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

该项目将通过支持夏威夷大学马诺阿分校（UHM）这一为夏威夷原住民服务的机构保留和毕业有经济需要的优秀低收入家庭学生，从而满足全国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。该项目为期5年，将为67名攻读符合s - stem条件的生物科学学科学位的全日制学生（30名本科生，22名硕士和15名博士）提供最多三年的奖学金。夏威夷独特的生物多样性和生态系统、独特的人类多样性，以及它在卫生公平、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发展的丰富环境。这些职业越来越依赖于对大型数据集的使用和分析，因此需要加强数据科学（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，经济约束限制了低收入、边缘化和少数族裔学生参与STEM学位，更重要的是，限制了他们参与培养数据分析等领域技能的充实项目。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提高有经济需求的低收入、高成就本科生的STEM学位完成率。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获取，包容和竞争力：(1)为UHM未满足需求的有学术天赋的本科生（UG）和研究生（GR）生物科学学生提供变革性的财务支持。就学生的入学机会和成功而言，经济限制都是排他性的，因为低收入家庭的学生为了资助他们的学业而大量工作，他们的时间不够用，参与丰富经验的能力也下降，而丰富经验可以促进学生的保留和成就。该项目将为67名GPAs3.0且未满足经济需求的生物科学本科生和研究生提供学费奖学金。(2)部署一个基于证据的、具体背景的干预措施，包括一个跨学科的数据科学实践社区。学生们将参加夏威夷数据科学研究所（HI-DSI）的“数据研究员”丰富计划，在UHM建立数据科学技能，并在强大的教师和同伴指导下作为包容性计划的一部分茁壮成长。该项目旨在研究计划干预对学生在数据科学方面的知识、技能和自我效能感的效果，并衡量与项目参与相关的学生保留率和毕业率的改善。项目成果和研究成果将通过科学文献和会议发言传播，并通过外联材料和社会媒体传播给机构、区域和国家利益攸关方。该项目由美国国家科学基金会的科学、技术、工程和数学奖学金项目资助，旨在增加有经济需求的低收入学术天才学生在STEM领域获得学位的人数。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并为低收入学生提供有关学业成功、留校、转学、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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.