PGE/PG: Gender Composition and Engineering Team Processes

工程和科学领域越来越需要使用团队决策，以满足快速发展的技术社会的需要。尽管妇女在这些领域的决策过程中的参与历来受到限制，但这种情况正在改变。科罗拉多矿业学院目前正在调查第一年和第二年团队的性别构成如何影响其产品质量和团队成员个人的满意度。拟议的合作努力的目标是通过调查高级本科课程、研究生研究工作和工业环境中的混合性别团队，在现有研究的基础上再接再厉。申请规划资助的目的是完善合作战略，并确保必要的合作伙伴关系，以成功竞标合作资助。我们已将工作细分为四个工作包。工作包1验证了实验研究的结果，并调查了扩展到高年级本科生和其他大学的情况。工作包2和3将研究工作扩展到包括研究生课程和工业环境。工作包4审查了如何利用前三个工作包的结果来改进本科生和研究生课程。我们提出的不是四项独立的研究努力，而是一种支持跨工作包持续交换信息的战略，遵循学生在本科教育期间进入研究生院或行业的自然进步。这项研究的结果可能会提出混合性别团队做出成功决策的技术、支持策略和实践。

Engineering and science fields increasingly demand the use of team decision-making in order to meet needs of a rapidly developing technological society. Although women historically have been limited in their participation during decision-making processes within these fields, this situation is changing. The Colorado School of Mines is currently investigating how gender composition of teams in the first and second years affects quality of their products and satisfaction of individual team members. The goal of the proposed collaborative effort is to build upon current research by investigating mixed gender teams in upper level undergraduate courses, graduate research efforts, and industrial settings.The purpose of this request for a Planning Grant is to refine the collaborative strategy and to secure essential partnerships to bid successfully for a Collaboration Grant. We have subdivided the effort into four work packages. Work package 1 validates the results of the Experimental Study and investigates the extension to upper division undergraduate courses as well as other universities. Work packages 2 and 3 expand the research effort to include graduate programs and industrial settings. Work package 4 examines how results of the previous three work packages can be used to improved both undergraduate and graduate curricula. We are not proposing four independent research efforts, but rather a strategy that supports continual exchange of information across work packages following a natural progress that students follow through their undergraduate education into either graduate school or industry.Results of this study are likely to suggest techniques, supporting strategies, and practices by which mixed-gender teams can make successful decisions.