Adan Delval is the program manager with the Department of Computer Science where he oversees two National Science Foundation grants: the S-STEM Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to students pursuing degrees in computing fields; and the Artificial Intelligence for Arid Land Agriculture (AIALA) program, which provides graduate students in computing and agriculture fields with the opportunity to conduct interdisciplinary research.
“I find working with students is one of the most rewarding parts of my job,” Delval said.
Delval has been at NMSU for nearly 19 years, first as a student, then as a graduate student and an employee. He started in Chicano Studies as a program coordinator in 2012, moving to the Chile Pepper Institute in 2015 before joining the Department of Computer Science in 2019.
Delval’s duties include all programmatic aspects of the S-STEM program from recruiting and advising students to ensuring they stay on track to graduate. He is also the instructor for the S-STEM class where students develop professional development skills that include, public speaking, salary negotiation techniques, resume reviews and LinkedIn profiles, among other useful job-related training.
“This part of my job is extremely rewarding I have seen students come in as freshman and develop into professionals ready for the work environment,” Delval said. “When the S-STEM program began in the Spring of 2019, the goal of this program was to recruit 66 students across six institutions in the state of New Mexico (NMSU, DACC, NMSU-Alamogordo, NMSU-Grants, New Mexico Tech, San Juan Community College), to date, the program has recruited more than 100 students. I have met great students through the S-STEM program that have not only learned from me, but they have also taught me in the process.”
In the AIALA program, Delval collaborates with faculty members from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Computer Science to provide graduate students with interdisciplinary research opportunities. Working independently or as part of a group effort, the students develop a research experiment where they incorporate artificial intelligence, machine learning and other computer science technology.
Delval also oversees the overall program management of the Verizon Innovative STEM Achievers Program, which provides a three-week summer camp for 125 middle school students in the region. The program exposes students to different STEM related lessons including, robotics, drones, Virtual Reality (VR) & Augmented Reality (AR), Coding, Entrepreneurship, 3D design and 3D printing, as well as lessons in reverse engineering.
“During the summer I supervise a group of approximately 25 student employees who are the ones that make the program possible by teaching middle schoolers and maintaining them engaged,” Delval said. “Being able to help middle school students from low-income backgrounds get exposed to the different areas they can pursue as future careers and letting them use technologies they may otherwise not be exposed to at school is extremely gratifying. Students have a fun and hands-on experiences during the summer program, they get to play with drones, RVR Robots, design their own 3D Designs and get them printed.”
Delval was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, grew up in Columbus, New Mexico and went to High School in Deming, New Mexico. He chose NMSU after high school graduation in 2006 and never looked back. Delval earned a bachelor’s in Spanish and government, then a master's degree in public administration and a second master’s degree in communication studies. He is currently in NMSU’s Transborder and Global Human Dynamics Ph.D. program.
“I came to NMSU as an undergraduate student in 2006 and I stayed,” Delval said. “I feel at home at NMSU, I came here to study, I liked it and I stayed.”
-30-
CUTLINE: Adan Delval is the program manager with the Department of Computer Science where he oversees two National Science Foundation grants. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)