Engineering Diversity

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  • TRACKING PROGRESS
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  • WHAT WORKS
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ENGINEERING DIVERSITY

 

Black/African American and Latinx prime-age adults are roughly a third (33 percent) of the adult population, but just 15 percent of engineers.  They continue to lag in terms of admissions to engineering programs, completion of degrees, occupational penetration, and tenure in engineering jobs.

Women are also underrepresented and underpaid in engineering. Women represent a little less than half of the employed prime-age population, but they only represent 16 percent of engineers. Women’s representation in engineering occupations has been improving, but barely.

 

 

Black/African American and Latinx engineers have lower levels of educational attainment than other engineers, but even when they have equal education, they are paid less.

 

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African Americans make up 2.1% of tenured/tenure-track faculty in biomedical engineering (2018).

The American Society for Engineering Education

8% of university presidents are Black/African American.

— 2016 American Council on Education

Liquid Ink Enables Temporary Scalp-Printed Electronic Tattoos for Measuring Brainwaves
Nanshu Lu | December 2, 2024

Liquid Ink Enables Temporary Scalp-Printed Electronic Tattoos for Measuring Brainwaves
Nanshu Lu | December 2, 2024

Researchers at the University of Texas and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) say they have created a liquid ink that can be directly printed onto a patient’s scalp to measure brain activity, offering an alternative to traditional electroencephalography (EEG). The new technology, detailed in the journal Cell Biomaterials, is part of ongoing research into electronic tattoos (e-tattoos) and their potential to improve both clinical diagnostics and brain-computer interface applications.

“Our innovations in sensor design, biocompatible ink, and high-speed printing pave the way for future on-body manufacturing of electronic tattoo sensors, with broad applications both within and beyond clinical settings,” said lead researcher Nanshu Lu, PhD, whose lab at the University of Texas at Austin focuses on the development of bio-integrated electronics.

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Skin Tone Bias Reduces Accuracy in Photoacoustic Imaging for Breast Cancer Detection
Bisi Bell | November 20, 2024

Skin Tone Bias Reduces Accuracy in Photoacoustic Imaging for Breast Cancer Detection
Bisi Bell | November 20, 2024

A study from Johns Hopkins University, published in Biophotonics Discovery, examined how skin tone affects the accuracy of photoacoustic imaging (PAI), a technology gaining traction in breast cancer diagnostics, especially in situations where traditional mammography is insufficient. The study shows how image reconstruction methods and laser wavelengths influence the visibility of cancerous targets in patients with diverse skin tones and suggests practical solutions to improve equity in diagnostics.

Photoacoustic imaging is a hybrid imaging technique that combines light and sound. Light pulses are transmitted into the body and absorbed by structures like blood vessels, which then undergo thermal expansion and generate sound waves. Ultrasound detectors capture these waves to create detailed images.

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Researchers discover that errors in protein location are a common cause of disease
Anne Carpenter | October 24, 2024

Researchers discover that errors in protein location are a common cause of disease
Anne Carpenter | October 24, 2024

An international team led by researchers at the University of Toronto and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has assembled the first large-scale, publicly available map to show the impact of mutations on where proteins end up in the cell.

The team developed a high-throughput imaging platform to assess the influence of nearly 3,500 mutations on protein location. They found that roughly one in six disease-causing mutations led to proteins ending up in the wrong location in the cell.

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Christine Schmidt elected to prestigious National Academy of Medicine
Christine Schmidt | October 21, 2024

Christine Schmidt elected to prestigious National Academy of Medicine
Christine Schmidt | October 21, 2024

University of Florida Distinguished Professor Christine Schmidt has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. This prestigious honor follows her election earlier this year to the National Academy of Engineering, making her one of the few exceptional individuals to be recognized by both academies.

Election to the National Academy of Medicine recognizes outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service in the fields of health and medicine. The Academy announced the names of its 100 new members today during its annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Schmidt, the Pruitt Family Endowed Chair in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering, was selected for her “outstanding leadership, pioneering research, and clinical translation in neural tissue engineering and wound healing.”

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Nola Hylton Elected to the National Academy of Medicine
Nola Hylton | October 18, 2024

Nola Hylton Elected to the National Academy of Medicine
Nola Hylton | October 18, 2024

Two UC San Francisco faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) this year, one of the highest honors in the field of health and medicine.

NAM recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievements and commitment to service in the medical sciences, health care and public health. The academy elects no more than 100 members a year.

Alicia Fernandez, MD, professor of medicine, was recognized for her work on how language and literacy barriers impact patient care and outcomes; and Nola M. Hylton, PhD, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging was recognized for developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for breast cancer.

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Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations
National Academies

Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM Organizations
National Academies

People from minoritized racial and ethnic groups continue to face numerous systemic barriers that impede their ability to access, persist, and thrive in STEMM higher education and the workforce.

To promote a culture of antiracism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) in STEMM, organizations must actively work to dismantle policies and practices that disadvantage people from minoritized groups.

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What Can We Do to Combat Anti-Black Racism in the Biomedical Research Enterprise?
NIH

What Can We Do to Combat Anti-Black Racism in the Biomedical Research Enterprise?
NIH

The recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, in addition to the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on African Americans, are wrenching reminders of the many harms that societal racism, inequality, and injustice inflict on the Black community. These injustices are rooted in centuries of oppression—including slavery and Jim Crow, redlining, school segregation, and mass incarceration—that continue to influence American life, including the biomedical research enterprise. Despite leading an NIH Institute whose mission includes building a diverse scientific workforce, at NIGMS we’ve struggled with what an adequate response to this moment would be, knowing that the systems that mediate the distinct and disparate burdens Black students, postdocs, and scientists face are complex and often aren’t easily moved with the urgency that they demand. With that in mind, below we share thoughts on what each of us who is in the majority or in a position of power can do to help break the cycles of racial disparities that are woven into the fabric of the biomedical research enterprise and that limit opportunities Link to external web site for Black scientists Link to external web site.

Institutional structures, policies, and cultures Link to external web site, including those in the biomedical research enterprise, all contribute to racial inequality and injustice. This fact was laid bare for us by the responses to the request for information (RFI) we issued in 2018 on strategies to enhance successful postdoctoral career transitions to promote faculty diversity. Respondents cited bias and discrimination—including racism—most frequently as a key barrier to postdoctoral researchers attaining independent faculty positions.

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Combating sexual harassment
Science

Combating sexual harassment
Science

Sexual harassment, including gender harassment, presents an unacceptable barrier that prevents women from achieving their rightful place in science, and robs society and the scientific enterprise of diverse and critical talent. As the largest single funder of biomedical research in the world, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) bears a responsibility to take action to put an end to this behavior. In 2019, the NIH began to bolster its policies and practices to address and prevent sexual harassment. This included new communication channels to inform the agency of instances of sexual harassment related to NIH-funded research. This week, the NIH announces a change that will hold grantee institutions and investigators accountable for this misconduct, to further foster a culture whereby sexual harassment and other inappropriate behaviors are not tolerated in the research and training environment.

Last year, an Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) of the NIH presented a report and recommendations to end sexual harassment. A major theme of this report was the need for increased transparency and accountability in the reporting of professional misconduct, especially sexual harassment. The cases of sexual harassment that surfaced in the wake of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) 2018 report highlighted a substantial gap in the NIH’s oversight of the research enterprise: There was no straightforward mechanism for the agency to learn of sexual harassment or other misconduct taking place at grantee institutions in the context of NIH-funded research. It was not uncommon for the NIH to discover such cases through the media, amid rightful public outcry. Holding institutions and investigators accountable for this behavior was challenging.

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White Academia: Do Better.
Medium

White Academia: Do Better.
Medium

Over the past couple of weeks, our nation has been confronted with ugly truths and hard history revealing how systemic racism rears its head in almost every space. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down our typical lifestyles, people seem to be listening.

This moment feels very different from other situations when we had to address human rights in the context of race relations in the United States. With that comes a host of emotions that White people have rarely had to deal with because of their racial privilege, and this includes White people working in academia.

Like many Black faculty, and Black people in general, I have received messages and texts from White colleagues apologizing, expressing their guilt and remorse, and asking what they can do to support their Black colleagues and friends.

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Guidelines for Diversity & Inclusion in Crisis
Juan E. Gilbert, PhD

Guidelines for Diversity & Inclusion in Crisis
Juan E. Gilbert, PhD

I am writing these guidelines in response to the recent events that have impacted the Black community, specifically, the Black computing community. As the Department Chair of the Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Department at the University of Florida, I lead, one of, if not, the nation’s most diverse computing sciences (CS) department. We have the nation’s most Black CS faculty and PhD students. We are one of the top CS departments for the number of female faculty. As a researcher, I have had the honor of producing the nation’s most Black/African-American CS PhDs. I have also had the honor of hiring and promoting the most Black faculty in CS. My experiences span more than 20 years and those experiences are the foundation for these guidelines.

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