Conference: Electricity Access Educators Workshop

吸引和留住工科本科生是一个难题，也是一个事关国家利益的问题。增加招收和留住工程学学生的一个有效方法是将人道主义工程主题和项目纳入课程、联合课程和课外活动。如果学生接触到工程学的应用，以改善边缘化、资源不足或面临风险的社区的人们的生活和生计，他们就更有可能对工程学表现出兴趣并坚持下去。然而，学生参与人道主义工程活动的情况因学科而异。虽然土木工程和机械工程专业的学生可能很容易看到他们的学科在更常见的人道主义工程活动中得到反映，如清洁水和避难所项目，但电气工程专业的学生不太可能看到他们的学科与服务于人类的联系。电气工程专业学生从事人道主义工程的一个未得到充分利用的切入点是电力供应领域。电力供应涉及为目前没有电力供应的8亿人提供电力。不幸的是，活跃在这一领域的教职员工数量相对较少，而且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、学术交流和教职员工之间的合作机会。该项目将创建一个首创的研讨会，专门致力于加强和扩大本科生的电力获取工程教育。该项目将召集来自行业、政府和非营利组织的约25名能源获取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，与会者将分享课程、联合课程和课外活动的最佳做法、经验教训和创新想法，并确定差距和挑战，如确定教育材料、建立地方伙伴关系和获得资金。将进行讲习班前和讲习班后的调查，以初步了解电力普及教育的状况，确定讲习班的议程，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综合起来，并通过出版物和专题介绍加以传播。讲习班将为今后的活动和基础设施制定路线图，例如额外的讲习班、电子邮件清单、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不同的高等教育机构招募，特别强调主要是本科生机构、部落学院和大学，以及历史上的黑人学院和大学。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。

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.