ADEP: Asset-Driven Equitable Partnerships

The mission of the Inclusive Engineering Consortium (IEC) is to enable MSI ECE programs to produce more and better prepared graduates from groups that have been historically underrepresented in ECE careers. We hypothesize that the key to achieving this goal is more fully engaging the students, staff and faculty at HBCUs, HSIs and TCUs in the broad ECE education and research enterprise by building partnerships with PWIs, industry, government labs, etc. These partnerships must be equitable with all voices being heard and all relevant assets identified and utilized.

The equitable partnership concept came out of a series of IEC workshops in 2021 that addressed Anti-Racism Practices in Engineering. Since that time, we have been applying the ideas developed and collecting feedback, particularly on barriers of their effective use. Anit-Racism Practices in Engineering should apply to students, staff and faculty in all activities in an ECE program. However, we have focused on research because it is THE activity that is the most underdeveloped at most MSIs and the primary reason why groups from PWIs usually contact MSIs.

MSIs need investment. People at PWIs must engage with their counterparts at MSIs so they will learn how to more effectively mentor, teach, and guide students from MSIs. Both types of institutions must invest in each other. Equitable partners must be able to identify and articulate their assets and understand the assets of other participants. Finally, partnerships only work if there is sufficient trust, which comes from knowledge of and engagement with one another.

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The 2to4 Project - Facilitated Transition from 2-Year to 4-Year Engineering Studies

The Inclusive Engineering Consortium (IEC) is a nonprofit organization that enables collective efforts through equitable partnership between its 20 MSI members, 12 PWI members and 7 corporate members. The IEC 2to4 Project builds on its Pathways to Success program to support students who begin their studies at a community college or other 2-year institution by providing financial support (scholarships, internships, academic year stipends), mentoring and other transition support, professional guidance, and community engagement.

The IEC 2to4 network of community colleges (CCs) consists of 20 sub-networks built around the 20 HBCUs, HSIs and TCUs that form the core membership of the IEC. Generally, a small number (1-3) of CCs located near a core member educate a few students who transfer to the local 4-year MSI ECE program. Some IEC core members have well-developed relationships with their local CCs and see much larger numbers of transfer students. The vision of 2to4 is to at least double the total number of students following this pathway to their BS degree in ECE by sharing best practices and providing a robust transition support infrastructure and increased financial support for those students who should have MSIs on their radar as they complete their associates degrees. Participating CCs become members of IEC and engage in equitable partnerships with 4-year MSIs and PWIs, industry and DoD labs to implement the various building blocks of 2to4.

During the first year of this multi-year effort, a base version of 2to4 is being created. Program leadership is connecting with DoDSTEM and other CC programs it funds, defining the parameters of 2to4 1.0 (formalizing the relationship between MSI core members and their key local CCs), and working through institutional challenges with the 60+ program partners.

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Mouser's Artificial Intelligence Content Hub Allows Students, Educators and Engineers to Gain Deeper Understanding of AI Applications

Mouser Electronics, the New Product Introduction (NPI) leader™ empowering innovation, is helping both aspiring and professional engineers refine and further their knowledge and skills through an insightful resource center focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The extensive hub contains valuable resources to help provide a deeper understanding of AI and its various applications and features informative articles on topics, such as Deploying Edge-Based AI Using Kria SoMs, An Edge Impulse Use-Case for Healthcare and Cancer Detection, and how AI is Improving Harvests and the Human Experience.

Visit https://resources.mouser.com/artificial-intelligence

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