A group of 33 students from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Mayagüez Campus (RUM) participated in a Google Tech Exchange 2024 educational experience in Mountain View, California in early January. 

"This opportunity aims to empower students studying at HBCUs or HSIs (mostly Latino, Native and African American institutions) to grow in the technology industry. Participants in this program took virtual classes dedicated to developing skills in the field of Computer Science taught by Googlers, that is, engineers and software developers employed by Google with many years of experience in the computer industry," said Dr. Nayda G. Santiago, professor in the Department of Computer Engineering, coordinator of the initiative and member of its academic committee. 

Dr. José Antonio Lasalde Dominicci, professor at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras and Medical Sciences campuses, scientist at the Center for Research in Molecular Sciences (CICiM) and director of several landmark research projects, was recently honored as part of the Puerto Ricans in Science Day celebration.

Recognized locally and internationally as a prestigious chemist/biologist, his professional career has been characterized by his dedication to research and teaching in the field of molecular sciences, with a special focus on neurophysiology.

Dr. Armando Rúa de la Asunción, professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Mayagüez Campus (RUM), received a $1,250,000 grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which will allow him to expand his research in experimental physics for the next five years.

Dr. Rúa de la Asunción, who is the first scientist to win this grant in Puerto Rico, was selected along with 20 other researchers from the first cohort of 2023, who will have these funds to address their innovative ideas in a more creative way, as well as to promote advances in their field.

The Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) student chapter of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Mayagüez Campus (RUM) won second place in the 2023 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage (RASC-AL) Forum of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). 

This is the fifth time the students have participated in the competition, in which they achieved three consecutive championships from 2018 to 2021. This year, they presented the PROMISE: Permanent Research Outpost for Mars and Interplanetary Space Exploration mission, which met the challenge imposed in this edition to send four astronauts to Mars and have them survive there for seven years.  

Evolutionary biologist Riccardo Papa and his team presented important findings using butterflies.

In the field of evolutionary biology, studying philosophy, time and space is unusual. However, Dr. Riccardo Papa and his team of students from the Department of Biology at the Río Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) did just that, and what they found earned them a publication in the prestigious scientific journal Science.

After collecting data for three and a half years, the group found that, in essence, there is no single path to evolution. That is, the same result can be reached in different ways; in this case, in the field of development, evolution and morphology (how living things are formed).