Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Tips, Traps, and Troubleshooting: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Multiple Modes of Mentoring for Success in the Fields of Computer Science, Engineering, Math, and Technology

A. Phillips-Lambert, D. J. Russomanno, R. Hairston

The University of Memphis

Abstract

If educators are going to be successful in guiding, advising, and mentoring students majoring in the fields of computer science, math, technology, and engineering, it is essential to develop a complementary approach to the leadership team. While we often tell our students that teamwork skills are essential for success at school and at work, we do not always practice what we preach.

This research presents our attempts at using a multi-disciplinary leadership team comprised of faculty and staff members from six different disciplines as applied to the administration of a National Science Foundation CSEMS grant (DUE-0122950). The NSF/CSEMS program supports financially disadvantaged students in computer science, math, technology, and engineering with goals including increasing retention rates and decreasing the amount of time required to complete an undergraduate degree. At The University of Memphis, we have also included the goal of increasing female and minority graduates. Through a process of trial and error based on the findings of similar programs, we present the lessons learned in our study as each faculty and staff member has responded to changes based on feedback from the student participants.

Originally, our grant was scheduled from 2002-2004, but our program has received an additional four years of support from the NSF (DUE-0410290), and this extension allows for several unique opportunities to (1) increase multi-disciplinary partnerships and specificity for each faculty member and staff member leading the project; (2) increase time to gather, analyze and report student feedback based on previous metrics employed in the 2002-2004 cycle; (3) and to provide an opportunity to examine an interactive, dynamic process of multi-disciplinary team over a period of six years.

In this paper, we share some of the lessons we have learned about multi-disciplinary projects and provide examples of the strategies we have used in attempting to solve the situations that have been encountered, and we detail new processes planned for the 2004- 2008 project cycle.

Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright @ 2005, American Society for Engineering Education

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Russomanno, D., & Lambert, A. (2005, June), Tips, Traps, And Troubleshooting: A Multi Disciplinary Approach To Mentoring In The Fields Of Computer Science, Engineering, Math, And Technology. Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--15100