Broadening Ecosystem Attributes for Talented Scholars (BEATS)

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The Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity (CEED) at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) will develop the "Broadening Engineering Attributes of Talented Scholars" (BEATS) project to provide annual scholarships for thirty-eight academically talented students pursuing bachelor degrees in engineering and computer science. In addition to scholarship assistance, this program will provide students with academic curricular and non-academic co-curricular programs aimed at positively reinforcing each student's sense of belonging in their major and in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. CEED staff will organize and host summer critical transition math/science boot camps that will prepare incoming freshmen and transfer students for the fast-paced quarter system of UCLA. Industry will host and organize multiple corporate-led professional development opportunities throughout the academic year. Scholars will participate in individual and peer mentoring sessions to increase their social and academic engagement in engineering and computer science, which will lead to higher rates of degree completion and ultimately increase the number of talented scholars entering the engineering and computer science US workforce.The goal of the BEATS project is to increase the number of academically talented students who graduate with engineering and computer science degrees, and enter the STEM workforce either directly or after pursuing a graduate degree in engineering or computer science. The curricular and co-curricular active learning community will foster both peer motivation and individual motivation, which will positively correlate with social and academic integration and engagement. Freshmen scholarship recipients and their non-scholar peers will enroll in an "Introduction to Engineering Disciplines" course in which they will be assigned to groups for a research project that will be finalized by a capstone presentation at the end of the Fall quarter. Analysis of the relationships between critical transition programs, the active learning community, and a sense of belonging will provide insight into which activities have the most influence on social and academic integration and engagement, self-efficacy, and subsequently persistence-to-degree completion and higher GPAs in engineering and computer science.