A major goal of the CISST ERC is to embrace the cultural, gender, racial, and ethnic diversity of the U.S. in the composition of its leadership, faculty, staff, and associated students, as a means of providing talented people the opportunity to pursue a career in engineering research and education. The faculty and staff of the Center will devote the time and effort required to ensure that the diversity of the Center’s leadership, staff, faculty, and students serves as a model for diversity within our institutions and for the nation as a whole. In addition, we will provide resources and develop activities that reach far beyond the population of our center and our specific areas of research, in order to make an impact on the engineering profession as a whole.

Goals

Our goal of increased participation of women and under-represented minorities in engineering at all levels is divided into three elements:

Recruiting and Retention. We recognize that we can affect change at several levels: our center (the CISST ERC), our schools (the JHU, CMU, and MIT engineering schools), and engineering study in general (encouraging more students to become engineers). The ERC will develop programs and provide resources to help retain a diverse population of graduate and undergraduate students in engineering. This includes outside students who visit the center for summer research projects or short tours.

Community. The ERC will provide a sense of community, such that all students, faculty and staff feel comfortable communicating their needs and effecting change. Mentoring will occur at many levels. We will continue to provide resources to CISSRS (the Computer-Integrated Surgery Student Research Society) to recruit and retain active members and organize activities of interest to students.

Achievement. The ERC should provide exceptional support to all students, faculty, and staff so that they can achieve their professional goals. As more women and under-represented minorities distinguish themselves, there will be more diverse leadership in the engineering profession and relevant role models for tomorrow’s engineers.