UNM to Host 53rd Annual Central NM Science & Engineering Research Challenge

On Friday-Saturday, March 15–16, nearly 500 mid­dle and high school stu­dents will exhibit their sci­ence fair projects and com­pete for nearly $50,000 in prizes and schol­ar­ships at the 53rd Annual Cen­tral New Mex­ico Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing Research Chal­lenge at John­son Cen­ter at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mexico.

“This event pro­vides UNM a great oppor­tu­nity to show­case the Uni­ver­sity, recruit from a pool of excel­lent future stu­dent can­di­dates, and pro­mote sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy, engi­neer­ing, and math (STEM) edu­ca­tion in the state of New Mex­ico,” said Karen Kins­man, direc­tor, Cen­tral NM Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing Research Chal­lenge, an out­reach pro­grams man­aged under the UNM STEM Cen­ter for Out­reach, Research & Edu­ca­tion (STEM‐CORE).

The Pub­lic Open House takes place Fri­day, March 15, from 4 to 6 p.m.

The Grand Awards Cer­e­mony is set for Sat­ur­day, March 16, from 10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Stu­dent Union Build­ing Ball­room on UNM’s main campus.

Spe­cial Event at Grand Awards – There will also be a pub­lic sign­ing cer­e­mony for a new Mem­o­ran­dum of Agree­ment mak­ing offi­cial a partnership/collaboration between the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico and the US Army Corps of Engi­neers – Albu­querque Dis­trict. Lead­ers from both orga­ni­za­tions will be in atten­dance to sign the agreement.

“This is a won­der­ful oppor­tu­nity to see the pos­i­tive side of New Mexico’s youth, encour­age younger chil­dren to par­tic­i­pate in sci­ence, math, engi­neer­ing, and/or tech­nol­ogy edu­ca­tion, and cel­e­brate the efforts the par­tic­i­pants have put forth in order to be part of the Cen­tral NM Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing Research Chal­lenge,” Kins­man said.

This year, the pro­grams’ insti­tu­tional spon­sor is UNM Office of the Vice Pres­i­dent for Research and Eco­nomic Devel­op­ment. Other UNM sup­port comes from the School of Engi­neer­ing, Health Sci­ences Cen­ter and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions & Mar­ket­ing. Major pri­vate donors/sponsors include NAIOP‐NM, Lock­heed Mar­tin ‐ San­dia National Labs, PNM Resources, Albu­querque Jour­nal, Lavu Inc., NM 529 Plan, NM Bio­me­chan­i­cal & Bio­med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion, Northrop Grum­man Mis­sion Sys­tems and SAIC, along with a large num­ber of student/teacher awards donors.

For more infor­ma­tion, call the STEMCORE office at (505) 277‐4916 or email, kkinsman@unm.edu.