| NSF Org: |
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 22, 2020 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | January 25, 2022 |
| Award Number: | 2051599 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Christine Grant
EEC Division of Engineering Education and Centers ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | December 31, 2019 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $314,699.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $314,699.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1850 RESEARCH PARK DR STE 300 DAVIS CA US 95618-6153 (530)754-7700 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Davis CA US 95618-6134 |
| 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
The objective of the DEI PROMISE Engineering Institute (PEI) is to improve the diversity of engineering faculty nationwide by building an east-west alliance between the University California, Davis (UC Davis) and the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), along with their networks of engineering schools within their respective regions. The effort's uniqueness lies with its plan to facilitate faculty diversity by actively leveraging partnerships to provide underrepresented early-career and future engineering professors with intentional professional national and international networks. These networks are designed to increase participants' exposure within the engineering community, retain them in the academy, and propel research collaborations particularly related to the National Academy of Engineering's Grand Challenges, and strengthen engineering identity and cultural competencies within engineering's national landscape. The project involves advanced graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, visiting professors, and assistant professors from each of involved engineering schools and colleges: The College of Engineering at University of California, Davis (UC Davis); The College of Engineering & IT at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), The Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP), The Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and the Clarence M. Mitchell School of Engineering at Morgan State University.
The project will engage in three activities: 1) Training: Participants will receive professional development and training for collaboration through participation in national and international efforts that will assist with providing them with a global network, key for the engineering disciplines. Further, the training portion will provide scholars with comprehensive research and pedagogical skills. 2) Placement: The involved institutions will collaborate to develop new opportunities to attract diverse scholars such as post-doc to tenure-track conversion models, and collaborative industry-based visiting professorships. 3) Support: The project will facilitate transitional support for new postdocs and assistant professors by bringing together current engineering faculty mentors within departments where scholars are placed, to discuss and develop strong support mechanisms that will facilitate retention. The project will also build communities of practice among the participating scholars that will assist with preparing for roles as engineering faculty. This portion of the project is designed to facilitate collaborative networks of engineering faculty from all races and ranks that connect within and across the United States.
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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.
The PROMISE Engineering Institute (PEI) is an initiative that was founded at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), based on the successes of a program for STEM graduate student and postdoctoral scholars in Maryland, PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP). PROMISE: Maryland’s (AGEP), also sponsored by NSF, started as an alliance in Maryland in 2003, and successfully built a brand around the term “PROMISE” to symbolize successful recruitment, retention, and advancement of graduate students from groups underrepresented and historically marginalized in STEM. The PROMISE AGEP included all STEM fields, with some extension to other disciplines. The PROMISE Engineering Institute (PEI) was developed to specifically focus on graduate students in engineering, and to formulate a stronger community around graduate student success and training for the engineering professoriate. The PEI started as a project between UMBC, the University of Maryland College Park, Johns Hopkins University, and Morgan State University, representing the four engineering colleges in the state of Maryland. In 2019, the PI for the project left UMBC for a new position at the University of California Davis (UC Davis). The PEI’s investigators decided to restructure the project to be an “East-West” institute for engineering graduate students, connecting graduate students in Maryland to graduate students in California. The initial plan included developing connections and relationships for the students between one another, and with engineering leaders whom they would not meet otherwise. This plan was interrupted by COVID, and once again the investigators worked to restructure. The restructure included having the individual schools work to keep their own students connected and motivated through Zoom, and then, when the pandemic lifted, work to connect the students in person. For several months, the faculty and staff leads had virtual meetings with the students to encourage them, and keep them connected to their goals. This was a difficult task for all.
Moving from virtual, to hybrid, to in-person activities for scholars, the PEI was able to have several programs, each of which enhanced the progress of the project:
- January/February 2021: DELTA Institute (Developing Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow Academy – developed by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Professional Development facilitated by ASEE, included ASEE student membership, a “New Faculty Institute,” and a “Future Faculty Institute.”
- December 2021: Q&A with College Presidents (who were former Engineering Deans) The PEI developed a hybrid activity with students in-person in groups at UC Davis, UMBC, and University of Maryland College Park (UMD), in simulcast. Headlined by UC Davis Chancellor Gary May, and UMD President Darryll Pines, the event also included UMBC’s Dean of the Graduate School and Engineering Professor Dr. Janet Rutledge, and UMD’s Engineering Dean, Sam Graham. The Davis in-person program was also attended by UC Davis’ Engineering Dean Rich Corsi, and UC Davis’ Graduate School Deans from UMBC, and UC Davis Grad Dean Dr. Jean Paul DelPlanque, also an engineering professor.
- 2022: Alumni Speaker Series – with PROMISE PhD alumni from UMBC’s College of Engineering and IT: Dr. Patricia Ordóñez (former Assistant Professor at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, hired back to UMBC as Assistant Professor), Dr. Huguens Jean (Software Engineer at Google), Dr. Patrick Carrington (Assistant Professor, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University), Dr. Oliver Myers (Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, and Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion in the College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences at Clemson University, Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME))
- March 2022: Mentoring Breakfast with a College President and Engineering Deans (National Society of Black Engineers Conference, Anaheim, CA, 2022) Included graduate students from UMBC, UMD, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC Irvine. Engineering deans and associate deans from UMD, Virginia Commonwealth University, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt. Keynote Speaker: Chancellor Gary May.
- July 2022: Leadership Conference with Latinx Engineering Deans, Latin and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI) – Involvement with the international Student Platform for Engineering Education Development (SPEED)
- December 2022: Research Lightning Round Competition at the World Engineering Education Forum in South Africa, judged by the Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC), co-sponsored by the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES). Included students from UMBC and UC Davis, and Old Dominion University
- November 2023: Research Poster Session with GEDC feedback, co-sponsored by the UMBC College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT), and Tec de Monterrey. Location – Monterrey, Mexico. Students participated in the activities for World SPEED.
Outcomes from the PEI include research on engineering generational mentoring, and outgrowth to the PEI “global” construct which connected students to global mentors from H-BRS in Germany, and a new international certificate from the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning.
Key collaborators in addition to the PI and Co-PIs:
UMBC: Jamie Gurganus, Janet Rutledge, Robin Cresiski, Sundiata Jangha, Yarazeth Medina
Evaluator: Brian Burt (University of Wisconsin-Madison),
Last Modified: 12/30/2023
Modified by: Renetta G Tull
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