Track 3: Mentoring for the Formation of Research Careers in Engineering (M-FORCE)

NSF和许多其他机构长期以来一直认识到，需要在工程劳动力的各个层面上更多地参与代表不足的少数群体(URM)。尽管过去十年取得了一些进展，但很明显，市建局在从本科培训到劳动力参与和职业发展的道路上，往往会遇到代表较多的同行没有遇到的社会和个人障碍。我们相信，研究生院层面的关键辅导策略，以及有针对性地向本科生介绍研究和辅导机会，将有助于增加进入工程工作队伍的URM的数量，并提高URM在高水平工程职业中茁壮成长所需的体验质量。特别是，我们的目标是提供“最佳实践”指导，使URM工程学研究生能够更好地理解和设想1)基于研究的工程职业；2)解决复杂问题所需的跨学科、基于团队的方法；以及3)通过技术转让将解决方案转化为市场的方法。拥有这样的理解和愿景，通常是通过有效的指导实现的，对于培养未来的行业、学术界和政府的技术领导者从研究生教育中需要的领导力、沟通和专业能力至关重要。为了实现我们的目标，我们建议对工程研究职业生涯的形成进行指导，或M-FORCE。这个创新的、包容的、开放访问的指导中心旨在满足NSF扩大工程参与计划(NSF 22-514)第三轨道的目标。M-FORCE是明尼苏达大学、摩根州立大学和国家宝石联盟的合作伙伴关系，将为URM工程研究生创造归属感和包容性，这将增进对研究企业及其职业道路的了解。它还将为协作社区提供一个模型，可以适用于任何研究生项目。通过M-FORCE中心收集的数据将有助于加深以下方面的理解：1)集体和个人辅导在改善URM研究生院培训和职业发展经验方面所起的作用；2)辅导和网络形成如何影响研究生的归属感和包容性，从而强烈影响他们对工程研究生涯的考虑；3)早期接触研究职业概念如何影响URM研究生追求和完成终极学位的动机；以及4)参与研究和研究生准备活动如何影响URM本科生对工程研究职业的兴趣和决定。M-FORCE将利用像HBCU这样的少数族裔服务机构的最佳实践，这些机构在为URM工程本科生和研究生提供社区和归属感方面一直表现出色。它还将利用非常高研究水平的R1大学(主要是白人)的最佳实践，这些大学一直在将研究从孤立的方法转变为解决当今复杂问题所需的融合方法。最后，M-FORCE将使URM本科生接触到研究和正式的研究生院准备工作，并获得难得的机会，与从事研究并准备成为技术领域领导者的URM研究生见面。五年后，我们的中心模式将可为任何校园研究社区定制，以支持和准备URM工程研究生，特别是第一代大学生。它还将在机构和项目结构中提供公平和公平的典范，可以补充对工程学研究生的正式学术培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

NSF and many others have long recognized the need for more underrepresented minority (URM) participation at every level of the engineering workforce. While some progress has been made in the past decade, it is clear that URMs tend to encounter social and personal obstacles that their well-represented counterparts do not face as they navigate the road from undergraduate training to workforce participation and career development. We believe that key mentoring strategies at the graduate school level, along with targeted introductions to research and mentoring opportunities for undergraduates, will help increase both the quantity of URMs entering the engineering workforce and the quality of experiences URMs need to thrive in high-level engineering careers. In particular, we aim for “best practices” mentoring that enables URM engineering graduate students to better understand and envision 1) research-based engineering careers; 2) transdisciplinary, team-based approaches needed to solve complex problems; and 3) ways to translate solutions into the market through technology transfer. Having such an understanding and vision, typically achieved by effective mentorship, is crucial for developing the leadership, communications, and professional competencies that future technology leaders in industry, academia, and government need from graduate education. To accomplish our goals, we propose Mentoring for the Formation of Research Careers in Engineering, or M-FORCE. This innovative, inclusive, open-access mentoring hub is designed to meet the goals of Track 3 of NSF’s Broadening Participation in Engineering program (NSF 22-514). M-FORCE, which is a partnership between the University of Minnesota, Morgan State University, and the National GEM Consortium, will create belonging and inclusion for URM engineering graduate students that will enhance knowledge of the research enterprise and its career pathways. It will also provide a model for a collaborative community that can be adapted to any graduate program. Data collected through the M-FORCE hub will advance understanding of 1) the role that collective and individual mentoring can play in improving URM graduate school training and career development experiences; 2) how mentoring and network formation impacts graduate students’ perception of belonging and inclusion, which strongly influences their consideration of a research career in engineering; 3) how early exposure to research career concepts impact URM graduate student motivation to pursue and complete terminal degrees; and 4) how exposure to research and graduate school preparation activities influences URM undergraduates’ interest in and decisions about research careers in engineering. M-FORCE will leverage the best practices of minority serving institutions like HBCUs, which have been exceptional at providing community and a sense of belonging to URM engineering undergraduate and graduate students. It will also leverage best practices of very high-research R1 (and predominately white) universities that have been transitioning research from siloed to convergent approaches that are needed to solve today’s complex problems. Finally, M-FORCE will give URM undergraduates exposure to research and formal graduate school preparation and the rare opportunity to meet a critical mass of URM graduate students performing research and preparing to become leaders in technology fields. After five years, our hub model will be customizable for any campus research community to support and prepare URM engineering graduate students, especially first-generation college students. It will also provide a model of fairness and equity in institutional and program structures that can supplement formal academic training for engineering graduate students.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.