2024年9月19日
In collaboration with five academic institutions in the state of Alabama, 罗切斯特韦德体育app官网, 密歇根州. has been awarded $5 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in support of a five-year project that will provide scholarships and academic, 社会, and professional development opportunities to high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need who are pursuing degrees and careers in science, 技术, engineering and 数学 (STEM) related fields.
OU’s share of the total award is approximately $1.100万，据 Dr. 玛莎Escobar, 心理学教授 who will serve as the principal investigator for 韦德体育app官网 on the project, entitled “推进 STEM Workforce Readiness of Interdisciplinary Scholars for Excellence Using a Mentored Community Approach to Promote Belonging and Professional Identity.”
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| Dr. 理查德Olawoyin |
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| Dr. 白兰地兰德尔 |
Dr. 理查德Olawoyin, professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering, and Dr. 白兰地兰德尔, dean of the 研究生院 at OU, will serve as the co-principal investigators on the project.
“This project is part of the S-STEM (Scholarships in Science, 技术, Engineering and Mathematics) mechanism of the NSF,埃斯科瓦尔说. “The S-STEM program is intended to support students who are from low-income backgrounds but have high academic potential, with the idea that sometimes income can be a problem when it comes to accessing opportunities to really shine in STEM.”
在五年的时间里, the project will fund scholarships for 72 unique, full-time students who are pursuing associate’s, 学士, and master’s degrees associated with STEM related fields — including physics, 化学, 数学, 计算机科学, 机械工程, 软件工程, and electrical engineering — at any of the six collaborating institutions, 包括塔斯基吉大学(阿拉巴马州).)，奥本大学(阿拉巴马州).)，奥本大学蒙哥马利分校(阿拉巴马州).)，韦德体育app官网(密歇根州).), Southern Union State Community College (Ala.阿拉巴马州特洛伊大学(Troy 大学).).
在韦德体育app官网, our goal will be to provide scholarships to at least nine undergraduate and six graduate students who are academically talented with demonstrated financial need,埃斯科瓦尔说. “Undergraduate students will be able to receive a maximum of $14,每年500英镑，为期四年, 还有研究生 will be eligible for up to a maximum of $20,每年5万英镑，为期两年.”
在这个项目的五年里, cohorts of students will engage in a peer mentoring ecosystem and work locally and remotely with the students at the other institutions to develop a technological product using cutting-edge technologies, including digital twin 技术 generously donated by the Siemens Corporation.
“’Twinning’ is a virtual intervention that allows people in different locations to work on a project together; they can develop a model of something and manipulate it virtually,埃斯科瓦尔说. “例如, the students from 韦德体育app官网 will be working with the students at a different site in Alabama. They will design the prototype of a product, and they will develop it in the ‘twinning’ environment. Our goal is for them to actually create a physical prototype so they can integrate everything that they have learned in their respective fields into developing a product.”
The students will also have the opportunity to work with a variety of mentors, 包括行业领袖, 教师, 还有研究生. 除了, they will have opportunities to visit the partner institutions to develop their research skills.
“One of the things that we will implement is that students in the program will be able to apply for funds to go and visit with a professor (in Alabama) for a few days and hopefully make some connections that will lead to them pursuing their master’s degree or having some sort of post-baccalaureate opportunity in that professor’s lab and gain experience working in a different environment.”
同样的, students from any of the five academic institutions in Alabama will also be able to use those same funds to visit 韦德体育app官网 to learn more about opportunities there.
Escobar said she hopes to begin recruiting students for the program in the winter semester. 要符合资格, undergraduate students must be Pell Grant eligible, 还有研究生 must have a student aid index of 3,000或以下.
“We are very excited to be able to work with 奥克兰 students and 教师 to implement the program,”她说。.