The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

UD gets nearly $750,000 in engineering grants

Man, 68, drowns at Caesar Creek Lake
5/26/12
Water rescues prompt warning from health officials
5/25/12
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
5/25/12
Raleigh Trammell’s defense opens in felony trial
5/25/12
UD to move satellite campus to Dublin
5/25/12
> More headlines

By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer 1:57 PM Thursday, July 23, 2009

DAYTON — The University of Dayton has received nearly $750,000 in grants to support programs in its School of Engineering for minorities and women.

The grants announced Thursday, July 23, are from the National Science Foundation, the Ohio Science and Engineering Alliance, Messer Construction and the Virginia Kettering Foundation.

The majority of funding comes from a $650,000 National Science Foundation grant to create a learning-living community of engineers who focus on service learning and sustainability.

The community is intended to provide both the mission and support needed to increase enrollment of minorities and women in engineering, according to university officials. UD hopes the project will increase student retention and pilot a sustainable engineering curriculum that can serve as a model for other universities.

Another $47,000 from the National Science Foundation and Ohio Science and Engineering Alliance will help minority and women engineering students entering UD this fall engage in summer undergraduate research opportunities before they arrive at campus.

“Research shows this type of head start helps retention,” said Laura Bistrek, director of the UD Minority Engineering program.

Dayton-based Messer Construction and the Virginia Kettering Foundation are donating $20,000 and $15,000, respectively, to help first-year minority science, technology, engineering and math students in the Minority STEM Summer Bridge program. This program is designed to help minority students get a feel for the college experience before their first class.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Share this article