Conference: Impact: Redefining Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty (iREDEFINE ECE)

Electrical And Computer Engineering Department Heads Association, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Despite many efforts to increase diversity among electrical and computer engineering (ECE) faculty, the number of women and underrepresented minority (URM) ECE faculty remains alarmingly low. Only 15.5% of electrical engineering and 22.9% of computer engineering faculty are female identifying. Only 3.2% of electrical engineering and 4.4% of computer engineering faculty are African American. Similarly, 3.3% of electrical engineering faculty and 6.2% of computer engineering faculty are Hispanic. Research suggests that role models are extremely important in attracting URM and women students to engineering. The lack of faculty role models is one of the major contributing factors to low persistence of women and URM students in ECE programs, thus perpetuating the cycle of underrepresentation. The goal of the iREDEFINE workshop is to 1) motivate and prepare women and URM PhD students to pursue ECE faculty positions in US universities; 2) gather preliminary data on what motivates them to pursue either academic or industry careers; 3) collect preliminary information about the institutional support services currently offered to women and URM PhD students to help them with their career choice. The iREDEFINE workshop is being held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) thus providing a unique opportunity for the iREDEFINE Fellows to network with department chairs and learn about their programs, potential faculty positions, and expectations from new faculty, as well as participate in mock academic interviews with department heads. The iREDEFINE Fellows will also present their research accomplishments and engage in dedicated programming including sessions on negotiation strategies; different types of academic institutions; balancing teaching, research, and service; and navigating the academic job search. By directly impacting 12 women and URM participants, the iREDEFINE workshop will help to increase the number of diverse students applying for academic positions in ECE departments and prepare them for successful academic careers. I addition, this initiative will also advance the knowledge about successful strategies to broaden the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in the ECE professoriate. 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.