The BOOST program (Bridge Opportunities Offered for the Sophomore Transition) was developed to boost Engineering majors from their freshmen to sophomore year. Teams of rising sophomores, along with junior- or senior-level peer mentors, spent six weeks of their summer deepening their Engineering identity as they worked together on Engineering projects which served their local community. BOOST partnered with three highly impactful, urban, service-focused community organizations - two non-profit organizations and a public elementary school. Motivated by the societal impact they could see themselves making, BOOST students devoted half days for 6 weeks of the summer in addition to an hour a week during the spring quarter to engineering service projects and introductory workshops on computer aided design, computer programming, microcontrollers, as well as materials science and physics. Despite most BOOST students being first-generation college students, and no BOOST student having had any previous engineering design experience prior to participation in the program, the students completed three substantial design projects which were all very well received by the community partners. Assessment results indicate that students greatly benefited from participating in design projects, providing service to their community, working in teams, peer mentorship, and interaction with faculty advisors. Most noticeably, BOOST students’ engineering innovation and creativity scale increased by 50% (p
Deborah Won is an Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at California State University, Los Angeles. Her specialization is in Biomedical Engineering and her scientific research area focuses on neuro-rehabilitative technology. Her educational research interests include use of Tablet PCs and technology to better engage students in the classroom as well as pedagogical and advisement approaches to closing the achievement gap for historically under-represented minority groups.
Menezes is an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering Department at CalStateLA and president of the International Society for Environmental Geotechnology (ISEG). Since becoming part of the faculty in 2009, Menezes has taught 9 undergraduate courses, is the current adviser of the American Society of Civil Engineers student organizations and has participated in several teaching workshops, including one on “Excellence in Civil Engineering Education” and another in “Enhancing Student Success through a Model Introduction to Engineering Course.” He is currently the PI of TUES project to revamp the sophomore-year experience at the college of engineering (esucceed.calstatela.edu). He has developed an open access, web-based audience response system (educatools.com) and is currently the ABET coordinator for his department. Currently, Dr. Menezes is the Director of First Year Experience (FYrE) at ECST - Cal State LA.
After finishing his BS in Mechanical Engineering at California State University, Los Angeles, Adel A. Sharif continued with graduate studies in Materials Science and Engineering at University of California, Irvine. He earned his MS and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering in 1995 and 1998, respectively. Upon graduation, he accepted a postdoctoral position at Los Alamos National Lab, where he worked on development of ultra-high temperature structural material among other things. In 2000, he accepted a tenure track faculty position at University of Michigan, Flint and stayed there for two year. Finally, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at California State University, Los Angeles in 2002 where he is currently a full professor. Dr. Sharif’s expertise in materials science is in deformation mechanisms, specifically at high temperatures.
Gisele Ragusa is a Professor of Engineering Education at the University of Southern California. She conducts research on college transitions and retention of underrepresented students in engineering and also research about engineering global preparedness and engineering innovation. She also has research expertise in STEM K-12 and in STEM assessment. She chairs USC's STEM Consortium.
Arturo Pacheco-Vega did his undergraduate studies in mechanical and electrical engineering at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Leon, Mexico. His graduate work was at Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico, and at University of Notre Dame, as a Fulbright scholar, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 2002. From 2003 to 2008 he was a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi in Mexico. In 2008 Dr. Pacheco-Vega joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at California State University, Los Angeles, where he is currently a full professor. His research interests are related to the thermal and fluid sciences, and include thermal/energy systems, thermal control, system optimization, soft computing techniques, heat transfer enhancement, nonlinear dynamical systems, micro-scale thermal/fluid devices, and biological systems.
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