NSF Award
2240960
The Undergraduate Spectrum Workshop (USW) is a 3-4 day invited workshop hosted by Baylor University that focuses on recruiting new undergraduate students into future training and career opportunities in electromagnetic spectrum research and electromagnetic spectrum management. The fields of spectrum research and spectrum management are of increasing importance to the nation as next generation communications and device-connectivity networks are becoming a greater part of our everyday lives. To remain a global leader in next generation communications and to ensure the health, prosperity, and welfare of the nation that will be enabled by future generations of increasingly connected devices, it is critical to develop a workforce talent pipeline that is aware of the critical role that spectrum research and spectrum management play in our lives and that is expertly trained to lead the academic, industrial, and federal labs of the future that will produce continued advances in this area. This conference addresses these goals of high national importance.<br/><br/>The workshop will recruit students and faculty from small regional colleges nearby Baylor that have a high composition of underrepresented minority students. The workshop is based on and borrows experience from a similarly designed and successful workshop previously hosted at Baylor University with similar goals to recruit students into training and careers in chemistry. The goal of the workshop is to introduce students to spectrum career paths and to recruit them into spectrum training programs and a potential future spectrum career. The activities during the 3-4 day workshop will include content delivery from academic and industry experts and will also have a strong focus on interactive activities for students. The students will be arranged in small groups of 5-10 participants to maximize the individual impact. Activities will be cross-disciplinary including a mock spectrum trial, a spectrum filter design and measurement exercise, and testing of homemade radar systems. Post-activity panel sessions will discuss spectrum career paths, graduate school options, and other topics of practical interest to students. Participants will be housed at Baylor during the workshop and have a chance to interact with potential future faculty mentors.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
