Project Based Learning Program for Nuclear Workforce Development Phase I: Outreach, Recruiting, and Selection

Hayrettin Bora Karayaka; Amber C. Thompson; Chip W. Ferguson

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Conference: 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Tampa, Florida
Publication Date: June 15, 2019
Start Date: June 15, 2019
End Date: June 19, 2019
Conference Session: Energy Conversion and Conservation Division Technical Session 1
Tagged Division: Energy Conversion and Conservation
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--33203
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/33203
Download Count: 488

Paper Authors

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Hayrettin Bora Karayaka Western Carolina University

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Bora Karayaka is an Associate Professor at the College of Engineering and Technology, Western Carolina University. He has worked as a Senior Engineer for smart grid and wireless communication industries for over ten years. He is currently responsible for teaching electric power engineering courses in the college.

Dr. Karayaka’s research interests include power engineering education, energy generation, identification, modeling and control for electrical machines and smart grid. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Istanbul Technical University in Control and Computer Engineering and his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University.

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Amber C. Thompson Western Carolina University

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Amber C. Thompson is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator for Engineering Technology-Technical Operations Distance Program at Western Carolina University. She has a long history of research in customized training and workforce development in Western North Carolina. Dr. Thompson has four years of industrial experience and served in the NC community college system for ten years. She has also served on the local business advancement team for five years.

Dr. Thompson’s research interests are workforce development, engineering graphics and prototyping, and human factors in engineering. She has an Ed.D. from Liberty University, an Ed.S. from Northwestern State University of Louisiana, an M.S.T. from Western Carolina University, a B.S. from Appalachian State University, and an A.A.S. from Isothermal Community College.

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Chip W. Ferguson Western Carolina University

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Chip Ferguson is the Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology and Professor of Engineering and Technology at Western Carolina University.

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Abstract

Funded by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Project Based Learning Program for Nuclear Workforce Development at Western Carolina University (WCU) has been designed to provide scholarships for $5000 per semester for engineering (electric power and mechanical concentration) students who are pursuing an educational emphasis in nuclear power and who desire to contribute to the nuclear-related national workforce. The main objective is to use these scholarships to attract an inaugural class of students who will initiate our program for serving nuclear-related industry and academia leveraging WCU’s engineering project based learning sequence. Our objective is also to increase the quantity and diversity of students majoring in these engineering programs. This paper presents Phase I efforts and the results in terms of outreach, recruiting and selection at WCU.

Selected students are expected to be sophomore through seniors who would be pursuing an educational emphasis in nuclear power, engaging in nuclear-related projects through WCU’s engineering project-based learning sequence and who have agreed to the terms of the scholarship program which will include an agreement to work in nuclear-related employment for 6 months for every complete or partial year of support awarded. The freshmen students were not included in the selection pool to address short term workforce needs of nuclear industry and because of the lower freshmen retention rate in comparison to higher academic levels.

To that end, an outreach and recruiting effort was carefully administered to target and attract students interested to be part of the nuclear related workforce in the U.S. First, an outreach effort targeting regional area community college transfer students and existing students in the university was organized to advertise and promote the scholarship program. This effort included community college visits, participation in college day fairs, classroom visits and internet posting through a website.

Secondly, a scholarship selection committee was formed by the university faculty, staff, and two industry advisory board members to provide a fair selection process. The selection criteria included grade point average, SAT/ACT scores, financial need status, involvement in extracurricular activities, recommendation letters, essay writing skills and whether the candidate was from an underrepresented group in engineering. Each committee members’ rankings were aggregated equally to figure out the overall student eligibility ranking.

Finally, the candidates were contacted with official scholarship offer letters. The selection of seven candidates whom all accepted the offers were realized in two rounds of selection cycle. In order to implement an evaluation plan with the purpose of measuring this project’s early impact in attracting and recruiting students for careers in nuclear related fields, a first semester intake survey of not only award candidates but their peers in the Engineering program was conducted.

Citation
Format

Karayaka, H. B., & Thompson, A. C., & Ferguson, C. W. (2019, June), Project Based Learning Program for Nuclear Workforce Development Phase I: Outreach, Recruiting, and Selection Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--33203

TY - CPAPER
AB - Funded by U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Project Based Learning Program for Nuclear Workforce Development at Western Carolina University (WCU) has been designed to provide scholarships for $5000 per semester for engineering (electric power and mechanical concentration) students who are pursuing an educational emphasis in nuclear power and who desire to contribute to the nuclear-related national workforce. The main objective is to use these scholarships to attract an inaugural class of students who will initiate our program for serving nuclear-related industry and academia leveraging WCU’s engineering project based learning sequence. Our objective is also to increase the quantity and diversity of students majoring in these engineering programs. This paper presents Phase I efforts and the results in terms of outreach, recruiting and selection at WCU.

Selected students are expected to be sophomore through seniors who would be pursuing an educational emphasis in nuclear power, engaging in nuclear-related projects through WCU’s engineering project-based learning sequence and who have agreed to the terms of the scholarship program which will include an agreement to work in nuclear-related employment for 6 months for every complete or partial year of support awarded. The freshmen students were not included in the selection pool to address short term workforce needs of nuclear industry and because of the lower freshmen retention rate in comparison to higher academic levels.

To that end, an outreach and recruiting effort was carefully administered to target and attract students interested to be part of the nuclear related workforce in the U.S. First, an outreach effort targeting regional area community college transfer students and existing students in the university was organized to advertise and promote the scholarship program. This effort included community college visits, participation in college day fairs, classroom visits and internet posting through a website.

Secondly, a scholarship selection committee was formed by the university faculty, staff, and two industry advisory board members to provide a fair selection process. The selection criteria included grade point average, SAT/ACT scores, financial need status, involvement in extracurricular activities, recommendation letters, essay writing skills and whether the candidate was from an underrepresented group in engineering. Each committee members’ rankings were aggregated equally to figure out the overall student eligibility ranking.

Finally, the candidates were contacted with official scholarship offer letters. The selection of seven candidates whom all accepted the offers were realized in two rounds of selection cycle. In order to implement an evaluation plan with the purpose of measuring this project’s early impact in attracting and recruiting students for careers in nuclear related fields, a first semester intake survey of not only award candidates but their peers in the Engineering program was conducted.

AU - Hayrettin Bora Karayaka
AU - Amber C. Thompson
AU - Chip W. Ferguson
CY - Tampa, Florida
DA - 2019/06/15
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Project Based Learning Program for Nuclear Workforce Development Phase I: Outreach, Recruiting, and Selection
UR - https://peer.asee.org/33203
DO - 10.18260/1-2--33203
ER -