The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced an award of $4,887,004 over five years to Texas Southern University to support its proposed “Center for Research on Complex Networks,” a new NSF Center of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) .
The new Center’s multiple disciplinary team, led by Drs. Wei Wayne Li (PI), Lei Yu (Co-PI) and C. J. Tymczak (Co-PI), as well as Drs. Oscar Criner (Director of Education) and David Olowokere (Director of Technology Transfer), comprises a total of 14 world-class faculty scholars representing 6 different departments in the College of Science and Technology, including Departments of Computer Science, Transportation Studies, Physics, Engineering Technology, Mathematics, and Chemistry. The funded Center will have a great impact on students at TSU by financially supporting a minimum of 15 undergraduate and graduate students each year in the next five years, providing them the opportunity to work with faculty on the cutting-edge research and development.
The mission of this NSF Center is to conduct innovative and multidisciplinary research in the area of complex networks, which will provide a knowledge base for the understanding of complex networks, i.e. energy efficient wireless sensor networks, urban transportation environmental networks, and distributed computational networks, allowing for the development and implementation of policies for global environmental sustainability. The research will be integrated with the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education programs, particularly striving to expand the pool of minority and underrepresented students who pursue advanced graduate studies in STEM fields, to meet the critical workforce needs of the nation. The Center will promote and implement diversity in STEM disciplines, through educational outreach initiatives and extensive effort to recruit, retain and train members of underrepresented minority groups. The attempt is to prepare minority students for leadership positions in the fast-changing global, scientific, engineering, and government sectors.
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