An Evaluation of the Georgia Tech Summer Undergraduate Program of Research in Electrical Engineering for Minorities

Abstract

AbstractThis paper describes and evaluates the effectiveness of a summer undergraduate research program designed to attract qualified minority students into graduate school in electrical engineering. This eight‐week program recruits students of at least junior‐level undergraduate standing on a nationwide basis and pairs them with faculty members and graduate student mentors to undertake research. The research activities are conducted in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and National Science Foundation Engineering (NSF) Research Center in Low‐Cost Electronic Packaging at the Georgia Institute of Technology. From 1992–1995, a total of 47 students participated in this program. Thirty‐six of these participants were interviewed by phone to obtain qualitative and quantitative information about the program's impact. The findings indicate that 92% of the program participants are either currently enrolled in a graduate program, plan to attend graduate school in the next two years, or have completed a graduate degree. In comparison to a control group of individuals drawn from the membership of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) alumni, it is found that program participants are more likely to pursue advanced degrees and more likely than non‐participants to continue their studies in engineering. In addition, participants report higher starting salaries than non‐participants. Overall, attitudes toward the program are positive, and the data suggests that GT‐SUPREEM does have a significant impact on the student participants.