New Mexico State University
Research, Creativity and Economic Development

Streamlyne, A Year Later

By Dr. Luis Cifuentes, Vice President for Research, Creativity, and Economic Development and Ms. Alisha Giron, Associate Vice President

Streamlyne has been live for over a year. We thank faculty, staff, and students who patiently managed the change from the aging ARGIS system to Streamlyne. We thank RCED staff who worked overtime to implement the new electronic Research Administration (eRA) and assisted to those who asked for help using it.

Shared governance concerns around the selection of Streamlyne were addressed in the August 2022 issue of the Research Digest. It is important to remind ourselves that two primary drivers for the eRA change were the opportunity to partner with University of New Mexico (UNM) and save money, and serious cybersecurity issues with ARGIS, and particularly Maestro, our homemade research compliance system.

We have had a tremendous amount of positive support for Streamyne from our active research community; yet, for some, Streamlyne is confusing and inefficient raising concerns about its impact on research productivity. With respect to the Streamlyne’s IRB module, which replaced Maestro, we point out that IRB chair, Dr. Joe Tomaka, IRB co-chair, Dr. Julie Steinkopf, and Ms. Michelle Gavin in RCED’s Research Integrity & Compliance spent countless hours over the past 18 months making the transition to Streamlyne IRB as easy as possible for our PIs and IRB members. Because the new system is a far cry from Maestro, this was no easy task. Over a year into production, IRB chair Tomaka reports they have reached a point where the NMSU’s implementation of the Streamlyne IRB module is working well.  

We reached out to UNM and asked them about their transition to Streamlyne. For the most part, UNM’s administrative as well as researcher experience with Streamlyne and the rollout has been like ours. UNM researchers also criticize Streamlyne for not being as intuitive and easy to use compared to their previous system (IRBNet). Other dissatisfaction at UNM includes changing processes to accommodate the software, integration of modules not being as cohesive as expected, reporting weaknesses, and Streamlyne technical support. We note, in contrast, that NMSU has received great technical support from Streamlyne.   

A university-wide survey on user's experiences with the Streamlyne IRB module was recommended to us. We take these concerns seriously and plan to implement a survey later this Fall. In the meantime, if you encounter any issues with Streamlyne reach out to our Streamlyne Helpdesk at streamlyne@nmsu.edu.

News from Research Administration

By Ms. Alisha Giron, Associate Vice President for Research

I completed my 18^th year at NMSU very recently and my, how time flies. I have had a particularly incredible last year. I am grateful for the Research Administration team whose shared goal of service excellence continues to inspire growth in my own work. I recently accepted the role of Chair for the search for the next University Controller. This is an opportunity for the Office of Research to collaborate with Finance and Business Services in a way that I have not previously seen during my time at NMSU. Thank you to Interim Vice President for Administration and Finance, D’Anne Stuart, for the chance to lead this unique partnership.

I have also just received word that my contribution to the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) resource compendium has been published. An external colleague and I were invited to write for NCURA’s Sponsored Research Administration: A Guide to Effective Strategies and Recommended Practices after the success of our presentations on institutional reporting at an NCURA conference earlier this year. I am thrilled beyond words to add New Mexico State University to the list of remarkable contributors that have enriched our distinctive profession.

Ms. Alisha Giron, NMSU

News from Infrastructure and Partnerships: Ultrahigh-Resolution Electron Microscopy Arrives at NMSU

By Dr. Tanner Schaub, Assistant Vice President for Research

This week New Mexico State University research is celebrating a significant scientific milestone with the commissioning of an ultrahigh-resolution field emission scanning electron microscope in the Microscopic Imaging Core Suite (MICS). This cutting-edge instrument was secured through an NSF Major Research Instrumentation proposal led by the Research Cores Program and formulated in response to requests expressed by some of our university’s most prolific researchers. It was my privilege to lead this proposal, which was a simple matter of compiling a statement of our faculty's exceptional vision and research capacity, particularly that of co-PIs Drs. Meng Zhou (Chemical and Materials Engineering), Samuel Belteton (RCP, MICS), Vimal Chaitanya (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), Sara Fuentes-Soriano (Animal and Range Sciences), and Erik Yukl (Chemistry and Biochemistry). We will be hosting extensive training and workshops this fall, please stay tuned for those announcements. Faculty that are interested in learning more and scheduling training sessions should contact MICS director Dr. Samuel Belteton at sbelteto@nmsu.edu. 

PHOTO CAPTION: Left to right, Thiloka Edirisooriya (Civil Engineering Graduate Student) and Batool Al-Khatib (Molecular Biology Graduate Student), Dr. Samy Belteton (RCP) test-driving the new SU7000 Field-Emission SEM in the MICS lab in Skeen Hall

News from Workforce and Strategic Engagement

By Dr. Patricia Sullivan, Director, Strategic Initiatives

The Office of Workforce and Strategic Engagement continues to work with the various colleges to expand public-private partnerships for mutual benefit.  Two ongoing partnerships include the Village of Questa and the Navajo Agricultural Products Industry (NAPI), both of which are interested in identifying opportunities to advance new energy technologies, including integration of renewables and clean energy storage options.  A third project underway is with industry partner, Plug Power, who is working with NMSU faculty to expand clean energy-related research for grid-tied application, opportunities for water re-use in energy production processes, advanced manufacturing and materials science, and development of an aligned clean energy workforce.

Dr. Patricia Sullivan, NMSU

News from the Arrowhead Center

By Ms. Dana Catron, Arrowhead Center

NMSU's Arrowhead Center continues its efforts to promote entrepreneurship, accelerate tech commercialization and create economic opportunity in the region. In August, Ms. Kathy Foster, Senior Economic Development Officer, and I led a state-wide effort to create a robust consortium of stakeholders and submit two proposals (one for designation status and the second for a $500K planning strategy grant) to the Economic Development Administration (EDA)’s Tech Hub Phase 1 for the NM Energy Independence Tech Hub (Tech Hub).  If selected, we will be invited to apply for a Phase 2 award, with a federal dollar amount of roughly $65 million. The proposed Tech Hub is tightly aligned with EDA’s directive to support a core technology and address national security by decreasing the U.S.’s reliance on foreign energy and bolstering our capacity to generate and export domestic energy.

The current consortium is comprised of regional entities who share a common vision for energy independence and recognize NM’s potential to fortify capabilities within the state, the U.S., and the globe. The Tech Hub will sit at the convergence of their collective knowledge, assets and resources to accelerate progress towards energy independence.

Ms. Dana Catron, NMSU

Recognizing Large Award (August 2023)

By Dr. Hamid Mansouri Rad, Senior Proposal Development Specialist, RAS 

Congratulations to Dr. Soum Sanogo, Professor of Fungal Plant Pathology for having received $5,953,000 from the USDA NIFA Specialty Crop Research Initiative. This project aims to develop a system-based approach to reduce the risk of Phytophthora blight, a serious disease in vegetable crops worldwide. Other NMSU personnel on this project are Drs. Dennis N. Lozada, Ram Acharya, Willis M. Fedio, and Koffi Djaman. This effort is the result of the collaboration between researchers at multiple institutions including the University of Illinois, Alcorn State University, University of Florida, University of Arizona, Texas A&M University, and Rutgers University.

For more information, please contact Dr. Sanogo at ssanogo@nmsu.edu.   

Dr. Soum Sanogo, NMSU 

Recognizing Large Proposal Submitters (August 2023)

By Dr. Hamid Mansouri Rad, Senior Proposal Development Specialist, RAS 

Congratulations to Drs. Enrico Pontelli and Paulo Oemig for each submitting a large proposal exceeding one million dollars in the month of August.

Dr. Enrico Pontelli, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, led a $3.5 million proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF). Titled Everyday AI for Rural Youth and Teachers (EDAI-R), goal of this proposal is to recruit, engage, and prepare rural middle and high school students for industries of the future reliant on AI technologies, and retain their interest in AI. Other collaborators on the EDAI-R proposal include researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston College (BC), and institutions at three other EPSCoR jurisdictions – the University of Wyoming, Black Hills State University in South Dakota, and Maine Math and Science Alliance (MMSA), as well as other entities such as 4-H and MESA. The proposed four-year program aims to target 16 rural school districts, 128 rural educators, and up to 3,200 rural students in grades 6th-10^th.

For more information about this proposal please contact Dr. Pontelli at epontell@nmsu.edu.

Dr. Enrico Pontelli, NMSU

Dr. Paulo Oemig, Director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium (NMSGC), led a $3 million proposal responding to an NSF Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) solicitation. NMSGC has partnered with Teachers in Space, Inc. and the Space Foundation to address the challenge and opportunity to provide 6-12th grade students with equitable access to STEM education. The project will focus on Earth and space science in relation to real-world phenomena. Educators will be trained to deliver a curriculum based on science investigation and engineering design. Students will demonstrate disciplinary literacy through multiple opportunities to show their reasoning and understanding of the scientific explanations in their proposed solutions. The project targets underserved student populations in New Mexico, Alabama, Nebraska, Puerto Rico, and Maine; it will research the impact on students’ Science-Literate Identities (SLI) and the degree in which it impacts teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. In addition, this proposal includes collaboration from the Worcester Polytech Institute and flight providers such as Firefly Aerospace, Perlan Project, and bluShift Aerospace.

For more information please contact Dr. Oemig at poemig@nmsu.edu. 

Dr. Paulo Oemig, NMSU

NMSU's Interdisciplinary Article Receives International Recognition

By Dr. Hamid Mansouri Rad, Senior Proposal Development Specialist, RAS

A recent article authored by an NMSU team of faculty and a graduate student was recognized as the Outstanding Paper by the Asian Journal of Economics and Banking. The authors, Drs. David Trafimow (Professor of Psychology), Tonghui Wang (Professor of Mathematical Sciences), Ziyuan Wang (University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, formerly PhD student of Dr. Wang’s), and Ms. Tingting Tong, doctoral student studying under Dr. Tonghui Wang, began collaborating on this article in early May this year. The article elucidates how “[t]o make sensible decisions about implementing interventions or policy changes, it is necessary to be able to estimate the probability of being better off, or worse off, to varying degrees, with the change than without it,” states Dr. Trafimow. “Traditional significance testing approaches fail to provide these estimates. The proposed gain-probability analyses succeed where significance testing fails.”

The citation information of the article is:

Trafimow, D., Wang, Z., Tong, T., & Wang, T. (in press). Gain-probability diagrams as an alternative to significance testing in economics and finance. Asian Journal of Economics and Banking, 7(2), 1-25, doi:10.1108/AJEB-05-2023-0045

For more information, please contact the authors.

Drs. David Trafimow (top) and
Tonghui Wang, NMSU   

Save the Date: Principal Investigator Training on September 22

By Ms. Rita C. Parra, Director, Pre-award Administration

Research Administration Services (RAS) will be offering Principal Investigator Training at 11:00am on September 22, 2023 via Zoom. The training is intended to provide a high-level overview to NMSU researchers and staff involved with proposal preparation and submission, as well as award negotiation/acceptance of externally-sponsored grants and contracts. The training is strongly encouraged for all prospective and current principal investigators who have yet to attend. To register, please click here. For more information please send email to ras@nmsu.edu. 

Arts & Humanities Grants 101 Info Session

By Dr. Allison Layfield, Senior Proposal Development Specialist, RAS

When: Sept. 22, 10-11 a.m.
O'Donnell Hall, Room 300  
Register here

This annual information session will provide information on the current funding landscape for grants and fellowships available to artists and humanities scholars. Participants will learn about internal funding opportunities, such as the Arts & Humanities Seed grant and SBCI. There will also be an overview of new initiatives and programs from external funders such as NEH, NEA and ACLS.

Participants will leave this workshop with a better understanding of:

• NMSU resources for finding grant opportunities and writing proposals
• Funding agencies and 2023 initiatives and timelines
• How to frame research/creative projects to appeal to funders
  

Early career scholars will benefit from this introduction to grants and their role in research/creativity. Seasoned grant writers can quickly catch up on changes to internal and external funding programs.  

To help us distribute session materials to participants, please register for the info session here.

For more information, contact me at layfield@nmsu.edu.

Limited Submission Funding Opportunities

By Dr. Hamid Mansouri Rad, Senior Proposal Development Specialist, RAS

Research Administration Services maintains a list of limited submission funding opportunities for NMSU research community.  The list is accessible through a link on the Research website, through the Research Administration tab. NMSU users can also access the list directly on SharePoint.  We encourage NMSU researchers to periodically visit the site and if they are interested in any of the opportunities to please inform us by sending email to ras@nmsu.edu. 

Pivot Funding Opportunity Database

By Dr. Hamid Mansouri Rad, Senior Proposal Development Specialist, RAS

This is a reminder that in order to assist NMSU faculty and staff in locating external funding opportunities, the RCSI has purchased a subscription to ProQuest’s Pivot available at https://pivot.proquest.com/session/login.  

To create an account with Pivot for the first time

 To request a one-on-one or group Pivot training, send email to hamid@nmsu.edu. 

Graduate School

Connecting Graduate Students with Community Resources

By Dr. Carol Flinchbough, Faculty Fellow, Graduate School

The Graduate School has partnered with the City of Las Cruces, Graduate Student Council (GSC), ISSS, and Professor and City Councilperson Becky Corran to provide new resources and communicate information about existing community resources.

First, stemming from information shared at the Fall 2022 Graduate Student Townhall led by the GSC, the City of Las Cruces made the decision to provide free bus service (Thanks, Professor Corran!) throughout the city. https://www.lascruces.gov/1314/RoadRUNNER-Transit

Second, the City of Las Cruces developed a new NMSU Student Resource page. This page includes information about fitness classes and hiking trails, art resources, utilities, and “Hot Spots in Las Cruces.” See the “Welcome to Las Cruces” link on the “future student” dropdown tab on the Grad School home page or go directly to the City’s webpage: https://www.lascruces.gov/2646/NMSU-Student-Resources

Third, we’ve added links to community resources (i.e., grocery stores, pharmacies, hospitals, etc.), providing names, contact information, and maps. You can find these links, at Step #9  at the following link: https://gradschool.nmsu.edu/future-students/international-graduate-students-processing-steps.html

We hope that this information provides new and existing students with the resources they need to meet their needs and find community in Las Cruces.

NMSU photo by Josh Bachman

Questions and comments regarding NMSU’s Research Digest should be directed to Hamid Mansouri Rad, Ph.D. at hamid@nmsu.edu, (575) 646-6429.