UHCL NSF Scholar Program

Bun Yue

Council of Professor Luncheon

11/8/2011

Introduction

• Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education: supply does not meet demand.

• UHCL received 3 consecutive STEM scholarship grants from National Science Foundation.– PI: Bun Yue– Co-PI: Sharon Hall

Profile

Grant Period Amount # of Scholars

1 2002-2006 $400K 51

2 2006-2011 $477K 56

3 2011-2015 $600K 13

Grant #2

• Scholarship Requirements:– Majoring in Computer Science, Computer

Information Systems, Computer Engineering, Information Technology and Mathematics

– Financial need: FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid).

– Academically capable: GPA >= 3.– US Citizen or Permanent Resident

Grant #2 Statistics

• Amount per semester:– High: $5,000– Low: $1,800– Average: $4,059

• Gender: – Women: 23 (41.1%)– Men: 33 (58.9%):

Grant #2 Statistics

• Majors:– Computer Science (CS): 13 (23.2%)– Computer Information Systems (CIS): 13

(23.2%)– Computer Engineering (CENG): 5 (8.9%)– Mathematics (MATH): 24 (42.9%)– Information Technology: 1 (1.8%)

Grant #2 Statistics

• Ethnicity: – African American: 4 (7.1%)– Hispanic: 16 (28.6%)– Asian: 4 (7.1%)– Caucasian: 32 (57.1%)

Grant #2 Statistics

• Cumulative GPA in the last semester:– High: 3.98– Low: 2.68– Average: 3.52– Median: 3.62

2010: 3 year graduation rate3-Year Graduation Rates

Hispanic

Black FemaleAll

Students

All UHCL Students

57.90% 64.50% 65.31% 65.20%

All SCE Students 66.70% 0% 66.70% 64.10%

All Relevant Majors in SCE (cohort)

10.00% 0% 50.00% 48.60%

UHCL NSF Scholars

85.7% 0% 55.6% 69.0%

Graduation Rate

• Five year graduation rate of STEM students by Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA based on 201,588 students on 326 colleges in 2004:– African American: 18%– Hispanic: 22%– Asian: 42%– Caucasian: 33%

Program Features

• Not just scholarship

• Also activities to enhance success– Career Enhancing Activities– NSF Scholar Organization– Mentoring– Undergraduate research

Sample Activities

• Talks, mock interview, workshop from career and counseling.

• Talks by professionals and researchers.

• Field trip to JSC and companies

• Communications workshops by Dr. Christine Paul

• Motivational workshop

Maintaining eligibility

• GPA

• Full time students at UHCL

• Attendance of mentor meeting and certain number of activities.

Undergraduate Research• 5 joint papers by three scholars with faculty

Dissemination

New grant starting 2011

• Many new initiatives.

Scholarship incentives

• Most scholarship awards are based on:– Financial need or– Academic output (e.g. GPA, SAT scores, etc.),– or both

“Pay kids to learn”

• Dr. Roland G. Fryer, Harvard’s Education: multi-millions experiment.– Time’s cover story 4/8/2010: Should Kids Be

Bribed to Do Well in School?– Pay kids to learn.– Controversial!

Some results• “In New York City, the $1.5 million paid to

8,320 kids for good test scores did not work.”• In Dallas, “paying second-graders to read

books significantly boosted their reading-comprehension scores on standardized tests at the end of the year — and those kids seemed to continue to do better the next year, even after the rewards stopped.” ($2/book)

Why?

• Output based incentives– Do not directly reward effort.

– Effort may not link to result, as

– Output goals may seem unreachable to many

• Input based incentives– Reward effort.

– Effort can be linked to result.

– Small incremental steps to improvement.

.

In scholarship?

• A portion of scholarship tied to effort?– Not aware of anyone trying it in STEM

scholarship.– Less controversial: we are ‘paying’ them

anyway.

Award Guideline

• Output component: GPA, etc.– Class 1: $3,500– Class 2: $3,000– Class 3: $2,500

• Input based component: up to $500.– Participation in & organization of activities.– Undergraduate research

Award Guideline• Research based component:

– Presented at UHCL Student Conference for Research and Creative Arts: $200 ever after. (effort based)

– Accepted for presentation in external conferences: $400 ever after. (mostly effort based)

– Had a paper accepted for publications in refereed conferences or journals: $1,000 ever after.

Research component

• Emphasize activities promoting research.

• More selective in picking faculty mentors.

• Faculty incentives: the grant will support faculty travels to present joint papers with scholars.

Industrial Mentor Luncheon

• Goal: to expand the horizon and connection of the scholars to better prepare them for their future career.

• Format: informal luncheon with industrial partners in a relaxed environment.

• Two scheduled this semester: 11/4 & 11/18.

Feedback

• “Very good opportunity to meet leaders in Information technology and discover how they start their successful career.”

• “Very informative in telling us what to do to impress owners of companies to have a chance to get hired.”

• “It was very interesting, I like to learn new stuff and I also like to see how other people see the business world.”

Industrial Speaker Series

• Goal: Invite successful professionals in various areas to talk about their professions and provide advice for STEM students aspiring for a career in the field.

• Collaboration with UHCL Alumni Association.

Conclusions

• We are experimenting...

• Please help us publicize our program!

Thank you & Questions

December 2010,Galveston:

I told you, effort,effort…