New Professor of Engineering will teach Math, Engineering
Sep. 13th, 2012
Contact:
Dr. Cecilia Vigil
Associate Dean, Division of Science, Math & Agriculture
Arizona Western College
(928) 344-7555
New Professor of Engineering Will Teach Math, Engineering Classes
Late-start Math Classes to Begin on September 17
Yuma, AZ (September 10, 2012)— Many AWC students on the waiting list for Math 121- Intermediate Algebra will be able to take late-start math classes beginning September 17, thanks to a temporary one-year position supported by the STEM Futures Grant.
Victoria Martinez-Bellow is a Civil Engineer who has been hired by AWC as a professor of Engineering for one semester. This temporary position will not only help kick off the System Engineering program, but it will also support the high demand for more math courses.
Since the end of this semester’s add/drop week, over 140 students have been on the waiting list for Math 121, but with the hire of Martinez-Bellow, the college will be able to open three MAT 121 courses on September 17, says Dr. Cecilia Vigil, Associate Dean for Division of Science, Math, and Agriculture. “These mathematics classes have in the past not been offered as a late start; therefore we are changing the culture for our AWC students … This will be a great opportunity for many of those students to not have to wait an entire semester to take this class.”
Dr. James L. Jones, Director of the STEM Futures Grant, says the Grant is a newly-implemented five-year cooperative development between AWC and the University of Arizona. The goal of the program is to provide a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering in Yuma before 2016. “Systems Engineering is the science of designing, modeling, analyzing, organizing and managing complex systems of materials, machines, information and people to ensure the successful operation of defined processes,“ he says. “This engineering discipline is becoming more popular today as companies strive for constant improvements in overall system production efficiencies.”
Vigil says that although the intermediate math courses are not part of the Systems Engineering program, “many students when taking math courses, become enlightened to the world of mathematics and its applications, including engineering.”
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