Implementation Project: Trojan Center for Emerging Engineering Research

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities - Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) provides support to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs. This Implementation Project will work to establish the Trojan Center for Emerging Engineering Research (T-CEER) at Virginia State University. This center is designed to prepare undergraduate students’ readiness for Engineering-Computer Science (ENG-CS) workforce.

The project goal is to address the competency gaps existing in the skills for ENG-CS graduates to the essential expectation of their employers. In addition to the specific training and preparation provided to participants, the project seeks to narrow the underrepresentation gap of African Americans in the ENG-CS workforce, therefore reflecting the larger equity challenge that the Nation faces.

The project aims to complete the following objectives: 1) To enhance the graduation rate of VSU ENG-CS students from (63.2%) (the average of last 5-years) to the average of (100%) for the next 5-years; 2) To enhance ENG-CS graduates’ competency in the eight (8) areas identified by National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) for job readiness; and 3) To enhance ENG-CS graduates’ technical competitiveness by realigning our curricula with the emergent technologies. To achieve these objectives, the research team will develop new courses in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Quantum Computing, engage and mentor students in undergraduate research, provide students with career coaching and internship opportunities with industry partners, and expose them to research and study abroad experiences.

This program will broaden the participation and bridge the workforce gap for African Americans. It will enhance the number of ENG-CS graduates with improved competency and marketability, realign the engineering curriculum with innovative technologies. In addition, the proposed project will enhance the VSU infrastructure for research through collaborations with Virginia Tech and local industries.

The VSU team will disseminate the research results and outcomes through publication and presentation on academic journals and conferences. The program data will be available to NSF and the engineering education entities.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.