This award supports a workshop to explore the opportunities for engineering students and schools which is presented by the new GI bill. The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act (June 30, 2008) authorizes a major expansion of educational benefits for veterans who served post-9/11 (Ref 1). The Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) published proposed guidelines for implementing the expanded entitlement in December 2008 (Ref 2). The new benefits are scheduled to go into effect in August 2009. The VA anticipates as many as 125,000 new applicants for benefits in August 2009 (Ref 3).
Broader Impacts Recent trends in student interest in engineering and science, the expected retirement of large numbers of engineers and scientists during the coming decade, and the large proportion of science and engineering graduates who are not U.S. citizens suggest serious problems for the American engineering and science workforce in the future (Ref 4). The GI Bill provides an opportunity for educational institutions to organize customized programs in engineering and science that would be especially attractive to veterans interested in advancing their education. For example, engineering schools could provide veterans with supervised research or internship experiences for academic credit. In parallel, if properly orchestrated, industrial and governmental organizations engaged in science and engineering can address future work force needs while helping veterans by developing programs to work with those educational institutions. The National Science Foundation can play a special role in helping educational institutions to innovate and organize themselves for providing attractive programs tailored for veterans, and NSF can work with firms and government organizations to facilitate the stablishment of guidelines and protocols for working with the educational community.
Intellectual Merit The objective of this proposal is to conduct a work shop that brings together appropriate representatives of academia, industry and government to develop ideas for the ingredients of a GI Bill Engineering and Science Enhancement Program. The program would be designed to direct more veterans toward engineering and science, and to explore the possible roles that government and industry can play in attracting veterans to the sector and enriching the engineering and science education of veterans. The product of the workshop would be a report that includes recommendations for a set of innovative efforts by NSF, academic institutions, other government organizations, and industry. In particular, the recommendations for NSF will be aimed at helping educational institutions to develop their own tailored programs, including partnerships with industrial and government organizations. The report will also include estimates of cost for NSF and commitments needed from industrial firms and government organizations that would participate in such a program.
