AURA S-STEM Research Hub
Research initiative
Leading a national research effort to improve STEM student success.
Quick facts
Principal Investigator Kimberly Fluet (Warner School)
Co-Principal Investigators: Michael Occhino and Nahoko Kawakyu O’Connor (Warner School); Sharon Mason (RIT)
Collaborators: Rochester Institute of Technology's College of Computing and Information Sciences
AURA Data Collaborators: SUNY Polytechnic Institute, University of Connecticut, University of Cincinnati, and California State University, Long Beach
Funding: 2026 National Science Foundation grant
Website: www.rochester.edu/Warner/aura
Overview
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 University of Rochester’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.
The AURA team will conduct research across 10 universities to 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.
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 educational 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 universities support engineering and computer science students to meet the goals they have for themselves, including graduating and entering the STEM workforce.
For more information, visit the AURA S-STEM Research Hub website.