Undergraduate Scholar Education and Research: Program To Usher Scholars Into Success in Computer Science

本科学者教育和研究：引导学者在计算机科学领域取得成功的计划

• 批准号: 2220938
• 负责人: Shih-Hsi Liu
• 金额: $ 149.87万
• 依托单位: California State University-Fresno Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2027-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2220938&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Undergraduate; Scholar; Education; Research; Program

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated computer scientists by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at California State University, Fresno (CSU-F). California State University, Fresno is both a Hispanic-Serving Institution and an Asian American, Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution. Over its five-year duration, the Undergraduate Scholar Education and Research (USHER) project will fund $10,000 annual scholarships to 28 unique full-time students. Seventeen freshmen will receive scholarships for four years and 11 transfer students will receive scholarships for two years. USHER provides a suite of activities to support Scholars from matriculation to graduation, including intensive faculty and peer mentoring and 25 Challenges for Computational and Algorithmic Thinking (C2ATs) that expose students to various fields in Computer Science and give them a glimpse of real-world problems and how to solve them. Faculty will mentor students to draft a blueprint for career-long STEM Impact Identity that allows the Scholars to see a path to giving back to their home communities through research projects. The STEM Impact Identity process makes broader impacts a core feature of USHER, creating a new generation of computer scientists who have strong service-oriented identity. The project intellectual merit consists of addressing three gaps in the research: measuring the effectiveness of mentorship, intentional activities, and customized academic support services.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need to succeed in increasing Computer Science degree completion. It is essential to shed light on the unique factors related to the retention, persistence, and timely graduation of these students. The USHER research project explores the motivations and expectations of these students. This research will help fill the gap in documenting the various factors that contribute to the persistence of students, including enhancing the student’s sense of belonging in the field of computer science. An independent external evaluator will also gather data on the effectiveness of the USHER program in delivering the suite of activities to support Scholars’ needs and interests and to ascertain whether there is a difference in disciplinary interest and sense of proficiency between USHER Scholars and participants in the matched sample. 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.

该项目将通过支持加州州立大学弗雷斯诺分校（CSU-F）表现出经济需求的高成就、低收入学生的保留和毕业，为国家对受过良好教育的计算机科学家的需求做出贡献。加州州立大学，弗雷斯诺既是一个西班牙裔服务机构和亚裔美国人，美国土著太平洋岛民服务机构。在为期五年的时间里，本科学者教育和研究（USHER）项目将为28名独特的全日制学生提供10，000美元的年度奖学金。17名新生将获得四年奖学金，11名转学生将获得两年奖学金。USHER提供了一套活动，以支持学者从入学到毕业，包括密集的教师和同行指导和25个挑战计算和数学思维（C2 AT），让学生接触到计算机科学的各个领域，让他们瞥见现实世界的问题以及如何解决这些问题。教师将指导学生起草一份职业生涯长期STEM影响身份的蓝图，让学者们看到通过研究项目回馈家乡社区的途径。STEM Impact Identity流程使更广泛的影响成为USHER的核心功能，创造了具有强大的服务导向身份的新一代计算机科学家。该项目的智力价值包括解决研究中的三个差距：测量导师的有效性，有意识的活动，和定制的学术支持服务。该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成率，并证明经济需要成功提高计算机科学学位完成率。至关重要的是要阐明与这些学生的保留，坚持和及时毕业有关的独特因素。USHER研究项目探讨了这些学生的动机和期望。这项研究将有助于填补差距，在记录的各种因素，有助于学生的持久性，包括增强学生的归属感在计算机科学领域。一名独立的外部评估员还将收集关于USHER计划在提供一系列活动以支持学者的需求和兴趣方面的有效性的数据，并确定USHER学者和匹配样本中的参与者之间在学科兴趣和熟练程度方面是否存在差异。该项目由NSF的科学，技术，工程和数学奖学金计划资助，该计划旨在增加低收入学术人才的数量，这些学生表现出经济需求，并获得STEM领域的学位。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并提供有关低收入学生的学术成功、保留、转学、毕业和学术/职业途径的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响力审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。