SBIR Phase II: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Career Literacy & Advocacy

This project will improve the awareness and perception of careers that require science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competencies. Advocacy is a critical component of career readiness, yet current advocates (parents, guardians, educators, or members of the community) are often not in the position to inform students of potential career options. Career and workforce readiness programs are resource constrained, don't meet the needs of differing learning styles, have inherent bias, and are largely focused on compliance over student competency building. Many underrepresented youths who would otherwise succeed in STEM are often deterred by a lack of role models. If youth understood the opportunities, they could pursue academic pathways to amass skills that better prepare them to enter the workforce. Furthermore, educators need professional learning experiences and access to insights about their students in order to improve STEM teaching and learning. Helping individuals select rewarding and suitable degrees, training, and careers will increase the likelihood of higher job retention. As more individuals are inspired to pursue and stay in STEM, taxpayers will benefit from increased innovation which in turn will provide tax dollars to invest in such things as healthcare, national security, education, or humanitarian assistance. The project will address technical challenges of amassing and distributing massive amounts of 3rd party STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) resource data (both structured and unstructured), developing an information management system for educators and families, developing adaptive learning skill modules, advancing a second generation smart recommendation engine based on big data, machine learning and predictive modeling techniques, and performing database mining and creating data visualizations to derive meaningful workforce development insights. In addition, the project will involve controlled experiments and usability tests whereby a large amount of anonymized and aggregated student data and business/education entity feedback will be collected. The ultimate goals of the R&D and experiments are to validate that the resulting application, predictive models, information management practices, advocacy networks, and data visualizations have the desired outcome of boosting immediate and near-term student outcomes regarding STEM career intentions and actions.