The project will develop and research a model for engaging LGBTQ+ youth experiencing housing insecurity in an engineering education program. This research program explicitly broadens engineering and STEM participation through a three-year Design-Based Research study. The team will collaboratively tailor their existing “Localized Engineering in Displacement (LED)” curriculum to and with LGBTQ+ runaway/homeless youth at a residential center in Indianapolis.

This project responds to the growing recognition that learners of all ages should have the opportunity to engage with and learn about artificial intelligence (AI). Of AI's many subfields, natural language processing (NLP) is one of the fastest growing. NLP focuses on how to automatically understand spoken or textual data, and billions of these textual or spoken exchanges are recorded online every day.

High school students in rural underserved populations often lack STEM role models, have deficiencies in career readiness, and have limited access to advanced technologies. Although students may be interested in STEM careers, they often lack place-based STEM learning experiences and advanced technology necessary to pursue information and communication technology (ICT) and STEM careers.

Rehabilitation and assistive robots are becoming more prevalent as the population is aging. Healthcare technologies are rapidly evolving and becoming increasingly high-tech and reliant on sensors for biological data collection and human-robot interactions to augment human capabilities. Not only is the field changing, but the demand for a highly skilled workforce is growing rapidly.

This project will introduce young children to computational thinking, which involves breaking down complex problems into manageable pieces, identifying steps and sequences to solve the problem, and generalizing a solution to solve similar problems. Problem-solving skills are foundational and cut across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains and disciplines. The project will research and develop an innovative mixed reality (MR) learning environment combining visual displays and a robot with programmable movement.

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivation and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM). It is essential that STEM professionals effectively and efficiently communicate and justify processes, and find and fix mistakes.

The Role Models in Engineering Education project (Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach and Indiana University) will improve the impact of engineering outreach programs through research and tool development. Providing role models through outreach is widely practiced and recommended, yet little is known about how elementary students, particularly girls, choose engineering role models. Engineering interest declines as girls enter middle school, making elementary school a potentially critical developmental window for bolstering engineering aspirations.

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by bringing together youth (grades 2-5), their families, librarians, and professional engineers in an informal environment centered on engaging youth with age-appropriate, technology-rich STEM learning experiences fundamental to the engineering design process.

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by exploring how coherent experiences can support urban student competency and interest in STEM and how related industry workforce and community members can participate in increasing student and teacher interest in, and awareness of, local and regional STEM career opportunities.

This project will advance efforts to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) through the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers program. It will address the long-term need to help teachers prepare more students to excel in STEM fields.