2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

[Program Name}: [Top-5 RI Engineering Institution]/[Top-5 HBCU] Collaborative to Increase CHIP Computer Engineering Research Pathways and Workforce Development

[Author's Name]

[University/Institute]

ABSTRACT (Work-in-Progress Submission)

Keywords: Computer Science; Engineering; Undergraduate; Race/Ethnicity

Collaboratively responding to the national security crisis resulting in the 52.7-billion-dollar 2024 bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, [top-5 RI] Computer Engineering program and [top-5 HBCU] Computer Science program (in local proximity) are partnering via a collaborative, funded by an NSF CISE-MSI level-1 three-year planning grant beginning October 2023 and currently completing its first year of implementation, to increase African American students possessing knowledge of Computer Science AND Computer Engineering to address the national mandate for US chips research and workforce development.

A work-in-progress abstract submission, this presentation focuses on the grant’s first year implementation of the collaborative’s symbiotic strategic approach related to the PreFreshman component of the partnership, designed to create a stronger cohort of incoming [top-5 HBCU] Computer Science freshmen and their awareness of opportunities to collaborate with the [top-5 RI] Computer Engineering program. Future outcomes target increased retention of the [top-5 HBCU’s] Computer Science majors and more students with increased interest in and ability to participate in undergraduate research. In turn, the [top-5 HBCU] will provide the [top-5 RI] engineering program well-trained dual-degree engineering transfers and incoming master’s and doctoral students, with the [top-5 RI] engineering program providing access to chips research expertise, access to existing programs, student mentoring, collaboration on proposals, and access to research labs.

The critical context for this planning grant-funded collaborative was born out of the nationwide shortage in semiconductors, complicated by the global pandemic, which made it difficult for the chip industry to meet increasing need for chip-based products. While demand is high in the US, only about 12% of global chips supply is produced nationally. According to a quote from NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, posted on NSF’s LinkedIn profile page January 31, 2023, “Future semiconductors and microelectronics will require transdisciplinary research spanning materials, devices, and systems, as well as the engagement of the full spectrum of talent in the academic and industrial sectors.”

The [top-5 RI] engineering program is well-versed in all areas of the semiconductor stack and building chips, from hardware to AI, as core components of its research enterprise. The NSF CISE-MSI funding supports sustainable collaboration to expand research opportunities and infrastructure at HBCUs via partnerships with well-established R1 institutions, like the [top-5 RI] engineering program, via mutually beneficial partnerships like those featured in this collaborative, deigned to forge reciprocal, sustainable alliances between a [top-5 RI] engineering program and a [top-5 HBCU].

In closing, this work-in-progress presentation will forecast future goals of the partnership, as the [top-5 HBCU] ultimately intends to hire doctoral graduates from the [top-5 RI] engineering program seeking positions as HBCU faculty, resulting in publications and research proposals from the postdocs while employed at the [top-5 HBCU]. In the long term, these postdocs will fill full-time positions in industry, national labs, and HBCUs. As such, outcomes of this collaboration will fuel best practices addressing the national need for diverse graduates in Computer Science and Computer Engineering, specifically related to chips research and development.

References

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