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The Advancing Understanding & Resilience Actions (AURA) S-STEM Research Hub is a five-year, $3 million National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded initiative led by the ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ’s Warner School of Education & Human Development in partnership with Rochester Institute of Technology. The national research collaboration will examine how universities can better support low-income undergraduate students pursuing degrees in engineering and computer science.

Researchers across 10 universities will investigate how institutional support systems, coordinated interventions, campus partnerships, and learning environments influence students’ resilience, persistence, academic achievement, and workforce readiness. The project will also explore how factors such as self-determination, mindset, community connections, imposter syndrome, and stereotype threat shape students’ experiences and success in STEM.

Through surveys, interviews, and other mixed-methods approaches, the AURA Research Hub will identify effective strategies for supporting students from low-income backgrounds and develop evidence-based resources to help institutions strengthen STEM pathways. The project will bring together researchers, faculty, and student affairs professionals to examine what works, where gaps remain, and how institutions can translate research into practice.

The project will also create professional learning communities and a two-year research fellowship for STEM faculty, expanding opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing. Findings and resources will be shared nationally through publications, conferences, toolkits, and other professional development opportunities, with the goal of helping more engineering and computer science students persist, graduate, and enter the STEM workforce.