Research, a Window to Tomorrow
As Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi looks to the future, research by faculty and students shines a light on tomorrow’s Texas, with projects ongoing in a variety of areas reflecting the University’s growing academic diversity.

Dr. Claudia Johnston, associate vice president for academic affairs, is working with faculty to provide solutions to the nationwide nursing shortage. The innovative eLine Nursing Partnership makes entry-level programs from A&M-Corpus Christi and Del Mar College available online. The latest support for eLine, a future national model for online nursing education, is made possible through a $1.4 million grant from the Department of Education.

In the field of molecular biology, Dr. Kirk Cammarata and his colleagues in the College of Science and Technology have been awarded a $130,800 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to use with matching University funds to acquire a digital imaging system. This system will allow teams of graduate and undergraduate students to further explore how aquatic organisms respond to contaminants and how DNA molecular techniques can be used to monitor the environmental impact of pollution.

Dr. Stephen Dannelly is principal investigator of a $1.3 million project also funded by NSF to improve the University’s recruiting and retention efforts for under-represented groups in the computer sciences. As part of the “Extending and Strengthening the Pipeline in Computer Science” initiative, co-principal investigator Dr. John Fernandez has begun a mentoring program to recruit middle and high school students to the field. In addition, the grant is enabling other professors to develop four state-of-the-art laboratories for research and teaching.

The Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences has received a $1.9 million grant from NASA to develop data acquisition systems to study bays and estuaries and the effects of urbanization on these coastal ecosystems. Using data gathered from the Texas Coastal Ocean Observation Network and a shallow-draft vehicle developed for water sampling, Dr. Carl Steidley, his colleagues and student researchers can predict coastal tides with 98 percent accuracy. They also have developed an airborne imaging system that can be used to track oil spills, document the effects of tropical storms on the Gulf’s plant life and help with urban planning and public safety.