| NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | January 18, 2023 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | January 18, 2023 |
| Award Number: | 2309905 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Harsha Chelliah
hchellia@nsf.gov (703)292-7281 CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | February 1, 2023 |
| End Date: | January 31, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $31,580.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $31,580.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1 UTSA CIR SAN ANTONIO TX US 78249-1644 (210)458-4340 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1 UTSA CIRCLE SAN ANTONIO TX US 78249-1644 |
| 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): | CFS-Combustion & Fire Systems |
| 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 proposal is to support three outreach activities held during the U.S. National Combustion Meeting, March 19?22, 2023, at Texas A&M University. These activities include an Early Career Workshop for Combustion Researchers, a Mentorship Mixer, and a Women in Combustion Luncheon. The goal of these activities is to bring together a community of early-career combustion researchers and develop action committees to encourage early-career participation in the combustion research community. In the U.S., nearly 70% of energy conversion is accomplished by combustion?hence, advancement in combustion science is crucial to U.S. energy security and society. Workshop participants will develop four high-priority items, including public outreach, building productive and inclusive research group cultures, and education and communities of practice, and navigating research challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Workshop findings will be documented in a report that will be disseminated to the wider technical community.
Combustion is a key technology for power generation, and this will remain the same for decades to come. However, the combustion research community is facing various technical and non-technical challenges. The participants will identify challenges, educate the early-career researchers about these challenges, and discuss possible solutions. Discussion around technical issues will include brainstorming of novel, possibly cross-disciplinary research areas for future work. On the other hand, various non-technical issues will also be discussed, including communication with the public and policymakers and attracting and retaining talented researchers from diverse backgrounds. Results of this workshop are expected to help build a more productive combustion research community.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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.
This grant funded three outreach activities hosted immediately prior to and during the U.S. National Meeting of the U.S. sections of the Combustion Institute (March 20–23, 2023). These outreach activities were an Early Career Investigator Workshop for Combustion Researchers planned for the weekend immediately prior to the start of the U.S. National Meeting, a Mentoring Mixer the evening of Monday, March 20, 2023, and a Women in Combustion Luncheon on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. All three events were designed to engage and support the combustion and fire research community in the United States.
The goal of the Early Career Investigator Workshop was to bring together a community of early-career combustion researchers and to form action committees to encourage early career participation in the combustion research community. The specific objectives of the workshop were to further develop three topics that the early career community agreed were high-priority items in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic (the changing landscape of funding in combustion and reaction sciences, combustion education best practices, and mentorship of trainees and graduate students), create collaborative networks amongst the participants across government, industry, and academia, and share ideas for future directions in the field. The goals of the Mentorship Mixer were to attract and retain a diverse group of researchers, to help promote career development in early career level members of the combustion community, and to facilitate new collaborations between research groups. The mentorship program was open to all members of the Combustion Institute in the U.S., connecting members from all career levels (students to industry experts and full professors) for support and career advice. Notably, this event included 91 mentees and 48 mentors. The mentors comprised 34 from academia (70.8%), 9 government (18.8%), 5 industry (10.4%), representing a population that provided diverse career perspectives for students and trainees attending the U.S. National Combustion Meeting. The goal of the Women in Combustion (WiC) luncheon was to continue the tradition of WiC activities to provide women at all levels of their career with avenues for this group to gather, talk about issues affecting women in a safe environment, and foster relationships within the combustion community.
The impact of all three events will be felt through the researchers who attended the events, particularly the early-career researchers. The networks that these researchers have built through these events will certainly support their career progression and potentially the quality of their technical work as they feel more supported and capable, and the future collaborations that they may form through this new network. The lessons learned from these events will be used to continually improve their offerings in the future, allowing for further extension of the impact. To date, additional mentoring mixers are being held at regional meetings of the Combustion Institute, and plans for events in additional professional organizations with combustion-adjacent colloquia are being formed.
Last Modified: 05/31/2024
Modified by: Daniel I Pineda
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