New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology

New Mexico Institute of Mining & Technology is a connector of the American-Made Network, providing access to mentoring in innovative fields. New Mexico Tech serves the state and beyond through education, research, and service, focused in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Students in the Materials Department at New Mexico Tech work in teams and are tasked with coming up with innovative ideas to solve specific problems related to solar energy production and maintenance of facilities. Over the last couple of years they have come up with unique ideas on electrical disconnections, some of which have been used for intellectual disclosure and patent filings. The work is part of their Capstone Senior Design project. It involves design and fabrication of devices, coupled with testing of performance in the laboratory. More recently, they have also been involved with experimental accelerated corrosion simulation followed by device testing, to assess performance under long term service conditions