The Caribbean Computing Center for Excellence at University of Turabo: An effective and innovative strategy to promote the study of computation and engineering

espanolEste trabajo presenta una experiencia educativa, parte de las actividades del proyecto Caribbean Computing Center for Excellence, desarrollada en la Universidad del Turabo del Sistema Universitario Ana G. Mendez en Puerto Rico, otras universidades puertorriquenas y en la Universidad de las Islas Virgenes. El proyecto contempla dos componentes: uno orientado a estudiantes de pregrado y otro a estudiantes preuniversitarios, que se complementan con la mentoria ofrecida por los estudiantes universitarios a los estudiantes preuniversitarios para desarrollar sus proyectos de investigacion, mediante una metodologia guiada por el aprendizaje basado en proyectos y el aprendizaje activo. Queremos argumentar que estas son estrategias apropiadas para incentivar y orientar a estudiantes a estudiar pregrados y posgrados en diferentes areas de la computacion y la ingenieria, pero principalmente queremos mostrar su utilidad para iniciar a los estudiantes en la investigacion cientifica en estas areas. EnglishThis work presents an educational experience, which is part of the activities of the project Caribbean Computing Center for Excellence, developed at the University of Turabo in Puerto Rico, from the Ana G. Mendez University System, other Puerto Rican universities and the University of the Virgin Islands. The project includes two components, one aimed at undergraduates and other to precollege students, both are complementary through the mentoring done by undergraduate students to precollege students to develop their research projects using a methodology focused on project based learning and active learning. We want to discuss that these are appropriate strategies to encourage and guide students to pursue undergraduate and graduate programs in different areas of computing and engineering, but mainly we want to show their usefulness to initiate the students in scientific research in these areas.