The Program for Mastery of Engineering Studies (PROMES) held its 40th annual banquet on Thursday, April 12, celebrating the students, faculty, staff, alumni and donors of the Cullen College’s most enduring academic success program.

The sold-out event took place at the UH Alumni Center and featured a free dinner buffet, research poster presentations by UH engineering students and a brief awards ceremony.

Both the medium and the message are STEM – encouraging fourth and fifth-grade African-American and Latino boys to embrace the cool factor of science, technology, engineering and mathematics through hands-on engineering activities with their fathers and other mentors from the University of Houston.

Amanda Nash, a first-generation undergraduate student at the University of Houston, likes to combine biology, engineering, research and awards.

“I love learning new things and trying to understand the world around me,” Nash said about what fuels her research. “I think it is so cool to think about everyday things from a scientific point of view.”

On a Wednesday evening in November, Maria Sanchez sits quietly weeping inside a private room on the first floor of the University of Houston M.D. Anderson library.

"My baby just held a cell phone with his left hand," she allows, as the tears continue to stream.

Might not seem tear-worthy to most, but her baby is 8-year-old Rafael. Likely born with a form of symbrachydactyly, Rafael’s fingers never formed in utero, leaving him with only a tiny fist-like hand.

Engineering and computer science professions attract fewer women than other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields in the United States. For more than a decade, professors at the UH Cullen College of Engineering have worked to change this longstanding tradition by hosting summer engineering camps strictly for girls.

After 25 years of service to the Cullen College of Engineering, John Matthews, program manager for PROMES and STEP Forward Camp director, retired on Jan. 31.

In 2012, one person in the United States died by suicide every 12.9 minutes. In college terms, that means in the span of just one 50-minute class, at least three people in this country took their own lives. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), suicide is the second leading cause of death for college students.

The “40th Anniversary PROMES/Shell Engineering Retirees Scholarship Endowments in Honor of Dr. Gerhard Paskusz and Dr. Katherine S. Zerda” in the amount of $40,000 was announced on May 31 at the PROMES 40th Anniversary Reconnect and Mixer event. Ten Shell retirees jumpstarted the fund with a combined $25,000 commitment.

This year's Undergraduate Research Day will take place Thursday, October 9th at 4 p.m. in the Rockwell Pavilion at the M.D. Anderson Library at the University of Houston main campus.

Out of the 150 undergraduate researchers showcasing their posters and oral presentations, 20 will be undergraduates from the UH Cullen College of Engineering.