NSF Engineering Education and Centers: Stewarding a Community of Scholars, Leaders, and Innovators

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This project will assemble grantees and other relevant stakeholders who are part of the National Science Foundation's Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) division ecosystem to foster collaboration and create communities. EEC generally has 350 active awards at any one time, with grantees - known as Principal Investigators, or PIs - spread across the country at different institutions. Because PIs often work "siloed" from other people involved with EEC-funded activities, there is limited ability to share best practices, collaborate, and learn from mistakes and successes of other PIs. This award supports three Grantee Conferences held for the Engineering Education, Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Workforce Development clusters, two Centers and Networks Cluster Meetings, and three Thematic Meetings on (a) research opportunities for under-participating institutions, (b) the effects of socio-demographic trends on the national engineering workforce, and (c) participation of people with visible and invisible disabilities in engineering education.In recent years, ASEE has convened special meetings focusing on topics such as increasing participation of ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities in engineering, and transitioning veterans into engineering careers, among others. These thematic meetings have engaged thought leaders and influential stakeholders, informing the broader community about opportunities to advance these areas to further the education of engineering professionals. Meetings such as the ones proposed here are organized specifically to share knowledge and create strong networks between and among PIs, with facilitated communication given face-to-face interaction and collaboration (e.g., 2012 CBET Grantee Conference; CMMI 2012 Grantee Conference, 2014 STEP Grantees Meeting, 2014 ERC Meeting, 2015 CPS PI Meeting). ASEE is uniquely positioned to support and connect the EEC community, leveraging its reach and influence to accelerate innovation, dissemination, and adoption of best practices in engineering research, instruction, and diversity and inclusion. Meetings such as those proposed gather interested parties to engage in purposeful networking opportunities to (a) foster knowledge-sharing; (b) cultivate personal and professional relationships, collaborations, and partnerships; (c) inform participants about state-of-the-art and ongoing efforts in the field, and (d) generate insights and knowledge that inform the broader community about current trends via reports, briefs, articles, and online resources. Digital copies of meeting summary reports will be shared with all meeting attendees, and will be made available on the meeting website and publicized via American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) channels (e.g., First Bell, Connections).