Career Development and Preparation for STEM Career Pathways

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is a collaborative effort between the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University to promote innovation to students on both campuses. This project is aligned with NSF goals for promoting innovation and educating students such that they understand the pathways to a career in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Innovation. The project goal is to design and develop a program that utilizes the NSF Graduate Research Fellows Program (GRFP) and the NSF I-Corps Sites program to introduce graduate students to innovation career opportunities in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM). These GRFP students will be included in I-Corps teams and offer domain expertise in STEM related topics while learning the innovation process through a virtual opportunity start-up facilitated by the Innovation institute. The project will also include interdisciplinary activities such as field trips to expose the students to regional innovation resources and allow them to gain an understanding of the regional innovation ecosystem. The project team will track student engagement level in the project as well as the success of the participants for five years after graduation and metrics associated with diversity and inclusion. The project will launch a pilot to evaluate the proposed model and share the outcomes of this pilot project with other NSF Sites and Nodes. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.