News and Activities

• News

  • NSF Project Proposal selected for Funding! (December)

    • Project: CREST Center for Geospatial and Environmental Informatics, Modeling and Simulation

  • ACUE Microcredential in Creating an Inclusive and Supportive Online Learning Environment (December)

    • Issued by: Association of College and University Educators

  • SACNAS Chapter Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi-Faculty Adviser (Sept)

    • Become a member via I-ENGAGE!

  • Two PhD positions available for funding! (September) -  Deadline: September 30th, 2021.

    • PhD in Geospatial Computer Science (GSCS)  with focus on robotics, particularly with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, path planning and collision avoidance techniques. 

      • Position description available here. 

    • PhD in  Geospatial Computer Science (GSCS)  with focus on Cyber-Security and Geospatial techniques. 

      • Position description available here. 

  • Media article at TAMU-CC Website: NSF Grant Awarded to TAMU-CC Professors to Help Shape the Future of Drone Use

  • NSF Project Proposal selected for Funding! (August)

    • Project: Dynamically Enforcing User-Oriented Geospatial Restrictions for Drone Fly-Overs

  • Recipient of the TAMU-CC Honors Program Undergraduate Research Award! (January)

• Presentations, workshops and seminars

• • NASA HBCU/MSI Technology Infusion Road Tour (Nov 16-17)

  • Latin American Congress on Automation and Robotics, LACAR 2021 (Nov)

    • Committee Organizer

  • Workshop: Experiencias del aprendizaje durante la pandemia por la COVID-19 en Institutciones de Education Superior.  Organized by Universidad Tecnologica de Panama (Nov)

    • • Panelist

  • SACNAS National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) Digital Conference (Oct 25-29)

  • Presentation - SACNAS Chapter Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (Sept)

    • "Modularity in Robotics and Autonomous Systems"

  • Intl. Space Station Research and Development Conference (ISSRDC) (August 16-18)

  • HBCU/MI Space Summit ( June 24)

  • Naval Opportunity Awareness Workshop (OAW) (June 15-16)

  • NSF ENG Career Proposal Workshop (April 21-23)

  • NSF CISE MSI Proposal Development Workshop (February 16 – March 12, 5-Days, 3hrs./session)

• Teaching

• • EEEN 4334 - Control Systems II (Fall)

  • GSCS 6996.002 - Research (Spring)

  • ENGR 4390.020 - Intro to Mechatronics (Spring)

  • ENGR 4420 - Engineering Measurements (Spring)

  • EEEN 3330 / ENTC 4446 - Control Systems I  (Spring)

  • EEEN 4396 - Directed Independent Study (Spring)

• STEM activities 

  • Drop Everything and Read at Gloria Hicks Elementary School (November)

  • Upward Bound Program - TAMUCC (November)

    • Professor Panel  - Presentation

    • STEM-Tronics Workshop - Instructor

  • Island Day Fair (Oct 16th)

    • Hosting Engineering Booth

  • Islander Family Weekend (October)

    • CORAL Tour - Presentation 

  • Virtual Engineering Summer Program (June)

    • • • Robotics - 2 Sessions

        • Electrical Circuits - 2 Sessions

  • FTC competition (March)

• News

  • • Nomination: 2020 Student Choice for Digital Innovator of the Year Award at TAMU-CC (November)

    • Congratulations Adarsh! (October)

      • Best Student Paper Award Finalist at IEEE International Conference on Control & Automation 

    • SACNAS (October)

      • Booth: TAMU-CC Recruitment Team

      • Workshop: The role of STEM in coastal monitoring and management: research and educational challenges faced in the classroom and in the field

    • CAHSI – vREU (September)

      • Virtual Mentor of 3 students from Puerto Rico

      • Outstanding Research Award: Congratulations Cristopher Rosado Miranda (University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo), "Monitoring Astronaut’s Performance Based on Patterns Assessment" 

      • Outstanding Research and Elevator Speech: Congratulations Gabriel Soto (University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez), "Assessing Rehabilitation Exercises via Movement Pattern Recognition"

      • Diego Rosario-Vega, "Connector Mechanism with Data/Power Transfer Capabilities"

    • Elected as Faculty Member of the GSCS Graduate Program, TAMU-CC (August)

    • Invent for the Planet (February)

      • Mentor

    • Media article at TAMU-CC Website: Islanders Compete to Make World a Better Place During Invent for the Planet

    • Team of Undergraduate Students selected for participation in the NASA Design Challenge - NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium (January)

      • Adviser

      • Team awarded 5th place "Best Poster" among 18 teams

      • Team awarded 3rd place "Best Report" among 18 teams

      • Team awarded 4th place "Best Peer Review" among 18 teams

      • Team awarded 5th place "Top Design Teams" among 18 teams

• Presentations, workshops and seminars

• • Presentation - The role of STEM in coastal monitoring and management: research and educational challenges faced in the classroom and in the field Workshop at SACNAS (October)

    • "Modular Aerial System for Cargo  and Sensor Deployment"

• Teaching

• • GSCS 6996.002 - Research (Fall)

  • ENGR 4420 - Engineering Measurements (Fall)

  • EEEN 4334 - Control Systems II (Fall)

  • ENGR 4420 - Engineering Measurements (Spring)

  • EEEN 4396 - Directed Independent Study (Spring)

• STEM activities 

  • • Virtual Summer Camp - Electronics (July)

      • Presentation to Middle School students (July 21st)

      • Workshop to High School Students (July 28th - 29th)

    • Invent for the Planet (February)

      • Mentor

    • Islanders Compete to Make World a Better Place During Invent for the Planet

    • Engineers Week (February)

      • STEM-Tronics [two sessions]

    • Robotics After School Program at Gloria Hicks Elementary School, 3rd-5th graders (February - May - On Hold!)

• • FTC Robotics Competition - Judge (January)

• News

  • Fall Capstone team awarded 2nd place, Capstone project at TAMU-CC

  • Research lab participated during the first Research and Innovation Week at TAMU-CC: Island University Celebrates Inaugural Research and Innovation Week

  • Nominated: 2019 Student Choice for Digital Innovator of the Year Award at TAMU-CC (October)

  • Congratulations to my group of undergrad and graduate students for they awesome participation at the conference Great Minds in STEM™ (GMiS) (September)

    • Master student, Juan Martinez -> 1st place poster presentation

    • Undergrad students, Kayleigh Movalli and Andrew Garcia -> 2nd place Hackathon 

    • Team of Undergraduate Students selected to participate in the NASA Design Challenge - NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium (October)

    • Adviser

  • Visiting Faculty at University of Nebraska at Omaha (July)

  • Media article at TAMU-CC Website: Island University STEM-Tronics Camp Combines Technology and Creativity

  • Media article at Caller Times: Engineering students work on their projects at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

  • STEM-Tronics summer camp I and II in June: 70 scholarships provided!

  • Media article at TAMU-CC Website: Engineering Students Create Out-of-This-World Project (January)

  • Robotics After School Program - funded by Gloria Hicks Elementary School (January)

  • STEM-Tronics II Summer Camp selected for funding - Coastal Bend Community Foundation (March)

  • Team of Master and Undergraduate Students participated at SpaceCRAFT Exploration Challenge at SXSW (April)

    •  Adviser

  • Team of Undergraduate Students participated in the NASA Design Challenge - NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium (April)

    • Adviser

    • Team awarded 2nd place "Best Hands-on Model" among 16 teams

    • Team awarded 2nd place "Best Poster" among 16 teams

    • Team awarded 2nd place "Best Oral Presentation" among 16 teams

    • Team awarded 3rd place "Top Design Team" among 16 teams

    • Team awarded 3rd place, Capstone project at TAMU-CC 

• Presentations, workshops and seminars

  • Keynote - Latin American Congress on Automation and Robotics at Universidad Javeriana Cali, Colombia (November)

  • "Modular Robotic systems Across Multiple Applications "

  • Presentation - Latin American Congress on Automation and Robotics at Universidad Javeriana Cali, Colombia (November)

    • "STEM and outreach activities at TAMU-CC"

  • Presentation - Automation, AI & Robotics Workshop organized by TCC at NASA JSC (March)

    • "Modularity Design Approach for Supporting Crew Health and Performance in Space Missions"

  • Latin American Congress on Automation and Robotics, LACAR 2019

    • Paper presentation: "Overwatch-M System: Implementation of Bayesian Statistics for Assessment of Sensorimotor Control"

    • Paper presentation: "Deep Neural Network-Inspired Approach for Human Gesture-Triggered Control Actions Applied to Unmanned Aircraft Systems"

    • Paper presentation: "Design and Simulation Analysis of a Modular Aerial System"

    • Paper presentation: "Wearable Tracking Modules Based on Magnetic Fields"

• Teaching

  • EEEN 3330 / ENTC 4446 - Control Systems I (Spring)

  • EEEN 3310 - Electromagnetic Theory (Spring) 

  • ENTC 4446.W01 - Control Systems I (Fall - Online)

  • ENGR-4390.001 - Control Systems II (Fall)

  • EEEN 3418 - Microprocessors and Microcontrollers (Fall)

  • EEEN 4396 - Directed Independent Study (Fall)

• STEM activities

  • STEM-Tronics Workshop at Windsor Park Elementary School (December)

  • STEM-Tronics Workshop as part of the first Full STREAM Ahead program at St. James Episcopal School (November)

  • Science Fair at Kostoryz Elementary School - Judge (November)

  • STEM-Tronics Workshop at Anita and W.T. Neyland Library (November)

  • Robotics After School Program at Gloria Hicks Elementary School, 3rd-5th graders (November - December)

  • Island Day (October)

    • Touch of Class -  Electrical Engineering: A peek inside the field of Robotics, Automation & Internet of Things [two sessions]

  • Coastal Bend Engineering Competition (October)

  • Men4STEM Conference at Moody High School (October)

  • STEM-Tronics Workshop at Windsor Park Elementary School - 1st graders (October)

  • KEDT Kids Festival - STEM-Tronics (August)

  • STEM-Tronics Summer Camp (June)

  • STEM-Tronics II Summer Camp (June)

  • National Robotics Week (April)

    • "STEM-Tronics on the Island" 

  • Girls Scout - Robotics talk (March)

  • Science Olympiad - Event director: Write it/Do it (March)

  • National Engineering Week

    • Booth - Research Posters and Demo

  • Island Day (February)

    • Touch of Class -  Electrical Engineering: A peek inside the field of Robotics, Automation & Internet of Things [two sessions]

  • FTC Robotics Competition - Judge (January)

    • Robotics After School Program at Gloria Hicks Elementary School, 3rd-5th graders (February - May)

• News

  • Research Enhancement project selected for funding - TAMU-CC Innovative Aging Initiative (February)

  • STEM-Tronics Summer Camp selected for funding - Coastal Bend Community Foundation (March)

  • Real FIT Project selected for funding - TEES TARC seed funding Award (June FY’18 – FY’19) 

  • Undergraduate Student selected for funding - LSAMP (September)

    • Adviser

  • Team of Undergraduate Students selected to participate in the NASA Design Challenge - NASA Texas Space Grant Consortium (September)

    • Adviser

    • Team awarded 4th place "Hands-on Demo" among 23 teams.

    • Team awarded 1st place, Capstone project at TAMU-CC

• Presentations, workshops and seminars

  • Presentation - Wearable Technologies Workshop organized by TCC at NASA JSC (April)

    • "Wearable Robotic Modules for Exercising and Maintaining Functional Fitness Levels"

  • Presentation -  NASA Academy of Aerospace Quality Workshop at NASA GRC (September)

    • • "Modular Robotic Systems Toward Space Applications"

  • Presentation - Plenary Speaker at XIII Congreso Internacional de Ingeniería "Electrónica y Tecnologías Avanzadas" - CIETA (September)

    • "From Earth to Space: Developing Modular Robots across Different Research Fields"

  • HENAAC Conference - Workshop attendance (October)

• Teaching

  • EEEN 3310 - Electromagnetic Theory (Fall 2018)

  • EEEN 3418 - Microprocessors and Microcontrollers (Fall 2018)

  • EEEN 3330 / ENTC 4446 - Control Systems I  (Spring 2018)

• STEM activities

  • FTC Robotics Competition - Judge (January)

  • Science Olympiad - Event director: Write it/Do it (March)

  • Island Day (April)

    • Touch of Class -  Electrical Engineering: A peek inside the field of Robotics, Automation & Internet of Things [two sessions]

    • Island Fair

  • STEM-Tronics Summer Camp (July)

  • Coastal Bend Engineering Competition (October) - Volunteer

  • Upward Bound Program (November)

  • STEM-Tronics session [two sessions]

  • Island Day (November)

    • Touch of Class -  Electrical Engineering: A peek inside the field of Robotics, Automation & Internet of Things [two sessions]

• News

  • Joined Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering (September) 

• • NASA EPSCoR proposal selected for Funding (June)

  • NASA EPSCoR proposal selected to participate in the National Competition (March)

  • Passive Funneling System for Airborne Particle Monitoring for Quadcopters - New Invention Notification (March)

  • Five-Year Service Award, University of Nebraska at Omaha (2012-2017)

• Presentations, workshops and seminars

• • Presentation - IEEE Corpus Christi Section Technical Talk (November)

    • • Modular Robotic Systems: Research Challenges and Cross-cutting Applications

• • • Seminar: Writing More Competitive Proposals - NSF and NIH (June)

    • NSF Proposal Submissions - A PI and Research Administrator Perspective  (April)

• Publications

• • Book: "Advances in Automation and Robotics Research in Latin America" has been published by Springer (March)

  • Latin American Congress on Automation and Robotics, LACAR 2017

    • Paper presentation: "A Modular Robotic System for Assessment and Exercise of Human Movement"

    • Paper presentation: "Towards Tracking a Semi-autonomous, Pneumatic Colonoscope Robot"

• Teaching

  • • EEEN 3310 - Electromagnetic Theory (Fall 2017)

    • CSCI 2240: Intro to C Programming (Spring 2017)

    • Guest Lecturer - Building Blocks of IoT (Sensors, embedded systems and connectivity) (Spring 2017)

      • ISQA 4000/8086 - Internet of Things, Big Data and Cloud Computing

• STEM activities

• • Robotics Teen STEM Cafe - Programming Robots (December)

    • Island Day (November)

      • Touch of Class -  Electrical Engineering: A peek inside the field of Robotics, Automation & Internet of Things

      • Island Fair

    • Coastal Bend Engineering Competition (second part) (November)

  • Island Day (October)

    • Island Fair

  • Coastal Bend Area College Night and Career Expo (October)

  • Coastal Bend Engineering Competition  (October)

  • Imagine Science - Youth Program (July)

  • TECHADEMY - 3D Modeling (June & July)

  • TECHADEMY - Robotics (June & July)

  • National Robotics Week (April)

  • CodeCrush (March)

  • iSTEM After School Program (April - May)

  • iSTEM After School Program (February - April)

  • Goodrich Scholarship Program (March)

  • Nebraska Robotics Expo (February)

    • Nebraska Association For The Gifted Conference (February)

• Bridging Big Data Workshop (November)

• Symposium on Biomechanics (October)

• Poster presentation: "Modular Robotic System for Assessment and Exercise of Human Movement"

• Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVSI) Conference (May)

• Research proposal accepted for funding as PI

  • Research project: Modular Robotic System for Assessment and Exercise of Human Movement

  • Agency: Peter Kiewit Institute

• Teaching - Fall 2016

  • CSCI 2240: Intro to C Programming

• STEM activities

  • iSTEM After School Program (October-December)

  • Explorer Post (October)

  • iSTEM After School Program (August-October)

  • TECHADEMY - Robotics (July)

  • CodeCrush Submmit (July)

  • National Robotics Week (April)

  • iSTEM After School Program (April-May)

  • Goodrich Scholarship Program (March)

  • CodeCrush (February) 

  • Nebraska Robotics Expo (February)

Activities, Conferences and workshops in 2015

• IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2015

  • Paper presentation “Real-Time Distributed Configuration Discovery of Modular Self-reconfigurable Robots”

  • Poster presentation “Modular Robotic System for Muscular Strength Trainning During Long-Term Space Missions”

• Nebraska Academy of Sciences

  • • Paper presentation “Configuration Discovery of Modular Robots for Muscular Strength Training”

  • Teaching - Spring 2015

    • CSCI 2240: Intro to C Programming

• Research proposal accepted for funding as PI

  • Research project: P-ROBOTS (Programming Robots Suite)

  • Agency: NASA Nebraska Space Grant

• STEM activities

  • Zero Robotics (Team reached the semifinal round and ranked 17 among 126 teams)

  • https://sites.google.com/site/zeroroboticsnebraska/home

  • Nebraska Association for Gifted Conference (February)

  • CodeCrush: Robotics (March and June)

  • https://codecrush.unomaha.edu/

  • Goodrich Scholarship Program (March)

  • Middle school PKI Day (April)

  • NE ScienceFest (April)

  • IS&T High School Internship Program (May)

  • Exploring Post (June and July)

  • Techademy: Robotics (June and  July)

  • https://techademy.unomaha.edu/

  • Nebraska State Fair: STEM Engagement (August)

  • iSTEM After School Program

Activities, Conferences and workshops in 2014

• Research proposal accepted for funding as PI

  • Research project: Modular Robotic System for Muscular Strength Training During Long-Term Space Missions

  • Agency: NASA Nebraska Space Grant

• ICRA 2014, Hong Kong, China - June (Member of the Organizing Committee)

  • Research Challenges and Cross-cutting Applications of Modular Robot Systems

• ICRA 2014, Hong Kong, China - June (Member of the Organizing Committee)

  • Humanitarian Robotics and Automation Technology Challenge (HRATC)

• Summer Robotics Workshop for K12-K15, CIS&T (Instructor)

  • Session 1: June 23-37

  • Session 2: July   7-11

Activities, Conferences and workshops in 2013

• IROS 2013 (Tokyo, Japan - November)

• FreeWave/AUVSI Conference (Boulder, CO, USA - October)

• Zero Robotics Nebraska kick-off event (Omaha, NE, USA - October)

• Modular Reconfigurable Robots seminar - Mark Yim, University of Pennsylvania (Lincoln, NE, USA - October)

• Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Workshop - (Omaha, NE, USA - August)

• International Space Station Research and Development Conference (Denver, CO, USA - July)

• Summer Robotics Workshop K12-K15 (Omaha, NE, USA - June)

• ROSCon 2013 (Stuttgart, Germany - May)

• ICRA 2013 (Karlsruhe, Germany - May)

• Nebraska Robotics Expo (Ashland, NE, USA - February)