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This empirical research full paper describes a project aimed at increasing graduation rates among low-income, academically talented engineering students by implementing first-year student initiatives. The project, supported by an NSF-SSTEM (National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) grant at a Northeastern US institution, is in its second year of a four-year plan. Grounded in Tinto’s conceptual model of student motivation and persistence, the project emphasizes early interventions, which are critical for low-income students facing external challenges that may impact their decision to stay in college or enter the workforce. We developed and integrated the SSTEM project aiming to increase four key elements, which based on Tinto will also increase persistence. The SSTEM project includes scholarships, an Engineering Learning Community (ELC) that promotes cohort-based learning and living, mentorship, and participation in personal and professional development seminars. Additionally, inclusive practices have been integrated into first-year engineering lab courses to improve curriculum accessibility. This paper evaluates the validity of an instrument designed to assess the project's impact on students’ college experiences and persistence. It builds on prior exploratory factor analysis (EFA) research by presenting confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) findings to further validate the instrument. 

Engineering graduates have significant opportunities for meaningful careers and social mobility, yet there needs to be more support for financially disadvantaged, academically gifted students. To improve these circumstances, we have introduced the Engineering Persistence project, an NSF-funded S-STEM scholarship program, at Rowan University. This project provides a group of students, selected by financial need and academic talent, with scholarships up to 10,000 USD per year, depending on financial need. In addition to these scholarships, we integrated a support system that includes interventions to support first-year engineering students’ social and professional growth in their degree plans. We include in this paper the data collection and analysis process for the first year of this project, including the administration of the pre-survey, and the exploratory factor analysis conducted on the resulting data. This work in progress research paper aims to validate an instrument to assess the impact of an integrated support system on students’ persistence in Rowan’s engineering students. 

There is substantial opportunity for engineering graduates to enter the workforce to engage in a fulfilling career and achieve social mobility, but there is a lack of adequate support for low income, academically talented students. The purpose of this poster is to describe the interventions designed to support S-STEM scholarship students at [blinded for review] University in the first year of our S-STEM project. Our S-STEM project objectives are threefold: 1) Provide scholarships to encourage talented students with low incomes and demonstrated financial need to initiate and graduate from engineering majors in the College of Engineering at [blinded] University and subsequently enter the engineering workforce or a graduate program; 2) Develop a support system that integrates multiple elements and services to foster a learning environment that motivates scholarship students to persist in their engineering studies; and 3) Foster an inclusive learning environment by engaging all engineering students in diversity, equity, and inclusion experiences and nurturing an equity mindset in student leaders through participation in training programs. To accomplish these goals, we identified 10 low-income, academically talented students to receive scholarships. We also identified 80 additional engineering students who wished to participate in the Engineering Living/Learning Community (ELC). The scholarships students and other interested students were placed in the ELC starting in Fall 2023, where they are experiencing first year engineering as a cohort. This cohort experience includes required seminars, required attendance of Engineering I and Calculus I in a designated section, and the option of living in a shared dorm to facilitate further collaboration. Seminars that are part of the ELC are focused on adjusting to college life (e.g., time management, course registration, resume design) and diversity, equity, and inclusion subjects, including upstander training and coping with imposter syndrome. Scholarship students are also being encouraged to engage in leadership training offered through the University. This leadership training also focuses on DEI topics, and encourages students to be informed advocates. Finally, this project is assessed by an external evaluator to determine the project’s impact on students’ motivation, sense of belonging, and their equity mindset. Evaluation data involve pre- and post-surveys of all first-year engineering students, and focus groups of project leaders, ELC mentors, scholarship students, and other engineering students. 

In this Research Full Paper we explore the factors that traditionally minoritized students consider when selecting a graduate school to pursue a doctoral degree in an engineering discipline. To this end, we used case study methods to analyze the experiences of ten traditionally minoritized students through interviews conducted immediately after they had selected their graduate programs, but before they had commenced their studies. Our findings show that in choosing an institution, the most salient ideals these students hold are related to the offer of funding towards their degree and an alignment with their initial research interests. However, they described having made compromises on ideals related to their personal experience and racial identity, the most prominent being finding a faculty mentor with a similar racial background, finding a racially diverse institution, or being located in a geographical location they perceived to be more amenable to their individual identities. These findings suggest that continuing to increase the recruitment of traditionally minoritized faculty in engineering schools would have a direct impact on minoritized student recruitment, by thus helping to create spaces where more of their racial identity ideals are met and fewer compromises are made. Equally important to the recruitment of traditionally minoritized students is the transparency of funding opportunities during the recruitment and application processes, and the publication of current research opportunities within the institution. 

As international efforts to mitigate greenhouse gases continue to fall short of global targets, the scientific community increasingly debates the role of solar geoengineering in climate policy. Given the infancy of these technologies, the debate is not yet whether to deploy solar geoengineering but whether solar geoengineering deserves consideration and research funding. Looming large over this discussion is the moral hazard conjecture – normalizing solar geoengineering will decrease mitigation efforts. Using a controlled experiment of a collective-risk social dilemma that simulates the strategic decisions of heterogeneous groups to mitigate emissions and deploy solar geoengineering, we find no evidence for the moral hazard conjecture. On the contrary, when people in the experiment are given the option to deploy solar geoengineering, average investment in mitigation increases. 

Several studies have shown that underrepresented minorities (URM) (African Americans, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Latinos) are more likely to drop out of engineering doctorate programs before graduation compared to international and majority students. In addition, transitioning into the doctoral programs without having a good understanding of what it entails can make the PhD experience difficult. To address this issue, a team of researchers from four US universities developed a project called “the Rising Doctoral Institute (RDI)’’. One of the research goals of this project is to better understand how factors in the academic system interact dynamically to influence (i.e., support or hinder) incoming URM students’ access, success, persistence, and retention in engineering doctoral programs. To accomplish this goal, we will use a comprehensive analysis approach known as System Dynamic Model (SDM). This work-In-Progress article represents the starting point to develop this model and its overall goal is to conduct a systematic literature review to identify the factors in the academic system that impact URM students’ experience in doctoral engineering programs. We followed a process suggested by Okoli and Schabram [1] which consists of four major steps. The first step is presenting the purpose of the literature review, protocol, and training. The second step consists of selecting the literature and practical screen. The next step is the quality appraisal and data extraction. Finally, the analysis of findings and writing the review. By identifying the factors and the relation between them, we could help ensure a more diverse and equitable STEM education. Although some external factors can affect students’ access, success, persistence and retention in engineering PhD programs, this study is limited to exploring the factors and interactions within the academic system that can potentially impact the successful experience of underrepresented minorities in PhD programs in engineering such as Advisor-Advisee Relationship, Student’s Experience, Academic Support and Faculty-Students Interaction 

The title compound, C 7 H 3 F 5 INS, a pentafluorosulfanyl (SF 5 ) containing arene, was synthesized from 4-(pentafluorosulfanyl)benzonitrile and lithium tetramethylpiperidide following a variation to the standard approach, which features simple and mild conditions that allow direct access to tri-substituted SF 5 intermediates that have not been demonstrated using previous methods. The molecule displays a planar geometry with the benzene ring in the same plane as its three substituents. It lies on a mirror plane perpendicular to [010] with the iodo, cyano, and the sulfur and axial fluorine atoms of the pentafluorosulfanyl substituent in the plane of the molecule. The equatorial F atoms have symmetry-related counterparts generated by the mirror plane. The pentafluorosulfanyl group exhibits a staggered fashion relative to the ring and the two hydrogen atoms ortho to the substituent. S—F bond lengths of the pentafluorosulfanyl group are unequal: the equatorial bond facing the iodo moiety has a longer distance [1.572 (3) Å] and wider angle compared to that facing the side of the molecules with two hydrogen atoms [1.561 (4) Å]. As expected, the axial S—F bond is the longest [1.582 (5) Å]. In the crystal, in-plane C—H...F and N...I interactions as well as out-of-plane F...C interactions are observed. According to the Hirshfeld analysis, the principal intermolecular contacts for the title compound are F...H (29.4%), F...I (15.8%), F...N (11.4%), F...F (6.0%), N...I (5.6%) and F...C (4.5%).