This project is being supported under a special funding focus for STEP, "Graduate 10K+," an activity of the National Science Foundation, supported in part by donations from the Intel Foundation and the GE Foundation, to stimulate comprehensive action at universities and colleges to help increase the annual number of new B.S. graduates in engineering and computer science by 10,000 over the next decade. In particular, this project team is focusing on improving preparation and retention in its engineering (electrical, civil, and mechanical) and computer science (CS) departments with a particular emphasis on first-generation students. The PIs are taking a student-centered approach to academic preparation and learning through creation of an integrated institutional network of supports to increase students' self-efficacy, sense of belonging to their major, and belief in the importance of their contributions to society. The intellectual merit of the project lies in its use of several best practices from the STEM education literature that serve as the pillars for the project: (i) a summer intensive preparation program to increase the placement rate of freshmen into Calculus I, (ii) a first-year mathematics supplement added to the gateway Introduction to Engineering and Computer Science course, (iii) enhanced peer and faculty mentoring, and (iv) affinity housing. The project is exercising a broader impact through the expansion of practices that have proven effective at large public institutions and the assessment of such practices. Such an implementation offers a model for many other institutions of similar size and circumstances to adopt. In addition, the high-tech region around the institution is experiencing steady economic growth and the graduates of this program are poised to answer the demands for an increase in the local and regional workforce.
