2. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow A Repeatable and Reproducible Approach for Improving Retention and Graduation Rates of Underrepresented Minorities and Women in EE Best Practices Conference Southern Methodist University February 28-29, 2008 Dallas, TX Rolando Quintana & Mehdi Shadaram University of Texas at San Antonio

3. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Objectives of the Project 1.Increase the number of Hispanics, with an emphasis on Hispanic females in the Electrical Engineering workforce 2.Increase the undergraduate retention rate of Hispanic EE students (supports objective 1) 3.Increase the number of Hispanic students entering the EE discipline with active recruiting strategies (supports objective 1).

4. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow TETC Grant (A Holistic Approach)

5. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Strategies Pre-College Activities Science and Math Teachers Students Counselors “Just in Time Math” Course Key Courses EE 1323 – Intro to EE profession EE 4813 – Senior Design Project Gatekeeper Courses EE 2423 Network Analysis EE 2513 Logic Design STA 3533 Probabilities and Statistics

6. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Strategies Gate Keeper Course Intervention –Pre-semester Workshop for Peer Facilitators –Visual Pedagogy Freshman Intervention –First and Second Semester Freshman EE Classes and Laboratories –Visual Pedagogy –Filed Trips –Research Experience Pre-College Activities –Teachers Workshop –Offering Double Credit Classes –EE Students Presentations in HS's (Senior Projects) –Summer Research Camps

7. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow NAP Internet Structure a packet passes through many networks! Tier 1 ISP Tier-2 ISP local ISP local ISP local ISP local ISP local ISP Tier 3 ISP local ISP local ISP local ISP USA China

8. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Some common sampling rates for sound: CD’s: 44,100 samples per second Human speech: 10,000 samples per second Low quality audio: Less than 6,000- 8,000 samples per second Using Bits to Store Samples: Quantization

9. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Binomial Distribution (STA 3533) Binomial Distribution: A Bernoulli trial can result in a success with probability p and a failure with probability q = 1 - p. Then the probability distribution of the binomial random variable X, the number of successes in n independent trials, is b (x; n, p) = x = 0, 1, 2,..., n. Note that when n = 3 and p = 1/4 (as in the previous problem), the probability distribution of X, the number of defectives, may be written as x = 0, 1, 2, 3.

10. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Summer Activities for HS Students

11. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Summer 2007 Interns 120+ area HS students applied for participating in research laboratories in the College of Engineering 60 students were selected

12. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Summer 2007 HS Students Survey 30 Seniors, 25 Juniors, and 5 Sophomores 75% Female, 77% Underrepresented After Summer, 90% of all showed interest in engineering/science Before Summer, 65% showed interest in engineering, after summer 83% 83% of HS graduates applied to at least one college, majority got accepted UTSA was in the list of 80% of participants Interested in Engineering/Science

13. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Teachers Workshop

14. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow (Example) A Digital Image Matrix: An array of numbers A = 101134 5610 751214 3 rows and 4 columns Elements: A(i,j), i and j are integers i denotes the Row index and j denotes the Column index –Examples: A(2,3) = 6, A(1,4) = 7, A(3,4) = 10

15. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow k = -50 k = 50 Manipulation of a Digital Image B(i,j) = A(i,j) + k k = constant (expressed as a table) Brightness Mapping

16. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Manipulation of a Digital Image s > 1 s < 1 s > 1 and k < 0 s 0 Contrast Mapping

17. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Example: Contrast and Brightness Formula: B(i,j) = s A(i,j) + k This is easy to do! Higher contrast Higher contrast with lower brightness

18. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Current Activities CPS-UTSA-SAISD Agreement (06-07) Sam Houston HS CPS-UTSA-SAISD (Sam Houston HS)- NEISD (Roosevelt HS)-ECISD (East Central HS) 2007-2008 PREP Program MOU with John Jay Science and Engineering Academy MOU with NEISD T-STEM Program Alamo Texas Educators Association

19. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Results Data for Students Taking the Old STA 3533 (Before Fall 2006) Class AveragePass Rates (“C” or better) MeanSTDEV EE 4653 Digital Comm.72.3%24.871% EE 4613 Comm. Sys70.6%23.174% Data for Students Taking the Revised Visual Pedagogy-Based STA 3533 (Fall 2006 and beyond) Class AveragePass Rates (“C” or better) MeanSTDEV EE 4653 Digital Comm.78.6%17.384% EE 4613 Comm. Sys79.1%15.886%

20. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow Results: Retention Rates Fall 2004 Cohort First Year CoESecond Year CoE CE 60.0%48.0% EE55.6%25.9% ME59.4%36.2% Fall 2005 Cohort First Year CoEFirst Year Overall CE57.8%73.3% EE64.5%79.0% ME60%65.6%

21. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow AYCEEEMETotal 06-0742 98 56196 05-06486551164 04-05308349162 03-04298046155 02-03236139123 01-02334733113 00-01384621105 Results: BS Degrees Confirmed

22. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow The Biggest Challenges Disseminating Information to area schools Getting faculty to participate (mainly during Summer) Getting approvals Data collection Motivating students Identifying the right instructor

23. Shaping the Technology of Tomorrow QUESTIONS?