Engaging Engineering Graduate Students in Applied Research at Morgan State University

Graduate study provides a passion and a pathway for students to pursue advanced education or career advancement. Many Morgan State University (MSU) graduate students come from economically disadvantaged families and have very limited financial support for their full-time graduate study. Some of them solely count on the scholarships provided by the school or have to take out student loans. Supported by National Science Foundation (NSF) Scholarships for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM), NASA research grants and other Federal research grants, many MSU engineering graduate students have been involved in applied research projects with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Army Research Laboratory, and the local industry. These projects include but are not limited to the reliability and maintainability study for McMurdo antenna system, integration of the NASA systems engineering approach into software defined radio technology development projects, etc. Through the involvement in applied research projects, these MSU graduate students benefit significantly in terms of inspiring their research interests, developing skills to collaborate with engineers and scientists of Federal laboratories or industry, and enhancing their future employability. In this paper, we will discuss several graduate student outcomes and statistical analysis for the impact of the applied research topics and NSF S-STEM scholarships on the student’s performance in graduate study and career development. Our experiences have convinced us of the effectiveness of this setting, which can not only retain students’ vigorous interests and enthusiasm, but also enhance their employability in today’s job market.