Track 1: Conference - Two Means to an End, Broadening participation research and practice - CAREER panel and workshop for DEIA leaders

CoNECD会议的愿景是为探索当前的研究和实践提供一个论坛，以加强工程和计算专业中所有未被充分代表的人群的多样性和包容性，包括性别认同和表达、种族和民族、残疾人、退伍军人、LGBTQ+、第一代和社会经济地位。CoNECD会议致力于组成我们的工程和计算工作人员的所有不同群体。该项目的目的有两个：1)在CoNECD会议上主持一个由CAREER获奖者组成的小组；2)提供一个会前研讨会，将来自工程学术单位的工程多样性领导者（edl）聚集在一起，进行研讨会，以提高他们的DEI（多样性、公平和包容性）技能，并创建一个专业人士社区。教师早期职业发展计划（CAREER）是美国国家科学基金会（nsf）范围内的一个项目，被认为是支持早期职业教师研究工作的最负盛名的奖项之一。它承认早期学术生涯发展的重要性，并强调研究与教育之间联系的重要性。这一领域的研究成果必须与从业人员和其他研究人员广泛共享，以获得研究成果的全部好处。edl的任务是培养包容的环境，并参与本科生、研究生和/或教师级别的保留和招聘工作。此外，他们还服务于一个社区，包括大学预科生、本科生、研究生和教职员工。然而，作为各自领域的领导者和专家，我们需要更多地了解这些人在各自学院和大学里的支持程度、专业发展机会和社区，这些都与他们的职责直接相关。将这一领域的研究人员聚集在一起，并通过研讨会设置中的信息共享提供实用知识，这对DEI领导的实践者来说至关重要。该项目将使知识和社区能够分享目前的做法，通过与负责实现这一目标的人开展DEI领导工作，扩大参与。预计这将使从业者能够驾驭政治、资源驱动和新环境，这些环境将增加从事工程和计算的未被充分代表和服务不足的个人的数量。创建一个由工程/工程技术学术单位的DEI领导者组成的社区，将有助于分享想法和最佳实践，以及发展指导关系。edl开展的工作对于实现工程/技术学院公平、包容和多样性的既定目标和愿景至关重要。他们的工作对一所大学实现DEI战略计划的尝试具有深远的影响。对于许多大学来说，这些职位都是新职位，相对而言，可供参考的经验、最佳实践和社区发展的研究有限。培养和鼓励一个支持这些人的社区是至关重要的，通过将个人彼此联系起来，分享知识和历史。这个实践社区可以共享必要的工具、资源和支持，以促进他们的职业目标和工作成功。此外，我们必须弥合研究与实践之间的鸿沟。通过CoNECD会议将从业者和研究人员带到同一个空间，该项目将使这些群体之间有更多的交流，并有助于将研究传播给那些最适合实施基于研究成果的干预措施的人。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The vision of the CoNECD (pronounced, “connected”) Conference is to provide a forum for exploring current research and practices to enhance diversity and inclusion of all underrepresented populations in the engineering and computing professions including gender identity and expression, race and ethnicity, disability, veterans, LGBTQ+, 1st generation and socio-economic status. The CoNECD Conference is dedicated to all the diverse groups that comprise our engineering and computing workforce. The purpose of this project is twofold: 1) to enable the hosting of a panel of CAREER awardees at the CoNECD Conference and 2) to provide a preconference workshop to bring together Engineering Diversity Leaders (EDLs) from engineering academic units for a workshop to enhance both their DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) skillsets and enable the creation of a community of professionals. The Faculty Early CAREER Development Program (CAREER) is an NSF-wide program recognized as one of the most prestigious awards supporting early career faculty research efforts. It recognizes the importance of early academic career development and emphasizes the importance of the link between research and education. Research results in this area must be broadly shared with practitioners and other researchers to reap the full benefits of the research outcomes. EDLs are tasked with fostering inclusive environments and attending to retention and recruitment efforts at the undergraduate, graduate, and/or faculty levels. Additionally, they serve a community that includes pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate students and faculty and staff. However, being brought in as leaders and experts in their field, more is needed to know about the degree of support, professional development opportunities, and community these individuals have within their respective colleges and universities that pertain directly to their responsibilities. Bringing together researchers in this space and providing practical knowledge through information sharing in a workshop setting can be pivotal for practitioners in DEI leadership.This project will enable knowledge and community sharing of current practices in broadening participation through DEI leadership work with those charged with achieving this goal. It is expected that this will enable the practitioners to navigate political, resource-driven, and new environments that will increase the numbers of underrepresented and underserved individuals who engage in engineering and computing. Creating a community of DEI leaders in engineering/engineering technology academic units will facilitate sharing of ideas and best practices, as well as the development of mentoring relationships. The work conducted by EDLs is critical in achieving the stated goals and vision of equity, inclusion, and diversity at the college of engineering/technology level. Their work can be far-reaching in a college’s attempt to fulfill its strategic plans for DEI. For many colleges, these roles are new positions and relatedly have a limited body of research to reference for experiences, best practices, and community development. It is vital to cultivate and encourage a community of support for these individuals by connecting individuals with each other to share knowledge and history. This community of practice can share necessary tools, resources, and support to further their career goals and work successes. Additionally, we must bridge the research-to-practice divide. By bringing practitioners and researchers into the same space via the CoNECD conference, this project will enable greater communication between these groups and aid in disseminating research to those most suitable to implement interventions based on the research outcomes.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.