Board 1: The Impact of the Mathematics S-STEM Program at the University of Texas at Arlington

Tuncay Aktosun; Jianzhong Su

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--29851
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/29851
Download Count: 580

Paper Authors

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Tuncay Aktosun University of Texas at Arlington orcid.org/0000-0003-1094-5676

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Dr. Aktosun is a professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at Arlington. His research area is applied mathematics and differential equations with research interests in scattering and spectral theory, inverse problems, wave propagation, and integrable evolution equations. He is involved in various mentoring and scholarship programs benefiting students. He has been the GAANN Fellowship Director in his department since 2006, the NSF S-STEM Scholarship Director in his department since 2008, and he also acts as the Project Director for the NSF Bridge Program in his department. In the past he served as the Graduate Director and as the Undergraduate Director in his department, and he directed the NSF-LSAMP program on his campus during 2009-2014 and also directed the NSF-LSAMP Bridge-to-Doctorate program on his campus during 2010-2013.

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Jianzhong Su University of Texas at Arlington orcid.org/0000-0002-6103-3936

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Dr. Jianzhong Su is professor and chair of Mathematics at the Department of Mathematics, University of Texas at Arlington. He received his Ph.D. in 1990 from University of Minnesota under Professor Hans Weinberger and he has been in higher education for over 27 years. He is an applied mathematician with research areas in partial differential equations and dynamical systems, with a particular interest in problems from computational neuroscience. He has graduated 10 doctoral students, and is very involved student mentoring of undergraduate students and high school students.

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Abstract

We report on our S-STEM mentoring and scholarship program in mathematics supported by the Division of Undergraduate Education of the National Science Foundation since 2008. We use the data on our S-STEM scholars and compare it with the data on all our mathematics majors. We describe various aspects of our S-STEM program including its effect on:

• Increasing the enrollment of women, underrepresented minorities, and underserved students

• Involvement of our undergraduate mathematics majors on various academic activities, including leadership, peer mentoring, and undergraduate research

• Impact of student chapters of several mathematics organizations on the student success

• Helping with the transition to careers after the undergraduate degree or the transition to graduate studies

We also describe the lessons learned and improvements made toward the goals of:

• Managing our resources (both financial resources and faculty time) in the optimal way to maximize the impact of our S-STEM program

• Retaining of our undergraduate mathematics majors, improving academic advising, establishing various measures for timely graduation, strengthening the academic infrastructure to improve student success, and enhancing the student support system • Securing further external funding for our mentoring activities and student support

• Improving ties with former students, local industry, and civic organizations benefiting everyone

• Collaborating with colleagues in nearby community colleges, institutions in the region, and establishing close ties with mentors especially in institutions with many underrepresented minorities and underserved students • Utilizing resources related to faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students benefiting all the parties involved.

Citation
Format

Aktosun, T., & Su, J. (2018, June), Board 1: The Impact of the Mathematics S-STEM Program at the University of Texas at Arlington Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--29851