Skip to Main Content
Boston University
  • Bostonia
  • BU Today
  • The Brink
  • University Publications

    • Bostonia
    • BU Today
    • The Brink
  • School & College Publications

    • The Record
Other Publications
BU Today
  • Sections
News, Opinion, Community

BU to help build computer skills of southwest Native Americans

Visual art and high technology combine to benefit high school on tribal land

The artistic tradition among New Mexico’s Native Americans spans many centuries and many genres, from painting to jewelry to sculpture. It is now about to enter the 21st century, as well as another genre, as BU and the University of New Mexico (UNM) combine Native American culture and art with high technology.  

The 28-month pilot program New Voices and New Visions for Engaging Native American Students in Computer Science is intended to expand the computer skills of Native American high school and college students and create a virtual world that integrates Native American imagery, iconography, sounds, and aesthetics. The creation of that world, program authors hope, will provide a compelling force that will encourage high school students to take part.

The work was funded by a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Broadening Participation in Computing program. BU received more than $300,000, and UNM received almost $200,000 to work together to create a compelling educational experience for students at UNM and Walatowa High Charter School, a public school on tribal land belonging to the Pueblo of Jemez in New Mexico. The school has a 100 percent Native American student enrollment.

The project employs virtual reality technologies, the Access Grid — an advanced videoconferencing system that operates over high-speed networks across the country — and BU’s stereoscopic Deep Vision Display Wall, a 15-foot-by-8-foot high-resolution (18 million pixels) screen that is used for both researchers’ computer modeling projects and computer-generated visual art.

“BU and the University of New Mexico have had a relationship for several years, and we were both looking for an opportunity to work on something like this,” says Jennifer Teig von Hoffman, project manager of the Scientific Computing and Visualization Group at BU’s Office of Information Technology. In October 2004, Teig von Hoffman spent a week traveling to the different members of the Tribal Virtual Network, a group of tribal organizations in New Mexico coordinated by Maria Williams, an assistant professor of Native American studies at UNM. “They had deployed Access Grid technology at those locations, so we started discussing what we could be doing collaboratively that would take advantage of the infrastructure that’s already in place,” says Teig von Hoffman, a co–principal investigator for the project.

The project’s curriculum was developed by Williams and fellow UNM faculty members Greg Cajete, Beverly Singer, and Arthur MacCabe, Native American artist Felix Vigil, and BU faculty members Teig von Hoffman, Glenn Bresnahan, director of the Scientific Computing and Visualization Group, Erik Brisson, the group’s associate director, and Laura Giannitrapani, its manager of graphics consulting.

This summer Bresnahan and Brisson will install a Deep Vision Display Wall at UNM’s High Performance Computing Laboratory, and next spring, Vigil, a painter raised on the Jemez Pueblo — whose art is based on Native American mythology and themes — will work with 11 computer science students at UNM. (Click on slide show above to play.) The following summer, UNM students will be given internships to work with Walatowa Charter High School students at a six-week computer science camp.

“In the summer of 2007, BU computer scientists will install a second Deep Vision Display Wall, this one in the Jemez Pueblo Higher Education Center for the Walatowa Charter High School students and others to use,” says Teig von Hoffman. “The goal is for students to learn more about opportunities in computer science and related fields of study, including the programs at UNM and BU.”

Explore Related Topics:

  • Computers
  • Culture
  • Visual Arts
  • Share this story

Share

BU to help build computer skills of southwest Native Americans

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Latest from BU Today

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Start a Garden with Boston Public Library’s Seed Library

  • Student Life

    Your Guide to LGBTQIA+ Resources at Boston University and Beyond

  • LOCAL WEATHER

    We’ve Had 12 Consecutive Weekends of Rain. What’s Up with That?

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Museum of Fine Arts First Friday

  • University News

    BU Data Platform Will Help Massachusetts Track, and Work to Close, Wage Gaps

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Hello, Dolly! at the Lyric Stage Boston

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl to Support Cancer Care and Research

  • University News

    Two Gold Telly Awards Scored by BU Productions

  • Pride Month

    Celebrate Pride Month On and Off Campus

  • Rowing

    BU Rowing Teams Prepare for IRA National Championship Regatta

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Beacon Hill Art Walk

  • In the City

    Getting to Know Your Neighborhood: Davis Square

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: The Light in the Piazza

  • Jobs

    Job-Hunting as a New Graduate: What You Need to Know

  • Education

    What’s Behind the Rise in Violence Against Teachers?

  • Fine Arts

    How I Made This: Jacob Whitchurch (CFA’26)

  • Things-to-do

    To Do Today: Seaport Sweat

  • Film & TV

    Did You Win Free Tickets to See Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning Tonight?

  • COMMENCEMENT 2025

    Experience BU’s 2025 Commencement from a Terrier Point of View

  • Obituaries

    Remembering Leslie Epstein, Pillar of BU’s Creative Writing Program

Section navigation

  • Sections
  • Must Reads
  • Videos
  • Series
  • Close-ups
  • Archives
  • About + Contact
Get Our Email

Explore Our Publications

Bostonia

Boston University’s Alumni Magazine

BU Today

News, Opinion, Community

The Brink

Pioneering Research from Boston University

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • Weibo
  • TikTok
© Boston University. All rights reserved. www.bu.edu
© 2025 Trustees of Boston UniversityPrivacy StatementAccessibility
Boston University
Notice of Non-Discrimination: Boston University prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex or gender, age, national origin, ethnicity, shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, military service, marital, parental, veteran status, or any other legally protected status in any and all educational programs or activities operated by Boston University. Retaliation is also prohibited. Please refer questions or concerns about Title IX, discrimination based on any other status protected by law or BU policy, or retaliation to Boston University’s Executive Director of Equal Opportunity/Title IX Coordinator, at titleix@bu.edu or (617) 358-1796. Read Boston University’s full Notice of Nondiscrimination.
Search
Boston University Masterplate
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
BU to help build computer skills of southwest Native Americans
0
share this