An NSF S-STEM Program, the Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research Community (CIRC), established in 2002 (#0123146) is coming to a close. The purpose of the program is to enrich the lives of upper division engineering and computer science students so that they fared well as students, graduated, and went on to graduate school right after receiving their Bachelor’s degree. The program has grown from a workshop to a two credit class which serves both scholarship and non-scholarship students. The scholarships were funded through the NSF S-STEM grant. The program has a focus on females and underrepresented minority students and approximately 60% of the scholarships have gone to these groups. Many of these students are first generation and the scholarship students all have unmet financial need. A scholarship supplement with an emphasis on students from Hispanic Serving Institutions was added last fall.
The program features an Academic Success and Professional Development class which includes information on resumes, portfolios, elevator speeches, how to work a career fair, interest/research papers, reducing stress, graduate school, and career planning for 10 years past the baccalaureate degree. The underlying academic support is the Guaranteed 4.0 Plan. The program has proven successful with a graduation rate of 95% and 50% of the students going right on to graduate school for the scholarship students. These rates are much higher than national averages.
The lessons learned through developing the program and working with the students are best practices that could benefit any engineering student program.
Mary Anderson-Rowland, Arizona State University
MARY R.ANDERSON-ROWLAND is the PI of an NSF STEP grant to work with five non-metropolitan community colleges to produce more engineers, especially female and underrepresented minority engineers. She also di
Prior to joining the ASU Electrical Engineering faculty in 1990, Dr. Armando A. Rodriguez worked at MIT, IBM, AT&T Bell Laboratories and Raytheon Missile Systems. He has also consulted for Eglin Air Force Base, Boeing Defense and Space Systems, Honeywell and NASA. He has published over 200 technical papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings – over 60 with students. He has authored three engineering texts on classical controls, linear systems, and multivariable control. Dr. Rodriguez has given over 70 invited presentations - 13 plenary - at international and national forums, conferences and corporations. Since 1994, he has directed an extensive engineering mentoring-research academic success and professional development (ASAP) program that has served over 500 students. These efforts have been supported by NSF STEP, S-STEM, and CSEM grants as well as industry. Dr. Rodriguez' research interests include: control of nonlinear distributed parameter, and sampled-data systems; modeling, simulation, animation, and real-time control (MoSART) of Flexible Autonomous Machines operating in an uncertain Environment (FAME); design and control of micro-air vehicles (MAVs), control of bio-economic systems, renewable resources, and sustainable development; control of semiconductor, (hypersonic) aerospace, robotic, and low power electronic systems. Recently, he has worked closely with NASA researchers on the design of scramjet-powered hypersonic vehicles. Dr. Rodriguez’ honors include: AT&T Bell Laboratories Fellowship; Boeing A.D. Welliver Fellowship; ASU Engineering Teaching Excellence Award; IEEE International Outstanding Advisor Award; White House Presidential Excellence Award for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring; Ralf Yorque Memorial Best Paper Prize. Dr. Rodriguez has also served on various national technical committees and panels. He is currently serving on the following National Academies panels: Survivability and Lethality Analysis, Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Autonomous Systems. Dr. Rodriguez received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990. Personal Web site: http://aar.faculty.asu.edu/
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