In addition to the numerous research laboratories under direct faculty supervision, Mayagüez Campus has several research and development institutes that provide valuable support for research activities.

Established in 1910 by the Sugar Producers Association the Agricultural Experiment Station was ceded to the Government of Puerto Rico in 1913 and transferred to the University of Puerto Rico by legislative action in 1933. Its main objective has been to conduct research, to develop technology and to improve agriculture and the quality of life in rural areas. The Station, a component of the College of Agricultural Sciences, has two main research centers, one at Mayagüez and the other at Río Piedras and six agricultural substations located in Adjuntas, Corozal, Juana Díaz, Gurabo, Isabela, and Lajas. The Station’s laboratories, research library, farms, and other facilities are available to graduate students for thesis research. The Station is an active member of the Southern Association of Experimental Stations. This Association serves as a regional link to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Congress, the National U.S. Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC).

BIOL is the site of an active teaching and research program in water optics and satellite remote sensing. Interdisciplinary studies of coastal and oceanic waters of the intra-Americas’ sea include: variability of inherent and apparent water optical properties, effects of ultraviolet radiation on tropical marine organisms and on public health, satellite data validation and algorithm development and estimation of oceanic primary production.

CISA, established in 1991, is an integral part of the Department of Social Sciences. CISA promotes and coordinates practical applications of faculty expertise to the analysis and mitigation of problems arising from or inextricably linked to social attitudes and behavior. CISA’s specific objectives aim to provide strong research training and mentoring to undergraduate students, to engage faculty and students in interdisciplinary research, to develop collaborative research projects with other research centers, programs and institutions, to enhance the professional development of researchers and students through participation in a diverse number of seminars, workshops, and conferences, and to increase the number of students pursuing a graduate degree in social sciences.

Since CISA’s establishment, a diverse number of research projects has been generated by researchers affiliated to the Center such as: drug abuse, socioeconomic impact of resource management among fishermen, poverty and income inequality in the United States and Puerto Rico, public opinion and political participation, mitigation and preparedness regarding natural disasters, quantitative and qualitative aspects of urban rail transit systems, HIV/AIDS and mental health issues, female labor force participation in the tuna industry, comparative analysis of psychological depression in the Caribbean, and evaluation of the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Program. A CISA research component that has been strongly developed focuses on outcome and process evaluation. Research projects in CISA have received funding from external (i.e., National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, National Fisheries Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Ford Foundation/American Sociological Association, National Forest Service), state, and local sources as well as from the University of Puerto Rico. All CISA projects involve direct student participation as research assistants, reflecting the center's commitment to undergraduate research training and mentoring.

CECORD was established to support the research activities of the National Science Foundation grant entitled Development of a Computer Engineering Research Environment at UPRM. The main goals of this grant are to develop the research environment necessary to initiate a Ph.D. program in computer engineering and computer science and to increase minority participation in graduate school programs and research. The Center was conceived as an organization supported by research grants. It is currently funded by the National Science Foundation, the Economic Development Administration of Puerto Rico, and the University of Puerto Rico.

CoHemis is part of the University of Puerto Rico. It is housed in and primarily serves the Mayagüez Campus.

CoHemis was founded in 1991 at a hemispheric conference-workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It brought together national science and technology organization (ONCyT) delegates from 13 countries of the Americas to discuss ways to increase hemispheric collaborations in science and technology. CoHemis today is the hub of a network of 40 institutions from most countries of the Americas interested in collaborations by such means as joint research faculty, student exchanges, short courses and workshops.

The Center publishes a semi-annual newsletter in English and Spanish distributed to individuals and entities interested in basic fields such as energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, environment and natural resources. This newsletter reaches U. S. Congressional committees and educational and government R&D institutions as well as key members of the Latin American science and technology community. For more information contact: http://www.ece.uprm.edu/cohemis.

CECI, located at Chardón 217, is an innovative faculty-oriented computer center recently created by Dr. Mario Núñez Molina, professor of Psychology at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. CECI’s main purpose is to aid the Faculty of the Department of Social Sciences in the process of integrating the use of the new information and communication technologies in the teaching of their respective courses. CECI also conducts research evaluating the effects that the Internet and other related technological advances have on the learning process.

CECI has desktop computers and laptops, connected to the Internet; a digital projector; a digital photo camera; a digital video camera; a printer; a photocopier, and a scanner. CECI holds a variety of computer software, as well as journals, magazines and books related to the Internet and education. CECI may be accessed at www.uprm.edu/ceci.

Besides having its resources available for faculty members, CECI currently provides the following services for the faculty of the Department of Social Sciences: workshops on the development of online courses using WebCT and Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA); workshops on web page design using Trellix Web; individual assistance to faculty members regarding internet enhanced education; and conferences and articles about the implications of the new education and communication technologies for education.

CECI also publishes Hermes, a newsletter which provides information regarding CECI’s activities, and includes brief articles describing specific Internet and education related tools and software. It also serves the purpose of identifying and sharing with the faculty useful resources available on the World Wide Web. Although Hermes is published in print, it is also available at www.uprm.edu/ceci/hermes.htm.

CRIL was founded in 1982 by the Department of Chemistry it contains sophisticated instrumentation for inorganic, organic and environmental analysis. The staff includes a director and two instrumentation assistants. Available instrumentation include a 500 MHz Bruker and 300 MHz Varian NMR, a System 2000 FT-IR coupled to a Gas Chromatograph and equipped with near and mid IR detectors, a Hewlett Packard Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry system, a Perkin Elmer and Varian Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometers equipped with flame, cold vapor and graphite furnaces; a Leeman Labs Inductive Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry system, a Dionex Ion Chromatograph equipped with conductivity detector; and a Finnigan GC/MS/MS equipped with direct insertion probe, electron impact and chemical ionization sources. The CRIL staff provides services to undergraduate and graduate courses, research groups of the Chemistry Department, as well as other academic departments, the community, government agencies, and local industry.

HMTR comprises research facilities dedicated to basic and applied theoretical and experimental research in heat and mass transfer phenomena. Administered by the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez it is located on the first floor of the Luchetti Building.

Facilities associated with HMTRL include several Pentium-based personal computers and silicon graphics CAD work stations, a solar collector testing facility, spray cooling experimental facilities, spray forming experimental facilities, and extensive instrumentation to measure flow, humidity, pressure, and temperature. Research in environmental flows, heat transfer in manufacturing of electronics components, metal sprays, solar energy, spray cooling, and two-phase flows is currently being conducted at HMTRL. External agencies and companies sponsor most research projects.

LARSIP is a multidisciplinary laboratory located within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UPRM dedicated to research and implementation of remote sensing, and to the development of signal and image processing, geographical information systems (GIS), and emergency response system and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies.

Additional services such as scanning, slide making, color plotting, and accessing aerial color and infrared photographs provided by NASA continue to be in high demand. The Space Information Laboratory receives, processes, and distributes images of the Caribbean and Northern Amazon regions for the purpose of investigation, planning, proposing, deciding upon and implementing studies of the infrastructure of the entire Caribbean community of nations and a large portion of the Amazon region.

The National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the American Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (AT&T) provided initial funding for LARSIP and its research projects. Currently, LARSIP receives funding from NASA University Research Centers Program, (NASA-URC), RAYTHEON Corporation, Economic Development Administration of the Government of Puerto Rico (FOMENTO), and UPR through the Tropical Center for Earth and Space Studies (TCESS) established in 1995. TCESS complements and enhances LARSIP. Both LARSIP and TCESS function as training centers in a bilingual (Spanish and English) environment for current and future scientists and engineers of the Caribbean region and the South and Central Americas. The training centers are multidisciplinary in scope, serving Mayagüez and other UPR campuses. Universities and institutions in other countries are encouraged to form and establish liaisons with LARSIP and TCESS through Memoranda of Understanding or other similar arrangements.

The Mechatronics Center at the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department is the only training and research center in Puerto Rico dedicated to study intelligent mechanical and electromechanical systems. The center offers training to industry and support for existing ME courses while providing facilities and resources for research in the fields of modeling and computer control of mechanical and electromechanical systems.

Training facilities are equipped with eight laboratory work stations with basic equipment to perform experiments and projects in mechatronics. The center also includes aprototyping laboratory with additional equipment to conduct independent research projects; a design center where students will be able to share ideas and make presentations; and a full-time technician to support the center’s activities. The prototyping laboratory provides students with access to specialized mechanical, electrical, and software tools for the design and realization of intelligent machines. The center also utilizes the equipment available in the Manufacturing Processes Laboratory to handle a wide variety of complex projects involving the fusion of mechanics, electronics, and software technologies.

MSRRL is located at the Mechanical Engineering Department and supports research efforts in various areas that focus on mechanical/material component systems in military and civil applications. Areas ranging from structural vibration control, material characterization, infrastructure health monitoring and diagnostics to even Micro Electronic Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensor development and applications is currently being performed. MSRRL is supported through research efforts by five faculty members from different departments.

MSRRL performs research from various government agencies such as DoD, NSF, NSF-EPSCoR, NASA, and private industry with funding currently approaching $2 million. Projects include topics such as:

• Characterization of sandwich composite materials used in civil and military stealth applications.
  
• Vibration control using shape memory alloys.
  
• Vibration shaker design.
  
• Damage detection and health monitoring using neural networks.
  
• Flow induced vibrations.
  
• Acoustic emission in damage detection and material characterization.
  
• Novel dynamic material characterization techniques.
  

The MSRRL laboratory is equipped for research in mechanical/material component systems. The laboratory has a laser vibrometer for structural vibration response, several dynamic signal analyzers, acoustic emission equipment, data acquisition equipment, transducers (acceleration, force, and temperature), conditioning amplifiers, power supplies, oscilloscopes, computer facilities and a vacuum system for composite manufacture.

CIDACPR of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Department of Marine Sciences (DMS) was formed in 1994 to assist the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico with development of aquaculture in the Island. CIDACPR is funded by the Industrial Incentives Program (formerly the Science and Technology Board) of the Secretariat for Economic Development and Commerce of Puerto Rico, and the University of Puerto Rico. CIDACPR specializes in economics and marketing, analysis of aquaculture enterprises, research facilities, and extension services, collaborating closely in this area with the Agricultural Extension Service and the Sea Grant College Program.

CIDACPR has research and production facilities in Lajas and Sábana Grande in Southwest Puerto Rico. It offers key services to the Puerto Rican community, performs scientific research to support the local aquaculture industry, and provides fish fingerlings and post-larval prawns for these activities.

NASA PaSCoR, Partnership for Spatial & Computational Research, NASA Grant # NCC5-340, http://www.ece.uprm.edu/pascor, Luis J. Olivieri, PI, olivieri@ece.uprm.edu, Ramón Vásquez, Co-PI, reve@ece.uprm.edu, Rosa Buxeda, Coordinator Summer Station, rbuxeda@ece.uprm.edu.

UPRM has established, through NASA Grant number NCC5-340, the Partnership for Spatial and Computational Research (PaSCoR). The main goal of this project is to strengthen academic programs and integrate research at the undergraduate level in various science, math and engineering/technology (SMET) disciplines, following the strategy of the Learning Factory model implemented by the NSF Manufacturing Engineering Education Partnership. PaSCoR program is outcomes-based and student centered, focused on hands-on learning activities provided throughout the student’s academic career. The program’s outcomes will be a SMET graduate that is knowledgeable of the technology and applications of remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS), and, possesses the necessary skills either to enter graduate school or become a professional in these areas with success. The program also aims to develop values such as diversity, teamwork, global awareness and communication. PaSCoR goals will be achieved through five tasks, namely: curriculum development, undergraduate research and student mentoring, industry collaboration, outreach, and assessment.

Students from the departments of science, math, engineering, and technology at UPRM will be able to earn a certificate in RS/GIS upon completion of 12 credit-hours in course work, 6 credit-hours in undergraduate research and a summer internship. Courses and resources are available to all SMET students on Campus. Currently, there are 11 faculty members involved in student mentoring and course innovation/development. More than 35 students are engaged in undergraduate research and more than one thousand students are taking RS/GIS interdisciplinary courses. NASA site visitors have recognized this project as a model program in the United States. PaSCoR students have spent summers learning about RS-GIS and developing leadership skills in sites such as USGS, NASA, and the PR Planning Board. Due to outstanding performance, two female PaSCoR students have been selected to the prestigious NASA’s Academy. More than 70 publications and presentations in local, national and international forums have acknowledged this curriculum model.

It serves as a coordinating and administrative unit of the College of Engineering, overseeing activities in research and technical services among the six departments within the College. In order to stimulate research, this office distributes the External Funds Opportunities Bulletin, which contains information related to grant and fellowship opportunities. In addition, the office provides support in proposal and report preparation. The Office of Academic Affairs and Research houses the Technical Information Center, which issues a monthly publication comprised of titles and abstracts of recently published articles and documents keeping teaching and research groups informed of new advances and developments inengineering, technology and related fields. The Office also houses the Water Resources Research Institute, which pursues research activities regarding the solution of water resource problems in Puerto Rico.

Located at the Department of Marine Sciences, this center provides the latest climate data and weather information available for the Caribbean. It has access to a network of over 120 stations located throughout Puerto Rico and over 20 stations around the U. S. Virgin Islands. The Climate Center is also a repository for a wealth of information on climate data obtained from many other organizations, such as the National Climate Center, Asheville, North Carolina, and the Climate Analysis Center, Washington, D. C. The Center receives journals on climate topics and holds a large collection of climate data on CD-ROMS.

PRWRERI is one of 54 water research centers established throughout the United States and its territories by an act of Congress in 1964 which presently operates under Section 104 of the Water Research and Development Act of 1984 (P.L. 98-242).

Since its foundation, the Puerto Rico Water Resources Research Institute has sponsored a substantial number of research projects supported jointly by federal and university funds.

The PRWERRI is a component of the Research and Development Center of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. As such, it acts as the official liaison of the University of Puerto Rico with industry and government agencies for all water resources research activities. The Institute also functions as an advisor to these two sectors on water resources issues. This role translates into multidisciplinary functions and activities which add relevance and impact to the Institute’s research efforts.

By virtue of the local relevance of its research and the prestige and leadership of its investigators, the Institute has become the focal point for water-related research in Puerto Rico. Meetings, seminars, technical reports, and a quarterly newsletter keep the water resources community and general public informed about advances in research. Approximately, once every two years, the Institute organizes major conferences on water-related research in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean in collaboration with other technical organizations in the region. All these activities facilitate the translation of Institute’s sponsored research into practical applications of direct benefit to industry, government, and the general public.

ORE was established in 1986 at UPRM to encourage and manage research and development activities in the areas of engineering, technology, and science, and to provide a technological basis to serve the Puerto Rican community. The R&D Center manages several research programs which include basic and applied research, research sub-stations for seismic investigation, industrial handling and disposal of hazardous chemical substances, natural resources renewal, and biotechnological research as well as technical support for the development of the Caribbean Basin.

The R&D Center's mandate and principal functions are to promote, coordinate, and administer externally funded research projects conducted by faculty members of the Mayagüez Campus for clients from business and industrial segments, public and private organizations, and government agencies. The Center’s Advisory Board Committee is composed of seven renowned professionals, experts in the fields of science and engineering, which provides counseling and advice on its plans and activities. All funding for the Center's research projects comes from grants provided by government agencies (Federal and insular), educational institutions, and private sponsors within the industrial community of Puerto Rico. Industry sponsors include AT&T, Avon, Bacardi, Digital, Martin Marietta, Raytheon, Upjohn Pharmaceuticals, and White Westinghouse.

The R&D Center offers technical and administrative assistance to the UPRM research community through its Accounting and Finance, Budget, Purchasing, Receiving, and External Resources Offices. The Center has its own reference library within the General Library of the UPRM, which holds a specialized collections in the fields of scientific and technological research.

The R&D Center acts on behalf of researchers in conjunction with the university community and the general public. It is the instrument of promotion for the development of research on the Mayagüez Campus and serves as an intermediary between the University, the government, and the private sector. In this role, the R&D Center represents the interests of researchers on academic and administrative forums, plans and establishes UPRM’s research policy regarding the island's economy and technology transfer to the community, and administers research centers, institutes, and individual projects to encourage their development and to promote excellence.

CREST began in 1988 through the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation as a Minority Research Center of Excellence. This initiative intended to increase participation of underrepresented groups in the areas of science and engineering. The original program consisted of three research segments: Marine Natural Products, Tropical Terrestrial Ecology, and Caribbean Geology, utilizing scientists from the Mayagüez and Río Piedras campuses. The primary focus of the Program continues to be the development and support of students in undergraduate and graduate programs.

Some of the Center’s objectives are to provide research that will enable underrepresented minority students to choose careers in science and engineering, develop the infrastructure necessary to establish collaboration with other institutions, develop a competitive group of scientists, and provide educational improvement activities for professors and students.

Through research activities, students explore and gain career understanding of future alternatives. Student participation in national and international symposia is also encouraged at the Center where they have the opportunity to meet international and national leaders in their research fields, develop leadership skills and share information.

Founded in 1991, CIRC began operating within the Civil Engineering Department in January 1992. CIRC received funds from the National Science Foundation through the PR office of the Experimental Program to Stimulate Cooperative Research (PR-EPSCoR). The center also received funds from the University of Puerto Rico and the Department of Transportation and Public Works. It has also participated in the organization of international conferences and workshops.

CIRC’s mission is to help government and industry maintain, manage, and improve Puerto Rico’s infrastructure while contributing to the expansion and improvement of the College of Engineering’s undergraduate and graduate programs in infrastructure-related disciplines. CIRC developed a comprehensive strategic plan which can be accessed at http://ce.uprm.edu.

The research program of the Civil Infrastructure Research Center was originally organized into two principal thrust areas and a developing thrust area. These thrust areas have been defined by the intersection of Puerto Rico’s most pressing infrastructure problems and the UPR Mayagüez Civil Engineering Department’s strongest areas of expertise. The principal thrusts are Transportation and Structural and Geotechnical Systems. The developing thrust is in Water Resources.

At present, the Center plans projects with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Sloan Foundation, the National Science Foundation, USAERDC, USDOT, and the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works.

The Civil Infrastructure Research Center has a computer center. The computer center was developed with funds from Puerto Rico EPSCoR, the Puerto Rico Legislature, the National Science Foundation, and the Civil Engineering Department. Our computer center exists to support all CIRC researchers.

Since our foundation, the center has administered $5,125,352 in completed projects. It manages $2,384,396 in on-going projects. The center actively participates in developing new proposals to support our goals. For more information contact http://ce.uprm.edu.

Since 1966, students and faculty of University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez have benefited from its membership in Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). ORAU is a consortium of 91 colleges and universities and a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. ORAU works with its member institutions to help their students and faculty gain access to federal research facilities throughout the country; to keep its members informed about opportunities for fellowship, scholarship, and research appointments; and to organize research alliances among its members.

Through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), the DOE facility that ORAU operates, undergraduates, graduates, postgraduates, as well as faculty enjoy access to a multitude of opportunities for study and research. Students can participate in programs covering a wide variety of disciplines including business, earth sciences, epidemiology, engineering, physics, geological sciences, pharmacology, ocean sciences, biomedical sciences, nuclear chemistry, and mathematics.

Appointment and program length range from one month to four years. Many of these programs are especially designed to increase the numbers of underrepresented minority students pursuing degrees in science- and engineering-related disciplines. A comprehensive listing of these programs and other opportunities, their disciplines, and details on locations and benefits can be found at http://www.orau.gov/orise/educ.htm, or by calling either of the contacts below.

ORAU's Office of Partnership Development seeks opportunities for partnerships and alliances among ORAU's members, private industry, and major federal facilities. Activities include faculty development programs, such as the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Awards, the Visiting Industrial Scholars Program, consortium research funding initiatives, faculty research and support programs as well as services to chief research officers.

For more information about ORAU and its programs, contact: Dr. Fernando J. Bird-Pico, Director of the Research and Development Center, ORAU Councilor for University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, or Monnie E. Champion, ORAU Corporate Secretary (865-576-3306); or visit the ORAU Home Page (http://www.orau.org).

PRSN is administered by the Department of Geology. The staff oversees a network of short-period and broadband seismometers installed in Puerto Rico and nearby islands. The main objective of PRSN is to process and analyze local, regional, and teleseismic earthquakes. Data is made available to the general public and distributed among scientific and academic communities and civil defense organizations.

TCESS is funded by NASA's University Research Centers (URC) Program. It is divided administratively into five components:

1. Space Information Laboratory (SIL)
   
2. Earth Systems Studies (ESS)
   
3. Advanced Automated Image Analysis (AAIA) for Remotely Sensed Data
   
4. Sensor Materials and Electronics for Space Applications (SMESA)
   
5. Outreach and Education
   
   

Built on the foundations of LARSIP, it is funded by contributions from NASA, UPR, and Fomento (Commonwealth Economic Development) UPRM installed and operates Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and HRPT tracking stations. These are national facilities available by invitation to other NASA and US university researchers. SIL is a training center for scientists and engineers in a bilingual environment. The Laboratory provides opportunities for research applicable to the problems of the Caribbean area. The Earth Systems Studies component contains two working groups who have participated in other NASA programs. The Geology Group investigates surface deformations and hazards of Lesser Antilles island arc volcanoes. The Marine Sciences Group investigates the effects of the thinning of the ozone layer and related surface UV radiation modulation on the development of plant screening pigments.

The Advanced Analysis Information Systems Group from Electrical and Computer Engineering investigates new image-processing algorithms and techniques for storage, processing, and dissemination of remotely-sensed data using high-speed streams with implications for SAR processing.

The Sensor Materials and Electronics for Space Applications component investigates a number of materials with special properties suitable for space sensors. Techniques and materials for power conversion electronics for spacecraft are also studied.

An Outreach and Education component works along with TCESS. An extension of the successful "Science on Wheels" project, a "Space Communications on Wheels" van brings space and earth studies to high school students in Puerto Rico. A Technology Transfer Internship Program is being developed that will allow professors and students to visit U. S. National Laboratories, universities, and NASA field centers to facilitate technology transfer and encourage advanced studies.