Serving With Engineering Skills Within 15 Miles Of Campus: The Scholars Of Excellence In Engineering And Computer Science Program

The Scholars of Excellence in Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS) program initiated its first cohort of 20 students in fall 2009. Funded for two, five-year awards through a National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM grant, the interdisciplinary, multi-year, mixed academic-level program offers scholarships to students based on academic merit and financial need. The goals of the scholarship program are (1) to increase the number of academically talented, but financially disadvantaged students in the stated majors, (2) to assist students to be successful in their undergraduate education, and (3) to foster professional development for careers or graduate education.A hallmark principle behind these goals is to build a broad scope of engineering and professional skills which include interpersonal communication, client-focus, and community service, knowing technical skills are readily developed in the students' academic courses. The SEECS program is delivered through the activities of a zero-credit seminar. The SEECS seminar encompasses three components: engineering design, professional development, and personal development. Through the engineering design component, the mechanism for realizing the hallmark principle is achieved.An engineering need of a non-profit community partner is identified, becoming the design project for the next two years for each new freshman class. The students become engaged in a long-term relationship with the non-profit community partner. The project provides a platform for exercising technical engineering skills and practices. The relationship, the organization, the contact people, the served audience provide a human culture with which the students become entwined. Consequently, the client-focus attitude of business is fostered in the engineering and computer science students.Unlike typical engineering semester-long projects - or even year-long capstone projects, the incremental pace over two years allows students to mature in their understanding of themselves, of the project, and of the community they serve. Through the two years, the students use more and various types of interpersonal communications than in a semester-long project. Further, the students do not view the client and his/her needs as a convenience for their education. The students become invested in the goals of the non-profit since the project's understanding and conclusion become a shared focus between them.In the following paper, the techniques and steps used to identify projects, build relationships, and align the students with a community need are described. To illustrate these points, aspects of the SEECS program and its community projects are presented. Finally, an innovative model for a project-based, honors-option for academically-talented students in SEECS majors based upon the practices used in the SEECS program is proposed.