Opportunities in Manufacturing of Advanced Materials for Second Career Seeking Students

美国国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金（S-STEM）计划支持有经济需要的高成就低收入学生的保留和毕业。在为期五年的奖励中，该项目由老道明大学（ODU）的巴顿工程技术学院（Batten College of Engineering and Technology）开展，将为攻读工程本科和研究生学位的6-8名学生提供60份奖学金。该项目将包括招募对先进材料制造感兴趣的第二职业寻求学生。除了奖学金，该项目还将包括一个实践的、基于项目的课程，并有机会在先进制造领域进行跨学科的研究项目。课外活动将包括定期研讨会、指导机会，以及参与S-STEM学者的专业协会和会议。这个S-STEM项目旨在为训练有素的第二职业学生进入工程专业，专注于先进材料的制造。该项目将侧重于了解影响ODU工程专业学生学业成功的因素。干预措施的组合将提高第二职业学生的自我效能感信念和结果预期。巴顿工程与技术学院的教师将与ODU心理学系的研究人员合作，研究影响工程专业学生敏捷性、学业成功、招聘、保留和学位获得的障碍、支持和资源。该项目将扩展ODU以前开发的方法，以了解学生群体在职业道路过渡期间的不同经历。从教育研究的角度来看，本项目将研究第二职业寻求学生的过渡过程作为一个教育心理学研究问题，找出促进成功过渡到新职业的关键障碍和关键驱动因素（即支持和资源）。如果采取行动，这些知识可能会提高ODU和全国范围内寻求第二职业的工程专业学生的成功率。因此，将第二职业寻求学生纳入ODU将有助于国家努力吸引更广泛的有学术天赋、勤奋、有经济需求的学生从事STEM职业。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 NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. Over the five-year award, this project at the Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University (ODU) will fund 60 scholarships to students, in groups of 6-8 students who are pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering. The project will include recruitment of second career seeking students interested in a concentration in manufacturing of advanced materials. In addition to scholarships, the program will include a hands-on, project-based curriculum with opportunities to conduct interdisciplinary research projects in advanced manufacturing areas. Co -curricular activities will include regular seminars, mentoring opportunities, and participation in professional societies and conferences for S-STEM scholars. This S-STEM project aims to create a pipeline for well-trained second career students entering engineering professions with focus on manufacturing of advanced materials.The project will focus on understanding the factors that affect academic success of engineering students at ODU. The combination of interventions will improve self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations among second career seeking students. Faculty from the Batten College of Engineering and Technology will collaborate with researchers in the Department of Psychology at ODU to study barriers, supports and resources that affect agility, academic success, recruitment, retention, and degree attainment of engineering students. The project will extend the methodology previously developed at ODU for understanding the differential experiences of groups of students as they transition along their careers paths. From the educational research point of view, the project will study the transition process for second career seeking students as an educational psychology research problem, identifying the critical barriers and the key driving factors (i.e. support and resources) that facilitate a successful transition to a new career. When acted upon, this knowledge may lead to improvements in the success rate for second career seeking students in engineering programs at ODU and nationwide. Therefore, the inclusion of second career seeking students at ODU will contribute to the national effort to engage wider groups of academically talented, hardworking students with financial need in STEM careers.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.