2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A panel co-hosted by the Divisions of ECE and CoED will focus on the reflections from the former National Science Foundation (NSF) Program Directors. The panelists and moderator served as rotating program directors across various directorates at NSF, all with a connection to engineering and computing education. They will reflect on their experiences at NSF and what they learned from the position, and they will share their insights about engineering and computing education programs at NSF. The aim of the panel discussion is to two-fold: First, attendees will learn about NSF’s engineering and computing education programs, what makes each unique, and how to begin developing a proposal for these submission to these programs. Second, attendees will learn about serving as an NSF program director and what it has to offer as a means of professional development. The panelists will share their roles and responsibilities at NSF, insights about what they learned that they apply in their academic roles, and reflections about the value of the experience for their own careers. This panel has the potential to help faculty who are interested in being an NSF program director to understand the three mechanisms for hiring rotating staff at NSF. Additionally, the panelists will suggest how principal investigators can have the most productive meetings with NSF program directors. The panel will be interactive with ample time for questions and follow-up discussions.