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

美国在21世纪世纪全球经济中的持续竞争力依赖于维持一支训练有素的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）劳动力队伍。过去二十年来，美国在STEM相关学科的人均毕业生方面落后于越来越多的欧洲和亚洲国家。美国历史上第一次出现的一个更紧迫的需求和新情况是，K-12美国学生中的大多数是第一代和少数群体，他们在工程和其他STEM相关领域的代表性明显不足。代表性不足的妇女群体和少数民族在电气和计算机工程专业的参与率远远低于其在整个人口中所占的百分比。这一现实表明，在吸引学生到该领域方面，该学科存在系统性问题，并且正在讨论K-12教育中的成就差距。特别是在欧洲经委会内确定适当的榜样和指导者，被认为是提高参与者留在该专业的效率所必需的。项目连接的目标是直接解决上述问题，通过暴露代表性不足的学生在IEEE国际微波研讨会（IMS）社区内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的导师。 这些目标将通过IMS 2018年和2019年的项目连接编程工作来实现，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，指导和开发技术领域，从研究和开发到应用和近期工业计划。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）获得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的指导。国家科学基金会要求的支持是为2018年（宾夕法尼亚州费城）和2019年（马萨诸塞州波士顿）IMS Connect的学生参与者提供旅行津贴。IMS是世界上最大的RF/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，他们将参加一些专业发展活动，了解有抱负的微波工程师的学生活动，并与其他工程专业学生，专业人士和该领域的领导者会面和交流。选定的学生参与者还将了解微波产业和会议所在地区的当地文化。

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.