Informatics as Targeted Infusion for Education and Research in the Sciences (iTIERS Program)

Morgan State University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

The Targeted Infusion project entitled - Informatics as Targeted Infusion for Education and Research in the Sciences (iTIERS)- will focus on advancing the inclusion of interdisciplinary informatics in the undergraduate curriculum at Morgan State University. This will be accomplished through enhancement of the teaching and research infrastructure for STEM students. To achieve this overarching goal, the iTIERS project has the following three objectives: 1) to increase the number of undergraduate STEM students who receive iTIERS academic enhancement for the improvement of computation skills building; 2) to increase the retention of lower division students in STEM disciplines as they continue to receive iTIERS academic enhancement in informatics; and 3) to increase the number of opportunities in which STEM students can learn more about informatics applications as an academic enhancement strategy to increase retention, progression, and graduation rates. The focus of the iTIERS project is directed to freshmen and sophomore STEM students who will be engaged in fundamental computational skills building through the incorporation of mentors, technology, laboratory exercises in STEM, and critical thinking activities. Upper level students, who were previously taught computational skills building, will be introduced to interdisciplinary informatics as a way of infusing into their research different approaches and techniques to algorithmic development and programming, and dataset integration and analysis.