APS Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics

American Physical Society, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

This award to the American Physical Society supports the continued growth and improvement of the Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP), held annually since 2006. The conferences have two overarching goals: 1) to give undergraduate women the resources, motivation, and confidence to increase their retention in physics and related disciplines; and 2) to increase awareness by undergraduate women in physics of the wide range of career opportunities available to them. Regional conferences are held simultaneously to maximize student attendance by minimizing travel, to increase the excitement of the participants in a joint national venture, and to allow the interactive simulcast of a keynote address. The project aims to evaluate networking effectiveness, self-efficacy beliefs, physics identity, and outcome expectations of the participants. Through this research and the project evaluation, there is potential to gain new knowledge about issues facing undergraduate women in physics, as well as measures of the impact that conference activities such as these have on their attendees. The project will advance our understanding of factors that alter the trajectories of female students -- a population that remains underrepresented in physics -- as they pursue undergraduate degrees in physics. This project is supported jointly by two divisions of NSF's Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate: the Division of Physics and the Division of Materials Research.