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

该项目将有助于对受过良好教育的科学家，数学家，工程师和技术人员的国家需求，通过支持在夏威夷大学马诺阿分校（UHM），夏威夷本地服务机构表现出经济需求的高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业。在为期5年的时间里，该项目将为67名独特的全日制学生（30名本科生，22名硕士生和15名博士生）提供长达三年的奖学金，这些学生正在攻读符合STEM条件的生物科学学科的学位。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，可持续性和保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，因此需要加强数据科学（DS）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，财政限制限制了低收入，边缘化和少数民族学生参与STEM学位，以及关键的是，在数据分析等领域建立技能的丰富课程。该项目整合了奖学金支持和包容性的数据科学实践社区（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。该奖学金项目将在生物科学和数据科学之间的接口工作，通过两个具体目标促进学生的访问，包容性和竞争力：（1）为在UHM有未满足需求的学术才华的本科生（UG）和研究生（GR）生物科学学生提供变革性的财政支持。财政限制在学生入学和成功方面都是排斥性的，因为低收入家庭的学生在广泛工作以资助其学业的同时，时间匮乏，参加丰富经验的能力下降，而丰富经验有助于提高学生的保留率和成绩。该项目将为67名GPA 3.0和未满足经济需求的独特生物科学本科生和研究生提供学费奖学金。(2)部署基于证据的特定背景干预措施，包括跨学科的数据科学实践社区。学生将加入UHM的夏威夷数据科学研究所（HI-DSI）“数据研究员”丰富计划，以培养数据科学技能，并作为具有强大教师和同行指导的包容性计划的一部分茁壮成长。该项目旨在研究计划中的干预措施对学生在数据科学方面的知识，技能和自我效能的有效性，并衡量与项目参与相关的学生保留率和毕业率的改善。项目成果和研究结果将通过科学文献和会议介绍传播，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，并产生关于低收入学生的学术成功，保留，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 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.