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Educating the Educator: Computational Science and Engineering Training Workshop for Faculty from Under-Represented and Minority Serving Institutions

Abstract

Computational science and engineering (CSE) and high performance computing (HPC) have now become an integral part of several engineering and science disciplines. However, there is still a very small participation from minority and under-represented population within US. To attract minorities to these critical technical areas and to the field of CSE and HPC, we have followed a complementary approach by exposing and training the faculty members from several under-represented and minority universities in the areas of CSE and HPC through a one-week annual workshop conducted at the campus of North Carolina A&T State University (a major historically black college and university (HBCU)) with a strong computational science and engineering graduate program. This workshop enabled the participant faculty members from under-represented and minority serving institutions who are generally involved with minority undergraduate students at their institutions to be educated and exposed about various aspects of the CSE and HPC techniques and opportunities in these areas.

This paper highlights the development of this educating the educator annual workshop on computational science and engineering and high performance computing for the past three years (2006 – 2008). The experiences and feedback from the participating minority university, and the impact of expanding CSE and HPC education outreach to the community of faculty members and students at the under-represented and minority serving institutions are discussed. This educating the educator workshop has enabled the participating faculty members to not only get trained and exposed in these areas, but is also enabling to act as a catalyst to propagate their knowledge to their students. This is potentially serving a larger minority population and providing future work force needs of qualified minorities in these critical areas.

Introduction

Computational science and engineering (CSE) and high performance computing (HPC) have now become an integral part of several engineering and science disciplines. Still the number of students from under-represented universities and minority institutions, who are involved and exposed to these fields, is very minimal. Several high performance computing training programs funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of the Defense, etc., has traditionally focused on summer training in HPC for minority students from these minority serving universities. In spite of several such programs, the number of minority, especially African American students, graduating and entering CSE and HPC professional areas has remained really low. There is a great demand of graduates and working professionals in the areas of computational science and engineering that are trained not only in the technical domain areas but also in the computational aspects and high performance computing areas, the related technology, tools, paradigms and approaches. This expertise demand is not only from the US federal engineering and science laboratories where modeling and simulation have already become integral part of many activities but also from the private and commercial sectors.

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Mohan, R., & Radhakrishnan, N. (2009, June), Educating The Educator: Computational Science And Engineering Training Workshop For Faculty From Under Represented And Minority Serving Institutions Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5466