Future Faculty Workshop: Grooming Diverse Leaders for the Future, Summers of 2016-2018

未来教师研讨会：为未来培养多元化的领导者，2016-2018 年夏季

• 批准号: 1642025
• 负责人: Thomas Epps
• 金额: $ 18.9万
• 依托单位: University of Delaware
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2019-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1642025&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Future; Faculty; Workshop; Grooming; Diverse

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: A major challenge to American technological and societal advancement is to effectively harness our diverse talent and human resources in science and engineering. Without developing a future generation of talented individuals from a range of social, economic, and racial backgrounds and genders, the United States will become less technologically competitive. Despite the numerous activities that attempt to address this issue, the continued and disproportionally low engagement of underrepresented groups remains a major hurdle. In this project, a series of two-day Future Faculty Workshops (FFWs) have been created to better enable underrepresented scientists (minorities, women, persons with disabilities, first-generation college students, etc.) to compete for, and obtain, faculty positions in areas related to Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Biomaterials, Polymer Science and Soft Materials Physics. The FFW is tackling two factors that are key to adding academic diversity. First, the FFW is designed to provide information and intellectual content to reduce the knowledge gap and improve confidence in the journey toward professorship in an active-learning and highly-engaging workshop environment. Second, sustainable and highly productive mentor-mentee and mentee-mentee networks are formed by pairing students/postdoctoral associates with active and invested research mentors to develop career-long relationships. The outcome-based FFW framework, as well as the detailed assessment protocols and metrics, are expected to serve as a blueprint for subsequent efforts and best practices in all areas of science and engineering. As a long-term benefit, the act of increasing the proportion of underrepresented groups in the science and engineering academic realm is one of the most transformational and effective mechanisms for enhancing overall diversity in the future science and engineering workforce.TECHNICAL DETAILS: Three two-day Future Faculty Workshops (one each summer) are designed to mentor a diverse cadre of senior graduate students and postdoctoral researchers with an interest in materials science and engineering, specifically soft materials and biomaterials. A key goal of the workshops is to better enable underrepresented scientists (minorities, women, first-generation college students, persons with disabilities, etc.) to compete for, and obtain, assistant professor faculty positions in soft materials research. Additionally, the workshops are expected to serve as a blueprint for subsequent efforts in all areas of materials science and engineering. This effort is necessary because increasing the proportion of underrepresented groups in the science and engineering academic realm is one of the most effective mechanisms for enhancing overall diversity in the future science and engineering workforce. Thus, the workshops herein address several necessary aspects on the road toward assistant professorship, such as creating long-term and sustainable mentor networks, disseminating the "written" and "unwritten" rules of the professorship process, providing feedback on mentee proposed research topics, and instilling confidence in navigating the application process. Hosting approximately 45-50 mentees and 15-20 mentors per summer, the workshops provide the mentees with information on the path to academia through (i) significant discussion-based interactions describing the steps along the academic pathway, (ii) select faculty research lectures in emerging areas of interdisciplinary research, (iii) numerous networking sessions, and (iv) active-learning (student/postdoctoral associate-led) presentations and role-playing of application, interview, and workplace scenarios. A logic model platform, pre- and post-workshop surveys, longer-term follow-up questionnaires, and independent workshop observers add to the dynamic and adaptable framework of the workshops and permit detailed assessment and refinement during the 3-year period and beyond.

非技术描述：美国技术和社会进步的一个主要挑战是有效利用我们在科学和工程领域的多样化人才和人力资源。如果不培养来自不同社会、经济、种族背景和性别的下一代人才，美国的技术竞争力将会下降。尽管有许多活动试图解决这个问题，但代表性不足群体的参与度持续且不成比例地低仍然是一个主要障碍。在该项目中，创建了一系列为期两天的未来教师研讨会（FFW），以更好地使代表性不足的科学家（少数民族、妇女、残疾人、第一代大学生等）能够竞争并获得教师化学、化学工程、材料科学与工程、生物材料、高分子科学和软材料物理相关领域的职位。 FFW 正在解决对于增加学术多样性至关重要的两个因素。首先，FFW 旨在提供信息和知识内容，以缩小知识差距并提高在主动学习和高度参与的研讨会环境中获得教授职位的信心。其次，通过将学生/博士后助理与积极且投入的研究导师配对，形成可持续且高效的导师-受训者和受训者-受训者网络，以发展职业生涯的关系。基于结果的 FFW 框架以及详细的评估协议和指标预计将成为科学和工程所有领域后续努力和最佳实践的蓝图。作为一项长期利益，增加科学和工程学术领域中代表性不足的群体的比例的行为是增强未来科学和工程劳动力整体多样性的最具变革性和最有效的机制之一。技术细节：三个二-日未来教师研讨会（每年夏天一次）旨在指导对材料科学和工程，特别是软材料和生物材料感兴趣的多元化高级研究生和博士后研究人员。研讨会的一个关键目标是更好地使代表性不足的科学家（少数民族、女性、第一代大学生、残疾人等）能够竞争并获得软材料研究领域的助理教授教职职位。此外，这些研讨会预计将成为材料科学和工程所有领域后续工作的蓝图。这项努力是必要的，因为增加科学和工程学术领域中代表性不足的群体的比例是增强未来科学和工程劳动力整体多样性的最有效机制之一。因此，这里的研讨会讨论了助理教授道路上的几个必要方面，例如创建长期和可持续的导师网络，传播教授过程的“成文”和“不成文”规则，对受训者提出的研究主题提供反馈，并灌输对申请过程的信心。研讨会每年夏天接待大约 45-50 名学员和 15-20 名导师，通过以下方式为学员提供通往学术界之路的信息：(i) 重要的基于讨论的互动，描述学术道路上的步骤，(ii) 选择教师研究讲座在跨学科研究的新兴领域，(iii) 众多的网络会议，以及 (iv) 主动学习（学生/博士后助理主导）的演讲和应用、面试和工作场景的角色扮演。逻辑模型平台、研讨会前后调查、长期跟踪问卷和独立研讨会观察员增加了研讨会的动态和适应性框架，并允许在三年及以后进行详细的评估和完善。