Due to the new generation of students who are digital natives, professors have to re-imaging the teaching-learning process to be more attractive to them. Thus, online learning has become an integral part of the teaching-learning process in higher education. The Metaverse in an educational context is boosting more strength due to the creation of 3D virtual spaces, asynchronous self-directed training, interaction through avatars, and no limit of time. The metaverse motivates students to learn Science, Technology, and Engineering in a different environment than a traditional classroom. We created a virtual classroom in the Metaverse to teach Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) to Industrial and Systems Engineers students. The virtual space consists of videos, self-directed practices, and other types of materials to enhance the teaching-learning process of DES. A control group formed of 28 students with a traditional teaching-learning process was considered, and a group formed of 25 students where the virtual lab was implemented as the main teaching-learning tool. To measure the impact of this educational innovation, we implemented two evaluation instruments. The first was an exam that evaluated the learning level through a comparative statistical analysis, in which we used a Mann-Whitney test to compare the medians between groups. The second instrument was the MUSIC® inventory model of Motivation, which measures the students' motivation and engagement related to five components: empowerment, usefulness, success, interest, and caring. The MUSIC model evaluates 26 items using a 6-point Likert-type scale. The results show that the virtual lab improves the students' motivation to learn simulation models in a three-dimensional environment and thereby improves their learning experience.

There are ongoing efforts from universities to increase the participation of undergraduate students in research programs. However, few undergraduate students pursue a research program due to the lack of interest and unappealing project offerings. In addition, there are few programs in Latin American universities for undergraduate students to pursue research. This paper provides an overview of a semester research program created for undergraduate students in a Latin American university. The most critical aspect of conducting a research semester is finding students interested in research and keeping them motivated. There are several challenges to address for a semester research program; one is that students have to consider at least 40 hours of weekly work, and the other one is that the final deliverable is a conference paper. We provide the steps to track the students' progress in their research semester and the associated grading system. To know if the students are motivated through the research semester, we conducted the MUSIC®inventory model of motivation regarding the research semester and its usefulness. So far, our methodology has been implemented successfully with four students. The results suggest that this methodology maintains students' interest in research projects. Whilst the proposed model can be replicated easily, the motivation students' results might not be easy to generalize.

There is a constant effort of several organizations so that more teenagers study programs related to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). However, there is a lack of follow-up for the women who made such a decision. Only 30% of engineering students are women. For instance, 40% of women quit from engineering in their first year of studies. To address the drop-off of women in STEM the School of Engineering and Science created a mentoring program for undergraduate women students called “Women Empowering Women” (WEW). This paper provides an overview of the WEW mentoring program, and the general barriers women faced as students or future engineers. Overall, the results of the WEW mentoring program are positive, however, this is only the beginning of the mentoring program.