Supporting Talented, Financially Challenged Mechanical Engineering Students Studying Robotics, Autonomous Systems, Machine Intelligence and Advanced Manufacturing

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，通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明在得克萨斯大学埃尔帕索分校（UTEP），一个少数民族服务机构的经济需要，学生团体是83%西班牙裔。在六年的时间里，该项目将为23名攻读航空航天和机械工程学士学位的全日制学生提供奖学金。一年级学生将获得长达四年的奖学金。该项目将吸引学生参与机器人，自主系统，机器智能和先进制造（RAMIAM），开辟新的职业机会。该项目旨在通过将奖学金与有效的支持活动联系起来，包括指导，本科生研究经验，推广项目和参与特定学科的会议，来提高学生在STEM领域的坚持性。在导师的帮助下，学者们将制定个人发展计划，概述他们的职业目标和实现这些目标的步骤。因此，该项目将在新兴技术领域提供高技能和全面的工程师，帮助保持美国在新兴多学科领域的全球优势。此外，该项目将有助于更加多样化和包容性的美国STEM劳动力，这对于填补当前和预测的人力资本空缺并保持美国的经济竞争力非常重要该项目的总体目标是提高低收入，高成就本科生在STEM领域的学位完成率。该项目有三个具体目标。首先是在当前和未来的UTEP学生中建立对RAMIAM不同领域技能发展重要性的认识。其次是利用UTEP工程学院完善的外联机制，识别和招募有才华的学生，并通过教师和研究生领导的指导和参与计划来支持这些学生。第三是使用数据分析和机器学习来检查机构数据中的模式，预测学生的表现并提供反馈。该项目还将设计，实施和评估一种新的轮换指导模式，该模式利用不同的教师背景为学生提供职业道路上的多种视角。该项目的成果将通过项目网站、外联活动、地方和国家会议以及档案工程和教育期刊公布。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 Texas at El Paso (UTEP), a Minority Servicing Institution with a student body that is 83% Hispanic. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships for 23 unique full-time students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. First-year students will receive scholarships for up to four years. This project will engage students in Robotics, Autonomous Systems, Machine Intelligence, and Advanced Manufacturing (RAMIAM), opening up new career possibilities. The project aims to increase student persistence in STEM fields by linking scholarships with effective supporting activities, including mentoring, undergraduate research experiences, outreach projects, and participation in discipline-specific conferences. With the help of mentors, the scholars will create Individual Development Plans outlining their career goals and steps toward achieving those goals. As a result, the project will provide highly-skilled and well-rounded engineers in emerging technology areas, helping to maintain U.S. global advantages in an emerging multidisciplinary area. Furthermore, the project will contribute to a more diverse and inclusive U.S. STEM workforce, which is important to fill the current and predicted human capital vacancies and maintain the economic competitiveness of the U.S.The overall goal of the project is to increase degree completion of low-income, high-achieving undergraduates in STEM fields. Three specific aims guide the project. First is to create awareness among current and future UTEP students about the importance of developing skills in the different areas of RAMIAM. Second is to use the well-established outreach mechanisms of the UTEP’s College of Engineering to identify and recruit talented students with unmet financial needs and support those students through a mentoring and engagement program led by faculty and graduate students. Third is to use data analytics and machine learning to examine patterns in institutional data, predict student performance, and provide feedback. The project will also design, implement, and evaluate a new rotational mentoring model that leverages diverse faculty backgrounds to provide students with multiple perspectives on their career paths. Results of this project will be made available through a project website, outreach activities, local and national conferences, and archive engineering and education journals. 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.