Growing BPE Efforts: Lessons Learned from a College-Wide Seed Grant Program

Gabriella Coloyan Fleming; Christine Julien

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Conference: 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: February 9, 2025
Start Date: February 9, 2025
End Date: February 11, 2025
Conference Session: Track 6: Techncal Session 7: Growing BPE Efforts: Lessons Learned from a College-Wide Seed Grant Program
Tagged Topics: Diversity and 2025 CoNECD Paper Submissions
Page Count: 32
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/54096
Download Count: 3

Paper Authors

biography

Gabriella Coloyan Fleming Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University orcid.org/0000-0002-6771-8741

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Dr. Gabriella Coloyan Fleming is currently a research scientist in Virginia Tech's engineering education department. She was previously the Director of the Center for Equity in Engineering and a research associate in the Center for Engineering Education at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UT Austin. Her engineering education research interests include assets-based teaching and learning and DEI topics in graduate education, faculty hiring and retention, and pathways to an academic career.

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biography

Christine Julien Virginia Tech orcid.org/0000-0002-4131-4642

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Christine Julien is a Professor and the Department Head in Computer Science at Virginia Tech University

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Abstract

In this practice-based presentation, we provide an overview of two years of a seed grant program for broadening participation in engineering (BPE) at the University of ____. In this NSF-funded program, undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, staff, and faculty could submit proposals of up to $5,000 to pursue projects of their own envisioning related to BPE. Faculty could participate in supporting roles, but a student, postdoc, or staff member was required to be the principal investigator (PI). The goal of this program was to build the infrastructure for allowing all members of the University of ____’s college of engineering to participate in broadening participation activities that are of interest to them. As demonstrated by the wide variety of topics, ranging from undergraduate student recruitment to BPE professional development for students, staff, faculty, and alumni , the program was successful in encouraging a diversity of activities. As part of the program implementation, the team made a wide variety of resources available to prospective applicants. The presentation will include a tutorial on these resources, which included a proposal template and evaluation rubric. The team also provided pre-proposal support in the form of information sessions on proposal development and budget preparation, team match-making opportunities, and individual support via office hours. Details on the nature, import, and impact of this support will be included in the presentation. Once awarded, the team provided continuous guidance, including resources such as administrative support, connections to others on campus, and research mentorship. The materials used to support the awardees included report and poster templates, detailed budget spreadsheets, and an information session on research evaluation – all of these will be shared in the presentation. In addition to an overview of the seed grants program and all of the materials needed to replicate it at other institutions, we will also provide our insights into characteristics that were common to successful seed grant projects and detailed lessons learned for how to further improve the program in the future.

Citation
Format

Fleming, G. C., & Julien, C. (2025, February), Growing BPE Efforts: Lessons Learned from a College-Wide Seed Grant Program Paper presented at 2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), San Antonio, Texas. https://peer.asee.org/54096

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In this practice-based presentation, we provide an overview of two years of a seed grant program for broadening participation in engineering (BPE) at the University of ____. In this NSF-funded program, undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, staff, and faculty could submit proposals of up to $5,000 to pursue projects of their own envisioning related to BPE. Faculty could participate in supporting roles, but a student, postdoc, or staff member was required to be the principal investigator (PI). The goal of this program was to build the infrastructure for allowing all members of the University of ____’s college of engineering to participate in broadening participation activities that are of interest to them. As demonstrated by the wide variety of topics, ranging from undergraduate student recruitment  to BPE professional development for students, staff, faculty, and alumni , the program was successful in encouraging a diversity of activities. As part of the program implementation, the team made a wide variety of resources available to prospective applicants. The presentation will include a tutorial on these resources, which included a proposal template and evaluation rubric. The team also provided pre-proposal support in the form of information sessions on proposal development and budget preparation, team match-making opportunities, and individual support via office hours. Details on the nature, import, and impact of this support will be included in the presentation. Once awarded, the team provided continuous guidance, including resources such as administrative support, connections to others on campus, and research mentorship. The materials used to support the awardees included report and poster templates, detailed budget spreadsheets, and an information session on research evaluation – all of these will be shared in the presentation. In addition to an overview of the seed grants program and all of the materials needed to replicate it at other institutions, we will also provide our insights into characteristics that were common to successful seed grant projects and detailed lessons learned for how to further improve the program in the future.
AU  - Gabriella Coloyan Fleming
AU  - Christine Julien
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2025/02/09
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Growing BPE Efforts: Lessons Learned from a College-Wide Seed Grant Program
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/54096
ER  -