UNM project a finalist for diversity award at national conference

July 1, 2016 - Kim Delker

Diversity Finalists

UNM's Vanessa Svihla (second from right) is pictured along with other finalists at the best diversity paper competition at the ASEE meeting in New Orleans on June 28. Svihla is an assistant professor in the OILS program.

Several researchers from The University of New Mexico collaborated on a project that was selected as a finalist for a diversity award from the American Society for Engineering Education.

The paper was presented and featured at a special session at the ASEE conference in New Orleans in late-June.

Authors of the paper are principal investigator Abhaya Datye (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering), and co-principal investigators Jamie Gomez (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering) and Vanessa Svihla (Organization, Information and Learning Sciences program).

Over the past year, faculty from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have been collaborating with faculty from UNM's Organization, Information and Learning Sciences program on a National Science Foundation-funded grant focused on initiating research on how to retain diverse students in engineering, with a goal of helping students develop identities as engineers while retaining their particular cultural identities.