Student Resources in the College of Science

Biological Sciences
Chemistry
Environmental Science
Geology
Mathematics
Physics


Department of Biological Sciences:

  • ACES XP (Academic Center for Engineers and Scientists Expansion) – Located in lower level of Classroom Building (CRBL 001) adjacent to Biology Building; the facility consists of small to medium-sized rooms for student meetings & study groups, plus it is headquarters for the Medical Professions Institute (MPI, see below). The ACES website is: http://aces.utep.edu

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  • Analytical Cytology Facility – Located in a complex of rooms accessed through room B-108, this BBRC-supported facility contains electron and confocal microscopy equipment utilized for both undergraduate and graduate education, and for research. A full-time technician is associated with the facility. The BBRC core facilities website is: http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=7914

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  • Aquatic Core Facility – At present located in Biology Building Greenhouse, will be moving to new Biosciences Building in 2006. Supports undergraduate and graduate toxicology research on fishes, and undergraduate laboratory exercises utilizing live fish. Funded as core facility through the Border Biomedical Research Center (BBRC) and supervised by a technician. BBRC core facilities are described here: http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=7914

  • The Department’s Toxicology Program is described at this website: http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=7689

  • Anton Berkman Learning Center – Located in room B-109, Biology Building. Endowment-supported undergraduate computer center with 10 workstations (8 Dell and 2 Apple), supervised by the Introductory Biology Coordinator/Teaching Assistant Coordinator, Dr. Suha Saleh, and staffed by departmental teaching assistants.

  • Bioinformatics Computer Laboratory (BCL) – Located in Bell Hall; supports interdisciplinary bioinformatics M.S. program. Student facilities include ten 10 SunBlade 150 machines and one Sunblade 2000 dual processor, plus appropriate software. For a complete description, see: http://www.bioinformatics.utep.edu/laboratory/index.html

  • Biodiversity library materials – Paper journals and reprint collections of associated with the Laboratory for Environmental Biology core facility (LEB, see below), or with the personal library collections of individual Biological Sciences faculty. Available collections of reprints and other separates in fields of zoology, botany, and paleobiology number in the thousands. Subscriptions to paper journals maintained by faculty but neither currently subscribed to the University Library in paper form nor accessible by the Library’s electronic media assets include: American Malacological Bulletin, Amphibia-Reptilia, Biotechniques, Brittonia, Chelonian Conservation Biology, Hamadryad, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Evansia, Journal of Hymenopteran Research, Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, Lundelila, Madroño, Pan-Pacific Entomologist, Phyllomedusa, Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, Sida, Sociobiology, Taxon, The Nautilus, The Veliger, Transactions of the American Entomological Society, and Vertebrate Paleontology. All these materials are available to graduate students and qualified undergraduate students involved in research or educational projects.

  • Biomolecule Characterization and Separations Core Facility – Located in the Biology Building, Room B-424, this BBRC-supported unit provides common-use access by faculty and students to current equipment used in molecular biology research. The facility is overseen by a full-time technician, who additionally provides training to faculty and students for its use. For a full description, see the BBRC facilities website: http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=7914

  • Centennial Museum – The campus museum of natural and cultural history has its own building on campus, but the biological collections (Laboratory for Environmental Biology, see below) are housed in the Biology Building. The Museum is a learning resource for students through its public exhibits, informal education and science teacher in-service programs, the Chihuahuan Desert Garden on the Museum grounds, and through its information-rich website on Chihuahuan Desert natural history and biota. Museum website: http://museum.utep.edu/

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  • Cell Culture Core Facility – Located in Biology Building Room B-409 and adjoining rooms, this complex contains equipment associated with tissue culture. A BBRC-supported facility, it is utilized primarily for faculty and graduate student research. A full-time technician operates this common-use facility.

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  • DNA Sequencing and Analysis Core Facility – Located in Biology Building Room B-307, this common-use facility contain up-to-date equipment and software for DNA and RNA sequencing and analysis of sequence data. The facility is supervised by a technician and utilized primarily by faculty and graduate student researchers. See the BBRC website for a more complete description of equipment and capabilities: http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=7914

  • Greenhouse – A new greenhouse was constructed in 2003 to accommodate physical changes to the Biology Building associated with the construction of the new Biosciences Building. Adjacent to the Organismal Biology laboratory on the first floor of the Biology Building, this facility is available to faculty, graduate and undergraduate researchers, and to support operations associated with the Organismal Biology instructional program.

  • Indio Mountains Resarch Station (IMRS) – The University operates a 38,000 acre field station and associated visitor facilities in a relatively undisturbed Chihuahuan Desert landscape in southern Hudspeth County, about a three-hour drive from the campus. The IMRS is used for instructional or research purposes by programs in the Departments of Biological Sciences, Geological Sciences, and Sociology/ Anthropology. Formal classes in Field Biology are held at least twice a year at the IMRS, these involve on-site student research projects. Recent improvements to the visitor facilities have been funded by the National Science Foundation. The IMRS Director is Dr. Jerry Johnson of the Department of Biological Sciences; for further information see: http://research.utep.edu/indio

  • Laboratory for Environmental Biology Core Facility – Biodiversity/ biosystematic collections of plants and animals housed in Biology Buildings B-113 (Herbarium, most invertebrates), B-106 (birds, teaching vertebrate specimens), B-209 (reptiles, amphibians, fish), B-210 (ants), B-221 (teaching plant and invertebrate specimens), B-222 (mammals, fossils). Collections are unique, and used for direct instructional purposes, as well as by faculty, graduate, and undergraduate researchers at UTEP and other institutions. Individual collections are maintained by faculty curators; the Director of the LEB is Dr. Arthur H. Harris of the Biological Sciences Department. For more information, see: http://www3.utep.edu/leb/default.htm

  • Large-format Printer – Located in B-222, utilized to print at-cost color posters for faculty, graduate, and undergraduate research presentations. Guidelines for poster production may be viewed at: http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=14343

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  • Medical Professions Institute (MPI) – Located in ACES XP (see above) in the lowest level of the Classroom Building (CRBL 001) Provides information and support services to students intending careers in Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, or Pharmacy. The Executive Director is Dr. Larry P. Jones of the Biological Sciences Department. For more information on MPI, see the following: http://academics.utep.edu/mpi

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  • Microbiology Media Preparation Facility – Located in Biology Building, room B-423. This facility prepares microbiological growth media for undergraduate microbiology laboratory courses, and is staffed by a full-time technician.

  • Undergraduate Research Center – Currently under development, but by the end of 2005 to be housed in Room B-424 of the Biology Building. Housed here will be the programs and coordinators that fund undergraduate research in biological sciences. Currently, these include Research Initiatives in Scientific Enhancement (RISE), Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), and Undergraduate Mentoring in Environmental Biology (UMEB).


Department of Chemistry:

  • Chemistry Software and Computer Resources:
    PSCI 403 (Shiloff Library), 7 SGI O2 computers running:
    Cerius (Molecular Modeling/Simulation), (Dr. Chianelli)
    Spartan (Molecular Modeling) and (Drs. Davis and Herndon)
    Bioinformatics Open Sources Software (Drs. Stec and Martinez)
    PSCI 306 (Physical Science Lab), 8 IBM RISC Stations running Spartan Software.
    PSCI 218 (Physical Science ACES):
    30 + PCs running ChemSkill Builder (Multiple Choice General Chemistry Homework), (Drs. Becvar, Saupe, Gardner, Noveron)
    SciFinder Scholar (American Chemical Society Search Services), (U.T. System site license available on all campus computers)
    PSCI 206 (Labworks General Chemistry Laboratory)
    Labworks interface to records and analyze student chemical experiment data

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  • Several Licenses of:
    ChewDraw or ChemWindow (Drawing/Presentation),
    Gaussian (Molecular Modeling), (Drs. Herndon, etc.)
    Software particular to research fields or instrumentation (NMR, X-ray, Synchrotron, HPLC, MS, etc...)
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Department of Geological Sciences:

  • Computer facilities:
    The third floor computer lab in the Geology Building contains 1086 square feet divided between 3 rooms. These rooms house 12 terminals and/or workstations that access the department’s Unix based system and 8 terminals that access our PC based network. The lab also contains large format printers for posters and images, 3 laser jet printers, one color printer, one big bed digitizer and one scanner. This laboratory is accessible from 8 AM to 6 PM.

    The fourth floor computer lab contains approximately 1200 square feet and contains 32 PC based terminals. Two laser jet printers, one color printer, and one scanner are available. This laboratory is accessible on a 24 hour basis through a keypad lock system. Since most undergraduate students do not have keys to the building, they are most likely to access it during the hours of 7 AM to 10 PM.

    Students also have access to a small computer laboratory on the second floor (~280 square feet) that contains 3 terminals and 1 printer networked to a Sun computer used for seismological and remote sensing based research. This facility is accessible from 8 AM to 5 PM.

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  • Software available to students:
    ArcGIS 9 and Arcview 9
    ENVI
    Erdas Imagine
    Ermapper
    Adobe Photoshop
    Adobe Illustrator
    Adobe Acrobat
    Surfer
    SPSS
    MS office suite
    Geosoft and GM-SYS
    IRISRead scan recognition
    GMS ground water modeling
    SurfGrav
    GPS survey
    Corpscon projection converter
    PCI
    Matlab
    IDL

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  • General interest data bases available for students:
    Landsat 4, 5 & 7 Images for most of the southwestern US and Northern Mexico.
    Landsat7 (2000) mosaic of the earth.
    Aster Images
    A variety of Vector data covering transportations to hydrography.
    Digital elevation model (DEM)
    US census data (2000)
    1m Orthphoto Quads for the border between US and Mexico
    6 in High resolution Orthphoto imagery for El Paso.
    1 ft Ikonos data for El Paso
    Other miscellaneous data.

  • Library Resources:
    We keep back issues of the journals listed below in two seminar rooms located on the third floor (~1224 sq. ft. combined). In addition to these journals, students have access to ~200 theses/dissertations/senior theses of former students, ~500 books on geology, geophysics and related disciplines, and ~500 U.S. Geological Survey professional papers and Water Resource papers. Any faculty member can provide students access to these rooms.
    Journals:
    Journal of Geophysical Research
    Geophysics
    Geological Society of America Bulletin
    American Assoc. of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin
    Tectonics
    Sedimentary Geology

  • Other study facilities:
    Our students take advantage of a third floor lounge area (729 sq. ft.) with tables, chairs and couches for group study and review sessions. This facility is accessible any time the building is open (7 AM to 10 PM).
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Department of Mathematical Sciences:

  • Math ACES was added to the ACES Network in January 2004. This 3,500 square foot facility in Bell Hall focuses on providing resources for students enrolled in math courses. These resources include computers, computer programs, precalculus and calculus peer facilitators. The center provides students with a comfortable, well-equipped environment for group and individual study, meetings, workshops, symposia as well as a place to network with other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students. The ACES facility in open for students on Monday and Wednesday from 8:00 m to 7:30 pm, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, and on Saturday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

    Resources include the following:
    23 Desktop PCs
    Matlab 6.1
    Geometry Sketch Pad
    Mathematica 5
    MiniTab 14
    MiniTab 13 for Windows
    SAS System
    Multimedia Equipment
    SMARTboard
    Portable LCD projector

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  • Modular Pre-Calculus and Calculus I. Both the precalculus and calculus modular programs are variable-length courses that incorporate cooperative learning strategies into the curricula. The URI’s for these extensive sites are http://www.math.utep.edu/classes/precalculus and http://www.math.utep.edu/classes/calculus.

    Peer facilitators are on duty forty hours per week to help students in these courses.

    In addition, an extensive math tutorial created by three math professors at UTEP is located at the website www.sosmath.com. The site has won numerous awards from many countries.

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  • Bioinformatics Computer Laboratory (BCL) – Located in Bell Hall; supports the interdisciplinary bioinformatics M.S. program. Student facilities include ten 10 SunBlade 150 machines and one Sunblade 2000 dual processor, plus appropriate software. For a complete description, see: http://www.bioinformatics.utep.edu/laboratory/index.html

  • Club Zero is the student mathematics club in the department. The Club Zero office is located in Math ACES.
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Department of Physics:

  • Computing Resources - 14 desktop computers are available for graduate student use (in their offices).
    10 PC’s with data acquisition devices and Logger Pro 2.1 software are available for Physical Science Students (predominantly from education) in room 224.
    17 Imacs are available for astronomy students in room 319.
    18 PC’s are available (6 per room) in rooms 316, 317 and 318 with PASCO data acquisition devices and Data Studio 1.9.

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  • The Physical Science Building ACES is approximately 2000 square feet and provides computing resources for physics and chemistry majors. These resources include 40 Dell PC desktop computers (28 in a station teaching lab and 12 in an open lab) and 10 Dell PC laptops. Software relevant to physics students includes Active Physics I & II, SciFinder, and SPSS (for physics education). This ACES facility is open for students on Monday and Tuesday from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm, Wednesday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, and on Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

  • Library Resources - Physical Science 214 serves as the physics department library. This room, which is approximately 200 square feet, contains approximately 800 undergraduate and graduate physics texts. It also contains back issues of Physics Today, American Journal of Physics, Science Teacher & Health Physics Newsletter.
  • Other student spaces - The Society of Physics Students maintains a lounge (room 219) with snacks, drinks, and 4 desktop PC’s. This lounge includes tables, a desk, chairs, and a couch.