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This S-STEM project addresses the national need for a well-educated engineering and computing workforce by supporting the retention and graduation of low-income students with demonstrated financial need and strong academic potential. The project focuses on creating pathways that allow students to progress from an associate's and bachelor's degree (at the regional campus) in technology to a bachelor's and possibly even a master's degree in engineering and computing at the main campus. This has been achieved by creating curricular pathways and providing infrastructure and support to encourage higher degree attainment by participating students while reducing graduation time. Over six years, this project aims to provide scholarships to 132 full-time students pursuing Associate, Bachelor's, and Master's degrees in Engineering, Computer Science, and related fields. So far, through this project, three cohorts of students have been recruited through a holistic review process, with recruitment strategies involving high school visits, outreach events, and collaborations with community colleges. As of Fall 2024, 45 students have been funded, with $256,125 in scholarships awarded. The diverse body of S-STEM scholars includes ~27% female, 11% African American/Black, 11% Asian, and ~7% Hispanic students. So far, ten students have graduated with a bachelor's degree who started with an associate's degree, and one student who started with an associate degree has completed a master's program. This supporting paper associated with the poster highlights the various aspects of this project, including recruitment strategies, curricular pathway development, cohort building, etc. We anticipate that this project will generate data on recruiting and retaining low-income, academically talented students, with findings related to fostering community and identity among scholarship recipients through mentoring and peer support, promoting excellent retention and workforce development. 

Abstract The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will be a transformative experiment for gravitational wave astronomy, and, as such, it will offer unique opportunities to address many key astrophysical questions in a completely novel way. The synergy with ground-based and space-born instruments in the electromagnetic domain, by enabling multi-messenger observations, will add further to the discovery potential of LISA. The next decade is crucial to prepare the astrophysical community for LISA’s first observations. This review outlines the extensive landscape of astrophysical theory, numerical simulations, and astronomical observations that are instrumental for modeling and interpreting the upcoming LISA datastream. To this aim, the current knowledge in three main source classes for LISA is reviewed; ultra-compact stellar-mass binaries, massive black hole binaries, and extreme or interme-diate mass ratio inspirals. The relevant astrophysical processes and the established modeling techniques are summarized. Likewise, open issues and gaps in our understanding of these sources are highlighted, along with an indication of how LISA could help making progress in the different areas. New research avenues that LISA itself, or its joint exploitation with upcoming studies in the electromagnetic domain, will enable, are also illustrated. Improvements in modeling and analysis approaches, such as the combination of numerical simulations and modern data science techniques, are discussed. This review is intended to be a starting point for using LISA as a new discovery tool for understanding our Universe.