Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Assistance for Transfer Improvement and Excellence

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With funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Assistance for Transfer Improvement and Excellence (MATRIX) project will provide support to low-income students with demonstrated financial need and academic promise to succeed in STEM disciplines at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The project is funding 64 scholarships over five years for students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. This project will improve the performance, retention, and graduation rate for financially disadvantaged transfer students in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. Transfer students are often a forgotten group because of the focus on first-time full-time (FTFT) student cohorts for university statistics and comparisons. Many merit-based aid opportunities for FTFT students exist, but such opportunities are rare for transfer students. Thus, many transfer students take part-time jobs to cover the cost of education, which reduces their time for study. Unlike FTFT students who are well socialized into the campus and the services available, transfer students often do not know what campus services exist, and lack the academic and social assistance to adjust their new environment. These and other factors contribute to the lower average GPA and graduate rates of transfer students compared to FTFT students at UAH and around the country. To address this discrepancy, this project seeks to better acclimate transfer students to UAH and provides full tuition for two consecutive years to reduce or eliminate the need for part-time jobs, allow students to focus on academic and social activities, and support building a community. In addition, this project will partner with local Huntsville engineering companies to provide hands-on research experiences, mentoring, and industry opportunities for transfer students.The goal of the MATRIX program is to improve the performance, retention, and graduation rate for financially disadvantaged transfer students in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at UAH. MATRIX scholars will be fully supported financially for up to two consecutive years beginning with their first fall semester at UAH. During the first week of their first semester, the students will participate in an "Enter the MATRIX" orientation program. The first MATRIX year focuses on community building and undergraduate research. The second MATRIX year focuses on professional development, networking, and internships. Specific objectives of the program include improving academic performance, retention, and graduation rates of MATRIX students, improving the use of campus academic support services, creating specific transfer student cohorts to assist with campus acclimation, and providing research opportunities and professional development activities for students. One of the major aspects of this program is the partnership with local engineering companies to provide professional development, networking, and internship opportunities for the MATRIX scholars. The internships will provide hands-on experience in engineering to help students obtain employment post-graduation. Once students are accepted to the MATRIX program, they must demonstrate continued satisfactory progress in their degree program, research activities, and attend program activities to retain their scholarships.