By supporting graduate students to attend IEEE SECON 2013, this award will increase the dissemination of the conference research results to a larger and a more diverse audience, which otherwise would not have been able to attend. In so doing, this award will contribute to the strength and inclusiveness of the research community, and will lead to the long-term health and vitalization of SECON. In addition, by giving preference in grant awards to women and under-represented students, it is hoped that it will increase the participation among these groups. By advertising to a wide range of colleges and universities, participants from a more diverse set of institutions should be able to attend and benefit from the conference. A broad and diverse population is key to the health of the research community.
Conference attendance is a crucial part of the life of a researcher. By creating new opportunities for students (especially those from under-represented groups) to attend a high-quality conference, this project will benefit the research community in several ways. The students themselves benefit from the opportunity to meet and interact with many other researchers in a favorable setting, and from attending research presentations that may be related to their research areas. The research community benefits from the improvement of the students in the pipeline, and from the introduction of new researcher perspectives. Additionally, everybody benefits from the increased diversity of participants attending the conference.
This project partially covered travel and conference registration expenses for thirteen doctoral students located at educational institutions in the United States to attend the IEEE SECON 2013 conference in New Orleans, LA. IEEE SECON is a premier event in the field of sensing, networking, and communications. Attending leading conferences in the field is a fundamental component of the educational experience of graduate students, who often have limited travel funds. By providing travel support, this project contributed to the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers and to the creation of a specialized work force in the field of sensing, networking and communications. The 2013 IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication, and Networking was held in New Orleans, LA from June 24 to June 27, 2013. This preeminent technical conference is the primary venue for presenting new research results in the area of sensing, communication, and networking, and is widely attended by researchers and practitioners in the field. Attending conferences such as SECON is of paramount importance for the training of graduate students. Participants had the opportunity to present their work to a selected audience, attend panels and keynote sessions, and interact with leading researchers performing cutting-edge research in the field of sensing, networking and communications.
