| NSF Org: |
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 17, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 17, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1548322 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Christine Grant
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | May 31, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,082,683.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,082,683.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
30453 DENDY SKY LN VALLEY CENTER CA US 92082-4825 (323)262-0997 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
602 Monterey Pass Road Monterey Park CA US 91754-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | EDA-Eng Diversity Activities |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
This collaborative project has a goal of increasing the diversity of engineering faculty at post-secondary institutions through engaging graduate students, post-doctoral professionals and early career faculty in faculty oriented professional development activities. The lack of diversity in the engineering ranks is well documented. According to data collected by the American Society for Engineering Education, the percentage of Hispanic tenure track faculty actually declined from 2012 to 2013, from 3.9% to 3.6%. During that same period, the number of African American faculty also declined from 2.7% to 2.6%. The numbers of American Indian and Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders changed by single digit numbers, their overall percentage being so small that it did not vary significantly. When considering gender, the number of tenure track female faculty was 14.5% in 2012, a number that has slowly increased from the 8.9% in 2001. It is a national imperative to diversify the engineering profession, and the presence of role models within the engineering faculty ranks is crucial to support the encouragement of underrepresented students seeking and earning engineering degrees. More specifically, 408 engineering doctoral degrees were awarded to members of this target demographic in 2012, however the number of assistant professors only increased by 28 (from 411 to 439). This is FTE for the given year and does not account for faculty that may have been promoted from assistant to associate or those who may have left the academy. If even ¼ of those earning doctorates had joined engineering faculties, this would result in an almost 25% increase in the representation. Clearly greater effort is needed to increase the number of those that earn doctoral degree who choose to enter academic ranks.
Seven engineering professional organizations that target underrepresented populations in engineering and other STEM fields will collaborate on this project: the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), Great Minds in STEM (GMiS), Latinos in Science and Engineering (MAES), the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), the Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in STEM (SACNAS), the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). This project will facilitate travel for graduate students, postdoctoral professionals and early career faculty to attend national engineering conferences hosted by each organization. Utilizing content experts, these organizations will provide professional development opportunities at these conferences designed to prepare participants to become successful engineering faculty. By creating a collaborative infrastructure between these organizations, they will design, implement and evaluate the efficacy of increasing engineering faculty diversity through these workshops and professional development activities for the targeted participants. This activity will also create a self-supporting community engaged in higher educational pursuits thus addressing the isolation often perceived as contributing to the low numbers of faculty from diverse groups. A secondary benefit is that the undergraduate and pre-college students who attend these same conferences will have the opportunity to interact with the graduate students, postdoctoral professionals and early career faculty participants, thereby increasing their opportunity to learn about and potentially seek graduate degrees, increasing the pool of those who seek tenure track positions.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
In the fall of 2015, NSF’s Broadening Participation in Engineering program funded the alliance of the seven largest national diversity‐serving engineering professional organizations - American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), Great Minds in STEM (GMiS), Latinos in Science and Engineering (MAES), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and Society of Women Engineers (SWE) – a research collaborative to pursue their common goal of supporting diverse engineering faculty success through ASSIST: Strengthening Engineering Faculty through Diversity‐Serving Professional Organization Engagement (EEC #1548322, EEC #1548197, EEC #1548200, EEC #1548319, and EEC #1548214).
The three major goals of this collaborative project were: 1) To create a collaborative infrastructure between the seven leading diversity professional organizations in engineering; 2) To utilize this collaboration to design, implement, and evaluate the efficacy of increasing the participation of diverse faculty, post-docs, and graduate students at the annual conferences of the partner organizations; and 3) To create professional development opportunities for early-career faculty, post-docs, and graduate students to support their success and persistence in academic careers.
A means to creating a collaborative infrastructure was the decision to brand all programs funded through the ASSIST Collaborative and INCLUDES LEVERAGE (#1649384) as LEVERAGE. This decision was made because of the more positive nature of the word and the deficit meaning of the word ASSIST. To that extent, a major investment was the creation of the LEVERAGE Portal - leveragefaculty.org – to handle application submissions for ASSIST travel grant awards, automate the eligibility checking and review processes, and provide a diverse pool of qualified reviewers for NSF review panels.
Broader Impacts:
The broader impacts for this grant included creating the opportunity to bring together a critical mass of early-career underrepresented faculty to expand their informal professional networks, share and learn together, generate ideas for increasing undergraduate and graduate interest in engineering faculty careers; and strategically highlighting their work in conferences venue with a built-in audience of STEM professionals from industry, military, national labs, and government.
GMiS and its sub-contracted partner, SHPE, were supported under EEC #1548322 to host upwards of 40 early-career faculty, each year, for four years. GMiS, a non-membership-based organization, hosted a 2.5-day Early-Career Faculty Symposium (ECFS) and SHPE, a 10,000 membership organization, hosted a one-day Faculty Development Institute (FDI). Over the duration of the project, GMiS provided travel grants and hosted 160 engineering assistant professors, post-docs, instructors and doctoral students/candidates; SHPE supported 171 participants. GMiS hosted five ECFS; the last one was held virtually due to COVID-19 health and safety protocol restrictions on in-person meetings and travel. SHPE hosted five FDIs, all in-person.
The workshops focused on the following critical topics most important for faculty of color: Negotiating the faculty job market and career path; understanding the tenure and promotion process; access to federal funding; how to manage various proposal writing techniques; industry-university collaboratives, technology transfer and intellectual property; best practices for teaching with cultural competencies; what is diversity and inclusion in higher education; best practices for academic publishing; and how to set-up research labs.
Intellectual Merit:
The intellectual merit of this project utilized an evidence-based approach to impact increasing and sustaining the diversification of engineering faculty by supporting their professional development and their engagement with colleagues who are part of their affinity groups. The project facilitated the development of the participants informal professional networks. The commonly stated reasons for attending the events, in order of importance, included: Networking, Funding Opportunities, Professional Development, Understanding Academic Career Pathways, and Research.
Overall, the project contributed to understanding the demographics of traditionally underrepresented faculty of color and women in engineering. It contributed professional development and strengthened professional networking opportunities to support the academic career success of the participants. It also helped participants develop a greater understanding of the role of academic research and provided strategies for securing diverse research funding. GMiS and SHPE, together with the other affinity groups, are building a body of knowledge to support engineering faculty of color and women throughout academia.
Last Modified: 12/30/2021
Modified by: Gary Cruz
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