Broadening Participation

Overview

The AI-EDGE Institute is committed to developing a wide range of broadening participation (BP) programs. Our major initiatives will involve

  • Developing AI-based outreach activities for K-12 students, particularly those from under-represented groups (URGs), and further preparing them for application and admission into university-level AI-related STEM programs;
  • Helping to build a large diverse workforce by providing training and research opportunities at Minority Serving Institution (MSI) institutions and increasing access to AI and networking education by URG communities and learners nationwide; and
  • Launching various Women In AI activities that help female K-12, college, graduate and postdoctoral students as well as female junior faculty members to pursue successful careers in AI-related fields.

Year 1 Efforts

  • 13 out of 28 PhD students recruited in Year 1 are women or from other under-represented groups.
  • Recruited one woman postdoc, and 2 women undergraduate students in Year 1
  • The Institute held an eight-week summer research program for undergraduate students during 2022 which included eight participants from under-represented groups (URGs) and minority-serving institutions (MSIs).
  • The Institute will host undergraduate students from URGs and MSIs for a research program on AI, machine learning, and networking during the summer of 2023.
  • Chowdhury, Ioannidis, and Melodia at Northeastern nominate their female students annually and provide resources to attend various N2Women workshops. 
  • Kurose at UMass mentors three female faculty members; he is also co-organizing the NetworkingChannel (networkingchannel.eu), which makes an active, concerted effort to have gender, geographical, and age diversity in speakers/panelists/presenters. For example, Jim organized the following networkingchannel.eu event on Feb. 2: “How can we improve diversity and inclusion in the systems and networking community?”
  • Oh at Univ. of Washington hosted a UW ML retreat, and encouraged URM/female students to participate
  • Lin at OSU founded faculty advisor of Women in CyberSecurity Chapter at OSU (WiCyS).