Conference Session

NSF Grantees: REU 1

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Gurcan Comert, Benedict College; Charles E. Pierce, University of South Carolina; Zulfikar Berk, University of South Carolina; Nathan N. Huynh; Robert Petrulis, EPRE Consulting LLC; Majbah Uddin, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Tagged Topics

Diversity, NSF Grantees Poster Session

culture, some students were able to thrive, while others’ low levelsof self-efficacy prevented them from having successful experiences. Since most REU studentsworked individually, opportunities for mutual support among research teams were not developed.This project determined to create research experiences that would address these issues. With aPBL approach in mind, engineering faculty members recruited students with a variety of STEMbackgrounds to work collaboratively on a complex problem in transportation engineering. Theresearch was intended to be a collaborative effort among students to reach their common goal.This paper has described the REU as it has developed over two years.During the first year of the project (summer 2018), the eight

Conference Session

NSF Grantees: Diversity 1

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Stacey L. Vaziri, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Marie C. Paretti, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Jacob R. Grohs, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Liesl M. Baum, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Marlena McGlothlin Lester, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Phyllis Leary Newbill, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity, NSF Grantees Poster Session

students. Participants from the students’ homecommunities indicated that there were few opportunities for students to learn more aboutengineering careers and provided suggestions for how colleges and universities could be moreinvolved with students from their community. Phase 3, scheduled for Spring 2020, will bring thefindings from Phases 1 and 2 back to rural communities via two participatory design workshops.These workshops, designed to share our findings and foster collaborative dialogue among theparticipants, will enable us to explore factors that support or hinder transfer of findings and toidentify policies and strategies that would enhance each community’s ability to supportengineering as a potential career choice.Project OverviewDespite