Pathways to Success in Graduate Engineering: Understanding and Supporting the Critical Transition from Undergraduate to Graduate Engineering Studies.

这个项目将有助于满足国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。为实现这一目标，它将支持成绩优异、但有经济需要的低收入家庭学生在德克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校（University of Texas at El Paso）毕业。埃尔帕索大学是一所研究型大学，学生主要是西班牙裔。该项目为期五年，将为20名攻读工程学士到硕士快速通道学位的学生提供三年奖学金。专业包括电气工程、计算机工程、工业工程、制造工程、系统工程、冶金工程和土木工程。该项目将创建一个学生支持系统，将财政支持、课程改进、指导、研究技能和专业发展机会结合起来。该提案的一个值得注意的优势是它包含了让学生的家庭成员和同龄人参与的活动。该项目将进行一项研究，以检查学生支持系统的成功，该系统在学生教育路径的适当点提供支持。如果成功的话，这个支持系统不仅有可能提高大学工程研究生的成功率，而且还可能提高其他应用该系统的机构的成功率。因此，该项目可以帮助满足国家对训练有素的STEM劳动力的关键需求，特别是对更多工程师的需求。该项目的总体目标是提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。该项目侧重于支持和理解本科和研究生教育之间的关键过渡，这一领域尚未得到很好的研究。该项目旨在提供一个基于证据的模型来支持这种转变，这种转变可以在其他机构实施，从而为学生的STEM职业生涯做好成功的准备。该项目的目标是：创建一个创新的、多方面的学生支持生态系统；实施师徒结构，培养学生成为研究人员；分析学生在研究生教育中的追求、坚持和成功。目前还没有概念模型来引导对教育干预在学生发展中的动态作用的理解。因此，该项目开发了一个新的三阶段学生发展轨迹模型，将框架其研究。研究方法包括多变量分析，以控制学生初始属性和学生暴露于教育环境的差异的影响。研究问题将调查干预措施对学生短期、中期和长期职业成果的影响，从而推进工程教育的基础知识，以及教育干预措施在改善STEM职业成果中的作用的应用知识。通过这项研究所获得的知识将得到改进，预计将为学生的成功提供一种模式，并在全国推广。因此，它可以帮助增加进入成功的STEM职业的学生人数，特别是第一代低收入学生和/或来自STEM中代表性不足的人群的学生。与项目目标有关的成果和产出将用于评价项目。结果将通过出版物和科学或专业会议上的演讲传播，包括那些专注于工程教育、研究生学习和社会学的会议。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。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。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians. It will do so by supporting the graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Texas at El Paso, a research university with a majority Hispanic student population. Over its five-year duration, the project will provide three-year scholarships to 20 students who are pursuing Fast-Track Bachelor-to-Master's degrees in Engineering. Majors include Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Systems Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, and Civil Engineering. This project will create a student support system that combines financial support, curriculum improvements, and mentoring, as well as research skill and professional development opportunities. A noted strength of the proposal is its inclusion of activities to engage students’ family members and peers. The project will conduct a research study to examine the success of the student support system, which provides supports at appropriate points in students' educational path. If successful, this support system has the potential to not only increase success rates of engineering graduate students at the University, but also to improve success at other institutions that apply it. As a result, this project can help meet the critical national need for a well-trained STEM workforce, particularly the need for more engineers.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The project focuses on supporting and understanding the critical transition between undergraduate and graduate education, an area that has not been well studied. The project intends to provide an evidence-based model to support this transition that can be implemented at other institutions, thus increasing the successful preparation of students for STEM careers. The project objectives are to: create an innovative, multi-faceted student support ecosystem; implement a mentoring structure to train students as researchers; and analyze the students' pursuit of, persistence in, and success in graduate education. No conceptual model is currently available to orient understanding of the dynamic role of educational interventions in student development through time. Therefore, the project has developed a novel three-stage Student Developmental Trajectory model that will frame its research. Research methodology includes multivariate analyses that control for the effects of differences in initial student attributes and in student exposure to educational environments. The research questions will investigate the impact of interventions on students' short-term, mid-term, and long-term career outcomes, thus advancing basic knowledge of engineering education, as well as applied knowledge of the role of educational interventions in improving STEM career outcomes. The improved knowledge that will emerge through this research is expected to produce a model for student success that will be disseminated nationally. As a result, it can help to increase the number of students who enter successful STEM careers, particularly low-income students who are first-generation and/or from populations underrepresented in STEM. Outcomes and outputs linked to project objectives will be used to evaluate the project. Dissemination of results will occur via publications and presentations at scientific or professional conferences, including those focused on engineering education, graduate studies, and sociology. This project is funded by NSF's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.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.