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保持一支训练有素的科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）劳动力队伍。与越来越多的欧洲和亚洲国家相比，过去20年的重点是美国在stem相关学科的人均毕业生方面的落后。美国历史上第一次出现的更迫切的需求是，美国K-12学生中的大多数是第一代少数族裔学生，他们在工程和其他STEM相关领域的代表性明显不足。代表人数不足的妇女和少数群体参加电气和计算机工程（欧洲经委会）的人数远远低于其在整个人口中所占的百分比。这一现实既表明了该学科在吸引学生进入该领域方面存在的系统性问题，也表明了正在进行的关于K-12教育成就差距的讨论。特别是在欧洲经委会内确定适当的榜样和导师被认为是必要的，以提高留在该行业的参与者的效率。项目连接的目标是通过在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的导师，让未被充分代表的学生直接解决上述问题。这些目标将通过项目连接的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，以了解从研发到应用和近期工业计划等技术领域的指导和发展。IMS连接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；(3)获得作为教育工作者、从业者、研究人员和行业领导者活跃在该领域的榜样和潜在导师的指导。美国国家科学基金会要求的支持是2018年（宾夕法尼亚州费城）和2019年（马萨诸塞州波士顿）IMS Connect学生参与者的旅行津贴。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，在会议期间，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。选定的学生参加者还将了解会议地点地区的微波工业和当地文化。

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.