AGEP: FACES: Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Science

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Intellectual Merit: The FACES program is a significant ongoing commitment by the GeorgiaInstitute of Technology, Emory University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College toincrease the national representation of minorities (URMs) in the engineering and thesciences professoriate. The program is comprised of several components, and the aggregateprogram addresses each critical step along the path to an academic career. To provide amechanism for the early recruitment of students into research and academic careers, FACESwill establish a Research Careers Office at Morehouse College. Furthermore, undergraduateswho have completed their sophomore year are provided summer and academic year researchexperiences as a means of promoting their interest in research and graduate schoolattendance. These students are then encouraged to enroll in graduate programs using aseries of recruitment efforts at national events such as the NSBE Annual Convention orAnnual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), campus visits andtours, and a lecture/workshop series on the merit of graduate school and careers inacademia. Admitted Georgia Tech and Emory graduate students are supported on doctoralfellowship supplements throughout their matriculation. Graduate student support isprovided by means of a stipend which increases in value as the student meets the criticalmilestones along the way toward the Ph.D. Another portion of these funds is used tosupport travel to technical meetings for research presentations. Finally, senior doctoralstudents compete for Career Initiation Grants, which they may use as start-up funds toassist in establishing their research programs in their initial academic appointments.Assessment of program outcomes will be performed annually.Broader Impact: This program is a blending of the resources of these universities to focusspecifically on increasing the production of URMs who earn engineering and sciencedoctoral degrees. This proposal has been initiated by African American faculty who arecommitted to this goal and recognize that success breeds success. Recruiting, mentoringand academic support programs initiated by Georgia Tech, Emory, Morehouse and Spelman havebeen quite successful in increasing retention, grades, and overall production of URMdegree candidates. Our partnership has created a pipeline of successful African Americanundergraduates and this proposal describes a doctoral-focused program that builds on thesuccessful undergraduate efforts. As one of the leading producers of minority engineersand scientists, this alliance is ideally positioned to increase the national production ofAfrican American students who earn doctorates and promote their representation in academiccareers. With the assistance of NSF funding to keep the program elements in place, FACESwill continue to provide a mechanism to "change the face" of the national engineering andscience professoriate, substantially improving the current dearth of underrepresentedengineering and science faculty.