2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Cohort-based Integrated Research Community for Undergraduate Innovation and Trailblazing (CIRCUIT) Program provides undergraduate students with intensive mentoring and the unique opportunity to participate in cutting-edge research while building skills to make future significant contributions to science. This program targets trailblazing undergraduate students, including individuals from first generation or low-income backgrounds; those with limited research experience; and those facing systemic barriers. Through the adoption of a cohort-based model, students are able to gain scientific knowledge and critical professional skills in a hands-on, collaborative, and fun environment. In 2022, we hosted over 100 undergraduate, graduate, and Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) students, and supported them in achieving their career dreams.

CIRCUIT originated at a small scale to connect talented and engaged students with the required domain knowledge to a critical mission need at a scale not possible with conventional approaches. Over several program cycles, we have expanded this mission support to projects around our organization. A major benefit of CIRCUIT is a systematized, scalable model that supports a research and outreach approach with broad impacts for students, institutions, and the nation. Our program has eight pillars: holistic recruiting, mission-driven research, targeted technical training, leadership development, high-resolution assessment, diverse mentorship, university partnerships, and career empowerment. These are supported by research activities surrounding learning and engagement, and dissemination activities to share our tools and capabilities broadly. Through developing and executing these specific pillars, the CIRCUIT program is a model for how to accomplish the goals of increasing diversity in STEM in both recruitment and retention.

Students chosen to participate in the CIRCUIT program are selected through a holistic recruitment process aimed at equity. These students, identified as “trailblazers,” are those from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds in STEM who have had to navigate additional obstacles, such as financial hardships and systemic biases, during their journeys to and through their undergraduate degrees and in navigating the STEM workforce. This additional navigation often leaves little opportunity for additional skill development outside of the classroom, let alone obtaining work experience and undergraduate research experience. Thus, there is often a lack of exposure to these skills and a lack of knowledge of the necessity of these extra-curricular experiences. Additionally, there is a lack of access to mentors that understand and relate to the student’s backgrounds and can help them navigate through the STEM pipeline. Without undergraduate research experience or early internships, these students may be prematurely discounted by job recruiters leaving trailblazing students as a pool of latent potential at a critical period of development. Supporting trailblazing students increases the quantity and quality of the STEM workforce overall as students have the confidence to apply for these positions and the technical credentials to excel. In this work we share our model and longitudinal student outcomes gathered over the past six program cycles.