Explorations: Refugees & Underprivileged Students Experiential Learning in Emerging STEM Technologies

Nearly half of the US-based organizations, that realize emerging technologies of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) as some of their best business priorities, also cite the ever-widening skills shortage as one of the major challenges to implementing their plans/strategies in action. Similar trends follow in Cybersecurity and Drone Technology as well. To bridge the gaps, this NSF ExLent site Refugee & Underprivileged Students' Experiential Learning in Emerging STEM Technologies of AI, Cybersecurity, Drone Technology, and IoT (ReUPS) will be established at the University at Buffalo (UB), through a multi-partner collaboration by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and the School of Social Work?s Immigrant and Refugee Research Institute (IRRI) at UB, Karen Society of Buffalo (KSB), Lafayette International High School (LIHS) at the Buffalo School District, and Drone Sports Inc. (DSI). This project intends to tap into the tremendous hidden talent that may exist in the vast children and youth of the refugee population in Western New York and provide them the opportunity to excel in multiple emerging STEM technologies.

By recognizing, fostering, and harnessing the emerging technology skills of the local refugee, individuals historically underrepresented in STEM, and low-income group student populations in the domains of AI, Cybersecurity, Drone Technology, and Internet of Things (IoT), the project aims to ensure the greater social and economic benefits of the next-generation human capital available to the community around. The primary contributions of the project include the followings: (1) a well-defined recruitment strategy to attract Diverse Underprivileged Population via the Cross-sector Partnerships, which will facilitate generation of the local tech-accorded STEM skills in the emerging domains of AI, Cybersecurity, Drone Technology, and IoT; (2) an Education Pathways Summer Program that will incorporate eight principles of good practices for experiential learning to identify appropriate content and experiential activities in a cohort-based learning model; (3) a Comprehensive Multidimensional Evaluation Protocol will dive deep to evaluate the exploratory project on how it could promote STEM exposure, and knowledge adoption, and help develop the STEM identity for these diverse STEM marginalized groups. Being in a strategic region with a large number of refugee and low-income students and an excellent set of community partners, this ExLent site will actively promote opportunities to the larger student populations, who are traditionally known to have only limited access to STEM-related learning resources, specifically in these newly emerging domains of AI, Cybersecurity, Drone Technology, and IoT, and therefore continue to remain under-represented in these fields. The site will offer flexible curricula design comprising of a set of core and one advanced elective courses, wherein students can leverage customized curricula based on their personal skill and interest. Students will be encouraged to present their work at the regional and national Science fairs and conferences. These will also be incorporated into the collaborating school districts' new courses, which will help build a bigger pool of next-generation workforce in these emerging technology domains and motivate more students to be involved in these STEM fields.