ABSTRACT

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities to work towards establishing the research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, improve research and teaching at the institution, and involve undergraduate students in research experiences. This project at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC) includes support for the development of a Financial Technology-Clean Technology certificate. The proposed work has the potential to establish partnerships with other higher education institutions and the local K12 system. It is expected that participating students will contribute to increasing diversity in the FinTech-Cleantech workforce.

The overarching goal of the STEM-Business Focused Sustainable Financial Technology ? Clean Technology (Sustainable FinTech-CleanTech) project at the UDC is to introduce and provide Business and Engineering undergraduate students at UDC with an innovative and interdisciplinary ?Sustainable FinTech-CleanTech? certificate program available to both Business as well as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) majors. Specific objectives of the project are: (1) to develop an innovative and interdisciplinary Sustainable FinTech-CleanTech certificate program open to business and STEM undergraduates; (2) to enrich and enhance undergraduate student and faculty research capacity in FinTech-CleanTech curriculum; and (3) to engage UDC students in Sustainable FinTech-CleanTech certificate program through outreach to local high schools and community colleges. The project will utilize a mixed-method approach that emphasizes student surveys, observations, focus groups, and interview protocols for assessing the desired project outcomes. The potential contribution and impact of the project include the development of a cutting-edge FinTech-CleanTech certificate program for Engineering and Business undergraduates at UDC, an HBCU, leading to the participation of underrepresented groups in this discipline; enhancement of education and research in diverse focus areas by developing instructional materials for enterprise applications (e.g., enterprise resource planning software by SAP through SAP University Alliances Program) that can be modeled at other institutions; research collaborations among students and faculty from underrepresented groups; leveraging and building UDC?s partnerships with academia, industry, and government; and dissemination of project results to the broader community by presenting and publishing project outcomes in peer-reviewed conferences and scholarly journals. The institution-wide FinTech-CleanTech certificate program has the potential of benefitting engineering and business students and providing a validated replicable model for other similar institutions in the nation.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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