Enriching the Undergraduate Experience through Personalized Learning and Mentoring

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With funding from the NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, the "Enriching the Undergraduate Experience through Personalized Learning and Mentoring" program will support high-achieving, low-income computer science and engineering students with demonstrated financial at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. This four-year S-STEM Track 2 project will provide scholarships to 21 financially at-risk sophomores, in three cohorts of seven students. The first cohort will be funded for three years; the second cohort will be funded for two years; and the third cohort will be funded for one year. In addition to the scholarships, students will receive faculty mentoring and participate in community building activities. They will also receive help in one of their challenging computing courses through a new software program that can deliver personalized learning opportunities.The objectives of this S-STEM Track 2 project are to a) increase retention and graduation rates of participating students, ideally to 100% within five years; b) attain 100% placement in jobs or graduate programs well-suited to participating students' talents and interests; c) evaluate the activities carried out during the project to identify best practices that can be scaled to larger student cohorts and adapted to other disciplines and institutions. Personalized learning support in the computer engineering and computer science courses will be provided to the scholars using the PERCEPOLIS cyber infrastructure developed by the investigators. Scholars will engage in professional development opportunities that aim to better motivate and prepare them for computer science careers and/or graduate education, with a blended learning approach supported by the PERCEPOLIS software that enables collection of data on learning outcomes and engagement.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.