The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Engineering

Mission

SiViRT's mission is to conduct excellent, high quality research; and provide excellent research and educational opportunities to graduate students who will contribute to the technological and economic development of the community, the region and the nation. The affiliated faculty of the center value excellence in research, undergraduate and graduate education, service to the community and diversity. The students will learn to be technically competent and socially responsible, while they acquire a solid background to perform diverse scientific and engineering functions.

Vision

The vision is to create a research center that will be in the forefront of scientific research in the areas of Simulation, Visualization and Real-Time Prediction, which will significantly enhance the research capabilities and reputation of UTSA. Through the effective integration of education and research, the center will promote the development of new knowledge, will significantly enhance the research productivity of UTSA faculty, and will educate and help place in the workforce a large number of URM students.

Goals

• To become the focus of research activity at UTSA and UTHSCSA in computational and visualization research activities and attract a larger number of senior and junior investigators.
• To conduct internationally recognized research
• To become a focus for URM undergraduate students and URM student organizations, to bring them into the activities of the center and to motivate them to pursue graduate degrees.
• To become a pole of attraction for URM graduate students to become active researchers of the center and encourage them to pursue and complete doctoral degrees.
• To successfully mentor these graduate students in order to enable them to complete their graduate degrees and to pursue careers in education and research.
• To become a major source of information on careers in science and engineering and to high school students in the South Texas region.
• To become a pole of attraction for high school students to science and engineering careers.
• To sustain the operations and activities of the SiViRT center beyond the duration of this grant.

Major Objectives

1. To have a minimum of two archival publications annually per investigator co-authored with a student researcher.
2. Starting in year two to have a minimum of four journal publications co-authored by multiple authors who are coPI’s in this proposal (multidisciplinary papers).
3. Starting in year two, to host a minimum of three senior researcher visitors annually.
4. Starting in year two to organize an annual international research symposium/workshop and, by year five, to attract a major international conference to San Antonio.
5. Starting in year four to have at least three papers annually that receive more than ten citations.
6. To conduct annually at least twenty information sessions in high schools of the region on Science, Engineering and the research activities of the center.
7. To attract annually a minimum of fifty High school students and a minimum of eight high school counselors to participate in the center’s summer camps.
8. To have at least twelve undergraduate URM students participating in the educational and research activities of the faculty affiliated with the center.
9. To have a minimum of ten graduate URM students conducting thesis or dissertation research under the advisement and mentoring of center faculty.
10. Starting with the second year and continuing, to have at least four URM students graduating with masters degrees annually.
11. Starting with year four and continuing, to have at least four URM students graduating with doctoral degrees annually.
12. By year four to leverage the center’s resources with other funds in order to double the support of undergraduate and graduate student researchers working with center faculty.
13. By the fifth year of this grant to have assured the continuing operation of the SiViRT center with at least equivalent support from other funding sources.