Justin Szabo

Sustainability Institute for Machine learning and Collaborative Open-source Development of Enzymatic Simulations (SIMCODES) Research Experience for Undergraduates
In 2024, Dr. Theresa Windus (Chemistry) and Dr. Ryan Richard (Ames Laboratory) along with their team received NSF funding to create a Sustainability Institute for… Read More
Game2Work: Accelerating the future of work through a game-based, human-autonomy teaming platform
RISE provided evaluation for the Game2Work program at Iowa State University. This “multi-organizational, interdisciplinary gaming research program” was awarded a grant from the Presidential… Read More
MSRI Incubator
Dr. Ben Van Dusen was awarded an NSF MSRI grant to gather information on how to ethically and sustainably collect quantitative data for online database. RISE is working with Dr. Van Dusen on facilitating 8 working groups over the 2 year grant period. This qualitative study includes facilitation support, transcript review and dissemination of the data collected in the working groups. White papers will be written and shared with the participants as well as the MSRI grant stakeholders. Read More
CSAC (Computer Science As Career) Scholars Program – NSF S-STEM Track 3
Texas A&M Commerce is supporting an NSF S-STEM grant for engineering transfer students. This grant offers a scholarship to students who qualify. RISE is working with faculty at Virginia Tech University to conduct a mixed-methods evaluation. This includes data collected for NSF tracking purposes, a STEM identity and efficacy measurement scale, and interviews with scholars at TAMUC. Read More
Women in Ag Extension and Outreach
Cori Hyde, at RISE, has partnered with the Women in Ag extension and outreach program at Iowa State since 2015. Several projects include RME, USDA, and NIFA grants focused on farm finances, business management, risk management, and education programing. Pre-post surveys are commonly used for courses, surveys after events such as conferences, and focus groups to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of women are a few examples of how data is collected for the evaluation of the programs. Read More
Annie’s Project
Annie's Project is a national non-profit designed to educate and empower women in agriculture. The program offers 6-week courses focused on the business management of farms and ranches. RISE has partnered with Annie's Project for more than 10 years, providing feedabck on knowledge and behavior changes of participants. Pre and post course surveys are desgined to gather changes in knowledge as a result of course particiaption. Over the years, several different analysis of the data show that there has been an overall positive change in knowledge and behaviors to improve farm finances and business management. Read More
Computer Science for All
The Computer Science for All (CSforAll) program introduces computer science programming to students through the use of software, such as Scratch/ScratchJr and the CoCo platform,… Read More
ISU Department Enhancement Program
The DEP formed as a result of ADVANCE, an NSF funded program designed to help to recruit and retain a diverse, highly qualified and cohesive faculty body. The ISU DEP conducts focus groups and interviews to elicit information about the cultures of specific departments on campus and compiles reports outlining common themes and findings in order to further department goals and facilitate long-term planning. Read More
Iowa Department of Education Guided Pathways
A key role of the Iowa Guided Pathways multi-year evaluation is to provide feedback to the Iowa Department of Education and the 15 community colleges in Iowa as they implement a series of reforms to support student completion. Evaluators from the Research Institute for Studies in Education (RISE) collected data from of each participating community college to learn more about their perceived experiences, successes, and challenges related to implementing Guided Pathways on their campuses and their experiences in identifying and working towards goals related to equity and Work-Based Learning. Read More
Achieving Maximum Potential (AMP) Program
The Research Institute for Studies in Education was hired by Youth and Shelter Services, Inc. (YSS) to conduct an assessment of the AMP program. The Program & Activity Assessment Tool (PAAT) is used to measure how much and how well the program provides its members a learning experience that promotes positive youth development. Read More