The International Polar Year--Research and Educational Opportunities in Antarctica for Minorities, also known as IPY-ROAM, is a UTEP-based research adventure made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The program introduces minority undergraduate, graduate students and public school teachers to the polar sciences. The "ROAMers" consist of 24 university students and five teachers from throughout the United States. The group is led by four UTEP professors: ecologist and polar science expert Craig Tweedie, aquatic ecologist Vanessa Lougheed, science education specialist Bill Robertson, and seismologist Aaron Velasco.

The International Polar Year, organized by the International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization, spans a period from March 2007 to March 2009 to include two full northern and southern hemisphere summer periods. It involves over 200 projects with thousands of scientists from over 60 nations participating in physical, biological and social science research.