1.4 Student Outreach and Training Program Task

 

Task Coordinator: M. Balaram/Y.B.Reddy

 

OVERVIEW

 

 

Objectives and Significance:

The main objective of this program is to recruit, retain, and train economically disadvantaged but talented and motivated students in the areas of mathematics and computer science. These students eventually pursue careers and/or graduate programs in these areas and related areas such as computer engineering and electrical engineering. Several educational enrichment opportunities are provided at the pre-college and college levels. As a result of this recruitment, training and retention efforts we focus to increase our national visibility in graduating talented students in the areas of computer science and mathematics.  We want to enhance and maintain a pipeline that involves K-12, college, and graduate programs and supplies talented minority workforce to government, industry, and educational institutions.

 

Army Relevance:

Our nation requires talented and productive workforce from minority and disadvantaged groups in 21st century. Strong foundations in the areas of mathematics and computer science at pre-college and college level are extremely vital and will produce competent graduates who can undertake challenging careers in various organizations. A strong foundation in these areas will also help these students to succeed in graduate programs in computer science, mathematics, and engineering.   

 

Accomplishments:

This grant continues to have a profound impact on the infrastructure at the Grambling State University (GSU). The grant has supplemented other grants to help GSU to establish long-term recruitment and retention, and training programs. The programs revolve around forging partnerships with local and national high schools. Students from these schools are enrolled in enrichment programs during the summer period. These efforts are coordinated with GSU High Ability Program.  During Summer 2001, seventy students from various High Schools across the nation participated in High Ability Program. These students were offered courses in Computer Science, Mathematics, and English. The programs have been very successful as evidenced by the fact that a large number of quality students have enrolled in our departments after graduation from high schools. In fall 2001 we also recruited few National Merit Scholars in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.

 

As a result of the improvement in the quality of our graduates, due to their involvement in educational and research activities offered through this program, our graduates (with GPA 3.0 and above) are recruited by major corporations with starting salaries in the range of $50,000-$60,000.  

 

We (GSU) use the remaining money to establish the computer laboratories. The computer science department has five computer laboratories completely (100%) supported by ADSRC grant. Three computer labs were used mainly for computer science majors and two computer laboratories for computer education courses. In addition to these each of our faculty were provided with new computer (1.5MHZ, 512MB memory, 60GB disk, scanner, and laser printer) with appropriate software and Internet connections. The newly established labs boost our accreditation renewal for one more term.

 

The grant allowed us to provide undergraduate research and educational opportunities to promising underrepresented minority students. Student research projects were presented in regional and national seminars and conferences. We realize that our students have several weak areas of mathematics. Therefore we used part of the money to develop Basic Skills Development (BSD). These students were involved in problem solving where they could enhance their skills in algebra, trigonometry, coordinate geometry, and calculus. These activities are preparing our students to pursue masters and doctoral degrees. They are also opening doors for them to participate in internship and co-op programs at various national laboratories and private industries. The high quality of our program has gained the recognition of major organizations such as CISCO, the CIA, Lucent Technologies, IBM, AT&T, and Hewlett Packard who are partnering with us in the preparation of our students for higher education and corporate careers.

 

In summary, the infrastructure created through this grant is helping us to train and recruit quality students from high schools, prepare them for doctoral level education through undergraduate research, and for careers in the Government and industry with a complete package of managerial culture, soft and technical skills.  This has produced a tremendous impact in providing financial resources to our students, improving their educational quality, and providing opportunities for corporate jobs and attending graduate schools.

 

 

Student Outreach and Training Program Task

 

PRE-COLLEGE PROGRAM

 

 

Grambling High Ability Program for Pre-Freshman

During Summer 2001, seventy students from various High Schools across the nation participated in High Ability Program.  These students were offered courses in Computer Science, Mathematics, and English.  Several of these students joined Mathematics and Computer Science Department during Fall 2001 semester.  Thus, this grant has established a pipeline for supply of excellent students in our programs. The grant provided the Algebra books for thirty-five students and used thirty-five books from previous year. Supported total of 70 students.

 

 

COLLEGE PROGRAM

 

Problem Solving in Mathematics

One of the important focuses in this proposal is to enhance the fundamental skills in various areas of mathematics. We realize that our students have several weak areas of mathematics; therefore, ADSRC students were involved in problem solving where they could enhance their skills in algebra, trigonometry, coordinate geometry, calculus, and differential equations. The students were required to work in-groups and solve these problems as a team. They were required to meet regularly at designated time and place.

 

Tutorial Services

In order to extend the help to all students of the College of Science and Technology we conducted evening tutorials in most of the mathematics and computer science subjects. The help involves the faculty: Dr. Strong and Dr. Saleh.

 

 

 


Impact of Curriculum Enhancements and Training Program

 

Richard A. Aló, PI

University of Houston-Downtown

 

October 2000 through December 2001

 

I.          Undergraduate Students (UHD) funded:

 

The following undergraduates have been appointed as office assistants, research assistants and/or program assistants within Outreach Programs supported within this reporting period: Mohammed Ahmed; Cesar Alvarado(H); Olga Beiza(HF); Annie Cisneros(HF); Adele Duplechain(AAF); Yassaman Ebrahimi(HF); Abdelilah Elkhadiri; Njideka Ezeka(AAF); Darshan Gad; Yash Gad; Alejandra Gandara(HF); Andrew Gaulden; Anoop George; Angela Guerra(HF); Esperanza Guerrero(HF); Juan Hernandez(H); Moses Hernande(H); William Keele; Doug King; Diana Leal(HF); Jessica Longoria(HF); Louis Malone(AA); Claudia Martinez(HF); Gwendolyn McFarland(F); Christopher McIntyre; Jose Montantes(H); Isaura Montes(HF); Bich-Thoa Nguyen(F); Mario Nieto(H); Oluwole Olugbenle(AA); Khoa Phan; Albert Pucio (PI); Ana Rocha(HF); Diana Rocha(HF); Marvelia Rocha(HF); Esther Sasu(AAF)

(H-Hispanic; AA-African American; F-female)

 

II.        Student Internships:

 

Fall 2000 Internships

  1. Ehsan Ahmed, Internship at Compaq, Houston, TX

 

Summer 2001 Internships
1. Lin Ahmad, University of Texas Health Science Center, research in Computer Science. 
2.      Arlin Cameron, UHD, research in Entomology/Parasitology.
3.      Barbara Chervenka, REU at State University of New York, Potsdam, research in Mathematics.
4.      Melanie Urdiales, NASA, Johnson Space Center Internship Program, research in Immunology. 
5.      Reginald Hence, University of Houston, Undergraduate Research Program, research in Neurobiology.
       6.     Michelle Groves, NASA, Johnson Space Center, research in Biology.
7.      Phillip Gallegos, UT Health Science Center, research in Immunology.
      8. Angela Garcia, Science Ambassador in a NASA science education outreach program at the Houston      Museum of Natural  Science.
      9.     Oluwole Olugbenle, internship with Texas Instruments.
      10.   Hilda Hinojosa and Jose DeLeon, MD Anderson Cytogenetics lab.
      11.  Janeth Sanchez and Gilbert Montoya research at Baylor's Children's Nutrition Research Center.
12.  Vedangi Sample, Daniel Brenes and Teresa Martinez, UHD, Center for Applied Polymer Science  Research.
13.   Louis Malone II started a coop at NASA JSC in January.
14.   Christopher McIntyre, Josh Keele, Moses Hernandez, and Jose Montantes, UHD, Advanced Distributed   Simulation Research Consortium (ADSRC).
15.      Claudia Martinez, Isaura Montes, Moses Hernandez, and Mario Nieto, UHD, Houston Prefreshmen       Enrichment Program (PREP).
16.      Diana Leal, UHD Ambassador Program, and Houston PREP.
17.      Henry Njiwah, BMC Software.
       18.   Paul Chukellu, Minority Pre-Med Program at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical School.

 

III.       Student Research Projects

 

Fiscal Year 2001 Research Projects

1.      The EdGrid Project– G. McFarland Vastine, A. Pucio

2.      The EdGrid Project – The Making of a Teacher – G. McFarland Vastine

3.      OpenGL Simulation – W. Keele

4.      Web Page Development for Minority Institutions Project - Y. Gad, A. George, A. Pucio

5.      Web Page Development Project for CCSDS Website – M. Ahmed, Y. Gad, A. George, M. Hernandez, W. Keele, J. Montantes, A. Pucio, M. Rocha

6.      Designing CD Promotions for Houston PREP – A. Geroge, M. Hernandez, W. Keele

7.      NSF GK-12 Fellowship Program – O. Olugbenle

8.      ChemViz II – L. Malone II, J. Montantes, O. Olugbenle

 

IV.       Student Leadership Results

 

In addition to research exposure, students are being given opportunities to excel in leadership.

–         René Garcia is working with the Office for Institutional Advancement and Development to seek corporate sponsors for next year's contests (see below).  Additional sponsorship is provided by CCSDS and CMS.

–         12th Annual Local ACM Programming Contest held April 6, 2001.  Houston, TX.

•        René García, Anoop George, Marvelia Rocha organized the event.

•        Eight teams competed, consisting of the 18 undergraduate students

–         4th Annual High School Programming Contest held April 6, 2001.  Houston, TX.

•        René García, Anoop George, and Marvelia Rocha organized the event and fundraising efforts.

•        Four local Houston high schools (12 students) competed.

–         42nd Science Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH) held March 22-24, 2001.  Houston, TX

•        René García led the volunteer efforts for this event; 10 students participated

•        ACM also served as a Special Awarding Agency of the Fair, in which, ACM judged the computer science projects in each division and awarded prizes to selected projects

–         UHD Student Leadership Conference held September 21, 2001.  Houston, TX.

•        René García and Melody Almogobar co-chaired the event.

•        ACM tied second place for its high attendance.

 

V. Student Conference Participation

–         Houston Hispanic Forum and Career Day held February 24, 2001.  Houston, TX.

•        Students recruited middle and high school students and disseminated outreach materials on behalf of the CCSDS and UHD.

•        René García led the efforts and recruited volunteers from ACM and Scholars Academy.

–         Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC); October 12-15, 2000; El Paso, TX

•        René Garcia organized a group of 14 students to attend the conference

•        The students also competed within the RISAS competition at the conference.  Three students from UHD were on the 2nd Place Winning Team; these students received scholarships from the SHPE Foundation.

•        Travel was sponsored by the Council of Organizations

–         SuperComputing 2000 Conference; November 6-10, 2000; Dallas, TX.

•        René Garcia and Maria Elizalde attended the conference

•        The students were selected to participate within the Student Volunteer Program (out of 7 students who applied from UHD).

•        Travel was sponsored by CCSDS and SuperComputing 2000

–         ACM Southwestern Regional Programming Contest; Nov. 10-11, 2000; Baton Rouge, LA.

•        The UHD teams ranked in 36th (Rene Garcia, Guang Zhao, and DeZhang Wang) and 57th (Anoop George, Jyh-fu “Don” Jeng, and John Higginbotham) places from among the 69 competing teams.

•        It is worth noting that the UHD undergraduate teams were competing on the same level as graduate students as well as students from majority universities.

•        Travel was sponsored by the Council of Organizations and CMS

 

VI.       Overview of Student Conference Participation

·        Fourteen students competed in the RISAS Competition at the 2000 HENAAC Conference in El Paso, TX (Oct. 2000). 

·        Two students (one presented a project demonstration) were accepted into the Student Volunteer Program at the SuperComputing 2000 Conference in Dallas (Nov. 2000). 

·        Fifteen students recruited youth at the Houston Hispanic Forum Education and Career Day in Houston (Feb. 2001). 

·        Eleven students attended (three presented) at the LSAMP Retreat in San Marcos, TX (July 2001). 

·        Eight students attended the ACM SIGGRAPH Conference in Los Angeles, CA (Aug. 2001).

 


 

 

VII.     PreCollege Outreach

The following programs have been developed to attract more students.  In addition to programs being developed, several experiments were conducted to help in retention.

 

•     Houston PREP program for middle and high school students continued in the summer of 2001 as its 13th year.  It offers seven weeks of classes for students in grades 7 through 11, particularly those from under-represented populations, in problem-solving, logic, biology, computer science, engineering, physics, probability, statistics, science and technical writing.  275 students attended Summer 2001.  Also, this was the fifth year that a Fourth Year Program was added to the program with funds from the NASA and U.S. Army Research Office.  Included in this program was a new curriculum in the Performing Arts sponsored by the Sandra Organ Dance Company.  The program also hosted its 4th Annual Engineering Fair and its 1st Annual NASA Day.

 

•     Saturday PREP (now Computational Sciences Academy) for 7-10 grade students has been reinstated in 1997 through funds from the National Computation Science Alliance (NCSA). 58 students attended FY98; 65 students in FY99; and 80 students in FY00 and FY01.  The FY02 program is supporting 85 students.  Material for this program, which initially began in 1993, was developed through funds from NASA.  Problem solving and conceptualization are key elements of this program.

 

•     Parental Involvement in Saturday Academy.  While their children are attending Saturday Academy, interested parents are being introduced to computer literacy including e-mail; designing and managing webpages, spreadsheets and databases; learning word processing; and exploring web-based lessons.  This opportunity provides a background for parents to participate more fully in their children’s education, which will further encourage their children to pursue more advanced studies.  Curriculum also includes utilizing the PLATO laboratory, a computer-based learning lab that provides interactive and individualized instruction in a broad range of subjects in math, reading, writing, science, social studies, life skills and applied skills for the workplace.  Helen Burger, Headmistress of the Houston Preparatory Academy, coordinates the parent workshops and college students will serve as mentors to the parents.  Our objective is to assure that students meet the goals of the program, graduate from college and enter the workforce with technical, critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and leadership skills.   

 

•     A Computer Science Academy has been established for talented upper level high school students.  This Academy, which began operations in Spring of 1996, consists of classes in beginning C++, HTML, Java, and Pre-calculus to be offered to selected high school juniors and seniors allowing students to begin college with CSI and Calculus.  15 students attended in FY98; 42 students attended in FY99; 70 students attended in FY00; and 60 students attended the FY01 CS Academy.  The FY02 program is supporting 21 students.

 

•     Through funds from our NASA grant, we undertook teacher-training sessions. Teachers from the academies participated in these sessions, which enhanced their teaching skills in the academies and in their normal teaching assignments.  Material from these sessions was also used within our Houston PREP Program this past summer. Teacher training was conducted using materials from previous training's for the 2001 Houston PREP instructors and program assistants (Houston, TX.  June 4-8, 2001).  Teacher training workshops were also undertaken, in collaboration with HISD, for high school teachers at UHD (July 23-27, 2001).  With the lead of CCSDS faculty members, local high school teachers attended Alliance Chautauqua 2000 (August 1-3, 2000. Lawrence, KS) and SuperComputing 2000 (November 4-10, 2000. Dallas, TX).

 

•     College Algebra also has "reform" sections, which use interactive texts authored by three resident faculty and has been taught in an NSF-funded computer lab or in a graphing calculator mode for several semesters.  The "reform" sections performed at a 41% pass rate as opposed to a 31% lecture pass rate.  The reformed version has been in operation for three semesters and had experienced refinements in delivery which the experimental remedial sections have yet to make.

 

•     The Center’s Learning Center has been made available for use by majors in CS as an Open Lab for classroom assignments.   The Center provides free tutoring for CS and upper-level Math students within the Learning Center.  The Learning Center consists of 10 Pentium machines networked to the same existing software used in the classrooms for CS and upper-level Math.

 

•     Sangeeta Gad is now working on a 12-month contract with 50% of her time as Director for Recruitment and Retention.

 

•     Theophilus Berry is now working full-time Recruiter for CCSDS’s Outreach Programs reporting to the Director of Recruitment and Retention.

 

•     Phyllis Griffard was appointed as the Scholars Academy Program Coordinator and Evaluator.

 

•     Frankie Solomon was appointed as Leader of the Collaborative Learning Community for the Houston AMP Grant.

 

•     Mitsue Nakamura was appointed as a Mentor of the Collaborative Learning Community for the Houston AMP Grant.

 

•     A course was created in order to allow selected students to complete pre-calculus material in fewer semesters by combining two sequential course Trigonometry and Pre-Calculus.  One section has been offered each semester since 1997.

 

•     In an effort to introduce intervention efforts into a dismal pass rate record for pre-algebra courses, experimental sections are continually introduced into remedial courses in arithmetic and elementary algebra and others were introduced into a remedial course in college algebra.  Sections integrated into the traditional lecture mode 15 hours of selected PLATO (remedial software from TRO) modules.  Another type employed a problem-solving approach and study/support/in-class work groups of one to four students.  This is still under review.

 

•     Advising:  We instituted an advising program to contact undeclared majors.  A CMS Pre-Major Advocate will mentor and provide guidance in selecting courses for potential CMS majors.  Selected CMS students serve as student mentors to help pre-majors overcome any difficulties in their course work.

 

•     Tours:  In addition, we conducted tours of the Center and UHD in FY00 for area high schools to recruit for majors.  Each school sent between 30 and 40 students who were accompanied by teachers and/or counselors.  These activities will continue throughout this academic year.

 

 

VIII.    Faculty Participants

 

Richard A. Aló – PI, Research Member, (Supported 15 months during 10/1/00 - 12/31/01)

Mohsen Beheshti, Ali Berrached, Andre de Korvin, Chenyi Hu, and Ongard Siriseangtaksin – Research Members, (Supported 12 months each during academic semesters 10/1/00 - 12/31/01)

Mohsen Beheshti, Ali Berrached, Andre de Korvin – Research Members, (Supported total of 4.5 months during summer 6/1/01 - 8/31/01)

Mitsue Nakamura - Mentor, Collaborative Learning Community; Faculty Tutor (Upper-level Math) (Supported 10 months during 10/1/00 - 12/31/01)

Eric Wildman - Faculty Tutor (Upper-level Math) (Supported 7 months during 10/1/00 - 4/30/01)

 

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