CASCADE Peer Mentoring to Improve Engineering Retention and Graduation Rates of Undergraduate Students in a Minority Serving Institution Swapnil Thaker and Srinath Anand Gangishetty (Graduate Students) Mr. Austin McCoy, Dr. David Ramirez, Dr. Jong-Won Choi, Dr. Selahattin Ozcelik, Dr. Nael Barakat   Texas A&M University Kingsville 700 University Blvd, Kingsville, TX 78363, Country E-mail: nael.barakat@tamuk.edu Abstract This multi-year CASCADE project is part of the STEM focused national effort to increase the retention and graduation rates of Engineering undergraduate students. While Enrollment in STEM fields has increased over the years, retention and graduation rates are still challenging. CASCADE combines project based learning (PBL) with peer-mentoring, connecting consecutive cohorts of students in a cascaded structure, to increase the quantity, quality, and diversity of engineering graduates, at a minority serving institution. Graduate students help in managing the CACADE project while utilizing their technical skills in the research and development efforts through analyzing different, nonconventional, engineering Data, to arrive at conclusions. This poster presents the project plan and some of the results obtained through multiple cycles of application, from engineering graduate students’ perspective. Results show mixed effects of the project activities and provide guidance for future efforts to achieve the project goals of increasing retention and graduation rates. Research Objectives Fusion of design concepts across all four levels of the engineering undergraduate curriculum. Increasing early years retention of engineering undergraduate students, as well as the rate of their graduation. Incorporation of a freshman design experience into existing course work under the CASCADed mentoring program. Motivate students and create an innovative environment which may lead them to solve scientific and technical problems posed by South Texas industries and governmental agencies to further pursue their own innovations. Future Directions Exploring and implement new ideas from the data collected for better retention results. Implement learned ideas to improvise current model for mentoring. Institutionalize the presented model throughout college of engineering in the form of a curricular design thread. Publish & share findings with peer institutions with feedback for improvement. Acknowledgements The authors of the paper would like to acknowledge that this material is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant number 1161291. The authors are also grateful to the faculty and students who participated in implementing the project and expanding it into the different courses and departments. Level Freshman Sophomore Junior Year 1 : 2012-2013 - Mechanic-I, statics, CEEN 2301, MEEN 2301 Year 2 : 2013-2014 Learning Global Context UNIV 1101 Mechanic-II, Dynamics, MEEN 2302, Strength Of Materials, CEEN 3311 Computer graphics & app AEEN 1310 Construction Materials, CEEN 3145 Engineering MEEN 1310 Year 3 : 2014-2015 No Activity Year 4 : 2015-2016 Computer Graphics & app Environmental Eng.in Global Society, EVEN 2372 AEEN 1310 Engineering graphics 1 Mechanic-II, Dynamics, MEEN 2302 MEEN 1310 Mechanic-I, statics, CEEN 2301 Heat Transfer, MEEN 3348 Year 5 : 2016-2017 Computer Graphics & app AEEN 1310 Fluid Mechanics, MEEN 3392 Engineering graphics 1MEEN 1310 Hydraulics & Fluid Mechanics CEEN 3392 Demographics Race from pre-activity Surveys Race from post-activity Surveys Asian% African American% Hispanic Native American Native Hawaiian White% Total(N) 2012-13 2 7 59 33 20 - 11 2013-14 3 4 68 1 24 76 22 49 2015-16 5 66 211 62 26 147 Fig. 1 Experimental Methodology Fig. 2 Experimental Methodology Fig. 3 Freshman to Sophomore (General Retention Rates) Fig. 4 Are you motivated to remain in Engineering Fig. 5 Design experience fusion Proceedings of the 2018 ASEE Gulf-Southwest Section Annual Conference The University of Texas at Austin April 4-6, 2018