Encouraging Master’s Study in Electrical and Computer Engineering through Scholarships, Undergraduate Research, and Mentoring

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要，通过支持高成就，低收入学生的保留和毕业，证明经济需要在科学和技术的密苏里州大学。在六年的时间里，该项目将为27名正在攻读计算机或电气工程学士学位的全日制低收入家庭学生提供奖学金。本科二年级的学生将获得长达三年的奖学金。任何选择在任何一个学科攻读学士/硕士学位的学生都将获得第四个也是最后一个奖学金，该奖学金将资助他们获得硕士学位毕业所需的额外一年。该项目预计，预计27名奖学金获得者中有10人将选择这一方案。该项目旨在为有才华的低收入学生提供计算机和电气工程学士和综合学士/硕士学位，以提高他们的毅力、成功和毕业率。财政支持，教师指导，本科生研究，实习安置和专业发展活动将被雇用，以达到这一目的。该项目将促进对最佳做法的了解，以激励和增强低收入学生获得工程学高级学位、培养专业身份和发展有助于在劳动力中取得成功的技能。最终的结果是这些学生的向上流动性和美国的竞争力增加.在技术部门.这个项目的总体目标是增加低收入，高成就的本科生的STEM学位完成与证明经济需要.现有的研究表明，那些认同并认为自己有能力在自己的研究领域取得成功的学生更有可能攻读研究生学位。本项目将调查指导和其他项目活动以及奖学金在培养这种自我认知方面的有效性，并使低收入本科生能够在毕业后开始职业生涯，或继续获得硕士学位。该项目的成功将使用主观的学生自我评估和客观的措施，包括课程成绩，毕业率，就业率或安置在研究生院完成本科学位后进行评估。项目成果将通过同行评审的期刊文章和学术会议上的发言加以传播。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 Missouri University of Science and Technology. Over its six-year duration, this project will fund scholarships to twenty-seven unique full-time low-income students who are pursuing bachelor’s degrees in computer or electrical engineering. Second-year undergraduate students will receive up to three years of scholarships. Any student who chooses to pursue a combined bachelor’s/master’s degree in either discipline will receive a fourth and final scholarship that will fund them for the additional year required to graduate with a master’s degree. The project envisions that ten of the projected twenty-seven scholarship recipients are expected to pursue this option. This project aims to increase persistence, success, and graduation with bachelor’s and combined bachelor’s/master’s degrees in computer and electrical engineering for talented low-income students. Financial support, faculty mentoring, undergraduate research, placement in internships, and professional development activities will be employed to this end. This project will advance knowledge of best practices for motivating and empowering low-income students to earn advanced degrees in engineering, cultivate a professional identity, and develop skills conducive to success in the work force. The ultimate outcomes are upward mobility of these students and increased competitiveness of the U.S. in the technology sector.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high- achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. Existing research has demonstrated that students who identify with and see themselves as capable of success in their field of study are more likely to pursue a graduate degree. This project will investigate the effectiveness of mentoring and other project activities and scholarships in fostering this self-perception and enabling low-income undergraduates to begin a professional career on graduation, or to continue on to earn a master’s degree. The success of the project will be evaluated using both subjective student self-assessments and objective measures that include course grades, graduation rates, and rates of employment or placement in graduate school after completion of the undergraduate degree. Project results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journal articles and presentations at academic conferences. 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.