The College of Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso proposes to organize a workshop entitled ?Building Partnerships and Pathways to Address Engineering Grand Challenges.? The workshop will focus on a select group of the National Academy of Engineering ?Grand Challenges for Engineering.? The workshop will provide a venue to highlight the research at minority serving institutions (MSIs) and, in particular, at Hispanic Serving Institutions. The workshop will also provide a forum to engage a diverse group of researchers (from different disciplines, industry and higher education institutions) who can bring distinct perspectives to the selected challenges. The workshop will offer a unique opportunity to engage in discussions that could lead to innovative solutions to challenges that face our society. In addition, researchers will share best practices for successfully establishing research partnerships, and will identify ways to overcome obstacles that could prevent the creation of research alliances among universities, industry, and national laboratories.
Workshop objectives include: ? To identify the opportunities for synergetic research and strategic partnerships among participating research extensive universities, MSIs and industry to effectively address the Engineering Grand Challenges. ? To create partnerships among majority-minority universities and university-industry to address Engineering Challenges. ? To identify the actions needed to create a culture of collaboration that facilitates the formation of research partnerships. ? To showcase capabilities of faculty from MSIs.
The workshop will increase the visibility of research teams from MSIs, in particular researchers who are from underserved groups, to the research community in general.