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Kenneth Connor is an emeritus professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering (ECSE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where he taught courses on electromagnetics, electronics and instrumentation, plasma physics, electric power, and general engineering. His research involves plasma physics, electromagnetics, photonics, biomedical sensors, engineering education, diversity in the engineering workforce, and technology enhanced learning. He learned problem solving from his father (who ran a gray iron foundry), his mother (a nurse) and grandparents (dairy farmers). He has had the great good fortune to always work with amazing people, most recently the members and leadership of the Inclusive Engineering Consortium (IEC) from HBCU and HSI ECE programs and the faculty, staff and students of the Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications (LESA) ERC, where he was Education Director until his retirement in 2018. He was RPI ECSE Department Head from 2001 to 2008 and served on the board of the ECE Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) from 2003 to 2008. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE.

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Dr. Pamela Leigh-Mack is Professor and Chair of the Department of Engineering at Virginia State University. She received the B.S. degree in Mathematics from Virginia Union University, B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering (EE) from Howard University, and the Ph.D. degree in EE from the University of Delaware. Among her professional affiliations are the American Society for Engineering Education, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the Society of Women Engineers. Dr. Leigh-Mack continues her many years of service as a program evaluator for ABET, reviewing programs nationally and internationally. She has a strong interest in STEM education including retention in engineering; accreditation and assessment; pedagogical innovations; and diversity in the STEM fields, particularly for women.

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Dr. Craig J. Scott received his Ph.D. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Howard University and a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. He is currently serving as professor and chairperson of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at one of the nation’s preeminent public urban research institutions, Morgan State University. His career spans over twenty-eight years of progressive scholarly experience in such areas as research administration/ implementation, pedagogical innovation, international collaboration, strategic planning, promoting community engagement and academic program development. He instructs courses in computer vision, computer graphics, electromagnetics and characterization of semiconductor materials.

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Dr. Mohamed Chouikha is a professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Howard University. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Colorado–Boulder. Dr. Chouikha’s research interests include machine learning, intelligent control, and multimedia signal processing communications for secure networks, among other areas. He also focuses on enhancing recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in the STEM areas in general, engineering in particular.

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Dr. John C. Kelly, Jr. is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware. Dr. Kelly’s research interests include hardware security in cyber-physical systems and embedded systems security. He also contributes to research on engineering education, enhanced retention of underrepresented minorities in engineering, and hands-on learning techniques.

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Dr. Miguel Velez-Reyes is the George W. Edwards Distinguished Professor in Engineering and Chair of the ECE Department at University of Texas at El Paso. He received his BSEE degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM) in 1985, and his SMEE, and PhD from MIT in 1988 and 1992 respectively. He was a faculty member of the UPRM ECE Department from 1992 to 2012. He is the UTEP Campus Coordinator for the NOAA Center for Earth Systems Science and Remote Sensing Technology. He was the Founding Director of the UPRM Institute for Research in Integrative Systems and Engineering, and Associate Director of the NSF CenSSIS ERC. His research interests are in integrating physical models with data driven approaches for information extraction using remote or minimally intrusive sensing. He has over 160 publications. He is Fellow of SPIE and the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Puerto Rico. Received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers award from the US President in 1997. He chairs the SPIE Conference on Algorithms, Technologies and Applications for Multispectral, and Hyperspectral Imaging. He is board member of the Inclusive Engineering Consortium (IEC).

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Shiny Abraham is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seattle University. She received the B.E. degree in Telecommunication Engineering from Visveswaraiah Technological University (VTU), India in 2007 and Ph.D. from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA in 2012. Her research interests span the areas of Wireless Communication, Internet of Things (IoT), Optimization using Game Theory, and Engineering Education Research. She is a member of the IEEE and ASEE, a technical program committee member for IEEE Globecom, ICC, ICCCN and VTC conferences, and a reviewer for several international journals and conferences.

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Otsebele Nare is an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Hampton University, VA. He received his electrical engineering doctorate from Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, in 2005. His research interests include Multiobjective System Level Synthesis Techniques and K-16 Integrative STEM education.

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Dr. Abdelnasser A. Eldek obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2004 from the University of Mississippi. Currently, he is Professor and Coordinator of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Jackson State University. His main research areas include Applied Electromagnetics, Antennas, Phased Arrays, RF/Microwave Circuits, Metamaterial, and Numerical Methods.

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Mandoye Ndoye received the B.S.E.E. degree from the Rensselear Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, in 2002, the MS degree in Mathematics and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, in 2010. After completing his Ph.D. studies, he joined the Center of Applied Scientific Computing, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, as a Research Staff Member. From 2012 to 2014, he was a Research Associate at Howard University. Since 2014, he has been an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL. His research interests center on signal/image processing, sensor data analytics, intelligent infrastructure systems, power systems optimization and engineering education for under-represented groups.

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