Evaluation of the Impact of Modality for Equity Program

In this poster, we investigate the impact of online versus in-person summer equity programs. We designed and implemented a summer bridge program from 2020 through 2022 and collected pre- and post-survey data from students to measure the program's impact on students' self-concept, science motivation, growth mindset, help-seeking and concealment attitude, science identity, and sense of belonging. Our research questions are: RQ1: How do students' indicators change from pre-survey to post-survey in the online summer program (2020 and 2021) versus the in-person program (2022) RQ2: What indicators are most impacted (positively or negatively) in an online version of the program These questions will help inform us about how to support students who have started their undergraduate programs during the COVID-19 remote instruction period and whether or not the additional cost of an in-person summer program is justifiable by its impact on students. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Does traffic really disappear when roads are closed?

This paper describes two studies that aimed to explore the impacts of pedestrianisation or road closures on traffic displacement, travel behaviour and the phenomenon of ‘disappearing traffic'. The first study surveyed residents whose travel routes were affected by a small-scale localised pedestrianisation scheme in the centre of a town. The second measured the traffic impacts of a temporary closure of a strategic bridge in a city centre. In the first case, the pedestrianisation produced no change in the modal shares of travel of residents. Drivers continued to drive to the same locations by longer routes. In the second case, the closure caused some traffic displacement and increased journey times but also reduced traffic volumes in both the immediate area and across the city. This paper concludes by discussing the remaining knowledge gaps on disappearing traffic, made more pressing by the decisions of authorities to reallocate road space during the coronavirus disease 2019 crisis.

Influences of Use of Flipped Classroom Models on the Learning Outcomes of Students Majoring in Road and Bridge Engineering Technology

The new "Internet+” teaching mode during the COVID-19 pandemic has guaranteed the smooth learning progress of university students in China. High-efficiency reconstruction of time and space for knowledge teaching and internalization based on informationalized teaching mean is an important approach to online learning. A flipped classroom is a teaching mode that is formed through bottom-up exploration. Combined with teaching practical situations, the flipped classroom realizes the transformation from the teacher-centered mode to the student-oriented mode successfully and has important value to the teaching of professional core courses, which are difficult to be learned. In this study, 80 freshmen majoring in Road and Bridge Engineering Technology at Yellow River Conservancy Technical Institute in Henan Province of China were selected as research objects, and Road Survey Design and Lofting was chosen as the teaching course. Under these circumstances, a teaching experiment comparison was designed. The experimental group used flipped classroom technology based on Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS) motivation model theory, while the control group used the traditional teaching mode. Research results demonstrate that before the experiment, the learning outcomes of two groups in Road Survey Design and Lofting were basically consistent (P=0.908>0.05) without obvious differences. After finishing the experiment, the post-test results of the control group have not improved significantly compared with the pre-test results (P=0.0938>0.05). However, the post-test results of the experimental group have improved significantly compared with the pretest results (P < 0.001). The average scores of the experimental group are far higher than that of the control group, thus indicating the evident progress of the experimental group. Noticeable differences in the post-test results between the experimental group and the control group are observed (P < 0.001). The research results are of great significance to enriching the teaching mode of core application courses for engineering majors in university, as they provide evidence that the flipped classroom increases the learning interests and motivation of students and demonstrate the teaching effect of flipped classroom technology in universities © 2023, International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning.All Rights Reserved.

'Bridging the Distance': Developing Entrepreneurial Thinking in an International and Interdisciplinary Learning Environment

The Covid19 pandemic presented challenges and opportunities for students' learning worldwide. An international interdisciplinary learning environment was designed to bridge the distance, address students' socio-emotional needs and to develop entrepreneurial thinking, a skill needed in times of uncertainty. Twenty-four education students from two countries took part in six online sessions. Initial results support the contribution of the project to developing the participants' entrepreneurial thinking and to the role socio-emotional aspects play in it. © ISLS.

Rapid Design and Construction Management of Emergency Hospital During the COVID-19 Epidemic

In order to control the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic across the country, China has used all available resources to build infectious disease hospitals in various ways. These hospitals include three modes and adapt to different disease levels: temporary emergency hospitals;makeshift hospitals by transforming public buildings;and existing general wards transformed into infectious wards. Through the practice of several projects, on the basis of the original standard system, China urgently issued a series of relevant standards and guidelines to guide the construction of temporary hospitals. As one of the earliest cases of temporary emergency infectious disease hospital, the Thunder God Mountain Hospital adopted a prefabricated modular design concept in plan design, plane design and component design, and also combined the application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technology. Based on industrialized module processing and manufacturing, combined with an efficient on-site construction management system, the problem was solved of completing the construction in a very short time, which played a key role in controlling the epidemic situation. © IABSE Congress Nanjing 2022 - Bridges and Structures: Connection, Integration and Harmonisation, Report. All rights reserved.

WIP: Effectiveness of Recruitment Strategies for Underrepresented Groups in an Engineering Bridge Program

The Academy of Engineering Success program at West Virginia University (WVU) is a cohort-based integrated Engineering Bridge Program designed for non-calculus ready first-year engineering students. During COVID times, AcES encountered challenges in recruiting underrepresented students. We realized that the recruitment method needed to be modified to attract them. After applying new recruitment methods for 3 weeks, AcES participants were diversified, resulting in 30% female, 20% underrepresented minorities, 30% low-income, and 20% first-generation in the cohort. Our research aims to (1) analyze AcES enrollment data before and after applying the new recruitment strategy, (2) conduct surveys to understand the effectiveness of different recruitment methods in diversifying the cohort, and (3) devise a plan to improve future recruitment efforts to attract engineering students with a diverse background, particularly the underrepresented populations. This paper reported progress of the first objective. © 2022 First-Year Engineering Experience, FYEE 2022. All rights reserved.

Building Bridges into Engineering and Computer Science: Outcomes, Impacts and Lessons Learned

Wright College, an urban open-access community college, independently accredited within a larger community college system, is a federally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) with the largest community college enrollment of Hispanic students in its state. In 2018, Wright College received an inaugural National Science Foundation-Hispanic Serving Institution (NSF:HSI) research project grant “Building Capacity: Building Bridges into Engineering and Computer Science”. The project's overall goals are to increase underrepresented students pursuing an associate degree (AES) in engineering and computer science and streamline two transitions: high school to community college and 2-year to 4-year institutions. Through the grant, Wright College created a holistic and programmatic framework that examines and correlates engineering students' self-efficacy (the belief that students will succeed as engineers) and a sense of belonging with student success. The project focuses on Near-STEM ready students (students who need up to four semesters of math remediation before moving into Calculus 1). The project assesses qualitative and quantitative outcomes through surveys and case study interviews supplemented with retention, persistence, transfer, associate and bachelor's degree completion rates, and time for degree completion. The key research approach is to correlate student success data with self-efficacy and belonging measures. Outcomes and Impacts Three years into the project, Wright College Engineering and Computer Science Program was able to: • Develop and implement the Contextualized Summer Bridge with a total of 132 Near-STEM participants. One hundred twenty-seven (127) completed;100% who completed the Bridge eliminated up to two years of math remediation, and 54% were directly placed in Calculus 1. All successful participants were placed in different engineering pathways, and 11 students completed Associate in Engineering Science (AES) and transferred after two years from the Bridge. • Increase enrollment by 940% (25 to 235 students) • Retain 93% of first-year students (Fall to fall retention). Seventy-five percent (75%) transferred after two years from initial enrollment. • Develop a holistic and programmatic approach for transfer model, thus increasing partnerships with 4-year transfer institutions resulting in the expansion of guaranteed/dual admissions programs with scholarships, paid research experience, dual advising, and students transferring as juniors. • Increase diversity at Wright College by bridging the academic gap for Near-STEM ready students. • Increase self-efficacy and belonging among all Program participants. • Increase institutionalized collaborations responsible for Wright College's new designation as the Center of Excellence for Engineering and Computer Science. • Increase enrollment, retention, and transfer of Hispanic students instrumental for Wright College Seal of Excelencia recognition. Lessons Learned The framework established during the first year of the grant overwhelmingly increased belonging and self-efficacy correlated with robust outcomes. However, the COVID-19 pandemic provided new challenges and opportunities in the second and third years of the grant. While adaptations were made to compensate for the negative impact of the pandemic, the face-to-face interactions were critical to support students' entry into pathways and persistence within the Program. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

From In-Person to Remote to Hybrid: Transitioning of an Undergraduate Design Event Due to COVID-19

Each year, second-year University of Waterloo Civil Engineering students participate in a bridge design project referred to as CivE Design Days. This two-day event was created to enhance student learning by promoting a friendly, mildly competitive, and student-led environment where second-year course concepts are applied to a comprehensive design activity. The project is split into four stages: preliminary design, bridge construction, bridge testing, and project reflection. The preliminary stage required students to apply their knowledge in highway design to propose a preliminary road between two locations which must cross a wide river. Students must draw from their mechanics courses to propose a bridge design that will support the traffic crossing the river. In the bridge construction and testing stages, students must demonstrate communication skills as they work together to build a scaled bridge model. After testing, students are asked to reflect on their designs and identify areas of improvement. Historically, all stages of the project were completed by in-person student teams, working in a design shop. In 2020, obstacles arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which made gathering students for in-person events impossible. As a result, an online version of the CivE Design Days was developed with the primary goal being to achieve the same learning objectives in the online environment. In 2021, subsequent changes were made and a hybrid version of the design project was introduced, with in-person and remote participants working together and in parallel to accomplish project objectives. This paper discusses challenges encountered and methods used to manage them through the transition of the project activities from in-person to remote, and then subsequently to a hybrid format. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022

FPGA-Based Deep Learning Models for Analysing Corona Using Chest X-Ray Images

Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that affects humans and damages respiratory functions ranging from cold to more serious diseases such as ARDS and SARS. But the most recently discovered virus causes COVID-19. Isolation at home or hospital depends on one's health history and conditions. The prevailing disease that might get instigated due to the existence of the virus might lead to deterioration in health. Therefore, there is a need for early detection of the virus. Recently, many works are found to be observed with the deployment of techniques for the detection based on chest X-rays. In this work, a solution has been proposed that consists of a sample prototype of an AI-based Flask-driven web application framework that predicts the six different diseases including ARDS, bacteria, COVID-19, SARS, Streptococcus, and virus. Here, each category of X-ray images was placed under scrutiny and conducted training and testing using deep learning algorithms such as CNN, ResNet (with and without dropout), VGG16, and AlexNet to detect the status of X-rays. Recent FPGA design tools are compatible with software models in deep learning methods. FPGAs are suitable for deep learning algorithms to make the design as flexible, innovative, and hardware acceleration perspective. High-performance FPGA hardware is advantageous over GPUs. Looking forward, the device can efficiently integrate with the deep learning modules. FPGAs act as a challenging substitute podium where it bridges the gap between the architectures and power-related designs. FPGA is a better option for the implementation of algorithms. The design attains 121μW power and 89 ms delay. This was implemented in the FPGA environment and observed that it attains a reduced number of gate counts and low power. © 2022 Anupama Namburu et al.

Healing Justice: A Framework for Collective Healing and Well-Being from Systemic Traumas

The 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States demanded police reform and legislative action. Data-driven policing is just one technological intervention designed with the hope to tackle police brutality. However, these design interventions are often rooted in the continued racial profiling of poor and socially marginalized communities. Designers and researchers need a Healing Justice framework to circumvent this harm. Healing Justice addresses generational trauma and violence in marginalized communities and is not just a framework for policing but can address maternal mortality rates, COVID-19, medical malpractice, and other trauma issues. In this paper, we apply a Healing Justice framework to co-design activities focused on police brutality. We bridge Healing Justice and design by using an Afrofuturist Feminism framework, arguing that Healing Justice and Afrofuturist feminism frameworks lead to collective, grassroots, and pragmatic designs. © 2022 Owner/Author.

Urban Refugees’ Digital Experiences and Social Connections During Covid-19 Response in Kampala, Uganda

The Covid-19 crisis and its aftermath challenged economies and societal sectors globally. Refugees in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to the socio-economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Uganda, refugees significantly compose the marginalized urban population, dependent largely on the informal sector, and are severely affected by the crisis amidst limited social protection interventions. This article draws on key informant interviews with refugees and refugee-led organizations to examine the diverse ways through which social capital within refugees and host communities in Kampala enabled and shaped digitally mediated responses to sustain livelihoods, social wellbeing, and access to information and economic resources in the wake of the pandemic. The findings indicate that digitally enabled and mediated social networks and/or connections through bonds, bridges, and links are crucial in supporting refugees to cope with crisis effects. Networks of friends, families, and institutions are sustained by digital spaces that support the everyday lives of urban refugees through communication, social protection, livelihood continuity and recovery, and service improvisation during and after the crisis. The fragmented digital infrastructure, digital divide, limited government support, language barrier, and circulation of fake news challenged the utility of digital social networks in mobilizing support for refugees during the crisis. Digital technologies offer opportunities to strengthen social support and potentially mobilize refugee livelihoods in cities with fluid programs for displaced communities. The best practices around sustained multi-platform communications, technological innovations, data collection, and robust community engagement should be leveraged to garner the opportunities offered by technologies towards stimulating inclusive crisis responses.

Guest editorial: Enabling the development and implementation of digital twins

[...]they proposed a framework focusing on facilitating the information exchange and interoperability for existing buildings. [...]semantic Web technologies and standards, such as Web Ontology Language and existing AEC domain ontologies, were used to enhance and improve the proposed framework. [...]four levels of awareness were developed based on Endsley’s situation awareness model. Furthermore, they addressed the lack of an organised digital content asset dedicated to producing VR site scenarios that emerged as one of the most limiting factors for implementing BIM and VR for construction workers’ safety training. [...]a dedicated site object library was proposed to improve this critically time-consuming process.

Seasonal Changes in Urban PM2.5 Hotspots and Sources from Low-Cost Sensors

PM2.5 concentrations in urban areas are highly variable, both spatially and seasonally. To assess these patterns and the underlying sources, we conducted PM2.5 exposure measurements at the adult breath level (1.6 m) along three ~5 km routes in urban districts of Mainz (Germany) using portable low-cost Alphasense OPC-N3 sensors. The survey took place on five consecutive days including four runs each day (38 in total) in September 2020 and March 2021. While the between-sensor accuracy was tested to be good (R² = 0.98), the recorded PM2.5 values underestimated the official measurement station data by up to 25 µg/m3. The collected data showed no consistent PM2.5 hotspots between September and March. Whereas during the fall, the pedestrian and park areas appeared as hotspots in >60% of the runs, construction sites and a bridge with high traffic intensity stuck out in spring. We considered PM2.5/PM10 ratios to assign anthropogenic emission sources with high apportionment of PM2.5 in PM10 (>0.6), except for the parks (0.24) where fine particles likely originated from unpaved surfaces. The spatial PM2.5 apportionment in PM10 increased from September (0.56) to March (0.76) because of a pronounced cooler thermal inversion accumulating fine particles near ground. Our results showed that highly resolved low-cost measurements can help to identify PM2.5 hotspots and be used to differentiate types of particle sources via PM2.5/PM10 ratios.

La influencia del capital social virtual en los efectos económico y académico percibidos por los estudiantes universitarios. Un análisis en tiempos del Covid19

: The objective of this study is to explain if virtual social capital, divided into binding social capital (CSV) and social capital that build bridges (CSP), has been related to the economic and academic effects perceived by university students during confinement by the COVID 19. The results show a significant association between virtual social capital and the economic and academic effects perceived during quarantine, with social capital that builds bridges having a greater incidence. Keywords: online social capital;covid19;virtual education;college students;economic effect;academic effect. 1.Introducción Desde finales del año 2019 la sociedad viene atravesando una de las pandemias más fuertes de este siglo: el COVID19, esta enfermedad ha generado crisis en los sistemas de salud, en los modelos económicos, los métodos educativos y ha transformado las rutinas y la cotidianidad de la sociedad en su conjunto (Orellana, 2020;Hernández, 2020;Ríos, 2020) A raíz de ello los gobiernos de los países como medida de prevención han aplicado el confinamiento y distanciamiento social, fruto de esta situación el modelo educativo presencial se ha transformado en un modelo virtual en todos sus niveles;en el caso de la educación superior, miles de jóvenes de universidades públicas y privadas de manera abrupta han continuado su formación en aulas virtuales. Los conceptos teóricos de estos autores dieron paso a otros estudios que afirman que existe una especie de capital social vinculante (cercano y familiar) y un capital social que tienden puentes y genera oportunidades de trabajo o emprendimiento (Aldana y Bernal, 2019;Orlandini y Ortiz, 2019;Geraee, et, al., 2019;Ventura y Quero, 2013;Liñán y Santos, 2006) A partir del COVID19 el capital social virtual se estudia como una variable importante en la respuesta a la crisis de salud, económica y social y constituye una estrategia para superar las consecuencias del aislamiento (Pitas y Ehmer, 2020;Valencia y Hoyos, 2020) Según los informes de autoevaluación de la Carrera de Economía de la Universidad San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca, hasta el año 2019 las redes sociales eran usadas, por lo universitarios, para conectarse con amigos y familia, ver videos o fotos y compartir contenido, la red más usada con un 90% era whatsapp, seguida de Facebook con un 87% y youtube con 60% entre las tres más usadas (https://economicas.usfx.bo/economia, 2021).

LOGISTICAL ASPECTS OF CHINA'S "ONE BELT ONE ROAD" INITIATIVE FOR AZERBAIJAN ECONOMY: CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMIC GROWTH

The South Caucasian region started to capture Chinas attention in 2013 when the «One Belt One Road» Initiative was announced. Chinas interest to expand its economic impact in this region can be explained based on a few factors: the regions growing demand for large investments, the economic crisis of neighboring countries caused by US and EU sanctions against Iran, Russia, and Turkey. It should be noted the growing geo-economic role of Azerbaijan in the implementation of the big logistical projects such as Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, Free Economic Zone within Alat International Sea Trade Port, international transport corridors "East-West" and "North-South". These projects have increased Azerbaijan's viability to become a logistical hub on the trade bridge between China and Europe. Today 96 percent of trade volume between China and Europe is carried out via sea routes. China is interested in using the remaining 4 % via land routes throughout the territories of countries that the Great Silk Way passed through in ancient times. This article will analyze the historical and economic aspects of trade relations between Azerbaijan and China, assess the carrying capacity of its transport potential, the possibility of attracting new investments and accessing their impact on its economy and GDP as a whole. Today, the Chinese economic system, and the world economy, is facing a very strong enemy-the coronavirus. A sharp drop in world oil prices on the background of coronavirus slowed global GDP and decreasing of demand for goods supplied by China to foreign markets. According to the Chinese government, the drop in exports for January-February 2020 in dollar terms was 17.2%. To strengthen ties with the world, first of all, all countries must be cured of this disease. And we believe that this difficult task will be solved and the "One Belt One Road" project will be realized.

Thermo-Energy Performance of Lightweight Steel Framed Constructions: A Case Study

The building sector continues to play an essential role in reducing worldwide energy consumption. The reduced consumption is accompanied by stricter regulation for the thermotechnical design of the building envelope. The redefined nearly Zero Energy Building levels that will come into force for each member state will pressure designers to rethink the constructive details so that mandatory levels can be reached, without increasing the construction costs over an optimum level but at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The paper aims to illustrate the main conclusions obtained in assessing the thermo-energy performance of a steel-framed building representing a holistically designed modular laboratory located in a moderate continental temperate climate, characteristic of the south-eastern part of the Pannonian Depression with some sub-Mediterranean influences. An extensive numerical simulation of the main junctions was performed. The thermal performance was established in terms of the main parameters, the adjusted thermal resistances and global thermal insulation coefficient. Further on, the energy consumption for heating was established, and the associated energy rating was in compliance with the Romanian regulations. A parametric study was done to illustrate the energy performance of the investigated case in the five representative climatic zones from Romania. An important conclusion of the research indicates that an emphasis must be placed on the thermotechnical design of Light Steel Framed solutions against increased thermal bridge areas caused by the steel’s high thermal conductivity for all building components to reach nZEB levels. Nevertheless, the results indicate an exemplary behaviour compared to classical solutions, but at the same time, the need for an iterative redesign so that all thermo-energy performance indicators are achieved.

A New Methodology for Bridge Inspections in Linear Infrastructures from Optical Images and HD Videos Obtained by UAV

Many bridges and other structures worldwide present a lack of maintenance or a need for rehabilitation. The first step in the rehabilitation process is to perform a bridge inspection to know the bridge′s current state. Routine bridge inspections are usually based only on visual recognition. In this paper, a methodology for bridge inspections in communication routes using images acquired by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights is proposed. This provides access to the upper parts of the structure safely and without traffic disruptions. Then, a standardized and systematized novel image acquisition protocol is applied for data acquisition. Afterwards, the images are studied by civil engineers for damage identification and description. Then, specific structural inspection forms are completed using the acquired information. Recommendations about the need of new and more detailed inspections should be included at this stage when needed. The suggested methodology was tested on two railway bridges in France. Image acquisition of these structures was performed using an UAV for its ability to provide an expert assessment of the damage level. The main advantage of this method is that it makes it possible to safely accurately identify diverse damages in structures without the need for a specialised engineer to go to the site. Moreover, the videos can be watched by as many engineers as needed with no personal movement. The main objective of this work is to describe the systematized methodology for the development of bridge inspection tasks using a UAV system. According to this proposal, the in situ inspection by a specialised engineer is replaced by images and videos obtained from an UAV flight by a trained flight operator. To this aim, a systematized image/videos acquisition method is defined for the study of the morphology and typology of the structural elements of the inspected bridges. Additionally, specific inspection forms are proposed for every type of structural element. The recorded information will allow structural engineers to perform a postanalysis of the damage affecting the bridges and to evaluate the subsequent recommendations.

Invitation to Excellence: Design Challenges in Low Resource Settings for Student Recruitment

Baylor University holds weekend-long Invitation to Excellence (I2E) events to recruit high-achieving high school seniors. Each prospective engineering student attends two engagement sessions: one hosted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) and the other by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. In this work, we present design challenges from the ME engagement sessions. In the ME engagement session, students are assigned to teams for a design challenge. Each team receives 60 drinking straws plus one yard of duck tape with which they build a structure to support a stack of course catalogs over a wooden block. Teams are allowed 20 minutes for design-build after which all teams test their structures. The structure is placed over a wooden block. Course catalogs are stacked on it until either one of the catalogs falls to the floor or the structure contacts the top of the block. The engagement session concludes with sharing of reflections on the design experience and recognition of the winning team. Recently, we began providing some teams with tools (i.e., tape measures and scissors) to use during the design challenge. Anecdotally we observed during the January 2019 event that some teams spent excessive amounts of time using the tools to measure and cut straws while failing to complete their structures. Out of curiosity we planned the November 2019 and January 2020 I2E events to explore this phenomenon by using half of our ME breakout sessions as Control groups (No Tools) and the other half as Test groups (Tools). Our reported findings include analysis of differences between Control and Test groups in both load bearing capacity and variety of design concepts. Our null hypothesis was that there would be no difference in average load-bearing capacity between the Control and Test group's structures. With the COVID-19 global pandemic, we were tasked with providing a virtual design experience using Zoom sessions. We will also provide a discussion of the individual design challenges that involved building a bridge from 1/2 sheet of paper that spanned the opening of a ceramic mug and held as much ballast (in the form of coins) as possible without failing. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Sustainable Bridges from Campus to Campus: The Creation and Conduct of Online Synchronous Summer Bridge Programs in 2020

Purpose: The purpose of the Sustainable Bridges from Campus to Campus project (NSF IUSE #1525367, known locally as Engineering Ahead) is to establish summer bridge programs that serve Engineering students at regional campuses of The Pennsylvania State University. In 2016, residential summer bridge programs for incoming Engineering students were started at the Abington, Altoona, and Berks campuses patterned after a successful long-standing bridge program at the Penn State University Park campus. Recruitment focuses on enrolling racially underrepresented domestic students (i.e., African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Pacific Islander), women, and first-generation students in Engineering into the bridge programs. The project also supports an established summer bridge program for racially underrepresented incoming Engineering students at the flagship University Park campus. In 2020 (Year 5 of the project) because of the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions on in-person gathering, the Engineering Ahead residential bridge programs were converted to online synchronous summer bridge programs. This paper presents data on recruitment, enrollment, retention, and students' perceptions of belonging and mattering over time. Goals: The overarching goal of this project is to increase retention and graduation among racially underrepresented Engineering students, with a focus on students who start their Penn State education at a regional campus. Since their inception, the Engineering Ahead summer bridge programs try to increase retention and graduation through three strategies: intensive math review (pre-calculus, calculus), community building, and professional development. Central topics and questions for this paper are how we conducted online bridges, what was offered, student enrollment and retention, what we learned from the process, can social integration among students be achieved virtually, and what were student perceptions of the online bridge experience? Method: Accepted incoming Engineering students (summer and fall 2020) at the Abington, Altoona, Berks, and University Park campuses were encouraged to apply via letter, email, and presentations at accepted student programs to an online summer bridge program to support success in math and science during the first year. Eighty-six incoming students enrolled in the four online bridge programs for incoming first-year Engineering students. Results: We reliably assessed students' sense of belonging and perceived college mattering using standardized measures. Repeated measures analyses showed that there was a significant increase over the 4-week bridge programs of students' sense of belonging and perceived mattering. Conclusions: An important component of summer bridge programs is fostering a sense of community and interpersonal bonds among the students. Results showed that students enrolled in online bridge programs reported significant increases in their sense of belonging and perceived college mattering over four weeks. It appears we captured some of the benefits of summer bridge programs even though they were not residential. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021