Limited Submission Opportunity: Engineering Information Foundation Grant Programs (Spring 2025)

Applications due Dec. 3, 2024

Vanderbilt University may submit up to two proposals (one in each program) to the Engineering Information Foundation Grant Programs.

Overview

The Engineering Information Foundation aims to improve worldwide engineering education and practice through information technology and the recruitment of women. The foundation's grant activity supports developmental projects, instructional projects, and training programs in engineering education and research with budgets ranging from $5,000 - $25,000 that fit within two broad fields of interest:

• Enhancing Undergraduate Communication skills in Engineering Programs
  
  General Program Scope - The foundation invites proposals that seek to ensure that undergraduate engineering students master the skills necessary to communicate critical information individually and in groups to diverse audiences through a variety of means that include listening, speaking, writing, and the use of visual and graphic tools. Grants in this program range to a maximum of US$25,000. Grants fund only the direct costs incurred in administering the project or program in the proposal.

Current ABET accreditation standards require undergraduate degree programs in engineering to show that students have mastered "an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences." Because the standards are open on how to ensure such mastery, there are many different curricular approaches possible for engineering students to learn this complex set of skills.

Successful proposals might include, but are not limited to, approaches that:

• Develop, test, and evaluate new models that focus on listening, speaking, writing, and/or the use of visual and graphic tools and seek to establish benchmarks of success.
• Incorporate existing and emerging technologies, such as CAD or AR/VR, and test their effectiveness in improving students' visual communications skills.
• Provide a matrix of instructional programs and materials and test their effectiveness in training engineering students to produce memoranda, project proposals, presentations, and other professional communications.
• Emphasize teamwork and role-playing as a means for students to learn effective skills for communication in groups and across disciplinary and organizational boundaries.
• Articulate how communication skills are related to other key competencies for engineering professionals, such as information seeking and use and project management.
• Link the expertise of communications and information science specialists with the discipline of the engineering faculty.

See the program page and What We Fund page for more information.

• Women in Engineering Program

  The engineering workforce requires highly skilled and trained individuals to meet the needs of the global industrial workforce. For example, over the decade from 2020 - 2029 available jobs within the entire U.S. STEM workforce are predicted to increase by 8.8%. The growth in STEM jobs is predicted to be mostly driven by the increase in computational and mathematical jobs, heavily influenced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). For comparison, the available jobs in the entire U.S. workforce are predicted to increase by 5.2%. A lack of gender diversity among engineers continues to be an issue that needs to be addressed to meet the STEM workforce demand. Within the engineering workforce in the United States, only 14% of engineers are women. While work needs to be done to help more young women to become interested in engineering as a career, work also needs to be done to keep young women in engineering through college and beyond.

It is in this context that the Foundation is interested in funding programs in the following areas:

1. Programs to Encourage Middle School Girls in Engineering conducted by engineering educators and others that encourage them to prepare for and undertake careers in engineering. The Foundation is particularly interested in new programs or modules, which, if they are found to be effective, will be continued within the applying institution(s). These programs supported by the Foundation are expected to test their effectiveness, to examine program impact on participant educational and career plans and on their SMET participation and achievement. Grants should range between $5,000 and $15,000 per year.
2. Programs designed to improve the retention rate of undergraduate women in engineering. These may cover such diverse areas as classroom, climate, learning behaviors, classroom pedagogies and academic and social support programs. It is expected that the programs will examine their impact on SMET achievement. Grants are expected to range between $5,000 and $25,000 per year.

Grants fund only the direct costs incurred in administering the project or program in the proposal.

See the program page and What We Fund page for more information.

Internal Application Instructions

Interested faculty should email [email protected] to apply for the internal LSO competition and to find additional information about the opportunity. The deadline for the internal competition is Dec. 3, 2024.