensive mentoring, adoption of adequate educational methodologies (e.g., Cooperative Learning ) and synergy between classroom teaching and research. Research topics will be employed as demonstration material for course projects, exposing students to various aspects of our research from the beginning. The research conducted will also inspire a range of advanced topic courses, such as genome analysis and parallel scientific computing, that will prepare students to engage in research in BCB. Undergraduate students will be directly involved in research projects, as assistants or as part of their regular studies (e.g., senior projects), while graduate students will conduct research during their Thesis work. 2-year college and pre-college students will also receive exposure to research issues during summer research experiences—where they will be mentored by Center investigators. Workshops and short training courses will provide further overlap between research and education.