Building Confidence and Increasing Engagement through Undergraduate Research

2020, 2021 GIANT Selection

Abstract - 

According to Golecki, “Participation in undergraduate research opportunities (UROs) increases students’ understanding, confidence, and awareness of opportunities in STEM fields and their desire to pursue advanced degrees. However, a disproportionate number of University of Illinois students entering from low-resourced high schools participate. This grant seeks to provide UROs to students from one such population, the Academic Redshirt in Science and Engineering (ARISE) scholars, and investigate how hands- on, human centered design projects in soft robotics can impact students’ abilities to build technical competencies and confidence in engineering.”