During the four-day CGS convening, which concludes Wednesday, topics range from graduate student health and linking financial support to student outcomes and supporting international student enrollment.

With more students at all levels reporting feelings of loneliness and depression, increasing levels of psychological distress among graduate students and a documented rise in suicide rates both within and outside educational communities, proponents of social and emotional learning say it’s an idea whose time has come.

Central Massachusetts colleges say they don't expect to change their admissions reviews as a result of the Trump Administration's advisement that colleges no longer consider a student's race or ethnicity in the admissions process. 

The Graduate School’s applicant pool jumped 7 percent this year as applications from international students rose 7.6 percent to a record figure. The school offered admission to 1,373 master’s and Ph.D. students, and 668 accepted offers — a yield of 48.7 percent.

More than one-third of college graduates looking for work are considering returning to school to improve their employment chances.

As a doctoral student in biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Arezoo Movaghar’s research spans multiple disciplines. Her master’s degree in computer science and artificial intelligence combined with her interest in medicine has led her to a unique research project with UW-Madison faculty in biomedical engineering, social work, biostatistics and medical informatics, and communication sciences and disorders, all affiliated with the Waisman Center. Their goal was to help identify people who carry a particular gene premutation that correlates to a higher risk for neurodegenerative disorders, infertility, and having a child with a disability; they wanted to achieve this in an “easier, more-cost effective way.”

Rather than reliance on traditional genetic testing to identify a gene premutation, Movaghar used her experience in artificial intelligence. “By using machine learning we were able to develop a method to identify premutation carriers – based on just five minutes of speech – with high accuracy,” Movaghar said. It turns out that carriers of this particular gene premutation (fragile X) have increased speech impairment. By using a computer to analyze speech patterns from a recording, researchers can identify those most likely to carry the premutation. Genetic testing is still necessary for confirmation, but beginning with speech analysis will reduce the number tests.

The research team plans to develop a mobile app to streamline data collection and remove barriers. “Incorporating mobile devices into the research provides exciting opportunities,” Movaghar said. “We can scale up our research beyond geographical boundaries, track and monitor participants, and optimize the use of clinical resources.” To learn more about Arezoo’s work visit the University of Wisconsin-Madison website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: UW-Madison

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg   (202) 461-3888/ khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools today announced that four federally-recognized Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) will join an existing coalition that are working to gather and use data about the careers of PhD students and alumni. A grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF grant #1661272) has been supporting data collection about PhD careers in STEM fields.

The universities selected to receive awards to participate as funded project partners are:

• Howard University
• North Carolina A&T State University
• University of Arizona
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas

In addition to the 33 universities participating in the project as grant recipients, 31 additional institutions are participating in the project as affiliate partners.

Over the course of the multi-year project, universities will collect data from current PhD students and alumni with surveys that were developed by CGS in consultation with senior university leaders, funding agencies, disciplinary societies, researchers, and PhD students and alumni. The resulting data will allow universities to analyze PhD career preferences and outcomes at the program level and help faculty and university leaders strengthen career services, professional development opportunities, and mentoring in doctoral programs.

“We are thrilled to include four doctoral-granting, MSIs to our PhD Career Pathways project. We know that PhD students aspire to a wide variety of careers, including academic research and teaching,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “We need to gain a better understanding of what the career pathways for our alumni look like. Our university partners are leading the way for the entire community of doctoral institutions.”

Universities from across the country will be able to compare their data on PhD career preferences and outcomes with CGS’s national dataset. Universities will also be able to use the data to communicate the career trajectories of PhD alumni to current and prospective students, helping them to make more informed selections of PhD programs. By analyzing the processes of survey administration, CGS will identify promising practices for implementing the surveys and share them with graduate schools nationwide.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is supporting the PhD Career Pathways project focused on the humanities. This supplemental grant from NSF will support the data collection in STEM fields at the previously mentioned four MSIs.

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Yi Wen, a doctoral student in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology at Cornell University, received the 2018 Harry and Samuel Mann Outstanding Graduate Student Award for her research that aims to help develop novel vaccines and treatments against HIV and other viruses. A virus can only replicate inside living cells and can infect all life forms. There are millions of different viruses, and viral cells reproduce by using the host cells to create copies. This process can make some viruses especially difficult to kill.

Wen studies virology, exploring membrane biophysics and lipid chemistry to try and find a way to keep the host cells from releasing the viral copies back into the host’s body. Wen’s research focuses on the lipid “PIP2.” Lipids make up the cell membrane, which is akin to its skin. PIP2 is a pretty minor part of cell membranes, but according to Wen, “it plays a major role in cell function and also in HIV infection.” Wen discovered that PIP2 is extremely sensitive to some metal ions.

“The metal ions shield PIP2, and only specific proteins are likely to be able to compete against those metal ions to have access to PIP2,” Wen said. “HIV appears to require those PIP2 clusters as assembly and release sites of new viruses. I think this could be HIV’s Achilles’ heel.” To learn more about Yi’s work visit the Cornell University website.

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Photo Credit: Matt Hayes/CALS, Cornell University

Ryan Gentzler, a recent Master of Public Administration recipient from the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, saw many challenges facing his fellow Oklahomans from low and middle-income families. Having worked for Tulsa non-profits, he realized that public policy research and advocacy were ways for him to help his community, and he knew the MPA program at OU-Tulsa would help him develop those skills.

“Low-paying work, difficult-to-access healthcare, underfunded schools, and a punitive criminal justice system can make the struggle out of poverty insurmountable, landing the state at the bottom of the pack in many measures of well-being,” said Gentzler. “[I’m] hoping to address these challenges at the structural level.” Gentzler now works for the Oklahoma Policy Institute as a policy analyst. His current focus is to raise awareness surrounding Oklahoma’s criminal justice system. The state’s incarceration rate is one of the highest in the country, and Gentzler seeks solutions to reduce these numbers and promote public safety and rehabilitation.

In the first survey of its kind, Gentzler researched thousands of public records to ascertain how much money in fines and legal fees Oklahomans owed to the court system, and he wanted to know where they lived. Gentzler discovered that as Oklahoma’s state budget got tighter, the court fees increased to meet the shortfalls. In some cases, the fees more than doubled. In addition, Gentzler found that “people in low-income neighborhoods in Tulsa County owed up to ten times as much in court debt as those in wealthier neighborhoods, creating a huge barrier to economic mobility and trapping people in a cycle of incarceration and poverty.” To learn more about Ryan’s work visit the OU-Tulsa website and the Oklahoma Policy Institute.

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Photo Credit: Becca Hyvonen, OU-Tulsa

In 2008, Unoma Okorafor completed her doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Texas A&M University. As a Sloan Scholar at Texas A&M, Dr. Okorafor founded Working to Advance STEM Education for African Women (WAAW) Foundation, an international non-profit organization that seeks to “increase the pipeline of African women entering into Science and Technology fields and ensure they are engaged in Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship to benefit Africa.” WAAW sponsors STEM camps for young girls in 10 African countries and provides coding workshops, outreach, training programs, and scholarships. Her vision is to provide African girls with choices by exposing them early on to the various career opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) and Computer Science (CS) fields.

In addition to educating the girls and young women, Okorafo found it necessary to spend time educating their communities on why foundations like WAAW are needed. The overall sentiment seemed to be that no one was stopping girls from pursuing a STEM-focused education. Okorafor begs to differ. Domestic violence, poverty, sexual violence, teenage pregnancy, unequal divisions of household labor, and the inability to own property in some African countries are all barriers for women, and Okorafor is determined to change this. “I think our communities need to empower more girls to speak up, and to own their space, even if it’s in the STEM fields where it’s male dominated, because we do have something to contribute.” 

In addition to a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, Dr. Okorafo received the AAUW Engineering Dissertation Fellowship and the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Fellowship for promoting STEM education. She has also worked at Texas Instruments, Intel, HP, and IBM researchlabs. To learn more about Unoma’s work visit the Texas A&M University website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.