For the second consecutive summer, Las Cruces area high school students have had the chance to attend an interactive artificial intelligence summer camp at New Mexico State University. Trenchant Analytics, which is based in Great Falls, Virginia, and the Physical Science Laboratory at NMSU partnered to design and deliver STEM Mavericks, a hands-on AI summer camp June 10-21.
STEM Mavericks at NMSU is a partnership with NMSU STEM Outreach Program, PSL Information Science and Security Systems Division and the NMSU Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Thirteen students from the Las Cruces Public School District and Gadsden Independent School District were selected to be part of this year’s program. Students participating attend Arrowhead Park Early College High School, Centennial High School, Chapparal High School, Gadsden High School and Las Cruces High School.
This year’s program also features the inclusion of area high school teachers. Selected through a competitive application process, the teachers participated in training prior to camp, support the learning activities during the camp and will take the lessons learned to develop course content for their own classrooms. PSL selected Tony Ray, career and technical education teacher at Chaparral High School, and Sandra Alvarado Marquez, a mathematics teacher at Santa Teresa High School.
During the two-week program, students will learn about coding, gain hands-on experience working on projects introducing them to computer science and electrical engineering to include the topics of AI and software defined radio. Students also will be introduced to various facilities and programs at NMSU in engineering and computer science, such as the Aggie Innovation Space and PSL’s Telemetry and Missile System Division. STEM Mavericks students also will hear from various guest speakers from the region with careers in applied engineering, computer science and defense.
“PSL is pleased to host STEM Mavericks at NMSU again this summer. Putting on this camp has been a collaboration between Trenchant Analytics, NMSU STEM Outreach, PSL and NMSU Electrical Engineering. Stephen Moreno, PSL software developer, and NMSU Electrical Engineering Faculty Dr. Steven Sandoval have put together an incredible educational and interactive two-week program,” PSL Director Eric Sanchez said. “Seeing the enthusiasm and engagement of our local high school students is energizing. Programs like STEM Mavericks open the doors to educational and career pathways in science, technology and defense for these bright young scholars.”
Trenchant Analytics and PSL are stakeholders in the Department of Defense Digital Futures Initiative through DoD’s Chief Digital AI Office. The CDAO became operational in June 2022 and is dedicated to integrating and optimizing AI capabilities across the DoD. The office is responsible for accelerating the DoD’s adoption of data, analytics and AI, enabling the Department’s digital infrastructure and policy adoption to deliver scalable AI-driven solutions for enterprise and joint use cases, safeguarding the nation against current and emerging threats. The Digital Futures initiative works to expand digital talent management across the DoD enterprise: increasing the hiring, training and retention for the most critical data, analytics and AI-related work roles.
“As a partner in CDAO’s Digital Futures portfolio, we have seen the great work PSL has done to develop programs that support the college-to-defense career talent pipeline. Given the tremendous capability of subject matter expertise at PSL and NMSU, and tie to the regional defense sector, PSL was a natural partner to work with to support a pilot of our program last year and has become a trusted partner to continue the program in year two,” said John Ferry, president of Trenchant Analytics. “This summer, NMSU joins George Mason University, East Carolina University and Florida State University-Panama City as STEM Mavericks hosts. Participating students will interact with their peers and coaches to work through challenges and get immediate feedback and will be on a fast track to rewarding careers in STEM.”
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CUTLINE: In first three days of the STEM Mavericks program at New Mexico State University, students were introduced to raspberry pi hardware, Bash, Python, electrical components, sensors, transducers and actuators. On day two, they began working on their own individual projects, which will be showcased at the end of the STEM Mavericks Camp June 21. (NMSU photo by Tyler Hoffman)