South Texas Navy Pathway
Abstract
This application proposes creation of programs to reach the south Texascommunity in a manner that draws and mentors individuals to meet urgentnaval workforce needs. This goal will be achieved through a series ofmultifaceted education, outreach, and recruitment activities, coupled withengineering and scientific research on US Navy relevant projects. Theseefforts will be directed by, with many occurring within, the College ofEngineering (CoE) at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK), a publicresearch university and a Hispanic-serving institution in south Texas. Toincrease naval awareness among STEM students, the investigators willundertake course redesign of selected undergraduate and graduate engineeringcourses within the CoE to introduce and strengthen naval relevance inpresentations, projects, and applications. In this way, a STEM workforcewith diverse backgrounds but familiar with engineering applications in navalfields will be produced. Students cultivated by the Navy-enriched curriculumwill give particular consideration to naval jobs. A curriculum developmentpanel will be established involving Navy, TAMUK, curriculum developmentconsultants, and the external evaluators. The panel will oversee the entirecourse redesign process to ensure the outcomes reflect the educationalinterests from all stakeholders. An exceptionally advantaged geolocationenables TAMUK to deliver education and training to the staff members of thetwo Naval Air Stations (NAS) within one hour driving radius. To accommodatethe education needs of the NAS staff members, TAMUK CoE will restructure thegraduate curriculum to offer online course modules and evening classes, sothat attending an Engineering graduate program at TAMUK will not affect thestudents??? normal daytime work. As part of the course redesign efforts,faculty members involved in the graduate level course redesign will also berequired to develop online course modules. Concomitantly, efforts will alsofocus on attracting and retaining the dependents of the current NASworkforce in the STEM fields. The younger generation or Navy spouses maychoose a naval career path due to family influences. The investigators willseek collaboration with two nearby NAS to create a pathway for the NAScommunity to participate in TAMUK CoE education opportunities bydistributing the information of the redesigned engineering curriculum.Moreover, integrating Navy related activities into early education canpotentially have profound impacts on a student???s future. The PIs willleverage TAMUK???s high school outreach activities and STEM summer camps toincrease the awareness about STEM fields among high-school students and thepotential to pursue a STEM career while being a part of this Navy fundedprogram. In addition, through the proposed Navy pathway program, theinvestigators will aim to establish research collaboration with nearby NASand Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) at various levels. The researchcollaboration will couple TAMUK Engineering faculty members with either NASengineers or NRL researchers to co-design and co-advise variousundergraduate and graduate level research programs, such as senior design,service learning, TAMUK Council for Undergraduate Research, Master anddoctoral thesis. This collaboration will not only enrich the educationexperience for the students and motivate them to consider Navy relatedresearch and advanced technology as a career option in the short run, butalso foster a joint research platform between TAMUK and NRL in the long runto benefit future students.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 04, 2018
- Source ID
- N000141812732
Entities
People
- Xue Yang
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Texas A&M University–Kingsville
- United States Navy