Vision
One of the nation’s leaders in Cyber-physical Infrastructure Systems (CIS) research and education for underrepresented students and a catalyst for transformation in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond.
Mission
The MECIS mission is three-fold. First is to achieve excellence in cyber-physical infrastructure systems (CIS) research by generating new scientific knowledge in three synergistic and multidisciplinary subprojects, ranging from micro (molecule) to macro (system) scales of CIS. To enhance research competitiveness and knowledge transfer, UTRGV partners with three major US universities: University of California Riverside (UCR), University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Research results are expected to provide immediate practical solutions valuable for industry and other organizations, which may also include potential intellectual properties. Thus, the Center will ensure technology transfer and product development through industry partners, including sponsors of MECIS faculty projects. This will ensure that the MECIS cutting-edge research is also applicable, practical, and impactful.
Second, the MECIS aims to effectively integrate CIS research into education in diverse STEM disciplines by recruiting and training graduate, undergraduate, and high school students from underrepresented minority groups, as a national commitment to diversify the scientific workforce. Moreover, faculty development plans are developed to transform research capabilities of 11 participating faculty from 6 academic departments within 3 Colleges of Engineering, Sciences, and Education at UTRGV, of whom 3 are female and 5 are Assistant Professors.
The third mission of the MECIS is to substantially enhance UTRGV’s institutional capacity by expanding research infrastructure and achieving sustainable research competitiveness beyond the duration of the CREST support.
