Contact Information

Universidad Metropolitana
Executive Director of the AGMUS Student Research Development Center

juan.arratia@gmail.com
http://srdc.suagm.edu/Executive_Director/Bio_Sketch.asp
San Juan PR 00928

Biography

Juan F. Arratia, Ph.D., was born in Pomaire, Chile, on December 27, 1948. He graduated from Universidad Técnica del Estado with a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1973.

He was awarded an MSc in Engineering from Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana, in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri in 1985. He has taught and conducted research at universities in Chile (Universidad Técnica del Estado and Universidad Austral de Chile), Puerto Rico (Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico and University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez), and the US mainland, Washington University, St. Louis, and Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana.

He has lectured and given conferences on advanced automation, robotics, vision systems, artificial intelligence, total quality management and science and engineering education in Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama, Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Perú, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, China, Puerto Rico and in the US mainland.

He was the Advanced Manufacturing Manager for Medtronic, Inc., a leading pacemaker company, and is a consultant in advanced automation for pharmaceutical and medical devices companies in Puerto Rico. He is the Executive Director and Founder of the Alliance for Minority Educational Achievement (AMEDA), a non profit organization based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Since 1998, he has been the Director and Principal Investigator of the Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE) Project, a National Science Foundation sponsored program based at Universidad Metropolitana in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Since 2007, he is the Executive Director of the Ana G. Méndez University System (AGMUS) Student Research Development Center, designed to disseminate MIE best practices to Universidad del Turabo and Universidad del Este. In November 2007 he was awarded the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring at a ceremony in the White House in Washington DC.

He is totally dedicated to mentoring and motivating undergraduates, graduates, and pre-college students to become Ph.Ds., as well as, implementing research projects in robotics and automation, green energy, medical devices, expert system technology and environmental issues.

He has established a worldwide network of research mentors in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields for economically disadvantaged minority students from Puerto Rico in US mainland universities and in Japan, China, Australia, Venezuela, Chile, Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico, Croatia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Jordan, South Africa, Germany, Russia, Argentina, Italy and New Zealand.

[REF: http://srdc.suagm.edu/Executive_Director/Bio_Sketch.asp ]