Dr. Stuart Ramos, Chancellor of UPR, Mayaguez; Professor Luenny Morell Ramirez, Vice Chancellor and Professor of Chemical Engineering; Dr. Manuel Gomez, Director of the Office of Resources for Science and Engineering, Director of the Alliance for Minority Participation and Coordinator of the Government of Puerto Rico for Science and Technology Policy and Dr. Hamid Davoodi, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Co-Director of the UPRM/WPI Center of Collaboration in Mayaguez, will all be given a chance to see the school and its departments during their visit.
Highlights of the visit include meetings with department heads, a presentation on the "bridge" program for PH.D.'s, a meeting with Hispanic and Puerto Rican Students and the signing of the agreement itself. The agreement recognizes the shared visions of the two schools in providing high quality education and encouragment to minority interest in the science and engineering fields. This will be accomplished by drawing on the strengths of both institutions and is expected to have a very positive effect on each one.
The University of Puerto Rico was founded in 1903 by an act of legislative assembly and today it has three campuses which are dedicated to undergraduate and graduate studies. Included in the system are also two four year colleges, four two year colleges and two technical four year colleges, providing a total enrollment of 50,000 students. The University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez was established in 1911 and has a faculty of over 640, with 322 visiting, affiliated and adjunct staffs, serving about 12,000 students.
The school is the largest engineering school in the entire Latin America and has the largest concentration of Hispanic faculty with Ph.D. degrees (60%) among all engineering schools in Latin America. The University provides for over 20% of the Hispanic engineering work force in the United States and has the highest percentage of female students in science and engineering (35%) among all science and engineering schools in the United States.
UPRM serves as a technology transfer center for Central, North and South America and many researchers from South and Central America are actively involved in collaboration with their counterparts at UPRM. The strategic location of the University has attracted many graduate and undergraduate students from these areas, in fact, more than half of the current engineering graduate students at UPRM are foreign born.
Students will benefit from this new collaboration through the cultural enrichment that is sure to follow. Hispanic students from UPRM will gain an additional opportunity to complete their studies, benefiting from WPI's experience in pioneering project-based education and multi-disciplinary research programs. There is enormous enthusiasm on the part of the UPRM faculty and administration to support joint research and educational programs with WPI. These programs can be used to devise a new and innovative model of research and education and joint doctoral programs not only for the UPRM, but for Central and South America.
Because of the size of UPRM, it is guaranteed that students selected to come to WPI will be of the highest caliber, having participated in UPRM's five year degree program. The UPRM students do not have doctoral degrees available to them at UPRM, in many of the science and engineering disciplines. Collaboration with WPI will allow them the opportunity to advance their studies, as well as help to establish WPI as a major university for the training of minority doctoral students.
The agreement itself establishes a center at UPRM, which will facilitate and coordinate the joint research and education programs and help facilitate faculty and student exchange between the two institutions. They will also draw upon WPI's experience to encourage local and corporate businesses, federal agencies and other universities to participate and support the development and strengthening of the research infrastructure at UPRM.
The signing will take place on Thursday morning at 8:30 in President Parrish's office and will be immediately followed by a chance for the Hispanic and Puerto Rican students at WPI to meet our guests in Higgins Labs room 102.
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