Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP)
2010-2011 Annual Report
Alliance: Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Science (FACES)
Executive summary
Brief description of project
Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Science (FACES), one of the
original cohort of National Science Foundation Alliances for Graduate Education
and the Professoriate (AGEP) programs, is a collaborative effort between the
Georgia Institute of Technology, Emory University, Morehouse College, and
Spelman College. Initiated in 1998, FACES (see: http://www.faces.gatech.edu) is
comprised of several components, each designed to assist underrepresented
engineering and science students with navigating the path to an academic
career. Undergraduate students who have completed their sophomore year are
provided summer and academic year research experiences as a means of
promoting their interest in research and graduate school attendance. These
students are then encouraged to enroll in graduate programs using a series of
recruitment efforts at national events such as the NSBE Annual Convention,
campus visits and tours, and a lecture/workshop series on the merit of graduate
school and careers in academia. Admitted graduate students are supported on
doctoral fellowship supplements throughout their matriculation. Graduate student
support is provided by means of a stipend which increases in value as the
student meets the critical milestones along the way toward the Ph.D. degree.
Another portion of FACES funds is used to support travel to technical meetings
for research presentations. Finally, senior doctoral students compete for Career
Initiation Grants or Portable Post-doctoral fellowships, which they may use as
start-up funds to assist in establishing their research programs in their initial
academic appointments.
List of partners
Georgia Institute of Technology (Lead)
Emory University
Morehouse College
Spelman College
Responses to specific questions:
1. What are the 3 most significant accomplishments of your alliance in the past
year?
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(1) The GT Alliance has produced 33 URM PhD graduates during the past
academic year (an increase of more than 80% over the baseline year).
(2) Senior doctoral candidates in engineering at Georgia Tech annually
compete for $30,000 Career Initiation Grants (CIGs), which they may use
as start-up funds to assist them in establishing their research programs in
their initial academic appointments. One grant was awarded this year.
This year’s winner was Dr. Jacqueline Fairley of the Department of
Neurology at Emory University.
(3) Senior doctoral candidates in the sciences at any of the alliance partners
annually compete for $35,000 Portable Postdocs, which they may use to
assist them in obtaining postdoctoral fellowship appointments. Two such
grants were given this year. The names and academic institutions of the
winners were:
Dr. Ursula Anderson (Psychology), TBD
Dr. Andrea Parker (CS), Georgia Tech
2. What are the 3 largest concerns or surprises that have arisen in your
project/program in the past year?
(1) The end of this phase of the grant and subsequent planning for the new
solicitation raises continuity concerns.
(2) We are seeing more and more of our undergraduate STEM graduates,
turning away from STEM in graduate school (MBA, law, education, or
entrepreneurial ventures).
(3) Institutional and outside budget support of supplemental recruitment
programs during these budget tight times makes is more difficult to build
and continue the systematic approaches and processes that result in longterm success.
3. Within the past year, how has your project/program directly or measurably
changed the academic climate of your alliance institutions?
(1) Georgia Tech remains a national leader in the production of advanced
degrees among minority scientists and engineers. According to 2010 data
released by the American Society for Engineering Education, Georgia Tech
ranked:
1st in the nation in number of engineering Ph.D. degrees awarded to
African Americans
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4th in the nation in number of engineering M.S. degrees awarded to
African Americans
1st in the nation in number of engineering Ph.D. degrees awarded to
Hispanic Americans
4th in the nation in number of engineering M.S. degrees awarded to
Hispanic Americans
1st in the nation in number of engineering Ph.D. degrees awarded to
underrepresented minorities
5th in the nation in number of engineering M.S. degrees awarded to
underrepresented minorities
A key accomplishment of the FACES alliance is increased collaboration
and communication between the member institutions in our programs.
Georgia Tech, Emory, Morehouse, and Spelman have been more active
than ever in FACES related activities, and this has really allowed a much
stronger undergraduate through Ph.D. pipeline in the program. This has
also balanced the participation of the sciences with engineering.
In 2011, Morehouse and Spelman Colleges were recognized as top
producers of African-American STEM Ph.D. for the period 2004 – 2008.
(2) Emory FACES Graduate Fellows are required to apply for external
funding in the second year of the program. Eleven of the current fellows
are receiving funding outside of FACES. This allows students more
independence in choosing conferences, taking specialized courses,
buying equipment, etc. In addition, it reminds members of the scientific
community that these students are nationally academically competitive.
Fellows have submitted and/or published six first author and five
contributing author articles in peer-reviewed journals during this academic
year.
Emory FACES continues to collaborate with the Graduate Division of
Biological and Biomedical Sciences (http://biomed.emory.edu), the NSF
Center For Behavioral Neuroscience (http://www.cbn-atl.org) at Georgia
State University and the
Emory Center for Science Education
(http://www.cse.emory.edu/) on various efforts to increase participation of
students from underrepresented ethnic groups in the sciences. Through
these collaborations, Emory FACES sponsored ten undergraduate
students involved in programs designed to provide students with a
summer research experience.
(3) The Spelman College Office of Science, Engineering and Technical
Careers (OSETC) is a student service office that provides career
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enrichment activities and developmental programs to prepare students for
employment in the 21st century. As such, the guiding objective of the
office is to serve as a conduit between the STEM students and the various
opportunities that exist in industry and academe. OSETC continues to
inform its STEM population through various communications ensuring
students are knowledgeable and engage in meaningful research
experiences. Approximately 127 internship and research opportunities
were announced to over 200 students this past academic year.
Through the FACES alliance, OSETC offers support for the following
activities:
a. Student travel to conferences for oral and poster presentations,
technical development and professional development.
b. Financial support for Spelman College Science Research Day in which
130 students presented on their research by oral and/or poster
presentations.
c. Host Graduate Examination Records (GRE) Preparation workshops
throughout the school year. Thirty students participated in the GRE
Workshop in preparation to take the GRE for graduate studies. All 17
students have identified a graduate program and are applying to
graduate school.
d. Student research in the Safewater Project.
e. Faculty travel to the following conferences: 37th Annual – NSBE
nation Convention and the NCWIT Summit on Women and IT
practices. Faculty presented on the retention for women in STEM
fields and new practices in and ideas to revolutionize computing in
STEM fields.
(4) The Morehouse Office for Research Careers (ORC), which is a direct
beneficiary of FACES funding, enabled the following support for STEM
programs:
a. Nuclear science: curriculum development and experimental training at
ORNL; $250,000 from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
b. NSF S-STEM scholarship award to select financially needy Atlanta
students with engineering interests: $600,000.
c. A record 8 Morehouse students received FACES awards to foster
research training during the 2010-11 academic year:
•
•
•
•
Awe, Olubusayo
Dow, Jordan
Gaines, Jason
Lawal, Feyisayo
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•
•
•
•
Newell, Kemar
Skinner, Kenneth
Street, Michael
Toche,Ulysses
d. Counseling and scholarship administration:
• 190 Students received direct academic, career and personal
counseling through the ORC during the past academic year:
2010-2011.
• 25 students received direct student scholarships via funding from
LSAMP and the DOE.
• 9 students received Renaissance Scholarship awards based
upon their GA residence, pre-engineering interests and
academic accomplishments: GPA > 3.0. GT should have a
competitive costs advantage to enroll these students.
• 8 students received scholarship support that enabled their
participation in international summer research and educational
training in China (2), France (4) and Brazil (2).
e. The FACES award supported the following two junior faculty members to
advance their research programs at Morehouse:
• Eddie Red (Physics), received funding via a NRC award to
develop a nuclear science course and placement of FAST
research team at ORNL for summer 2011.
• Alexandra Peister (Biology), received support to enable a postdoctoral fellow’s research in collaboration with the UFL and GT’s
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.
4. If applicable, describe how the alliance has deviated from its intended
progress in the past year, or how you anticipate it will in the year to come.
Why?
Not Applicable.
5. Describe the aspects of your program/project (pedagogy, methods, products,
etc.) that may be considered ready for regional or national distribution as
models or exemplars now or within the next year.
Certain administrative processes of our programs are distributable models.
The Fellows selection process is done via a password protected, web based
model. This allows the committees of professors to review, comment, rank
and make final selections without requiring face to face meetings and with
quick turn around.
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Both Transition programs (Dual Degree/Transfer and Graduate) are also
ready for national distribution. They have already been reviewed by many
other institutions (such as Purdue and University of Alabama). The programs
are designed as “pre-season” transition programs. They are designed under
the notion that “champions” are made in the pre-season. They both occur
during the week prior to the students first term of enrollment, and use current
students as peer mentors who deliver the information via an interactive
orientation. Both programs can be and are national models.
We also believe that the Career Initiation Grant and Portable Post-doc
programs represent “best practices” that are ready for regional or national
distribution at any time.
6. Describe your knowledge of or direct contact with current, similar
projects/programs in your state or neighboring states.
N/A.
7. Describe your alliance’s involvement with a) industry, b) outside laboratories,
and c) potential feeder schools, including the number of students and faculty
directly involved in each activity.
a) Intel and Agilent are sponsoring partners with Georgia Tech in the SURE
program. IBM, Texas Instruments, and Michelin have similar partnerships
with the FOCUS program at Georgia tech.
Spelman has established three external partnerships with Merrill Lynch in
New York City, Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Orbital Commerce
Project in Orlando, Florida.
b) Morehouse College continues to develop external collaborations as a
strategic vehicle to increase student access to cutting edge research
opportunities.
The external collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
expanded to include a new distance learning course in nanomaterials.
This augmented an initial course in high performance computing. A
visiting lecture series is being planned for the 2012 academic year.
c) The FACES strategy builds on the strong partnership between Morehouse
College, Spelman College and Georgia Tech. Since 1969, these
institutions, along with Clark Atlanta University, Morris Brown College, and
other historically black colleges and universities have offered a dual-
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degree program to undergraduates seeking engineering degrees. Upon
completion of the program, students receive a bachelor’s degree from the
first school and a bachelor’s degree in one of the engineering disciplines
at Georgia Tech. Nearly 100 African American students are completing
B.S. degrees at Georgia Tech through this program. In the FACES
program, this pipeline is strengthened significantly through targeted efforts
to encourage doctoral study. In addition, by joining forces, Morehouse,
Spelman, Emory, and Georgia Tech are able to present undergraduate
African American students with the opportunity to interact with graduate
students, to conduct research, and ultimately choose a wide variety of
graduate degree options. This exposure to research and graduate school
role models is essential in recruiting and retaining minority students.
Spelman College has continued partnerships with Xerox Corporation,
Georgia Power - Southern Company, General Electric, NASA, and Exxon
Mobil. The opportunities that exist through these partnerships are a
combination of mentoring, internships and research opportunities offering
Spelman students hands-on exposure to solving real life problems in the
science and engineering disciplines. In many instances, these
experiences have been the catalyst to solidifying the student’s decision to
pursue their selected STEM discipline and graduate level studies.
Approximately 30 students have been impacted by these partnerships and
that number is expected to increase in the upcoming academic year.
In May, Dr. Brown hosted Dr. Ewureme Cole Addy, President of the
Anglican Technical University, senior advisor to the Government of
Ghana, and member of the Ghanaian National Academy of Sciences. A
meeting was held with Dean May of GT to explore a range of potential
collaboration areas.
8. If not discussed above, describe the number of actual participants in the a)
mentoring and b) recruitment efforts of your alliance in the past year.
For the FACES Fellows at Georgia Tech, there are 16 URM faculty members
mentoring 41 graduate students.
In terms of recruiting, both Transition programs at Georgia Tech registered
approximately 97 students this past year. Also, FACES steering committee
members and 12-15 students perennially attend the NSBE National
Convention to assist with recruiting efforts.
Currently, there are 22 FACES fellows mentored by Emory faculty in various
research disciplines. These numbers do not include others who attend
FACES seminars or receive FACES mailings, or the numerous mentees who
are enrolled at non-Alliance institutions.
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Emory FACES continue to participate in recruitment activities in collaboration
with the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
(http://www.biomed.emory.edu) and the Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences (http://www.emory.edu/GSOAS/).
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9. Provide specific data, as such is known, on actual minority doctoral student
enrollment in your alliance. How much of an increase (or decrease) does this
represent compared to the previous year?
At Georgia Tech:
Year
Total
All
Races
Fall Enrollment
%
Change
Total All
from
Minorities
Baseline
(URM)
Year
(1997)
% Change
from
Previous
Year
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
1511
1519
1651
1737
1880
2222
2508
2534
2550
2642
2669
2666
2717
2760
N/A
0.5%
8.7%
5.2%
8.2%
18.2%
12.9%
1.0%
0.6%
3.6%
1.0%
-0.1%
1.9%
1.6%
N/A
0.5%
9.3%
15.0%
24.4%
47.1%
66.0%
67.7%
68.8%
74.9%
76.6%
76.4%
79.8%
82.7%
173
171
183
184
193
215
238
237
242
259
257
262
253
257
%
Change
from
Previous
Year
%
Change
from
Baseline
Year
(1997)
N/A
-1.2%
7.0%
0.5%
4.9%
11.4%
10.7%
-0.4%
2.1%
7.0%
-0.8%
1.9%
-3.4%
1.6%
N/A
-1.2%
5.8%
6.4%
11.6%
24.3%
37.6%
37.0%
39.9%
49.7%
48.6%
51.4%
46.2%
48.6%
At Emory:
2010:
Total graduate student enrollment: 1917
Total minority enrollment: 16.9% (324)
Total female enrollment: 58.5% (1121)
Total PhD enrollment: 86.7% (1662)
10. For your project/program, include the numbers of successful graduates in the
current year and the number of new recruits anticipated for next year. For
example, please include the graduate names, discipline of their doctorate,
and their employment information (i.e., whether they obtained a tenure track
position, employment in industry, the federal government, a post-doc position,
etc.).
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At Georgia Tech:
Academic Year Graduates
Academic
Year
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Total
All
Races
204
239
209
211
227
226
205
286
315
345
408
408
434
346
Year
%
Change
from
Baseline
Year
(1997)
N/A
17.2%
-12.6%
1.0%
7.6%
-0.4%
-9.3%
39.5%
10.1%
9.5%
18.3%
0.0%
6.4%
-20.3%
N/A
17.2%
2.5%
3.4%
11.3%
10.8%
0.5%
40.2%
54.4%
69.1%
100.0%
100.0%
112.7%
69.6%
% Change
from
Previous
Total All
Minorities
(URM)
18
28
15
24
23
24
16
31
24
26
27
29
37
33
%
Change
from
Previous
Year
%
Change
from
Baseline
Year
(1997)
N/A
55.6%
-46.4%
60.0%
-4.2%
4.3%
-33.3%
93.8%
-22.6%
8.3%
3.8%
7.4%
27.6%
-10.8%
N/A
55.6%
-16.7%
33.3%
27.8%
33.3%
-11.1%
72.2%
33.3%
44.4%
50.0%
61.1%
105.6%
83.3%
In terms of recruiting, Spring 2010 applications for Georgia Tech FACES
Fellowships were received from Graduate Coordinators in the College of
Sciences, College of Engineering and College of Computing for graduate
students entering in Fall 2010. Ten (10) applications were received. A threeperson subcommittee of the FACES Steering Committee reviewed and
scored the applications based on the following four areas: 1) Academic
Record, 2) Letters of Recommendation, 3) Research Experience, and 4)
Professoriate Goals and Personal Statement. From the 10 nominations, 9
Fellowship offers were made and three were accepted. A summary of these
students is provided in the table below and the quality was found to be high
based on the selection criteria.
In addition to new incoming graduate students accepted as FACES Fellows,
continuing Georgia Tech graduate student (those who have been in the
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graduate program for at least one year) have the opportunity to apply for a
FACES Fellowship. The number of FACES Fellowships available depends on
the number of awards that have been made to incoming students, such that
there will be a total of 10 new FACES Fellows each year. Typically 1-3
Fellowships are available for continuing students.
The application requests basic information on the student’s educational
progress, a 1-page narrative describing the student’s research interests and
professional goals, as well a recommendation letter from the student’s
research advisor.
During July 2010, an email announcement was sent out to all African
American graduate students encouraging those eligible to consider applying
for a Fellowship. Students were given approximately 9 days to submit the
completed application. A total of 7 applications were received. A 2-person
subcommittee of the FACES Steering Committee evaluated the applications
and submitted numerical rankings based on three categories 1) Academic
Record, 2) Personal Statement, and 3) Advisor Recommendation. FACES
Fellowships went to the 3 highest-ranking students:
1. Vryan George (Chemical and Biomedical Engineering)
2. Brian Hayes (Electrical and Computer Engineering)
3. Jaikp Mallory (Mechanical Engineering)
At Emory, Leigh Miles completed her PhD requirements in molecular and
systems pharmacology in April 2011. She is planning to begin a postdoctoral
fellowship at the NIH. Jamie Mells also completed degree requirements in
April 2011 in nutrition and health sciences. He plans to complete a teaching
and research post-doctoral program. Two additional fellows are expected to
defend in fall 2011.
11. Provide a brief assessment of your alliance’s retention/advancement efforts
with respect to minority doctoral students. How does minority
retention/advancement in your alliance compare to retention/advancement of
non-minority doctoral students?
Minority retention/success efforts are going well at Georgia Tech. The
enrollment of minority doctoral students has been steady over the past five
years. The graduation rate for minority doctoral students (as a percentage of
total doctoral students) has also been steady over the same time period. GT
remains near the top for production of African American doctoral degrees,
and ranks high for doctoral degrees awarded to Hispanics as well.
Within the Emory FACES program, fellows and several undergraduate
students receive mentoring and career development opportunities via direct
interactions with the program coordinator and seminar speakers from various
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occupational backgrounds. Although many of the fellows receive external
funding that prohibits them from receiving the FACES supplement, these
students are invited and encouraged to continue to participate in FACES
activities. These students also retain their distinction as a FACES fellow.
However, the relatively small number of students involved and time period
may not allow appropriate comparison to similar statistics for students from
overrepresented ethnic groups. In general, Emory recognizes the importance
of creating and maintaining an environment in which minority students can be
successful. The minority retention effort at Emory has shown success. The
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education has consistently ranked Emory as a top
university in enrolling, retention of, and graduating African Americans. Emory
is committed to continue to improve the retention of students traditionally
underrepresented on Emory’s campus.
12. Provide a brief assessment of your alliance’s efforts with respect to career
advancement of minority doctoral recipients (e.g., postdoctoral initiatives).
FACES typically awards one Postdoctoral Fellowship and three Career
Initiation Grants (CIGs) each year. These awards facilitate the movement
toward and into academic faculty positions. The CIG has been extremely
effective in providing young faculty with the support to kick-off their research
programs. Along with the financial support from the Grant, the young faculty
members are mentored by senior faculty from the AGEP program on
strategies for success in academia, including proposal writing, timemanagement, networking, etc. This mentoring has resulted in great early
success for past CIG recipients.
13. Provide a brief assessment of your alliance’s efforts with respect to faculty
diversification.
The inaugural Vice President for Institute Diversity (VPID) was hired in
October, 2010 and officially began on January 1, 2011. He has created three
new executive positions that will report directly to him: Associate Vice
President of Institute Diversity (search will be completed by mid-August
2011), Executive Director - Research and Institute Collaboration (a half time
faculty appointment), and Executive Director - Students Diversity and
Inclusion. All three positions, along with the VPID, will work closely with the
FACES committee to grow and further institutionalize diversity and inclusion
efforts (including increasing the recruitment and retention of
underrepresented populations in both the student and faculty).
Emory has continued activities that promote a diverse faculty. The Office of
Community and Diversity leads the overall efforts at Emory to provide and
maintain a diverse intellectual environment, both internally and with the
surrounding communities. Students are encouraged to learn about and
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pursue academic careers, providing human resources to diversify the
faculties of the future.
Morehouse College employs approximately 160 full time faculty members,
and this represented a diverse constituency (~ 30% female, 70% male). The
ethnic profile was as follows: 8% Asian, 3% Hispanic, 30% White nonHispanic, and 70% Black non-Hispanic. Morehouse participates in two postdoctoral training programs which emphasize career paths to the
professoriate. They are the First Program with Emory University and Science
for Life program with the University of Florida which is funded by the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute. Both programs have a diverse constituency of
males and females.
Spelman College employs approximately 174 total full-time faculty members composed of 34% male and 66% female. The ethnic profile represented is
66% African-American, 21% Caucasian, 4% Hispanic, 7% Asian, and 4%
other.
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