Louis Stokes Regional Center of Excellence: Center for Promotion of Academic Careers through Motivational Opportunities to Develop Emerging Leaders in STEM (LS-PAC MODELS)

路易斯·斯托克斯少数族裔参与联盟（LSAMP）项目帮助大学和学院实现科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）劳动力的多样化，通过努力显著增加历史上代表性不足的少数族裔（非裔美国人、西班牙裔美国人、美洲印第安人或阿拉斯加原住民）学生的数量，夏威夷原住民或其他太平洋岛民)成功完成高质量的STEM学位课程。路易斯·斯托克斯扩大参与卓越区域中心（LSRCE）旨在作为推广、知识产生和传播活动或其他有助于STEM教育成功实践的活动的区域试验台。发展一支更强大、更多样化的STEM劳动力队伍是促进经济繁荣和保持全球科学领导地位的明确需求。为实现这一目标而进行的工作与美国国家科学基金会促进科学进步的使命是一致的。为了满足这一需求，路易斯安那州立大学（LSU）战略倡议办公室提出了一个路易斯·斯托克斯扩大参与的卓越区域中心，名为“LSRCE：通过激励机会促进学术事业发展中心，以培养STEM领域的新兴领导者（LS-PAC模型）。”具体来说，该中心的愿景是创建一个成功的，数据驱动的模型，以增加代表性不足的少数民族（URM）为学术生涯做准备（即，一个具有良好测试策略的有效模型）。该中心将巩固路易斯安那州立大学和IBM之间的联盟，IBM将协助数据管理、组织和战略集中的数据收集，以帮助早期推广最佳实践。该联盟的目标是：(1)通过指导本科生和研究生，提高URM STEM学生在LSAMP合作机构攻读博士学位的质量和数量；(2)提高代表性不足的STEM博士生的保留率和毕业率；(3)开发一个全国性的模型和平台，以增加URM少数族裔STEM博士获得者的数量；(4)开发一个模型，以增加URM博士进入教授岗位的安置，并在他们进入教授岗位后尽量减少人员流失。通过数据和使用IBM咨询和软件，该中心的社会科学研究人员将研究社会网络连接的强度，以及这些连接如何加强URM学生的学习经历，以及是否会相应地增加职业资源。这将为理论理解如何在计算机支持的协作学习环境中以指导形式获得社会资本提供科学知识。在IBM的帮助下收集的数据还将允许联盟成员检查URM学生的认知和个性特征，这些特征可以预测成功，以及智力、内部和人际关系技能和福祉的发展。在与IBM合作创建指导平台期间，这些数据的汇总将用于迭代过程。最终，将创建一个交互式应用程序和网站，手稿将在顶级期刊上发表，并将编写一本指导urm教授的最佳实践书。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）资助，致力于促进STEM企业协同工作，实现包容性变革。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students from historically underrepresented minority populations (African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders) to successfully complete high quality degree programs in STEM. Louis Stokes Regional Centers of Excellence in Broadening Participation (LSRCE) are designed to serve as regional testbeds for outreach, knowledge-generating and diffusion activities or other activities that contribute to successful practices in STEM education.Developing a stronger, more diverse STEM workforce is a clear national need to promote economic prosperity and maintain global leadership in science. Work toward that end is in accord with the National Science Foundation's mission to promote the progress of science. To address this need, the Louisiana State University (LSU) Office of Strategic Initiatives proposes a Louis Stokes Regional Center of Excellence in Broadening Participation, entitled "LSRCE: Center for Promotion of Academic Careers through Motivational Opportunities to Develop Emerging Leaders in STEM (LS-PAC MODELS)." Specifically, the vision for this Center is to create a successful, data-driven model for increasing underrepresented minority (URM) preparation for academic careers (i.e., an effective model with well-tested strategies). This Center will cement an alliance between LSU and IBM, with IBM assisting in data management, organization, and strategizing focused data collection to aid in early promotion of best practices. The goals of this alliance are to (1) increase the quality and quantity of URM STEM students pursuing doctoral degrees within the LSAMP collaborating institutions through mentoring of undergraduate and graduate students; (2) increase retention to graduation rate of underrepresented STEM PhD students; (3) develop a national model and platform for increasing the number of URM minority STEM PhD recipients, and (4) develop a model for increasing placement of URM PhDs into the professoriate and to minimize attrition once they get there. With data and use of IBM consulting and software, the Center's social science researchers will examine the strength of social network connections and how those strengthen URM students' learning experiences, and whether corresponding increases in career resources occur. This will contribute scientific knowledge to the theoretical understanding of how social capital in the form of mentorship can be acquired in computer-supported collaborative learning environments. Data gathered with assistance from IBM will also allow members of the alliance to examine cognitive and personality characteristics of URM students that predict success along with the development of intellectual and intra- and interpersonal skills and wellbeing. The aggregate of these data will be used for iterative processes during the creation of the mentoring platform in collaboration with IBM. Ultimately, an interactive App and website will be created, manuscripts will be published in top-quality journals, and a book of best practices in mentoring URMs to the professoriate will be developed.This award is co-funded by NSF INCLUDES which focuses on catalyzing the STEM enterprise to collaboratively work for inclusive change.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.