Asee peer logo

Recruitment and Retention: Summer Transportation Institute for Secondary School Students

Download Paper |

Conference

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Publication Date

June 24, 2017

Start Date

June 24, 2017

End Date

June 28, 2017

Conference Session

Engineering Physics & Physics Division Technical Session 3

Tagged Division

Engineering Physics & Physics

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--28782

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/28782

Download Count

528

Paper Authors

biography

Ramanitharan Kandiah P.E. Central State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-7778-8110

visit author page

Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, International Center for Water Resources Management, Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio. He is a co-author of the textbook, 'Introduction to Water Resources'. He holds a PhD in Civil engineering from Tulane University and a registered Professional Civil Engineer in Ohio.

visit author page

biography

Subramania Iyer Sritharan Central State University

visit author page

Dr. Sritharan is currently a Professor of Water Resources Management and the Associate Director for Research in the land grant program at Central State University. He has served as the Dean of the College of Science and Engineering and as the Chair of the Department and the Director of the International Center for Water Resources Management during which tenure he initiated the Summer Transportation Institute for Grades 9-11 student at Central State University. Dr. Sritharan is engaged in research in hydropower, surface and sub-surface hydraulic applications for irrigation and drainage. He is also engaged in education research related to improving learning and retention of under represented students.

visit author page

author page

Gorgui S. Ndao Central State University

Download Paper |

Abstract

Devising techniques to recruit, retain, educate and graduate students in not widely known disciplines that demand continuous supplies of workforce have become essential for academic institutions. Recruitment and Retention always call for novel approaches that are specific to target audience and fit for the host institution. In this aspect, engineering programs reach out to potential candidates, ahead of time, for their engineering programs with the support of industry partners who show willingness to fund recruitment programs for their future workforce.

Summer Transportation Institute at Central State University is such a program which has been conducted for 15 years to create awareness and interest among secondary school students about the transportation industry with support of Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT). This four week program that is designed with the introductory technical coursework, laboratory experiments, hands on activities, field trips and communication skills. In addition to the instructional activities, the financial support is also used for the food, accommodation and after class activities for the student participants and their mentor undergraduate counselors.

The program introduces the topics of land transportation, water transportation, air transportation and space travel, renewable energy in transportation, transportation related pollution and GIS and GPS systems. In addition, considerable time is also allocated for developing communication skills. The students as a group of five to six people are expected to present their experiences in one of these topics at the end of the program before the award ceremony.

As a bridge between the basic mathematics and science and applied engineering, engineering physics plays a vital role in the instructions of this institute. The physics topics that are touched and explored include forces on trusses, physics of flotation and motion of floating objects, theories of flight and physics of energy. The instructions are followed with hands on activities or filed trips that can enhance the student experiences.

Every year, while this institute helps to recruit 2-4 students from the pool of 25-30 participants for the engineering and science programs, it also helps to support the few undergraduate students as mentoring counselors in summer as a form of retention. The impact of instructing engineering physics at early stages on performance in the college is strong and could be systematized with expanding such instruction to include additional engineering physics.

Kandiah, R., & Sritharan, S. I., & Ndao, G. S. (2017, June), Recruitment and Retention: Summer Transportation Institute for Secondary School Students Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28782

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2017 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015