| Outcome/accomplishment:
Nearly three dozen participants in a special program aimed at improving
the diversity of science and engineering faculty, coming from across the
United States, participated in an Engineering Research Center's (ERC) annual
technical conference. These attendees were sponsored by a National
Science Foundation (NSF)-funded program known as ADVANCE, which has the
goal of increasing the participation and advancement of women in academic
science and engineering careers
Impact/benefits:
This highly successful event highlighted the value of creatively cross-pollinating
formal events with participants from diverse backgrounds. The ADVANCE participants
benefitted from the exposure to cutting-edge research and professional
development opportunities as well as from contacts with leading researchers
from academe and industry. Those institutions at which NSF funding supports
both ERCs and ADVANCE programs should be encouraged to host at least one
major joint event annually to improve interdisciplinary scholarship, increase
the ability of participants to engage globally, and enhance gender diversity.
Explanation/ background:
Over its 10-year history, the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing
and Imaging Systems (Gordon-CenSSIS), an NSF-funded ERC headquartered at
Northeastern University, has achieved broad diversity among its students
and faculty. Northeastern University is also an NSF-funded ADVANCE
Institutional Transformation site. The results of a collaborative
workshop between the ERC and ADVANCE suggest a new model to enhance gender
diversity at ERCs and other NSF-funded centers.
The annual ERC Research
& Industrial Collaboration Conference (RICC) brings academic and industrial
partners together to share latest research findings and explore investment
and employment prospects. To leverage opportunities presented by
this event, the ADVANCE program at Northeastern University held an Interdisciplinary
Networking Workshop on the topic of Sensing and Imaging Systems in conjunction
with the RICC. The ADVANCE participants (chosen from 200 applicants
from across the nation) attended pre-RICC sessions including topics such
as “Making your CV stand out,” “Interviewing skills,” “Negotiating a package,”
and “Finding a mentor.” ADVANCE participants also joined 250 ERC students,
faculty, researchers, and industrial representatives in sessions on applications
of interdisciplinary subsurface sensing and imaging advances. Several
of the presentations were provided by ERC female faculty.
One highlight of the RICC
is a poster session in which students present recent research findings
to industrial representatives and faculty. ADVANCE participants were
included among the 100 research poster presentations given, and their posters
were judged to be very impressive. |
