DEI Proposal Review and Advisory Committee (2023-2024):
Students: Cesar Tirado, Danna Awad, Sara Reyes
Staff/Faculty: Whitney Thomas, John Raiti, Sara Mouradian, Denise Wilson
Call for Proposals
The 2024 UW ECE DEI Small Grants Program supports efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in our ECE community. The 2024 program targets specific activities within our vision and invites ECE students, staff, and faculty to participate. Budgets up to $5,000 will be considered for projects ranging in duration from six months to one year. Proposals can be submitted beginning on April 1, 2024 and will be accepted through May 30, 2024. Notification regarding awards will be made on or before June 15, 2024 with most projects having start dates of July 1, 2024
A complete proposal should be no more than two pages long (not including any references provided) and must include the following elements:
- An abstract of up to 250 words describing how the proposed activity will support diversity, equity, or inclusion in UW ECE (proposed projects should specifically target one or more of these elements rather than generically reference DEI as a whole).
- A concise project goal and a bullet list of realizable objectives that will help the project team to reach the goal and accompanying objectives.
- A short background (using citations to the literature when appropriate) including evidence that supports the success of the proposed effort in supporting diversity, equity, or inclusion.
- Project description describing relevant details of the proposed effort and a brief timeline of events and milestones for the project.
- Team description describing who will be involved in the proposed effort including title and institutional affiliation. Project teams initiated by students must have a faculty or staff sponsor and clearly identify the role of the sponsor in ensuring successful completion of the project.
- Detailed budget (not to exceed $5,000; no indirect costs are necessary)
Proposals will be evaluated based on their relevance to the 2024 focus areas as well as their feasibility and potential impact on UW ECE DEI. Proposals that do not meet the guidelines above will be returned without review.
The document above can be submitted through the following link.
Any questions regarding a potential project or proposal are welcome and can be addressed to Denise Wilson or alternatively, brought to DEI office hours (Wednesday from 5 to 6 p.m. on Zoom). Information about previous programs funded through the DEI Initiatives program can be found under New Initiatives (2023-2024). An example of a funded proposal that contains all of the required elements can be found here.
Areas of Focus for 2024 UW ECE DEI Initiatives Program:
Community Conversations in UW ECE
Proposals are invited for hosting community conversations in ECE that take advantage of the training, resource kits, and videos provided by the College of Engineering. Community Conversations are intended to provide a safe space for faculty, students, staff, or a combination thereof to come together, learn about a specific DEI issue facing STEM education and the STEM workforce, and discuss how these issues manifest in daily life within UW ECE. Topics include equity in STEM, allyship, implicit bias, sexism, ableism, xenophobia, and others. Funds will be provided to support food, drink, and materials to support a series of successful community conversations and potential follow-up to these conversations/dialogues. Individuals who are interested in hosting conversations will be required to complete a one-hour training from the College of Engineering (online) to host these conversations.
Collaborations with MSI Institutions
UW ECE seeks to support and advance meaningful and sustainable collaborations with MSIs (Minority serving institutions which include HSIs (Hispanic Serving Institutions) and HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities)) in the interests of enhancing the diversity of thought within our research and teaching efforts. Funds may be requested to host students from MSIs in research laboratories at UW, give seminars at MSIs in an effort to develop equitable research collaborations with faculty at those institutions, or similar efforts that provide opportunities for faculty, staff, and students in UW ECE to interact at a substantive level with faculty, staff, or students at MSIs. Successful proposals should clearly define the benefit that the project will bring to both the UW project leader/PI and the MSI collaborator/contact.
Exploring and Understanding DEI Issues within ECE
Projects that seek to further understand diversity, equity, and inclusion challenges within the ECE community, whether local (at UW), regional (Pacific Northwest), or national (U.S.) are invited for consideration. Funds may be used to support interviews, focus groups, surveys, or similar activities that seek to identify actionable deficits in diversity, equity, or inclusion in the ECE workplace and classroom that merit attention and intervention. Proposals that identify a pathway to transition from collecting and analyzing data to formulating and implementing suitable interventions are especially welcome.
Leveraging ECE Technologies to Support DEI
This focus area seeks proposals that either leverage the technologies developed in UW ECE (e.g. machine learning, natural language processing, sensor systems) to strategically support diversity, equity, or inclusion or use the research talents of the department to address an issue that is unique to UW ECE (e.g. the stubborn gender gap, perception of ECE as a non-empathic field of study, etc.). Proposals should specifically identify how research tools or evidence will benefit diversity, equity, or inclusion.
If you don’t know where your idea fits in the above focus areas and would like to discuss your idea further, feel free to contact Denise Wilson or alternatively, come to DEI office hours (announced periodically through email and UW ECE social media).