November 2020
Featured Article
Finding Your Path with ECE Next
By: Andrew Carr & Diana Marculescu, ECE Department,The University of Texas at Austin
It is well-known that engineering, and in particular Electrical and Computer Engineering, is not currently representative of the U.S. population as a whole. Texas ECE has created the ECE Next program to address this issues aimed at recruiting and retaining women, Black, and Hispanic (WBH) students in ECE programs. This eighteen-month series of workshops and mentoring activities for juniors and seniors will provide the support and self-efficacy tools that WBH students may find useful to move forward from undergraduate studies to graduate school, while getting involved in summer undergraduate research in the process. The program will help ensure that more WBH students are represented in the next generation of graduate researchers on their path to becoming leaders and role models in ECE.
By identifying the lack of representation of certain U.S. students pursuing graduate education and getting involved in research, Texas ECE endeavors to find ways to show how research and graduate degrees can further their development as engineers.
“Undergraduate research is becoming more and more important because most jobs or careers seek students with strong technical background and entrepreneurial problem-solving skills,” said Professor Deji Akinwande. “Research is an excellent endeavor to learn a variety of problem-solving skills in a team environment -- skills which are very applicable to many careers.”
These endeavors include workshops for juniors and seniors as well as summer research experiences that will help them help build portfolios for grad school, provide research experiences to strengthen students’ grad application packages, prepare them for graduate studies, and provide tailored mentoring and advising for undergraduate research interns. Students will have the opportunity to connect with current ECE graduate students, faculty researchers, and labs, while identifying an ECE research direction or topic of interest.
“A strong ECE workforce should benefit from the strength that diversity bring to the table," said Professor and Department Chair, Diana Marculescu. “ECE Next aims for tapping all talent that exists in making Texas ECE a true innovation hub for advancing research, education, learning, and entrepreneurship in ECE, all in service of solving societal challenges facing humanity, and while ensuring equity, access, representation, and empowerment for all members of the ECE extended community.”
For more information on ECE Next, or to apply for the program, visit ece.utexas.edu/next.