A team from the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences at Marshall University was awarded a $990,550 scholarship grant in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Aug. 7.
The grant provides $7,500 per year for 20 academically talented, financially disadvantaged students, to cover financial need and help them develop technical and professional skills through real-world project experiences under faculty mentorship. Most of the recipients are women, and the funding supports a project-based work studio to provide undergraduate female students with real-world projects in the studio environment and professional development to achieve success in their careers.
“I am pleased with this grant award, which will allow Marshall to financially support students, primarily women, in STEM fields,” said Dr. Wook-Sung Yoo, chair of Department of Computer Sciences and Electrical Engineering and the principal investigator (PI) of this grant. “We hope this scholarship will help to motivate women to pursue a STEM field at Marshall University. This grant will also provide academic support in the form of mentoring and hands-on experience to prepare graduates for successful careers in STEM.”
The college has put an emphasis on encouraging more high school students from the region to study STEM fields at Marshall and this grant will hopefully help attract many talented students to join the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences programs, said Dr. Wael Zatar of the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences. Zatar added that Yoo and team worked extremely hard to pursue the grant to acquire federal funding that would make it affordable for students to join the computer science programs at Marshall University.
The co-PIs (co-principal investigators) on the grant were Marshall faculty Dr. Sarah Surber, Dr. Tina Cartwright, Dr. David Dampier and Dr. Paulus Wahjudi.
The grant will support the project for five years starting from fall 2021. The candidates must meet the following eligibility requirements for scholarships:
- Be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident of the U.S.;
- Demonstrate financial need through submission of FAFSA and the College Scholarship Service (CSS) PROFILE;
- Intend to enroll as a full-time student majoring in one of the programs in the CECS at Marshall University; and
- Show academic potential.
For more information on the grant and the program, please contact Yoo by e-mail at yoow@marshall.edu.