An Industry-Academia Partnership for Students in STEM Disciplines

Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton FL

Investigators

Abstract

This project develops a sustainable and replicable industry-academia partnership model for helping talented, but financially disadvantaged, students complete their baccalaureate degrees in timely fashion and move successfully into the workforce. The activities of the project demonstrate that significant improvements in retention, placement, and workforce streaming is achieved by combining scholarships, professional development activities, intervention, and academic support in a coherent program designed to help empower students to take responsibility for their own success. Students majoring in Computer Science and in Civil, Computer, Electrical, Mechanical, and Ocean Engineering are the scholarship recipients. The intellectual merit of the project is achieved through Professional Development Workshops (PDW), a unique development of the current CSEMS project, that are highly effective in building student self-confidence and in broadening their horizons. CSEMS students are assuming leadership roles in the University and in the community The broader impacts of the project are realized by making a direct impact on national workforce needs. It supports NSF initiatives on integration of diversity into its programs and on integration of research and education. The refined and tested industry-academia student development model can be replicated in many ways, in whole or in part. For example, the FAU Colleges of Engineering and Business have joined to offer an elective course based on PDW concepts that are open to all students in both Colleges.