CESSRST-II UTEP Scientist’s Remote Sensing Innovation
Dr. Laura Alvarez, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth, Environment and Resource Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was recently featured in an article for her innovation in Remote Sensing, which is a core technical area for CESSRST-II aligned with the NOAA mission. Specifically, leading her research team, which included an Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate student (now alumnus) from UTEP, successfully developed an unmanned boat that will improve scientists’ ability to collect and analyze data in underwater typography research.
Unmanned systems in earth system sciences is Dr. Alvarez’ specialty. The area is known in the NOAA mission enterprise as “uncrewed systems” and is identified as one of NOAA’s science and technology focus areas. Dr. Alvarez’ study was partially supported through funding from the NOAA Education Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions (EPP/MSI) Cooperative Agreement (award # NA22SEC4810016) that supports CESSRST-II. In addition to teaching and innovating, Dr. Alvarez engages in efforts that support Center cohort students’ development of technical and professional competencies to prepare them for the NOAA future workforce. This past spring, she collaborated with other CESSERT-II and NOAA subject matter experts and the Center Education Expert to develop and deliver an asynchronous workshop on Uncrewed Systems. She also serves on the Center’s Professional Advancement and Career Engagement (PACE) Committee charged with supporting cohort students’ NOAA enterprise workforce readiness. The Center celebrates Dr. Alvarez’ recent accomplishment and thanks her for her efforts to support the training and development of NOAA’s future workforce. For more information on Dr. Alvarez’s work, click here
