IRES Track III: Global Engineering Education Exchange Graduate International Research Experiences (Global E? GIRE)

Institute Of International Education Inc, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the Institute of International Education (IIE) to manage the Global Engineering Education Exchange Graduate International Research Experiences (Global E3 GIRE) program. The program supports research experiences abroad for American graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields to develop the knowledge and skills to succeed in a globalized world while increasing collective scientific knowledge, thus enhancing U.S. economic competitiveness. Students are introduced to new research approaches and methods in an international setting, which improves their expertise and qualifications as scientists and engineers, and allows them to contribute to the global scientific community. Expanding the international perspectives of future STEM leaders in the U.S. enables them to produce creative, original, and collaborative work that will advance America's scientific knowledge and pursue solutions to shared global problems. Emerging American STEM leaders build relationships with their peers in other countries through long-term collaborative research, which in turn leads to future partnerships between the global host institutions participating in Global E3 GIRE and the current and future research institutions with which the U.S. participants are affiliated. The Global E3 GIRE program enhances U.S. leadership in STEM education and strengthens economic competitiveness by developing America's STEM researchers and future leaders who are not only superb engineers and scientists, but also have the research knowledge and skills, cross-cultural leadership, communication abilities, and international networks to advance STEM innovation in a globalized world. The Institute of International Education (IIE) manages the program, which provides approximately 75 American STEM graduate students from diverse backgrounds, institutions, and fields of study with international long-term research experiences and short-term study tours between fall 2018 and summer 2021. Participants hone their research skills through exposure to international methods and approaches, develop global competencies such as intercultural leadership and communication abilities, expand their professional networks of host country peers and participants from other U.S. institutions, and gain exposure to private sector STEM employers. Through outreach and support for U.S. faculty advisors, the program encourages their international activities and networks as well, while also promoting their ongoing support for graduate student research abroad. 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.