Outreach Activities

New Mexico STEM Advancement Program

Had a great time teaching an "Introduction to Probability" Workshop to undergraduate students from New Mexico regional universities, community colleges, and tribal colleges as part of the New Mexico EPSCoR STEM Advancement Program (STEMAP).

Las Cruces Spooky Science Festival (2019 - Present)

I created and organize the College of Engineering participation at the annual Las Cruces Spooky Science Festival! This fun event is aimed at students from pre- through middle school and annually has more than 500 attendees eager to learn about STEM! We present our research through fun hands-on activities and promote NMSU STEM opportunities for the community.

  • 2021 Fall Festival: Had a great day representing the College of Engineering at the 2021 Las Cruces Spooky Science Festival. We had fun explaining our research projects to future generations of talented engineering students as well as creating some cool 3-D printed halloween decorations!

  • 2019 Fall Festival: We had fun explaining our research projects and got lots of good questions from future generations of engineers! Exhibits included (a spooky version of) Claude Shannon's ultimate machine, virtual reality demonstrations, 3-D printing, and robotics. Thanks to fellow ECE faculty Wei and Wenjie and students Xiaochen and Hunter for your engaging and enthusiastic explanations.

Annual Las Cruces “Touch-a-truck” event (2016 - present)

I organize the College of Engineering participation in the annual Las Cruces “touch-a-truck” event. Aimed at students from pre- through middle school, this unique event gives children the opportunity to touch their favorite vehicles and learn from their operators. Our participation involves hands-on demonstrations of vehicles (drones, robotic sensing cars, and so on) where we explain various aspects of engineering to eager learners and promote STEM. This event typically has more than 1000 participants from the Las Cruces area.

  • 2018 Event: The 2018 Touch-a-Truck event was a huge success! Special thanks to Jesus and Arezoo for your time and engaging conversations with our future NMSU Aggies. Our NMSU student designed cars that successfully avoid obstacles using their sensors (often fast moving participants) were a big hit!

  • 2017 Event: Had a great day representing NMSU with students from the College of Engineering at the 3rd annual Las Cruces Touch-a-Truck event. We had fun explaining our research projects and got lots of good questions from future generations of engineers! Thanks to Jesus, Arezoo, Nathan, and Douglas for your time and enthusiastic explanations.

  • 2016 Event: In 2016, I was joined with fellow NMSU researchers Dr. Liang Sun and Dr. Andreas Gross (Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering), where we displayed various aircraft and communications equipment. Educational worksheets, hands-on experience, and descriptions of the vehicles and their research purposes were well received by the 1000+ strong and diverse audience.

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Roadshow (Fall 2016)

I was a faculty participant in the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Roadshow, held on the NMSU Campus in Sept. 2016. The roadshow was aimed at 8th Grade Middle School students from the Las Cruces area. There were approximately 500 students broken into 10 groups of ~50 students that went through a number of education stations, including how a UAS flies (Physics of Flight), the subsystems of a UAV and UAS, and how UAS are used.


Short Courses/Workshops

For academic community outreach, I have developed several short courses based on my research interests that have been delivered to a variety of academics from different backgrounds and geographical locations. Please get in touch if you would like me to deliver such a course at your institution.

  • “Introduction to Probability,” 2 day short workshop (online), New Mexico EPSCoR STEM Advancement Program (STEMAP), June 2020.
  • “Spatially Coupled LDPC Codes: From Theory to Practice,” 1 day short course, 2017 European School of Information Theory, Mardid, Spain, May 2017.
  • “GIAN Short Course: Advanced Topics in Coding Theory,” 3 day short course, IIT Kanpur, India, October 2016.
  • “Spatially Coupled Sparse Codes on Graphs: A Convolutional Coding Perspective,” 1 day conference workshop, IEEE Military Communications Conference, San Diego, CA, Nov. 2013.