Travel: Broader Engagement at 2024 SIAM Math of Data Science Conference

Sustainable Horizons Institute, Palm Desert

Investigators

Abstract

The U.S. national cyberinfrastructure (CI) serves as a crucial investment in support of translational research and education leading to deployable, scalable, and sustainable systems enabling transformative science and engineering. An important aspect of developing the national CI is broadening participation by a wide range of science and engineering disciplines, institutions, and underrepresented groups. The Broader Engagement program at the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) 2024 Math of Data Science (MDS24) conference is designed to provide innovative tools for developing the national CI ecosystem by creating opportunities for students from underrepresented groups to develop their professional standing while catalyzing the development of an inclusive data science community. The goal of Broader Engagement at the SIAM MDS24 conference is to increase the participation of students from underrepresented groups in data science by creating a welcoming experience in a mainstream professional society where the participants can learn and envision themselves with thriving data science careers. Building on successes of Broader Engagement programs at past Supercomputing and SIAM conferences and in response to SIAM’s request to expand BE to other conferences, the Broader Engagement program at MDS24 provides access to the conference program and opportunities for underrepresented students to present their research, as well as mentoring and career and professional development. Key innovations of the program include activities that expand and strengthen learning and increase the likelihood of student persistence while catalyzing broader community inclusion. The program will explore an intervention model for student engagement and retention developed by the Principal Investigator, using (1) academic/technical preparation, (2) psychosocial support, (3) career exploration, (4) professional development, and (5) leadership training, all interleaved through community building. 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.