On September, 2004, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) honored the Hispanic Educational Telecommunications System (HETS) with the Group Achievement Award for its participation in the NASA Learning through Interactive Videoconferencing Experiences (LIVE) Program. This initiative, part of an alliance between NASA and HETS, uses videoconferencing to connect NASA’s researchers with Hispanic students attending colleges and universities affiliated with the Consortium. Thus, the investigators can share their scientific and engineering experiences and expertise.
One of the most successful videoconferences, coordinated by HETS and the NASA LIVE Program, was the one offered by Dr. Orlando Figueroa, Director of the Mars Exploration Program Office, on October 31st, 2002. The videoconference of this Puerto Rican scientific was transmitted simultaneously to a large group of students from the University of Puerto Rico at the Mayaguez Campus (his alma mater) and Bayamóm Campus.
At this moment, the HETS staff is in conversations with the Director of the NASA LIVE Program to explore the possibility of producing series of educational videoconferences to be transmitted to the HETS member institutions interested next semester.
For more information about HETS and its projects, visit www.hets.org and virtualplaza.org.
