MTSU Mondays: STEM project boosts diversity, Vets center nets donation

Courtesy MTSU
·3 min read

Here's the latest news from Middle Tennessee State University.

Project uses games, fun to improve female STEM retention

Yi Gu, an associate professor in the Computer Science Department, is helping underrepresented populations succeed and go the distance in her field and beyond.

“Our goals are to improve GPA scores and increase the retention rate of female students, especially female students of color, in the computer science major and the larger science, technology, engineering, and math fields,” Gu said. “We also want to develop interest and confidence in math and programming for the targeted students.”

Middle Tennessee State University computer science students have fun with robots as part of a summer enrichment program to support female computer science students at the Kirksey Old Main Building on campus on June 29, 2023. Standing, from left, are Haiting Cai, Christabel Obi-Nwosu, Kosy Okafor, and Xingyu Chen.
Middle Tennessee State University computer science students have fun with robots as part of a summer enrichment program to support female computer science students at the Kirksey Old Main Building on campus on June 29, 2023. Standing, from left, are Haiting Cai, Christabel Obi-Nwosu, Kosy Okafor, and Xingyu Chen.

To accomplish this, Gu and her team are using a $33,000 grant from the Tennessee Board of Regents, over 18 months, in four key ways — putting on a six-week summer educational enrichment program; forming learning communities during the fall and spring semesters; improving the methodology of existing computer science and math tutoring labs; and organizing female-led seminars of faculty, senior students or recent graduates to serve as role models for younger students.

Gu’s team includes faculty Jaishree Ranganathan, computer science professor, and Lu Xiong, mathematical sciences assistant professor, and graduate students Emily Musselman, Andrew Dale Becker, and Timothy Morren.

Gu said the enrichment program, especially, focuses on fun to interest students.

“We offered several workshops that were organized to engage more students in playful computer and mathematics activities such as simple coding for Lego robotics, data encryption and decryption, as well as math games,” she said.

Musselman, one of the project’s graduate assistants, said she was interested in joining the research team because the supports were something she would have loved to have during her time as an undergraduate computer science student.

“I was 18 and fresh out of high school with no programming experience,” said Musselman, who earned her undergraduate degree from MTSU in 2021. “I walked into a class of about 50 men who seemed to know all of the material already or seemed confident enough to think that it was going to be easy.

“I felt the opposite and spent a lot of my undergraduate time working incredibly hard sharpening my math and programming skills all on my own so that I could go into class prepared to be in the conversation.”

Daniels Center nets donations at Grand Prix

The Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center received $350,000 in donations during the recent 2023 Big Machine Music City Grand Prix from two entities known for their support of those who have served our nation in uniform.

Southern Company, through its Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Southern Company Gas foundations, collectively donated $250,000 to the Daniels Center, while the Harbaugh Foundation announced a $100,000 gift.

MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee and retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Huber, the university’s senior adviser for veterans and leadership initiatives, accepted the gifts at two separate intervals during the Prix’s Freedom Friday activities.

“We are overwhelmed by the support of the Southern Company foundations and the Harbaugh Foundation of the work by our Daniels Center, which serves not only MTSU’s 1,100-plus military-connected students, but all veterans — regardless of their affiliation with the university,” McPhee said.

Huber noted that Southern Company, which actively recruits veterans, service members, and spouses by participating in military recruitment events, is known for its partnership with military transition centers.

The Harbaugh Foundation, meanwhile, staged its signature Patriots’ Outpost for a second year at the Grand Prix, an air-conditioned oasis for military-connected families attending the downtown Nashville IndyCar race.

Huber added that more than 1,200 veterans, active-duty troops, and their families enjoyed the Harbaugh Foundation’s hospitality at the Bridge Building along the Cumberland River. The foundation hosts a similar outpost in La Jolla, California, at the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines.

MTSU Mondays content is provided by submissions from MTSU News and Media Relations.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: MTSU Mondays: STEM project boosts diversity, Vets center nets donation