Collaborative Research: Professional Preparation of Underrepresented Minority PhD's and Post-Docs for a Career in Engineering Academia

美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）、美国高等教育部（U.S. Department of Higher Education）以及全国各大学的管理人员一致认为，增加STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）领域未被充分代表的人口是一项重要的国家需求。最近，为了纠正STEM学科中代表性不足的人口的不足，大多数活动都集中在从小学到本科大学学位（K-16）的举措上。这些举措在提高美国劳动力多样性方面取得了重大进展，但对即将毕业的博士生进入学术领域担任专业职位的人数影响甚微。考虑到培养受过大学教育的未来一代的主要可持续方法是多样化的STEM教师队伍，教师多样化的缺乏令人担忧。这个合作项目由阿克伦大学领导，与密西西比州立大学和休斯顿大学合作，目的是增加那些追求学术事业的工程领域代表性不足的人群的参与。为参与者提供STEM教育的额外培训将产生更多准备好的工程教育工作者，这将导致装备更好的工程师进入劳动力市场。同样，为获得研究经费提供额外的技能将有助于参与者在其职业生涯的各个阶段取得成功。通过提供学术榜样/导师，增加未被充分代表的教师人数，可以对增加进入并留在工程学科的未被充分代表的人数产生长期可持续的影响。本研究的研究部分将增加基于职业发展问题的国家知识，并为培养博士生和博士后助理的实践提供信息。拟议的项目建立在研究人员为期1.5天的研讨会的基础上，该研讨会的重点是为学术界的博士和博士后学员做好准备。我们的研究结果支持了之前的结果，确定了大多数新教员，无论他们是否接受过博士后培训，都没有为学术界做好充分的准备。该项目将通过一系列为期两周的夏季强化专业准备课程，结合为期一年的活动，为博士和博士后学生提供广泛、密集的专业准备，在教学和研究领域提供实际的动手培训。参与者将有机会撰写旅行提案，以获得与联邦拨款协调员会面或参加教育/技术会议的资金。每年，该方法将在一所合作机构实施和主持，参与者将从主办大学、200英里半径内的机构招募，以及每个合作机构的两名参与者。这一努力有可能显著增加工程领域中追求学术事业的未被充分代表的人口数量。

The National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Higher Education, and department administrators from universities across the country agree that increasing underrepresented populations in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields is an important national need. Most of the recent activities to rectify the deficiency of underrepresented populations in STEM disciplines have focused on initiatives from grade school to undergraduate college degrees (K-16). These initiatives have made significant advances to enhancing the diversity of the US work force, however they have had minimal effect on the number of graduating PhD students entering professional positions as faculty in academic fields. The lack of faculty diversification is alarming, considering that the primary sustainable method for developing future college-educated generations is a diverse STEM faculty. The goal of this collaborative project led by the University of Akron, in partnership with Mississippi State University and the University of Houston, is to increase the participation of underrepresented populations in engineering that pursue academic careers. Providing participants with additional training in STEM education will yield more prepared engineering educators, which will lead to better-equipped engineers entering the workforce. Similarly, affording additional skills to obtain research funding will assist with participants' ability to succeed at all stages of their careers. An increase in underrepresented faculty could have a long-term sustainable impact on increasing the number of underrepresented populations that enter and are retained in engineering disciplines by providing academic role models/mentors. The research component of this study will add to the national knowledge based on issues of career progression and inform practices on training doctoral students and postdoctoral associates. The proposed project builds upon the findings of the investigators 1.5 day workshops that focused on preparing PhD and postdoctoral trainees for academia. Our findings, which supported previous outcomes, determined that most new faculty members, whether they had postdoctoral training or not, were not adequately prepared for academia. The proposed project will provide expanded, intensive professional preparation for PhD and postdoctoral students through a series of two-week intensive summer professional preparation courses in conjunction with year-long activities to offer practical hands-one training in the areas of teaching and research. Participants will be provided an opportunity to write a travel proposal to receive funds to meet with a federal grant coordinator or attend an educational/technical conference. Each year the approach will be implemented and hosted at one of the collaborating institutions with participants recruited from the host university, institutions within a 200 mile radius, as well as a two from each of the collaborating institutions. This effort has potential to significantly increase the numbers of underrepresented populations in engineering fields that pursue academic careers.