ADVANCE CHALLENGE: TOPS--Target of Opportunity Strategies - Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Engineering

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The Pratt School of Engineering (Pratt) at Duke University proposes an effective program to increase the diversity, including gender diversity - in the engineering academy. Pratt's success in hiring outstanding women faculty in engineering was accomplished by reserving one to two faculty lines each year at the School level for departments and strategic initiative leaders to compete for by recruiting targets of opportunity. TOPS is more than a recruiting strategy. It is an effective and sustainable methodology for attracting underrepresented faculty to the engineering academy. It consists of developing a longitudinal database of outstanding under-represented students at various stages of their graduate studies (with a focus on minority women), tracking their progress, having consistent interactions with these students over time, encouraging them to pursue an academic career, making home visits to their respective institutions, inviting them to Duke for visits, and ultimately recruiting them into the academy. TOPS aims to overcome a key entry barrier--the inclusion factor. To help transform the engineering discipline, the TOPS methods and results are disseminated to the engineering and science communities through the TOPS web site, coaching clinics, and research publications. The TOPS program collaborates with complementary programs. Pratt plans to recruit faculty who are applying their talents, in part, to improve the quality of life, life without pain, without fear, and in harmony with the environment.Intellectual Merits: Through the TOPS program, important social research presents data regarding critical mass versus tokenism; comparative studies on the experiences of students and faculty within Pratt to a comparison group of equivalents in science departments; and evaluate the perception that engineering is a masculine field and is not a people-oriented discipline. TOPS is committed to a rigorous assessment and study of the proposed methods, techniques, and impacts.Broader Impacts: Through TOPS, Pratt develops Best Practices for recruiting, retaining, andadvancing under-represented, particularly female, faculty in engineering and science. The dissemination of these Best Practices are expected to positively impact engineering and science disciplines, and the nation by enhancing the country's ability to solve problems and create a better world.