Investigators collaborate to enrich undergraduate research experiences at Virginia Tech
David Schmale and Shane Ross are keenly aware that not all colleges and universities can provide students the research opportunities they get at Virginia Tech.
So the duo has teamed up with faculty at three minority-serving institutions to help fill that gap.
“Both Shane and I had incredible opportunities as undergrads to engage in research, and we really wanted to pay it forward by creating impactful experiences for undergraduates,” said Schmale, professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences. “We worked a couple years to build our relationships with our partner institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities. These relationships were seeded with key investments from the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment and the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech.”
In fall 2021, Schmale and Ross, professor in the Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, established a summer undergraduate research program in data sciences with faculty at Morehouse College, Morgan State University, and Hampden-Sydney College as co-principal investigators. The program is sponsored by a $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant called Harnessing the Data Revolution: Data Science Corps. To date, this program has provided educational and research opportunities for 88 students in 12 labs, with more than half of the students coming from partner institutions.
“Virginia Tech has access to some incredible facilities, state-of-the art equipment, and unique computational resources,” said Schmale, who is also director of the Translational Plant Sciences Center. “Other people at other institutions should be able to share in this.”
During the 10 weeks of full-time summer research, the students are surrounded by their peers, graduate students, and faculty experts who provide guidance and support. Students work in teams and are encouraged to bring their own ideas, design and conduct their own field research, and learn to make decisions from the data they collect. One of the goals of the program is to promote data literacy and provide basic training in data science to key members of the science and engineering workforce.
This summer’s program, Solving Problems with Big Data Science Problems, will be held May 19-July 28 and is accepting applications through March 21. Each participant will receive a $7,000 stipend as well as free housing and meals on campus.
Schmale and Ross originally conducted a mini sample campaign over spring break 2019, bringing in six undergraduate students from minority-serving institutions. With the award of the National Science Foundation Harnessing the Data Revolution: Data Science Corps grant, Schmale and Ross taught an online course in fall 2021 to forge a community for the students from all the participating schools.
All students taking the online course were encouraged to apply for the following summer’s program for in-depth and hands-on research application experience. One of those who assisted with the mini sample campaign was Bryan Bloomfield; he has since graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in physics. Bloomfield conducted research in the Schmale lab over the summer of 2019, which was funded by a National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates grant.
“I had the opportunity to partner with not only Dr. Schmale, but also Dr. Ross; Regina Hanlon, who is Dr. Schmale’s lab manager; and excellent graduate students,” said Bloomfield, now a solutions engineer at Eagle Systems Inc., which specializes in logistics, technical, and engineering support of the Department of Defense weapon systems and programs. “I was so impressed with Dr. Schmale’s empowerment of people of color and of women and his ethics. He is going to push you to do your best. I think a lot about that. It was so nice to work with such morally and ethically astute people. I still think about how I can make an impact in the world everyday.”
That type of empowering experience is the core of the summer program.
“During my time in the Schmale lab, I encountered nothing but respect for my background in physics and also encouragement to express my personal interests and passions through research in a safe and fun environment,” said Rasheed Jeheeb, a current senior and physics major at Morehouse College and a trainee in the data sciences program in 2022. “It was truly an honor to be selected for this opportunity, and I will never forget the exceptional standard of mentorship that I was provided as a result.”
Along with having access to Virginia Tech research faculty, each student is also paired with students from a different school to build collaboration skills.
“My main challenges were adapting to a new environment like Virginia Tech and learning how to fly drones to capture multispectral imagery,” said Tavon Hill, a third-year dual degree engineering student at Morehouse College and a trainee in the data sciences program in 2023. “However, I overcame this challenge to help my lab partner construct our entire field experiment and collect water samples with the guidance from Dr. Schmale, Landon Bilyeu, and Regina.”
In the three years of the program, Eddie Red, interim dean of the science, technology, engineering, mathematics division at Morehouse College, has seen the positive impact immersive research has on his students. Red is also a co-principal investigator on the National Science Foundation grant that supports the summer program.
“It gives them that extra level of hands-on experience that they wouldn’t necessarily get just sitting in the classroom,” Red said. “We want them to become these future leaders who are very diverse, but in order for them to mature and really grow, they have to go out.”
The relationship between Morehouse College and Virginia Tech has grown to benefit both schools and is largely the result of Jake Socha, the Samuel Herrick Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics. Socha introduced Schmale and Ross to Red, and made possible the recruiting pipelines for the data sciences program.
Socha’s collaboration with Morehouse began with participation in Virginia Tech’s annual summit for historically Black colleges and universities, fostered by funding from the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. He has since been a collaborator with Red at Morehouse for years, and he is a tireless advocate for the inclusion of students from HBCUs at Virginia Tech. A Morehouse graduate is also currently working on a Ph.D. in Socha’s lab at Virginia Tech.
While enrolled in the research program, the students are offered the services of the Virginia Tech Office of Undergraduate Research. This includes weekly research and professional development seminars, periodic social events, and a final symposium where students present their research to the other undergraduates at Virginia Tech.
“They feel like they’re part of something bigger, They work with a mentor, other researchers and graduate students,” said Keri Swaby, director for undergraduate research at Virginia Tech. “They’re conducting research at such a high level and using equipment they might never have in their own universities. The participants value the research they are doing, but also the relationships they develop with each other and their mentors.”
Red echoed the value of those mentoring aspects of the program.
“That mentoring aspect, not only does it encourage the students academically, but it helps bring out their character,” Red said. “It brings out that inner being in this student to help them become stronger. It sparks that curiosity in them.”
