LSAMP BD: Clemson University, LS SCAMP

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The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce for the nation through their efforts at significantly increasing the competitiveness and numbers of students from historically underrepresented minority (URM) populations to successfully complete high quality degree programs in STEM.Clemson University proposes to establish a Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) Program to significantly increase the recruitment, retention, and graduation of underrepresented students in engineering and science with a focus on advanced materials. Clemson University is a member of the Louis Stokes South Carolina Alliance for Minority Participation (LS-SCAMP). The Clemson University BD (CUBD) program will recruit a single cohort of twelve doctoral students. Twelve departments in two colleges have committed to participate in this program. A unique feature of this program is that the research and scholarly focus of the students in this program will be advanced materials, which are key to advanced manufacturing and economic development within South Carolina and the United States. As a result, the CUBD scholars will be part of an interdisciplinary cohort group. The CUBD program will initiate a program to prepare underrepresented minority graduate STEM students to secure and thrive in research-based careers. As research, industry and technology warrant the advancement of the materials genome for multi-functional, adaptive and advanced materials, the Clemson University Bridge to the Doctorate (CUBD) Program addresses the need to support, train and integrate a diverse body of researchers and research experiences the CUBD program will focus on developing a diverse cohort of scientific leaders with expertise in leading advanced materials research. This effort will drive fundamental advances in inorganic and organic materials to inform and define future research directions for the development of advanced materials and systems across a spectrum of applications. The topic was selected and refined based on (1) South Carolina’s (SC)’s strategic educational and economic priorities; (2) broad subject expertise across many departments at Clemson; (3) significant presence of materials-based manufacturing in SC; (4) alignment of the project with the large, statewide, NSF-funded EPSCoR Track 1 RII award entitled Materials Assembly and Design Excellence (MADE) in SC; and (4) national strategic priorities (i.e., the Materials Genome Initiative [MGI]). The PhD scholars participating in the CUBD program will conduct research in advanced materials, which is well aligned with national, state, and institutional research priorities. Individual projects will integrate experimental/theory, simulation, and data science approaches to accelerate the development and deployment of advanced materials. The innovation of the CUBD Program lies in the interpretation and delivery of a culturally sustaining pedagogical model of graduate student socialization. This project will explore the potential of leveraging existing university resources to enhance the experience of underrepresented minority graduate students. This will expand our awareness of how universities can identify and position their resources to support a sustainable model that is appropriately responsive to the needs of their underrepresented minority STEM graduate students. Additionally, this project will provide an understanding of how underrepresented minority graduate STEM students can be socialized to become thriving researchers in the academy, private industry, non-governmental organizations, and government agencies. This approach will specifically contribute to our understanding of how cultural values related to racial and ethnic identity can be utilized to positively influence this process to develop graduates committed to their role as researchers. Individually and collectively, the CUBD scholars will advance research on the processing, characterization, and properties of a broad class of materials.The project is jointly funded by the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.