Scholarship project supporting undergraduate and graduate students at the interface between biology and data science

奖学金项目为生物学和数据科学交叉领域的本科生和研究生提供支持

• 批准号: 2221448
• 负责人: Alexander Stokes
• 金额: $ 149.97万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-15 至 2027-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2221448&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Scholarship; project; supporting; undergraduate; graduate

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM), a Native Hawaiian-serving institution. Over its 5-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for up to three years to 67 unique full-time students (30 undergraduates, 22 Masters and 15 PhD students) who are pursuing degrees in S-STEM-eligible bioscience disciplines. Hawai'i’s unique biodiversity and ecosystem, its unique human diversity, and the pressing challenges it faces in health equity, sustainability and conservation make the State a rich environment for bioscience research and careers. These careers are becoming increasingly reliant on the use and analysis of large datasets, creating the need for enhanced professional preparation in data science (DS) to improve the competitiveness and employability of bioscience graduates. However, financial constraints limit participation of low income, marginalized, and minoritized students in STEM degrees and, critically, in enrichment programs that build skills in areas such as data analytics. This project integrates scholarship support and an inclusive Data Science Community of Practice (COP) program to address these significant challenges.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. This scholarship project will work at the interface between biological sciences and data science to promote student access, inclusion and competitiveness through two Specific Aims: (1) Provide transformative financial support for academically talented undergraduate (UG) and graduate (GR) bioscience students with unmet need at UHM. Financial constraints are exclusionary in terms of both student access and success, since low-income students who work extensively to finance their studies suffer from time poverty and decreased ability to participate in enrichment experiences that promote retention and attainment. The project will provide tuition scholarships to 67 unique bioscience undergraduates and graduate students with GPAs3.0 and unmet financial need. (2) Deploy an evidence-based, context specific intervention comprising a transdisciplinary Data Science Community of Practice. Students will join the Hawai'i Data Science Institute (HI-DSI) ‘Data Fellows’ enrichment program at UHM to build skills in data science and to thrive as part of an inclusive program with strong faculty and peer mentoring. The project intends to research the efficacy of the planned intervention on students’ knowledge, skills and self-efficacy in data science and measure improvements in student retention and graduation rates associated with project participation. Project accomplishments and research findings will be disseminated through both the scientific literature and conference presentations and to institutional, regional and national stakeholders through outreach materials and social media. 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.

该项目将通过支持夏威夷大学马诺阿分校(UHM)留住和毕业高成就的低收入学生来促进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。在为期5年的时间里，该项目将为67名正在攻读S-STEM合格生物科学学科学位的独特全日制学生(30名本科生，22名硕士和15名博士生)提供长达三年的奖学金。夏威夷独特的生物多样性和生态系统，独特的人类多样性，以及在健康公平、可持续性和养护方面面临的紧迫挑战，使该州成为生物科学研究和职业的丰富环境。这些职业越来越依赖于大型数据集的使用和分析，这就需要加强数据科学(DS)方面的专业准备，以提高生物科学毕业生的竞争力和就业能力。然而，经济限制限制了低收入、边缘化和小规模学生参加STEM学位，更重要的是，限制了在数据分析等领域培养技能的丰富项目的参与。该项目整合了奖学金支持和包容性数据科学实践社区(COP)计划，以应对这些重大挑战。该项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的本科生完成STEM学位。该奖学金项目将在生物科学和数据科学之间开展工作，通过两个具体目标促进学生的入学机会、包容性和竞争力：(1)为UHM有学术天赋的本科生和研究生(UG)和研究生(GR)提供变革性的资金支持，但他们在UHM的需求尚未得到满足。经济限制在学生入学机会和成功方面都是排他性的，因为广泛工作以资助学业的低收入学生遭受时间匮乏和参与丰富经验的能力下降，这些经验有助于留住学生和取得成就。该项目将为67名独特的生物科学本科生和研究生提供学费奖学金，这些本科生和研究生有GAs3.0和未得到满足的经济需求。(2)部署以证据为基础的、特定于背景的干预措施，包括跨学科数据科学实践社区。学生将加入夏威夷数据科学研究所(HI-DSI)的数据研究员强化计划，以建立数据科学技能，并作为一个包容性计划的一部分，拥有强大的教师和同行指导。该项目旨在研究计划干预对学生在数据科学方面的知识、技能和自我效能的有效性，并衡量与参与项目相关的学生保留率和毕业率的改善。项目成果和研究成果将通过科学文献和会议介绍加以传播，并通过外联材料和社交媒体向机构、区域和国家利益攸关方传播。该项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，该项目旨在增加在STEM领域获得学位的低收入学术天才学生的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转移、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。