2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This full paper describes the implementation of a summer research experience for undergraduate (REU) engineering GCSP scholars. The Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP), at a southeastern public research-one institution, provides aspiring undergraduate first- and second-year students a welcoming environment to promote a community of practice. Applied research experiences for undergraduate students can foster learning while simultaneously empowering their professional growth. One of the most effective situational learning environments was introduced over three decades ago and promotes learning alongside personal growth. Ettiene Wenger’s concept of community of practice outlines a group of people that share a similar interest and solving global grand challenges and learn how to develop their professional career identity as they meet, discuss, share, and interact regularly.
This GCSP-REU is a mentoring research program that was established in the summer of 2022 at the prescribed institution. The goal of the GCSP-REU program is to empower early-career undergraduate engineering students that were newly accepted in the GCSP by cultivating a nurturing environment and building a community of practice. This work describes the approaches and strategies used to develop the research scholars’ engineering identity. It provides the platform to build a community of practice that cultivates a sense of belonging for all 15 undergraduate engineering scholars who participated in the 10-week GCSP-REU program. Each participant applied and received a $6,000 stipend award to supplement their hands-on research with self-identified research mentors (faculty, staff, and/or graduate students). Additionally, this work describes the assessment data collected to determine the effectiveness of these strategies with regards to both recruitment and retention of students in the Grand Challenges Scholars Program and their future interest in research and graduate school. In addition, it includes reflections and insights gained from the REU curriculum design, development, and execution, and offers future recommendations for improvements. Approximately 88% of the research participants started this summer program with minimal research experiences and presented their research findings and results at the end of the summer experience at the university’s undergraduate summer research symposium. All of the participants (100%) who responded to the program survey highly recommended this summer experience. The analysis of the administered assessment of this program indicates that the majority of the participants increased their self-efficacy in engineering research.