The Department of Engineering Technology of Savannah State University (SSU) submits this proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovations in Engineering Education, Curriculum, and Infrastructure (IEECI) program in order to address these challenges.  This proposal, which requests funding of $100,000 for a one year exploratory project, seeks to develop the framework of a comprehensive and innovative Business of Engineering Education Model (BEEM).  It is anticipated that this project will consist of two phases, the first exploratory as outlined in this proposal, and the second a larger scale follow-on project to develop the full scale model. The exploratory project aims to develop the framework that relates the dynamics of engineering education and the outcomes of student success. In order for such a model to be effective, there must be a significant effort on research, data collection and analysis. Therefore, the model framework developed in this project will support systems of uniformly recording, tracking, and evaluating all of the teaching, advising, and mentoring activities inputs and resulting outcomes. The exploratory project will lay the groundwork for a follow-on process, whereby student data collection will be performed both during the undergraduate program as well as into the students’ post-undergraduate years, including graduate school, professional career, or a change of careers.  By tracking the students and their post- undergraduate placements, the economic impact of the core engineering education input parameters and the effectiveness of the model can be assessed.  Structured data collection and analysis will also facilitate the closer integration of engineering programs with the K-12 community (students, parents, and teachers), higher education, and industry and government.

The proposal meets the critical NSF merit review criteria.  It has global broader impacts because not only will it result in increased engineering graduation rates for SSU individually, but also because the business model that SSU develops will provide a systematic process  for the understanding of the business of engineering education that will have widespread applicability and transferability to other teaching institutions across the country.  This is vital for our nation’s prosperity and technological capacity. The intellectual merit of the project is encompassed in the provision of a comprehensive and rigorous framework for evaluating the impacts of effective teaching, advising and mentoring on student outcomes. Key to the development of a business model for engineering education is the in-depth understanding of the relationships between inputs into engineering education such as teaching and advisement and their outcomes of retention, degrees conferred, and impact on the local economy. The project is well thought-out, including research collaboration with our K-12, higher education, and business/industry partners, and will be supported by well-qualified faculty and the institutional capacity of SSU. The program builds on the successful NSF-funded HBCU-UP and LSAMP programs, which integrate effective mentoring/advising with student/faculty research collaborations. The project supports the diversity and research and education objectives of NSF.