Florida A&M University and Florida State University are collaborating to conduct a five-year program which will directly involve 120 exemplary minority engineering undergraduates enrolled in chemical, civil, electrical, industrial and mechanical engineering curricula. Participants will 1) collaborate on faculty research and perform research-oriented industrial internships, 2) receive academic advising and mentoring by faculty researchers and professional mentoring by prominent minority scientists, and 3) receive academic enrichment and enhancement in preparation for graduate study. Participants will have the opportunity to present the results of their research at technical conferences. Program activities guide participants from the pre-college level to successful entry into graduate research programs. Participants receive graduated stipend supplements (in addition to any other scholarships which they are receiving) which are scaled from $111/month for first year students through $333/month for fifth year students. Successful completion of the program activities will result in the acceptance into an completion of graduate research degree programs by 85% of program graduates and acceptance into doctoral research programs by 40% of program graduates. These results will be achieved in an extremely cost-effective manner. Annual project costs average $3700 per participant; cumulative project costs are $11,638 per participant. Total personnel costs are only 26% of the budget; senior personnel costs are 2.3% of the budget. Annual cost sharing by the College is 46% of the funding requested from NSF.
