Advancing undergraduate stem pathways through artificial intelligence supported curriculum and transfer review

The National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education awarded Prairie View A&M University $199,841 on October 15, 2026, under the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076) to advance undergraduate STEM pathways through artificial intelligence-supported curriculum and transfer review.

The project develops a shared STEM pathway prototype demonstrating how students can move between STEM majors within the first two years with minimal loss of academic progress. Faculty, advisors, administrators, and community college partners will conduct AI-supported systematic analyses of coursework within undergraduate STEM programs and investigate the integration of transfer credits into pathways. Selected STEM courses within the prototype will be redesigned to incorporate instructional modules leveraging AI tools. The project aims to enhance advising consistency, strengthen transfer alignment, and support informed student decision-making across undergraduate STEM programs, with approaches and pathway frameworks developed intended to inform STEM pathway improvement efforts at a broader range of colleges and universities.

Work is performed at Prairie View, Texas, with a performance period ending March 31, 2028. The funding is classified as a project grant, with $199,841 obligated.

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by advancing undergraduate stem education through the responsible application of artificial intelligence (AI) to support flexible stem degree pathways. Undergraduate students frequently experience nonlinear progression through stem degree programs. Challenges such as misadvising, changes of major, course repetition, and transfers often occur without adequate guidance. These obstacles can hinder academic progress and delay degree completion. This institutional and community transformation: capacity building project will engage faculty, advisors, administrators, and community college partners in AI-supported systematic analyses of coursework within undergraduate stem programs and investigations of the integration of transfer credits into pathways. A central outcome of the project is the development of a shared stem pathway prototype designed to demonstrate how students can move between stem majors within the first two years with minimal loss of academic progress. Selected stem courses within the prototype will also be redesigned to incorporate instructional modules that leverage AI tools. The project?s significance lies in its potential to enhance advising consistency, strengthen transfer alignment, and support informed student decision making across undergraduate stem programs. Collectively, the approaches, analyses, and pathway frameworks developed through the project will inform stem pathway improvement efforts at a broader range of colleges and universities. The goals of the project are to advance understanding of undergraduate stem pathways by examining curricular coherence, major fluency, and transfer alignment through the responsible use of artificial intelligence as an analytical lens for pathway review and curriculum analysis. Faculty, advisors, administrators, and community college collaborators will participate in structured convenings focused on using artificial intelligence to analyze enrollment trends, progression patterns, senior accumulation, course sequencing, and the integration of transfer credits into stem pathways. A central activity of the project is to build institutional capacity by developing the stem pathway prototype to support improved student progression in stem majors. Increased AI fluency gained through project activities will also enable participants to conduct course level reviews and redesign prototype stem courses to incorporate AI tools. Assessment and evaluation activities will document project participation, pathway analyses, prototype development, and instructional redesign efforts to support future efforts focused on scalable stem pathway redesign. Dissemination activities, including sharing pathway analyses, framework models, redesigned syllabi, and instructional resources, will support broader stem pathway improvement efforts across institutions of higher education. The NSF iuse: EDU program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of stem education for all students. Through the institutional and community transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve stem education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities. 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.- subawards are not planned for this award.