Wireless sensor networks build resilience in a Native community — and in our research team

What do you get when you mix over 30 team members representing engineering faculty and students, ROTC cadets, aspiring lawyers, educational psychology instructors, and experts in flooding, then add a dash of ancient tribal knowledge, temperamental field sensors, wireless sensor networks built in-house, and unpredictable weather conditions — all with a one-year deadline and strict budget from a federal funding agency?

Growing up in the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in New Mexico, Dr. Denise GabaldonThronas saw family members and friends struggling with a range of ailments from diabetes to cancer, and was determined to choose a career that would allow her to help them.

The first from her family to attend college, she focused on biochemistry at New Mexico State University, hoping to apply her degree in some aspect of health care. “I was initially interested in pharmaceuticals for curing disease,” she says, “but that was problematic because of our cultural beliefs in healing.”

As the summer heat swells in Las Vegas, BMM Testlabs AISES Internship has begun again with two new AISES members being welcomed into the program.