Conference: Electricity Access Educators Workshop

吸引和留住本科工程专业学生是一个难题，也是国家利益之一。一个有效的方法，以增加工程专业学生的招聘和保留，特别是在代表性不足的群体，是通过将人道主义工程的主题和项目纳入课程，课外和课外活动。学生更有可能表现出兴趣，并坚持在工程，如果他们接触到工程的应用，以改善生活和生计的人在边缘化，资源不足，或处于危险之中的社区。然而，学生参与人道主义工程活动的情况因学科而异。虽然土木和机械工程专业的学生可能很容易看到他们的学科反映在更常见的人道主义工程活动，如清洁水和住房项目，电气工程专业的学生不太可能看到他们的学科和服务人类的连接。电气工程专业学生参与人道主义工程的一个未充分利用的切入点是电力供应领域。电力供应涉及到为目前没有电力的8亿人提供电力，不幸的是，活跃在这一领域的教师人数相对较少，没有专门为这些教育工作者服务的场所、专业协会或基础设施。这限制了电气工程专业学生可获得的人道主义工程经验的质量和数量，并扼杀了社区建设，学术交流和教师之间的合作机会。该项目将创建一个专门致力于加强和扩大电力接入本科工程教育的首个此类研讨会。该项目将召集来自行业，政府和非营利组织的约25名能源接入教育工作者和利益相关者参加为期两天的研讨会。研讨会议程包括有针对性的讨论、小组讨论和网络会议。在这些会议上，与会者将分享最佳做法，经验教训和创新理念的课程，课外活动，以及找出差距和挑战，如确定教材，建立当地的合作伙伴关系，并获得资金。将在讲习班前后进行调查，以初步了解电力普及教育的状况，制定讲习班议程，并评估讲习班在实现其目标方面取得的成功。讲习班的主要结论将通过出版物和专题介绍加以综合和传播。该研讨会将导致制定未来活动和基础设施的路线图，如额外的研讨会，电子邮件列表，课程材料和资源的共享，以及合作教学或应用研究。研讨会的参与者将从各种高等教育机构中招募，特别是在Priestival本科院校，部落学院和大学，以及历史上的黑人学院和大学。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Attracting and retaining undergraduate engineering students is a difficult problem, and one of national interest. One effective way to increase engineering student recruitment and retention, particularly among underrepresented groups, is by incorporating humanitarian engineering themes and projects into curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities. Students are more likely to show interest in and persist in engineering if they are exposed to the application of engineering to improve the lives and livelihoods of people in marginalized, under-resourced, or at-risk communities. However, student participation in humanitarian engineering activities varies unevenly by discipline. While civil and mechanical engineering students may easily see their disciplines reflected in the more common humanitarian engineering activities such as clean water and shelter projects, electrical engineering students are less likely to see the connection of their discipline and serving humanity. An underutilized entry point for electrical engineering students to engage with humanitarian engineering is in the field of electricity access. Electricity access is concerned with providing electricity to the 800 million people presently without it. Unfortunately, the number of faculty active in this area is relatively small, and there is no venue, professional association or infrastructure dedicated to serving these educators. This limits the quality and quantity of humanitarian engineering experiences available to electrical engineering students, and stifles community building, academic exchange and opportunities for collaboration among the faculty. This project will create a first-of-its-kind workshop dedicated solely to enhancing and expanding undergraduate engineering education in electricity access.The project will convene approximately 25 energy access educators and stakeholders from industry, government, and non-profit organizations for a two-day workshop. The workshop agenda includes targeted discussion, panel and networking sessions. In these sessions, participants will share best practices, lessons learned, and innovative ideas for curricular, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities as well as identify gaps and challenges such as identifying educational materials, establishing local partnerships, and acquiring funding. Pre- and post-workshop surveys will be given to create a preliminary snapshot of the state of electricity access education, shape the workshop agenda, and assess the success of the workshop in meeting its aims. The key findings of the workshop will be synthesized and disseminated through publications and presentations. The workshop will lead to the development a roadmap of future activities and infrastructure, such as additional workshops, email lists, sharing of course materials and resources, and collaborative pedagogical or applied research. The workshop participants will be recruited from a variety of higher education institutions, with particular emphasis on Primarily Undergraduate Institutions, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.