Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Assistance for Transfer Improvement and Excellence

在国家科学基金会科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金(S-STEM)计划的资助下，机械和航空航天工程援助促进改善和卓越转移(MATRIX)项目将为有经济需求和学术前景的低收入学生提供支持，以在阿拉巴马大学亨茨维尔分校(UAH)的STEM学科取得成功。该项目将在五年内为提供奖学金，用于攻读机械和航空航天工程学士学位。该项目将提高机械和航空航天工程系经济困难的转学学生的成绩、保留率和毕业率。转学学生往往是一个被遗忘的群体，因为他们关注的是大学统计和比较的首次全日制(FTFT)学生队列。FTFT学生有许多择优资助的机会，但对于转校生来说，这样的机会很少见。因此，许多转学学生从事兼职工作以支付教育费用，这减少了他们的学习时间。与FTFT学生很好地融入校园和可用的服务不同，转学学生往往不知道有什么校园服务，也缺乏适应新环境的学术和社会援助。这些因素和其他因素导致转校生的平均GPA和毕业率低于UAH和全国各地的FTFT学生。为了解决这一差异，该项目寻求更好地适应转学到UAH的学生，并连续两年提供全额学费，以减少或消除对兼职工作的需求，允许学生专注于学术和社会活动，并支持建立社区。此外，该项目将与当地亨茨维尔工程公司合作，为转学学生提供实践研究经验、指导和行业机会。MATRIX计划的目标是提高加州大学机械和航空航天工程系经济困难转学学生的表现、保留率和毕业率。矩阵学者将从他们在华威大学的第一个秋季学期开始，连续两年获得全面的经济支持。在第一学期的第一周，学生们将参加一个“进入母体”的迎新项目。MATRIX第一年的重点是社区建设和本科生研究。Matrix第二年的重点是职业发展、网络和实习。该计划的具体目标包括提高MATRIX学生的学习成绩、留校率和毕业率，改善校园学术支持服务的使用，创建专门的转学学生队列以帮助他们适应校园环境，并为学生提供研究机会和专业发展活动。该计划的一个主要方面是与当地工程公司合作，为MATRIX学者提供专业发展、网络和实习机会。实习将提供工程实践经验，帮助学生毕业后就业。一旦学生被MATRIX计划录取，他们必须证明他们在学位计划、研究活动和参加计划活动中继续取得令人满意的进展，以保留他们的奖学金。

With funding from the National Science Foundation's Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program, the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Assistance for Transfer Improvement and Excellence (MATRIX) project will provide support to low-income students with demonstrated financial need and academic promise to succeed in STEM disciplines at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). The project is funding 64 scholarships over five years for students who are pursuing bachelor's degrees in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. This project will improve the performance, retention, and graduation rate for financially disadvantaged transfer students in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. Transfer students are often a forgotten group because of the focus on first-time full-time (FTFT) student cohorts for university statistics and comparisons. Many merit-based aid opportunities for FTFT students exist, but such opportunities are rare for transfer students. Thus, many transfer students take part-time jobs to cover the cost of education, which reduces their time for study. Unlike FTFT students who are well socialized into the campus and the services available, transfer students often do not know what campus services exist, and lack the academic and social assistance to adjust their new environment. These and other factors contribute to the lower average GPA and graduate rates of transfer students compared to FTFT students at UAH and around the country. To address this discrepancy, this project seeks to better acclimate transfer students to UAH and provides full tuition for two consecutive years to reduce or eliminate the need for part-time jobs, allow students to focus on academic and social activities, and support building a community. In addition, this project will partner with local Huntsville engineering companies to provide hands-on research experiences, mentoring, and industry opportunities for transfer students.The goal of the MATRIX program is to improve the performance, retention, and graduation rate for financially disadvantaged transfer students in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at UAH. MATRIX scholars will be fully supported financially for up to two consecutive years beginning with their first fall semester at UAH. During the first week of their first semester, the students will participate in an "Enter the MATRIX" orientation program. The first MATRIX year focuses on community building and undergraduate research. The second MATRIX year focuses on professional development, networking, and internships. Specific objectives of the program include improving academic performance, retention, and graduation rates of MATRIX students, improving the use of campus academic support services, creating specific transfer student cohorts to assist with campus acclimation, and providing research opportunities and professional development activities for students. One of the major aspects of this program is the partnership with local engineering companies to provide professional development, networking, and internship opportunities for the MATRIX scholars. The internships will provide hands-on experience in engineering to help students obtain employment post-graduation. Once students are accepted to the MATRIX program, they must demonstrate continued satisfactory progress in their degree program, research activities, and attend program activities to retain their scholarships.