Bridge to the Future for GIs: Crucial Education for Operation Rebuild America

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Georgia Tech proposes to respond to the national needs of building infrastructure, returning GIs, and dearth of U.S. trained engineers by using this planning grant to create an innovate, interdisciplinary graduate program to prepare Post-9-11 veterans for leadership in the national initiative to rebuild America?s infrastructure. Intellectual Merit: In order to create the innovative, interdisciplinary graduate program to prepare the Post-9/11 veterans for leadership in rebuilding the U.S. Infrastructure, Georgia Tech (GT) proposes first to initiate an extensive survey about the needs and interest of Post-9/11 GIs in graduate engineering educations and the career leadership positions likely to be open to them after receiving graduate degrees. These data would be made widely available to all institutions so that they could plan for the influx of returning GIs. GT then proposes to develop an innovative model interdisciplinary PhD that capitalizes on the skills and military experience in planning, implementation, and leading teams of Post-9/11 returning GIs, to prepare them for civilian occupational leadership positions to rebuild and recreate the U.S. infrastructure of roads, schools, health, governance, energy, IT and utility systems, as proposed by the new administration in Washington. The planning grant would be used in the following five areas: 1) to assess the size of the population of Post-9/11 Bill eligible individuals potentially interested in pursuing graduate degrees in engineering nationally and locally; 2) to determine and develop the curriculum that would be most appropriate for both their interests and the national infrastructure leadership needs; 3) to assess and understand the types of curricular, con-curricular and other support services needed to help these individuals be successful in pursing graduate work; 4) to assess the career opportunities and placement available to Post-9/11 GIs with engineering PhDs; and 5) to develop relationships with the organizations vital for sustaining the program and for career opportunities and placement. Broader Impact: The interdisciplinary PhD to be developed by Georgia Tech would serve as a model that could be scaled and modified for implementation at other institutions. Because of its history with both the military and engineering, Georgia Tech is a logical place to implement a PhD. A major research university, ranked number four in graduate engineering, Georgia Tech is the largest producer of engineering, including PhD graduates, in the United States. Georgia Tech also has a long and successful relationship with the U.S. Armed Forces; Amy, Navy, and Air Force ROTC unites that also serve metro Atlanta institutions, including Georgia State University, Emory, Morehouse, Spelman, and Agnes Scott, report to the Ivan Allen College at GT. Other factors, such as the large number of military bases in the state, a law allowing out-of-state active duty persons to pay in-state tuition, an active group of military alumni, and preliminary data on the relatively large number of ROTC officers who return to graduate work at GT and the large number of reservists currently activated from Georgia suggest that the proposed interdisciplinary graduate program would have a sufficient target audience. The focus of the program on recreating the U.S. infrastructure would fill a critical national need, while providing the Post-9/11 GIs with education needed to assume leadership positions in infrastructure rebuilding. This new degree program provides the PhD educational complement to the research addressing the challenges of American?s aging infrastructure.