PRECISE expects to significantly strengthen the current environment in Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) at UPR through more diverse, competitive, and sustainable research. The award contributed to implement the multi-campus Ph.D. CISE. While increasing the participation of women and minorities in graduate education, the project facilitated, enhanced, and intensified research in CISE areas. The project enforced and supported the following research areas: Scientific Computing, Computing Systems, and Automated Information Processing & Digital Systems Implementation.

These areas constitute the core of the CISE multidisciplinary research environment, fostering, the formation of multidisciplinary groups and partnerships with industry, government, and other universities in research projects of mutual interest. Four research groups have been created out of these areas: Advanced Data Management (ADM), Automated Information Processing (AIP), Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (CSDA), and Parallel and Distributed Computing (PDC). A Computing Research Seminar and a biweekly CISE Technical Lecture Series have been established as a formal forum for the discussion of common grounds of CISE areas and the presentation of frontier research. A Computer Research Laboratory was established to support the proposed research and to serve as a location for student training activities. New research laboratories are being developed to support the research groups.

Through these efforts, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez has further developed its computing science and engineering research capabilities involving minority students in greater number, paving the way for the conferring of more doctoral degrees to under-represented groups, particularly Hispanic and women in Computer Science and Engineering. It is hoped that through these efforts, the nation might find a successful model that will help in building a better racially and ethically balanced technological enterprise for the benefit of its present and future generations.

Currently, there are a total of sixteen (16) professors active in the PRECISE Project who come together into four research groups, each group with no more than four (4) professors: Advanced Data Management (ADM), Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (CSDA), Automated Information Processing & Digital Systems Implementation (AIP-DSI), and Parallel and Distributed Computing (PDC). In addition, there is a group composed of two professors whose main emphasis is research and development efforts for industrial software production. Finally, there are a total of three professors who are part of the PRECISE Project and are conducting research on an individual basis.

The Ph.D. Program in Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) has been a central theme of the PRECISE Project. It is expected through this program to contribute to an increase in the participation of women and minorities in graduate education. The Ph.D. in CISE officially started in the Spring 2001 Semester. At the present time the program has eighteen (18) active students, a 50% increase over last year. Four students are female. A total of five (5) students are currently being fully supported by the PRECISE Project. An additional six (6) students will be admitted to the program in August 2003.