| Outcome/accomplishment:
Alyssa Burger, the Education & Outreach (E&O) Director at the University
of Minnesota-based, NSF-funded Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Compact
and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP), took the lead in organizing a joint
ERC E&O booth at the annual meetings of the Society for Advancing Chicanos/Hispanics
and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), held in Anaheim CA in September
2010, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES),
held in Albuquerque NM in November 2010. Ms. Burger solicited eight
other ERCs to join her in advertising their outreach offerings to some
4,000 prospective students and 1,000 E&O professionals.
Impact/benefits:
NSF is dedicated to providing opportunities to student populations that
are normally underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) disciplines, with a view to engaging them in STEM studies and careers.
Participation by NSF-funded research and education organizations at events
such as SACNAS and AISES is one of the best venues for connecting with
such students.
Explanation/ background:
The ERCs provide two key opportunities to students to participate in STEM
disciplines; research experience and education in undergraduate and graduate
degree programs. In particular, all of the ERCs offer a “Research
Experiences for Undergraduate” (REU) program. This program supports
active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas
of research funded by the NSF. REU projects involve students in meaningful
ways in ongoing research programs. The program allows for students
to travel and participate in research projects at institutes other than
their own, usually for several weeks during the summer. The experience
broadens the students’ horizons and provides them with new social and technological
skills.
Making students aware of
research experiences and degree programs was the primary focus of the interactions
between ERC staff and SACNAS/AISES participants. The 2010 SACNAS
meeting was the largest in history, with over 3,000 undergraduate students,
1,000 post-doc/graduate students and 1,000 professionals. The eight participating
ERCs were: Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP), Center
for Structured Organic Particulate Systems (C-SOPS), ERC for Smart Lighting,
Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM), Revolutionizing
Metallic Biomaterials (RMB), Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere
(CASA), Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN) and Mid-Infrared Technologies
for Health and the Environment (MIRTHE)
Hosting a joint ERC booth
at SACNAS reduced the cost for participating Centers from $1250 for an
individual booth to $200 per Center. A joint ERC booth also allowed
for a one-stop recruiting shop for all STEM programs in the ERC family.
Essentially, it promotes the ERCs as an multi-institutional organization,
with multiple opportunities for research and degree programs. An
unintended result of the joint exhibition was each Center’s staff person
learning of the other programs in the ERC “family.” This helped to
cross-promote other Centers when students who were interested in fields
other than the specialty of the person with whom they were speaking requested
information.
The ERCs plan to attend the
SACNAS and AISES conferences again in 2011, and to bring more hands-on
examples of ERC research activities. The hope is to have most if
not all ERCs participate. For next year, a banner and a brochure
will be created that will give short descriptions of all ERCs’ research
and degree programs. These electronic materials will be sent to each
ERC to personalize and duplicate on their own for local recruiting.
Representatives from NSF
were so impressed with the ERC booth at SACNAS that they have asked the
ERCs to set up their booth next to the NSF-wide booth next year, which
means that a cooperative NSF presence will be in one geographic location
in the exhibit halls. Sharing a large exhibition space with the NSF
booth next year will also help reduce the bottom-line expense for ERCs
and presents an even greater variety of NSF research expertise. |
