The purpose of this Work-in-progress, research-to-practice paper is to illustrate the implementation of the Rising Doctoral Institute (RDI) at an R1 university in the Northeast of the US. The RDI is a research-based NSF-funded intervention directed at first-year doctoral students in engineering programs that aims to address common student struggles such as doctoral program management, fostering advising relationships, day-to-day management activities, navigating the culture of graduate school, and finding their place in the research community. The RDI curriculum was built leveraging research findings from a large dataset from a different intervention project aimed at later-stage graduate students. Throughout this process, we studied the experiences of roughly 125 underrepresented racial and ethnic minority (URM) doctoral students and identified five themes relating to the common struggles they face throughout their Ph.D. One of the objectives of the RDI project is to disseminate our intervention to approximately 25 institutions. Over the past two years, leaders from institutions that were part of our pilot dissemination were trained in our RDI curriculum and implemented a version of the RDI in their schools. This paper describes the implementation in one of those institutions that built and adapted two different versions of the RDI based on their students' needs and the logistical constraints of their institution. Based on a thematic analysis of interviews conducted with the collaborating institutional leaders (CILs), our study showed three initial findings: 1) Both RDI models allow a supporting community to navigate the challenges in graduate school; 2) The biggest challenge for each local RDI model is logistical; and 3) The support offered to URM graduate students motivates CILs to continue implementing the local RDI.

This Work in Progress Research paper aims to shed light on the reasons that inspire minoritized students to pursue a Ph.D. degree in engineering. Thus, this study investigates the motivations that URM students give as their deciding factors for pursuing doctoral degrees. We examine the research question: How do URM students describe their decision to pursue a doctorate in an engineering discipline? To explore our question, we conducted a modified grounded theory analysis of survey data collected from 51 URM students during a summer workshop held prior to the commencement of their respective programs. Their answers to open-ended questions and other contextual details formed the basis of our data sample. Our diverse sample includes representations of students from various engineering disciplines as well as various racial and ethnic backgrounds. Our study employs the principles of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to analyze the environmental variables, personal outcome expectations, and other factors that influence students' decisions to pursue a doctoral degree in their respective fields. Next steps of this work will employ SCCT, as we can gain a deeper understanding of students' motivations and identify the factors that play a significant role in their decision-making processes. Continuing work in this area can be valuable to engineering graduate programs by providing insights into how URM students can be supported throughout their degrees.

In this Research Full Paper we explore the factors that traditionally minoritized students consider when selecting a graduate school to pursue a doctoral degree in an engineering discipline. To this end, we used case study methods to analyze the experiences of ten traditionally minoritized students through interviews conducted immediately after they had selected their graduate programs, but before they had commenced their studies. Our findings show that in choosing an institution, the most salient ideals these students hold are related to the offer of funding towards their degree and an alignment with their initial research interests. However, they described having made compromises on ideals related to their personal experience and racial identity, the most prominent being finding a faculty mentor with a similar racial background, finding a racially diverse institution, or being located in a geographical location they perceived to be more amenable to their individual identities. These findings suggest that continuing to increase the recruitment of traditionally minoritized faculty in engineering schools would have a direct impact on minoritized student recruitment, by thus helping to create spaces where more of their racial identity ideals are met and fewer compromises are made. Equally important to the recruitment of traditionally minoritized students is the transparency of funding opportunities during the recruitment and application processes, and the publication of current research opportunities within the institution.

Diversity statements are becoming mandatory in increasing numbers of job searches by increasing numbers of institutions. However, how to use diversity statements is seldom discussed with search committee members or persons interviewing the potential candidate. Some institutions, even if required, do not provide guidance or expectation to the use of the statement. Some institutions and/or search committees use diversity statements in a very basic way as tiebreakers. Institutions seeking improved inclusivity and convergent thinking have found that by reading the diversity statement first, higher numbers of traditionally underrepresented candidates are remaining in the pool at each stage of the hiring process [1], [2]. This workshop provides participants with a framework to create and use rubrics to evaluate diversity statements for improved inclusivity.

This research to practice full paper describes an answer to a problem described in a study completed by the Council of Graduate Schools, where data showed that doctoral students in the United States are departing from their pursuit of the Ph.D. at high rates. Additionally, the study showed that the departure rates for underrepresented minorities (URM) (i.e., African-American, Native American, Pacific Islander American, and Hispanic American) are higher, as they complete their Ph.D. at lesser rates than their majority peers. Previous research has suggested that lack of motivation during the dissertation phase is one of the leading factors for students' decision to depart. This phase of the doctoral pursuit is often characterized as lonely and filled with uncertainty about the process towards degree completion.To address this problem, we have created the Dissertation Institute. This NSF-funded research project consists of a one-week workshop for underrepresented minorities in the final phases of their Ph.D. in engineering. The goal of the workshop is to offer a practical and timely experience for doctoral students to help them progress through degree completion. The design of this workshop is grounded in research to address issues typical of the final phases of the Ph.D., help shorten students' time-to-degree and increase doctoral completion rates for URM. While similar programs already exist, the Institute differs by simultaneously collecting research data that will further the understanding of the success and value beliefs of its participants and help develop future workshops.The purpose of this publication is to present a description of the Dissertation Institute as well as the evaluation results for its first implementation which took place in the summer of 2017. The evaluation plan consists of participant pre and post surveys, observations, and individual session assessments. Preliminary results show that the Dissertation Institute increased students' success beliefs and utility and cost-benefit value in academic writing. Results also showed that students appreciated having a safe space to communicate their academic concerns with session facilitators and fellow doctoral students. Students also expressed the individualized attention from the workshop facilitators aided in the transfer of the advice received throughout the multiple sessions to their specific pursuits. Findings from this evaluation will inform future development and implementations of the Institute and help inform the design of similar workshops.

Encouraging our youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields has become critically important to meeting needs for adequate and clean water, less pollution and an adequate food supply, along with needs for housing, communications, and sustained technology leadership. According to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, the future of STEM fields is dependent on a steady workforce of talented and diverse individuals. Without a growing pool of STEM talent with emphasis upon the “E”, the Bureau of Statistics projects that the U.S. will have a difficult time filling the demands for STEM professionals as near as the year 2018. In response to the need to develop a STEM proficient workforce with emphasis upon the “E”, an industry leading high-tech corporation on the west coast developed a hands-on engineering maker space that exposes middle school students to an exciting one-day authentic learning experience. Announced January 2016, Virginia Tech and the high-tech corporation entered into a multi-year, multi-phase partnership agreement to develop programmatic curricula, teacher credentialing and professional development, hands-on engineering practices, activities for long-term student engagement, and ongoing research. The purpose of this work-in-progress article is to report on the first phase of the partnership agreement and its innovative practices of interest to stakeholders invested in the K-12 engineering footprint.

In this Work In Progress paper, we describe an NSF-funded research project designed to enhance the presence, socialization, retention and advancement of junior and mid-career university faculty from underrepresented minorities (URM) (i.e., African American, Native American, Pacific Islander and Hispanic Faculty) in engineering disciplines. The understanding behind this project is that to increase and sustain diversity in engineering, there is first and foremost, a fundamental need to increase diversity in faculty and enhance their career development; therefore, this project is developing and implementing a holistic array of career development initiatives for URM faculty. Although important conversations about race, inclusion and diversity are at the forefront of academic institutions around the country, preliminary results suggest that many of the circumstances that are potential barriers to URM faculty development still persist. Through this project, we are working to continue moving these conversations toward purposeful and deliberate actions and to research and analyze these perceived barriers to inform academic institutions, as well as interested constituents, of realities URM faculty face. This work-in-progress project is in the first year of the five years projected and it will continue to elaborate on a mixed method approach to answering the research questions while offering a yearly workshop that also integrates more than a decade of first-hand experience with the NSF Minority Development Workshop (MFDW).

Data show that doctoral students in the United States, particularly those from underrepresented groups, are leaving at high rates before obtaining a degree because of the long, arduous and uncertain road to graduation. The primary goal of this NSF-funded research project is to offer the Dissertation Institute: a practical and timely experience for doctoral students in engineering disciplines to address issues germane to shortening time-to-degree and increasing degree completion rates, with emphasis upon underrepresented minority students (African American, Native American, Pacific Islanders American and Hispanic American). The project is a mixed-method, multi-year and multi-phased study that will create the opportunity for students from underserved populations to come together and participate in an intervention designed for their benefit. The framework guiding the project is Eccles' Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT). This work-in-progress will describe the overall project and the progress to date. We are currently in Phase 1 of the project. The research question guiding Phase 1 is: From the faculty/administrator and student perspectives, what success and value beliefs support and hinder the completion of the doctoral degree for underrepresented racial minority students in engineering disciplines? Findings will inform and facilitate the design of the Institutes in Phase 2.