The Minority Engineering Advancement Program IUPUI

Transcription

1 The Minority Engineering Advancement Program IUPUI Patrick Gee Lecturer of Freshman Engineering, MEAP Director The Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) supports and operates the Minority Engineering Advancement Program (MEAP), a pre-college outreach to Indianapolis underrepresented students. MEAP is a weeklong non-residential summer camp at IUPUI where students interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are exposed to engineering and technology. Teachers and counselors from local middle schools and high schools complete a recommendation form for each student they feel would benefit from the program. The program exposes underrepresented students to STEM educational and career components. The pre-college MEAP participants take part in three major components: on campus lectures facilitated by faculty; hands on activities that become competitions facilitated by University staff and students; and off-campus industry tours. The industry tours expose students to engineering and technology disciplines in the real world through interaction with role models such as engineers and technologists. MEAP allows the University and the School to reach out to precollege underrepresented students in a camp-like setting while also creating an enriching experience for IUPUI undergraduate students by allowing them to facilitate sessions. MEAP allows the University and the School to collaborate with industry partners to create a positive working relationship with alumni that benefits all participants, (former students, current students, as well as the pre-college participants), while exposing them to IUPUI s Development and External Relations group. Purdue School of Engineering & Technology The Purdue School of Engineering and Technology (PSET) is one of two Purdue Schools on the IUPUI campus located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The two Purdue Schools combined with the 16 Indiana University Schools make the urban public research university known as IUPUI. PSET has both Engineering and Technology degrees including Biomedical, Computer, Electrical, Energy, Mechanical, and Motorsports Engineering. The Technology side includes Computer Engineering Technology, Computer Graphics Technology, Computer and Information Technology, Construction Engineering Management Technology, Electrical Engineering

2 Technology, Healthcare Engineering Technology Management, Interior Design Technology, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Music and Arts Technology, Organization Leadership and Supervision, and Technical Communication. Background The Minority Engineering Advancement Program (MEAP) was established in 1976 and has existed in many forms since that time on the IUPUI campus. MEAP was created in response to the small number of minorities in the engineering and technology professions during the 1970 s. Since its inception, MEAP s goal has been to enhance the recruitment and retention of minority students at the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology (PSET) at IUPUI. This goal is accomplished each summer with the recruitment of 6 th grade through high school level, underrepresented students from local area public & charter schools, township schools, and private schools. The non-residential, daytime summer camp exposes these students to engineering and technology disciplines by allowing them to take part in university activities on the IUPUI campus, as well as industry experiences at local area companies. Each summer MEAP has assisted and encouraged the recruitment of primarily African American, females, and Hispanic students into the University environment and into STEM fields by exposing them to Engineering and Technology in many forms. The University and School have engaged underrepresented engineering and technology students enrolled in PSET at IUPUI by hiring them as facilitators for the pre-college students during their campus activities, industrial tours, and their hands-on projects. These activities encompass the retention efforts of the School. MEAP has assisted with the external relations and development efforts of the School by enlisting various industry partners to participate with the program, interacting with both underrepresented pre-college and college students. Embedded in all of these interactions is the presence of the diverse alumni of the University and the School. MEAP requests that these Engineering and Technology alumni work with the students on their projects and companies choose these alumni to participate in the industry sessions. This structure of mentoring and role models of underrepresented student participants to underrepresented engineering and technology student staff to diverse industry partners creates a win-win for the University and for the School. Introduction MEAP exposes local Indianapolis underrepresented pre-college students to Engineering and Technology fields by providing activities and by grouping the students in three 1 week sessions. The grade school students that completed the 6 th and completed the 7 th grade and that are new to the program into a one week session. Middle school students that completed the 7 th grade and are returning to the program and students that completed the 8 th grade that are new to the program, or returning to the program, are grouped into a week of activities. All high school students are placed into their own week of activities. The three components of activities consist of on campus lectures, talks or demonstrations facilitated by faculty and staff, hands-on projects and activities where students work in teams

3 competing for best project, and an off-campus industry tour component where students travel by bus to engineering and technology companies and interact with engineering and technology role models while learning about the company and its products. Recruitment: Participants and Staff MEAP recruits underrepresented students from local area schools including Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS), many newly created Charter Schools, Township Schools, and Private Schools. Schools are contacted by MEAP and a math or science teacher is asked to recommend a student to the program. School counselors are contacted as well and asked to recommend a student to the program. As parents and students are asked to submit the application along with the students grades, word of mouth causes other teachers, counselors, and families to repeat the process. MEAP participants may be 6 th grade students all the way up to 12 th grade students. MEAP encourages the students to participate each summer from completion of 6 th grade to the summer of the 11 th grade year. A past example of a typical PSET college student staff included 3 Mechanical Engineering male students, 1 Energy Engineering male student, 1 female Computer and Information Technology student. To assist with communication and marketing of the program, additional staff included 1 female business student and 1 female journalism student. The students endeavors were assisted by professional staff from the school. Campus Lectures Combustion The MEAP middle school participants were given a session in the PSET Combustion Laboratory. The research laboratory utilizes graduate students working on highly specialized equipment that simulates Internal Combustion Wave Rotor usage in a laboratory environment. The Wave Rotor allows for energy exchange within fluids of differing densities by utilizing unsteady wave motion. This area of study is critical to efficiencies needed in Gas Turbine Engines. The graduate students researching this complicated process work with the MEAP facilitators to come up with simplified concepts that are fun and allow for audience participation during the session. The session fulfills some components of National Science Foundation funding that incorporates K-12 outreach for the Combustion Laboratory. During this session, presented by primarily international graduate students, they chose to recruit an underrepresented, junior level, Atlanta University Dual Degree student attending PSET to be part of their presentation team and provide additional diversity to the participants. The presentation consisted of a PowerPoint question and answer session about jet engines, lift, drag, aeronautics, and aviation. Additional presentations related to combustion prepared the students for a laboratory session discussing flames and fire on an oxygen and electron level. In the laboratory session, high speed cameras and mirrors that are normally used for capturing images of high tech profiles took pictures of the participant s body heat or the profile of their breath blowing out a flame.

4 Industry Tours The MEAP grade school students participated in three industrial tour experiences. The grade school students that completed the 6 th grade and 7 th grade are the feeder group into the program so all aspects of the program are new for them. They are new to the program and they have parents, or guardians, that are, perhaps, more excited about the program than the student. The tour sessions were held at United Technologies Carrier, Roche Diagnostic, and Milestone Contractors. These three companies have chosen to support the program at this feeder level of students and play a role in the students first time MEAP experience each in a unique way. Some industry partners work with the program every other year to give a balance and alternation to liaisons, tour guides, and program content. Carrier, a United Technologies Company, is a leader across the globe in heating and airconditioning, residential and commercial, as well as refrigeration of all types. This world class company has a strong manufacturing and research presence in Indianapolis. Through years of collaboration, and a strong working relationship between PSET, MEAP, and Carrier, approval is granted to take MEAP participants and college student facilitators into the facility, summer after summer. Students tour both the manufacturing floor, which is a special case for groups this young, and the research laboratories that include chambers capable of extreme temperature differences from creating snow, to blazing temperatures for testing the heating and air conditioning units. Carrier sponsors a scholarship with PSET at IUPUI that allows for multicultural students in good standing with the school to receive funding towards tuition and participate in an internship. The 2-4 students that receive the scholarship each academic year participate in the session acting as peer role models, in addition to the many PSET alumni role models that assist. If the underrepresented students had a question of viability of attending PSET or making it to a large Corporation such as Carrier, any doubts would be clarified by seeing the diverse makeup of the role models on the Carrier industrial tour. Roche Diagnostic is a world leader in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche and its researchoriented healthcare products and services address the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases to enhance the quality of life. Milestone Contactors is a state of Indiana general contractor providing highway, heavy construction, and site-development services. Both Roche Diagnostic and Milestone Contractors gave the MEAP participants an educational experience similar to the experience they received from United Technologies Carrier, only, with a focus on their respective industry and business endeavors during their industry tours. Hands on Projects Rube Goldberg Style Competition The grade school students in MEAP have a particular project that is used for the feeder group into the program, a Rube Goldberg Style Competition. The Rube Goldberg project is in addition to the industry tours and an additional session that involve computer hardware, computer software, and reflective writing sessions. The 6 th and 7 th grade students are placed into groups taking into account gender, school, and grade, to ensure that the participants meet and work with

5 new faces during the camp. With this format of 4-5 groups, two diverse undergraduate college students are assigned to assist a group during the daily work on the project. The Rube Goldberg Project requires students to use simple machines such as inclined planes or pulleys to accomplish the goal of launching a paper airplane with 6 steps of engineering. The MEAP participants industry sessions play a role in educating the student groups about working in teams, such as the team manufacturing cell concept at Roche Diagnostic or the team concept that is discussed as Roche attempts to get a new product to market or fulfill a product request. The students work with small hand tools for their project is enhanced by the industry tour of Milestone Contractors and the company s use of large scale tools and equipment. The overview on cost estimating of Milestone construction jobs encourages the students to think about a budget for the supplies they will use in their Rube Goldberg Project. The college students assist the participants in making a report of their ideas, as well as construction of their physical project. After 4 days of participants hammering, drilling, gluing and constructing, and college students sawing for the students, the competition is held after lunch on the last day. The competition is held in a lobby where school faculty and staff may attend. New student orientation groups passing by are able to see the students work as well. It is optional for parents to come, but many parents take off of work that afternoon to see their child s project. With the competition comes judging. MEAP contacts alumni of PSET, as well as alumni of MEAP, and industry partners who did not play another role in the program, to come to the school to view the students projects and judge the competition. Lunch is provided for the judges that accept the invitation, and this provides an opportunity for the diverse college student staff to have lunch with, and interact with, diverse alumni from industry who are former students of the School and/or MEAP. Also the PSET Office of Development and External Relations participates in the lunch, greeting and making the guests of the school aware of other collaborations between the School, students, alumni, and industries. An example of alumni involved with a session of the program included a PSET and MEAP Industrial Engineering Technology alumna from Faurecia; a PSET Electrical Engineering alumnus from Horton, Inc.; a PSET Computer Engineering alumnus from Centric Consulting; a retired manager from Delphi; and a Lieutenant from the United States Navy. Conclusion The goals of MEAP is to show underrepresented students STEM-related career opportunities, to give them hands-on projects, campus related classroom and laboratory experiences, and to provide positive role models in the STEM field from industry to serve as mentors, instructors, and counselors. MEAP includes a focus on computer instruction in the areas of hardware and software. The combination of exposing underrepresented pre-college students to diverse college students, industry partners, and university faculty and staff promotes a win-win situation for both the School and University. The MEAP program plants a seed of technical knowledge in the minds of the grade school through middle school students from the Indianapolis area. PSET and IUPUI hopes these seeds bloom into high school students that choose STEM-related majors at universities and at IUPUI specifically. Involving alumni of PSET, and of MEAP, with the

6 program enhances relationships between the University, School, and Community, through MEAP. References: 1. Smith, C. (2014, April). African Americans in Engineering. Retrieved from 2. Committee on Underrepresented Groups and the Expansion of the Science and Engineering Workforce Pipeline. (2011). Retrieved from Patrick Gee is the Director of the Minority Engineering Advancement Program (MEAP) a K-12 outreach program from the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He is also a Lecturer of Freshman Engineering. He is trained in Mechanical Engineering (MSME, Purdue University Indianapolis). After working in Industry for General Motors, he decided that he could help make young engineers at the University instead of helping to make assembly line parts. His industry relations and exposure has allowed a long standing outreach program, MEAP, to further grow, connecting the University, Industry and community. Grade school, middle school and high school students interested in STEM education are exposed to experiential learning in Engineering and Technology helping to fulfill Patrick s passion and goals for STEM advancement.