More Like this

1. Uvvatuq Naluallangniaqtugut (I Humbly Hope We Run Into Game): An Iñupiaq Research Process

   Topkok, Sear Asiqluq; Loon, Hannah Paniyavluk (April 2021, The Morning watch)

   null (Ed.)

   Uvvatuq naluallangniaqtugut (I humbly hope we run into game) is a phrase an Iñupiaq person would say before going out hunting in the Selawik dialect. We believe all things have a spirit, including animals. If a hunter announces they are going out hunting, the animal spirits will hear that and the hunter may have bad luck. Another phrase said in English is “I am going out for a ride.” The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation. The name of the project is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): Teaching in Rural Areas using Cultural Knowledge Systems (TRACKS). The UAF team, known as the UAF Development Team, is working with the Northwest Arctic Borough School District to develop STEM lessons utilizing Iñupiaq knowledge systems and university research for middle school-age students in three villages. The UAF participating programs humbly reached out to local community members to establish a TRACKS Team. However, the UAF participating programs wanted the TRACKS Team to identify what is important to teach their children. The community were the ones to identify the research topic, utilizing an analogy Uvvatuq naluallangniaqtugut (I humbly hope we run into game) for an Iñupiaq research process. 

   more » « less
2. PRECIP: SEA-POL Radar Data. Version 1.0

   https://doi.org/10.26023/YD8Q-QYW9-AY0Z  

   Bell, M; DeHart, J; Dolan, B; George, J; Junyent, F; Chandrasekar, V (January 2023, UCAR/NCAR - Earth Observing Laboratory)

   Data from the Colorado State University (CSU) Sea-Going Polarimetric (SEA-POL) radar that was deployed on Yonaguni (a Japanese island to the east of Taiwan) for the PRECIP (Prediction of Rainfall Extremes Campaign in the Pacific) campaign from June to August 2022. SEA-POL is a deployable C-band dual-polarization radar that conducted RHI and surveillance scans on 12-minute cycles. 

   more » « less
3. Survival Analysis based Framework for Early Prediction of Student Dropouts

   https://doi.org/10.1145/2983323.2983351  

   Ameri, Sattar; Fard, Mahtab J.; Chinnam, Ratna B.; Reddy, Chandan K. (January 2016, Proceedings of the 25th ACM International on Conference on Information and Knowledge Management)

   Retention of students at colleges and universities has been a concern among educators for many decades. The consequences of student attrition are significant for students, academic staffs and the universities. Thus, increasing student retention is a long term goal of any academic institution. The most vulnerable students are the freshman, who are at the highest risk of dropping out at the beginning of their study. Therefore, the early identification of "at-risk'' students is a crucial task that needs to be effectively addressed. In this paper, we develop a survival analysis framework for early prediction of student dropout using Cox proportional hazards regression model (Cox). We also applied time-dependent Cox (TD-Cox), which captures time-varying factors and can leverage those information to provide more accurate prediction of student dropout. For this prediction task, our model utilizes different groups of variables such as demographic, family background, financial, high school information, college enrollment and semester-wise credits. The proposed framework has the ability to address the challenge of predicting dropout students as well as the semester that the dropout will occur. This study enables us to perform proactive interventions in a prioritized manner where limited academic resources are available. This is critical in the student retention problem because not only correctly classifying whether a student is going to dropout is important but also when this is going to happen is crucial for a focused intervention. We evaluate our method on real student data collected at Wayne State University. Results show that the proposed Cox-based framework can predict the student dropouts and semester of dropout with high accuracy and precision compared to the other state-of-the-art methods. 

   more » « less
4. Curriculum improvements in power engineering

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2001.963931  

   O'Neill-Carrillo, E.; Irizarry-Rivera, A.; Velez-Reyes, M. (October 2001, 31st Annual Frontiers in Education Conference. Impact on Engineering and Science Education)

   null (Ed.)

   The Power Engineering Group at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPRM) has implemented several strategies to improve its curriculum and meet new ABET accreditation criteria. Strategies include the revision of course contents, integration of laboratory practices to courses, and a more prominent role of undergraduate research and power electronics in the power engineering curriculum. Courses are being updated to include contemporary topics while keeping fundamental engineering principles. A recent grant by NSF will support on-going efforts to create laboratory practices that would connect the teaching of theoretical principles to actual implementations. Participation in the Center for Power Electronics Systems, a NSF Engineering Research Center, has given UPRM the opportunity to expand course offerings and undergraduate research in power engineering. An important outcome of this curriculum improvement is to motivate students to take an active role in the learning process. 

   more » « less
5. Computer Science Cohorts in New Student Orientation to Promote Departmental Identification, High Impact Practices

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3653666.3656079  

   Hug, Sarah; Nicolas, Suzie; Morreale, Patricia; Diplan, Nohelia (May 2024, RESPECT 2024: Conference for Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology)

   Sufficiently serving computer science students at minority-serving institutions entails systematic communication of the "hidden curriculum"- the unwritten rules and tacit norms of traversing a disciplinary academic space- knowledge that students might learn from those with college-going backgrounds. At Kean University, department-run new student orientation has become a mechanism for integrating new students into the institution and the computer science department's community. The course addressed what Kezar and Holcombe call "Elements of STEM student success," or the needs of students at the intersection of first-generation familial experiences and STEM student college newcomers. In this work-in-progress experience report, we use data from retrospective pre-post surveys to show that student participants in the orientation indicate greater intent to engage in high-impact practices, greater confidence in their major choice, and strong identification with their STEM discipline. The authors discuss how systemic, department-level orientation processes at institutions that serve underrepresented student populations can impart academic and career path blueprints that move beyond institutional retention and improve equitable advancements in computing. 

   more » « less