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UARC Offers New Research Opportunities for Faculty
SJSU and UCSC Partner to Serve NASA
The University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) was recently awarded to the University of California system from NASA Ames Research Center. The ten-year, $330 million award is a first-of-its-kind for NASA and will provide a unique combination of research and education capabilities to meet NASA’s mission requirements around biotech, nanotech and information technology.
San Jose State University worked closely with UC Santa Cruz in the development of the proposal and is a key partner in the UARC. SJSU will be the lead partner to establish the UARC’s Systems Teaching Institute (STI). As NASA builds its future workforce, it needs professionally educated scientists and engineers with on-the-job experience akin to what a medical doctor receives in medical school. STI will serve science, technology, engineering and mathematics students as a teaching hospital serves medical students. Students will learn through direct experience on research projects where they examine realistic problems and data. STI will create accomplished new researchers by bringing together curriculum and practice. San Jose State will receive $3.3 million over the ten year contract period to establish and operate the STI.
SJSU faculty will also participate in research tasks through the UARC. SJSU, along with faculty from the nine UC campuses, will have the opportunity to provide their expertise to conduct research under task orders as they are issued by NASA. According to Pam Stacks, Interim Associate Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research, “many faculty members provided information about their research interests and capabilities last fall in preparation for the UARC award. This information will be used to match faculty capabilities with proposed research tasks.” If there are faculty members who are interested in learning more about the UARC or want to include their name in the UARC capabilities database, please contact Nancy at nbussani@sjsu.edu.
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