S-STEM: BRIDGING OUR STUDENTS TO THEIR FUTURE

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What is S-STEM?

S-STEM is a scholarship program to produce Biomedical, Chemical and Environmental Engineering graduates who are among the first to be sought by universities, industry and investors. This program is focused on students interested in research or entrepreneurial careers. Our goal is that S-STEM scholars will excel in a rapidly changing, technology-driven world as:

• Faculty
• Engineers
• Scientists
• Technology Managers
• Leaders in starting new, technology-based companies

What can S-STEM do for you?

Intellectual Merit: The project will develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of an educational model incorporating research methods and discovery-based education that will improve retention of students in dual-degree programs (BS-MS and BS-MBA), tightly integrate research training into undergraduate engineering education, including capstone projects, and streamline acquisition of the skills needed for technical and entrepreneurial innovation. The integration of a Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship with the MBA-ACCEND program will be a unique model within engineering. Systems for student assessment and intervention are integrated into the system, as are program assessment tools to quantify student outcomes against target outcomes.

Graduate Education: The majority of the S-STEM scholars supported through this program in the MS-ACCEND and Graduate School Preparation tracks will complete MS and/or PhD degrees in an engineering discipline. Many of these students, includingwomen and ethnic minorities, will be equipped to serve as future engineering faculty at a time when a shortage of qualified engineering faculty is expected; others will be leaders in the R&D sector, helping the US maintain global superiority, and these highly trained engineers will have the degrees beyond BS, meeting a need expressed by professional boards.

Entrepreneurs: The S-STEM scholars supported through the MBA-ACCEND and Professional Preparation tracks will have business management skills and a strong understanding of the business side of engineering. The entrepreneurial skills of these graduates, again including many women and ethnic minorities, will accelerate business and technical innovation and the commercialization of new technologies, further supporting US efforts to maintain technological superiority in a challenging globally competitive environment.

Program goals will be achieved through four strategies:

• Cohort Building
• Career Driven Education
• Networking
• A defined Pathway to Graduate School

Cohort Building: Cohort building includes three activities to promote productive academic relationships among students; between students and faculty; and between students and other professionals.

• Summer Scholars Bridge Program (SSBP): Ethnic minority prospective S-STEM students will be recruited through the Emerging Ethnic Engineering (E3) These students will participate in the 7-week SSBP residential program prior to freshman enrollment.


• Supplemental Cooperative Learning Courses (SCLC): In the active STEP and prior S-STEM projects, SCLC are a continuation of the SSBP during the freshmen year. They are explicit courses added to the curriculum of the students participating in these projects.


• S-STEM Learning Community: All prospective freshman BCEE S-STEM students (~ 60) will enroll, as a cohort, in the Engineering Foundations course in Fall .This course serves as an introduction to BME, CHE and ENVE through lectures as well as "hands-on" projects.

Career Driven Education:

• Organizational Context: The undergraduate (UG)BME, CHE, and ENVE programs in the Department of BCEE have a common first-year curriculum and significant course overlap in the following two academic semesters. This commonality makes BCEE an ideal environment for the multidisciplinary S-STEM program; students from the three UG programs form a natural cohort based on the department's core course requirements. All CEAS undergraduates are required to participate in the co-op program.


• Retention of MS-ACCEND Students: The research co-op component of the S-STEM research track will improve MS-ACCEND completion by allowing students to earn some of their required research credit hours during a semester in which they would normally not be able to receive academic credit. In addition, the S-STEM academic support system will enable MS-ACCEND students to better handle the increased course loads required. The seamless research training provided through the REU programs from Sophomore to Senior years will fully prepare the MS-ACCEND students to graduate on time with both BS and MS degrees.

Networking: This includes strategies for building and upholding a professional network with all the people the students interacted within their education and future career fields. By building these networks, the students will find appealing job prospects and opportunities for advanced education. The networking strategies include six previously implemented and refined activities elaborated below.

• Advising and Early Warning Systems Utilizing E-Portfolio: The E-Portfolio program is a central tool in achieving transparency in the proposed S-STEM project. The program will give S-STEM program students, faculty and staff the ability to track and manage student program requirements, academic progress, degree program progress, and participation online. Since the program was created in-house and is modular, a part-time IT Coordinator can easily modify it. This section describes the advising process, which includes academic advising, S-STEM advising, and integration with the E-Portfolio.


• Academic Advising: BCEE has one full-time academic advisor who advises all freshman and sophomore students ;faculty advise students for the remaining years until graduation. As sophomore year begins, all S-STEM students will meet during the pre-advising week (7-8 week of the semester) with degree program advisor to discuss progress and to plan their course schedule. Each advisor will complete an online Academic Progress Report Form for the student's E-Portfolio.


• S-STEM Advising: A member of the Project Management Team (PMT) will serve as an S-STEM Program Mentor (SPM) in their area. S-STEM Scholars will be required to submit at least2 progress reports for each course they take during the semester. The progress report helps students develop a relationship with faculty.


• E-Portfolio: The E-Portfolio gives S-STEMScholars, faculty, and staff the ability to track and manage student program requirements, academic progress, degree progress, and program participation online. The main purpose of the E-Portfolio for faculty and staff is early intervention when a student is struggling in a course, degree program or in completing the program requirements. The SPMis able to review student progress prior to meeting with the student. The main purpose of the E-Portfolio for the students is the ability to track their participation online and have access to documentation for use at any time for interviews, application to graduate school or any other use.

A Defined Pathway to Graduate School: This strategy is targeted for MS-ACCEND and Graduate School Preparation Track (GSPT) students, but the objective for each is different. MS-ACCEND students will learn implementation and dissemination of research during their sophomore and to junior years, with the goal that all MS-ACCEND students will be prepared to complete, document, and defend their MS-thesis research during their Senior year. An additional goal is that 40% MS-ACCEND students apply for a PhD degree upon graduation. Promising GPST undergraduate students will be urged to apply for graduate school and assisted in creating a portfolio that will make them highly competitive for financial support; this program's aimis to help increase GPST S-STEM Scholar's interest in graduate school. To achieve these targeted goals and objectives, four programs are planned:

• Summer REU Immersion
• Academic Year (AY) REU
• Summer Research Co-op
• Student Research Training Program.

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Further Details: