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Six High Schoolers Present Results of Their Internship to UNM Mentors, Faculty, and Stephanie Kean, Field Representative of Congresswoman Michelle Lujan-Grisham

July 17, 2017

The second summer camp on smart management of infrastructure hosted the interns’ presentations on July 12, 2017.  This is an annual opportunity for high school students to conduct research in the Smart Management of Infrastructure Laboratory (SMILab) directed by Dr. Fernando Moreu, Assistant Professor in the Civil Engineering Department, and mentored by undergraduate and graduate students members of SMILab.  About twenty people listened to the presentations of students.  High schools represented included Bosque High School (Juliet Sturge), Albuquerque Academy (Brian Bishop), Native American Community Academy (Doug Natseway and James Pettis), School of Dreams Academy from Los Lunas (Erik Moreno), and Chinle High Schoolr from Arizona (Mia Draper).  The high school interns, mentored by undergraduate or graduate students or visiting scholars, worked on projects that varied among augmented reality, robots for infrastructure inspection, photogrammetry, Arduino, bridge displacement for management prioritization, 3D printing, and solar panels for remote sending.

This research internship not only enables UNM students to mentor younger engineers but it stimulates an interest in science and engineering for the high school students.  The camp included interactions with the Social Media Workgroup (Andrea Polli) and the Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory (Mark Stone).  VISTA fellows Madelein Bowling and Britney King assisted students with 3D printing and media development.  Postdoc Dr. Ozdagli and visiting scholar Dr. Liu provided advanced expertise in sensing technologies.  UNM students Soni Rhytham, Piyush Garg, Xiaomeng Li, and Emmanual Ayorinde provided mentorship in different aspects of the internship.  Emeritus Professor Tom Paez and Associate Professor Mark Stone questioned students on different aspects of their research.  Stephanie Kean, an architect now working for Congresswoman Lujan-Grisham, encouraged the students to pursue studies in engineering, science, and art. 

6 high schoolers intern