Underrepresented Engineering Students: Travel/Training Grant to Attend the International Microwave Symposium

美国在 21 世纪全球经济中的持续竞争力依赖于维持训练有素的科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 劳动力。过去二十年，人们关注的焦点是美国在 STEM 相关学科的人均毕业生数量方面落后于越来越多的欧洲和亚洲国家。美国历史上首次出现的一个更紧迫的需求是，新兴的大多数 K-12 美国学生都是第一代且来自少数群体，他们在工程和其他 STEM 相关领域的代表性明显不足。电气和计算机工程 (ECE) 领域代表性不足的女性和少数族裔群体的参与程度远远低于其在总人口中的代表性。这一现实既指出了该学科在吸引学生进入该领域方面存在的系统性问题，也受到了关于 K-12 教育中成绩差距的持续讨论的影响。特别是在儿童早教领域，确定适当的榜样和导师被认为是提高参与者从事该行业的效率所必需的。 Project Connect 的目标是通过向代表性不足的学生提供 IEEE 国际微波研讨会 (IMS) 社区中与电子和通信等广泛技术领域相关的令人兴奋的机会和潜在导师来直接解决上述问题。 这些目标将通过 Project Connect 的 IMS 2018 和 2019 规划工作来实现，该项目将代表性不足的大学生带到研讨会上，与大学和行业专业人士接触，在从研究和开发到应用和近期工业计划等技术领域进行接触、指导和开发。 IMS Connect 计划的三个主要目标是提供以下内容：(1) 有关射频/微波行业的教育，(2) 对职业机会和期望的认识，以及 (3) 接触活跃在该领域的教育工作者、从业者、研究人员和行业领导者的榜样和潜在导师并获得指导。美国国家科学基金会请求的支持是为 2018 年（宾夕法尼亚州费城）和 2019 年（马萨诸塞州波士顿）参加 IMS Connect 的学生提供旅行津贴。 IMS 是世界上最大的射频/微波工程师会议。被选中参加 IMS Connect 的学生将参加为期四天的会议，其中他们将参加多项专业发展活动，了解有抱负的微波工程师的学生活动，并与该领域的其他工程专业学生、专业人士和领导者会面和建立联系。选定的学生参与者还将了解会议所在地的微波行业和当地文化。

U.S. continued competitiveness in the global economy of the 21st century relies on maintaining a well-trained science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce. The last two decades have focused on the U.S. lag in terms of the per capita graduates in STEM-related disciplines compared to an increasing number of European and Asian countries. A more pressing need and new for the first time in U.S. history is that the emerging majority of K-12 U.S. students are first-generation and from minority groups, who are significantly under-represented in engineering and other STEM -elated fields. The participation of underrepresented groups of women and minorities in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is far below their percentage representation of the population as a whole. This reality points to both systemic problems within the discipline in terms of attracting students to the field and suffers from the on-going discussions about achievement gaps in the K-12 education. The identification of appropriate role models and mentors within ECE in particular is deemed necessary to increase the efficiency of participants staying with the profession. The objectives of Project Connect are to directly address the aforementioned problems by exposing underrepresented students to exciting opportunities and potential mentors within the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) community related to broad technology areas such as electronics and communications. These objectives will be met through the IMS 2018 and 2019 programming effort of Project Connect, which brings underrepresented university students to the symposium to engage with the university and industry professionals for exposure, guidance, and development in technical areas ranging from research and development, to applications and near-term industrial initiatives. The three primary objectives for the IMS Connect Program are to provide the following:(1)education about the rf/microwave industry,(2)awareness on career opportunities and expectations, and (3)access to and guidance from role models and potential mentors who are active in the field as educators, practitioners, researchers, and industry leaders. The support being requested from the National Science Foundation is for travel stipends for the student participants in IMS Connect for 2018 (Philadelphia, PA) and 2019 (Boston, MA). IMS is the largest conference in the world for RF/microwave engineers. Students who are selected to participate in IMS Connect will attend the conference for four days, in which they will participate in several professional development activities, learn about student activities for aspiring microwave engineers, and meet and network with other engineering students, professionals, and leaders in the field. Selected student participants will also learn about microwave industries and local cultures in the conference location region.