ACE Implementation Project: Data Science and Analytics Advancing STEM Education at North Carolina A&T State University

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Achieving Competitive Excellence Implementation Projects in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) provide support to design, implement, study and assess comprehensive institutional efforts to increase the numbers of students and the quality of their preparation by strengthening science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and research. This project at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University seeks to develop and implement an innovative data science and analytics education and research program to train the next generation of undergraduate students to confront the challenges in computational and data-enabled science. The project will be accompanied by an educational research study which will study the impact of faculty development and structures of support through communities of practice on faculty at the HBCU. The project is guided and informed by an on-going evaluation.Specific objectives of the project are: to create an integrated education and research training environment; to increase faculty competitiveness in research and scholarship and prepare student readiness for graduate studies and professional careers in data science and analytics; to prepare globally competitive students; to facilitate and support faculty scholarly inquiries in research, teaching and learning; and to reach out to and collaborate with other institutions. The program will develop a data science and analytics certificate program, a statistical computing laboratory, and an analytical consulting center to broaden the participation and enhance preparation of students as well as support education and health analytics research development and outreach. The project will facilitate faculty research growth by contributing to professional development in research and by promoting collaborative research opportunities. Research and study abroad experiences through partnerships with two Chinese research universities will expose students to the data science research communities in China. Faculty engagement in scholarly inquiries in education analytics and development through a fellowship program, semi-annual education research symposia, workshops and research retreats will transform pedagogy and institutional teaching and learning. The program has the potential to be a replicable model in undergraduate data science and analytics education, research and training for other similar institutions.