The University of California system has awarded UC Riverside a $549,785 grant to expand efforts to diversify its engineering faculty.

The award from the UC Office of the President aims to increase faculty diversity in UCR’s Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, or BCOE, by recruiting and mentoring prospective candidates before they formally enter the academic job market.

The initiative is called “Building a Pipeline for Diverse Future Faculty in UCR’s College of Engineering.” Its leaders are Ahmed Eldawy, equity advisor and associate professor of computer science and engineering; Rajiv Gupta, associate dean for academic personnel; and Christopher Lynch, dean of the engineering college.

“Attracting and hiring the best faculty candidates requires special attention to reaching out to top candidates early in the process,” Lynch said. “At BCOE, we emphasize providing our future faculty with early mentorship and guidance to ensure they feel well-supported throughout their research and teaching careers. Through this initiative, we extend this mentorship to prospective faculty candidates, focusing on those who may not otherwise consider a faculty career.”

A key effort will be the college’s Future Academics and Mentorship Excellence (FAME) program, which is designed to prepare underrepresented graduate students and postdoctoral researchers for faculty positions.

FAME includes an annual two-day Future Faculty Workshop that connects emerging scholars with experienced faculty mentors, engages them in peer support networks, and prepares them for the academic job market. The grant will cover the participants’ travel, meals, and lodging expenses for the workshop. 

Faculty recruitment efforts will focus on human-centric engineering fields such as bioengineering and artificial intelligence (AI) for social good. The grant will also provide support for new facility hires to support their success. This will include family advocates to assist them in balancing their career and personal lives. New hires will receive technical writing and grant proposal support to help them win grants to finance their research projects.

“By engaging potential faculty candidates early and sharing the various support mechanisms we can offer, we aim to present UC Riverside as a significant stepping stone to a rewarding career as an engineering educator,” Eldawy said. “As we prepare the engineers of tomorrow, we are also contributing to the development of future faculty today.”