U-RISE at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (U-RISE@Wπ) - Project Summary/Abstract The mission of the proposed U-RISE at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (U-RISE@Wπ) is to develop a research training and mentorship transdisciplinary program and strengthen our inclusive community to nurture the academic success of our undergraduate students. The program will guide our undergraduate students — especially from underrepresented (UR) populations — towards successful enrollment and completion of PhD programs in the biomedical sciences and engineering with a fun, cohesive structure, and supportive research ecosystem. Our objective is to bring together faculty from nine departments and leverage our project-based curriculum, recognized as being the best for combining scholarly research with classroom instruction to meet our goals through three intersecting specific aims: Aim 1: To create a framework for education: we will leverage common curriculum elements spanning across multiple degree programs, involve course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) and individually mentored undergraduate research experiences (UREs), and culminate in an intensive senior capstone URE. Each project contributes not only to the student’s knowledge base, but also to research skills such as teamwork, time management, literature reviews, and communication, both written and oral. Aim 2: To build a supportive community: our programs will build an inclusive community through coaching, mentorship, personal development workshops, retreats, and cohort experiences. Aim 3: To strengthen the WPI research ecosystem through training: we will enhance the WPI research experiences for all students with an evidence-based tiered mentoring and coaching system for faculty and students and provide training in communication, safety, responsible and reproducible research practices, and applying for fellowships and graduate school. This program is needed at WPI to level the playing field. While we have made strong progress in increasing the proportion and success of female students at our science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-focused institution, we have had less success with other UR groups in STEM. Most notably, our Black students have expressed feelings of loneliness and a lack of sense of belonging and have a disproportionately high failure rate. Our goal is to improve the retention and graduation rates of students from these UR groups by creating small teams of undergraduate researchers, each with a Faculty and Peer Coach dedicated to each student’s success, regardless of incoming level, background, and self-confidence. Our evidence-based approach is focused on mentoring and training with the additional value of coaching methods which provide guidance, feedback, and resources to help Trainees acquire necessary skills, cultivate their self- efficacy, and achieve their goals outside of the mentored research and evaluation approach. Trainees will continuously be guided – with mentorship and coaching – through to completion of undergraduate studies and onto graduate and fellowship applications in research-focused biomedical higher degree programs.
