Overview
Our Mission
The mission of the ECE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee is to ensure that our department sustains a welcoming, encouraging, and equitable environment that recognizes, respects, and values differences based on ethnicity, race, religion, gender identity and expression, age, physical and learning ability, socioeconomic background, national origin, and sexual orientation. We recognize that recruiting, supporting, and retaining department members from across this broad spectrum of backgrounds and lived experiences is crucial. Diverse problem-solvers lead to creative and innovative solutions, and such solutions are the key to achieving the Hajim School’s goal to advance the highest quality education and research through engaging experiences and environments that promote critical thinking, creativity, ethics, and leadership. Please join us in our continuing efforts to build our culture of DEI!
Message from the Chair
Marvin Doyley
Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
As chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering one of my goals is to address our department’s diversity, equity, and inclusiveness. Having been one of the only—if not the only—person in the room that looks like me as an undergraduate, graduate student, and university professor, I understand the barriers students from diverse backgrounds face. I’d like to share some initiatives we’ve undertaken to achieve our goals:
Empower a departmental DEI committee
We’ve created a DEI committee at the department level to understand where our issues lie and will work together to address those issues. I’m proud to say that the committee is diverse and eager! We are actively updating our website to provide substantial resources around DEI, have hosted both a Black History Month and Women’s History Month panel discussion, are looking into a community-based engineering outreach program, and are working with University facilities to address bathroom access issues.
Diversify our department faculty
We will continue our efforts to recruit faculty from under-represented groups as faculty hiring opens up. We have invited speakers from diverse groups to our seminar series. We are also considering applying for funding from the National Institutes of Health for a training grant to help support graduate students from underrepresented groups in the hopes that they will succeed and continue as ECE faculty members.
Grow a pipeline to help diversify our student population at the undergraduate and graduate levels
I’ve applied for and received National Science Foundation funding for a Research Experience for Undergraduates program. This funding will enable us to bring underrepresented minority students to the department for mentored summer research projects. The hope is that these students will return to our department to do graduate work. Now that I’ve secured this funding, I am working to address the undergraduate population, perhaps via the community-based engineering outreach program that our DEI committee is considering, which would bring STEM-focused instruction to local schools.
Diversify our ECE Advisory Board
We have refreshed our External Advisory Board to include members from underrepresented minorities.
Message from the Dean
Wendi Heinzelman
Dean of the Edmund A. Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences
The mission of the Edmund A. Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is to promote and support the highest quality research that advances solutions to pressing societal problems and to advance education in engineering and applied science through engaging experiences and environments that promote critical thinking, creativity, equity, ethics, and leadership, creating lifelong learners. This is a lofty goal and one that we must be sure to achieve. Indeed, our future capacity to transform our world through technological innovations depends on new research discoveries. It also depends on educating a diverse population of...
"...students who will be the next researchers, developers, entrepreneurs, educators, and leaders in engineering, and who have the passion to change the world."
The world needs more engineers with a diversity of backgrounds and ways of looking at the world. The world needs more engineers who care about the impact of our decisions on our environment, on our place as a global citizen, and on our future. These are the engineers who will serve as catalysts for change. In the Hajim School, we recognize that engineering training provides the tools to tackle some of the most difficult problems facing society today. Yet it is the unique skills and backgrounds of each engineer, and the ability to work together as a team with integrity, perseverance, and a commitment to the highest standards, that will lead to the next big breakthrough.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee brings together undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, staff and faculty together to:
IDENTIFY AREAS
for improvement with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
DEFINE SPECIFIC GOALS
for improving in these areas.
DEVELOP AND EXECUTE
action plans to achieve these goals.
2024-2025 DEI Committee
Robert Amponsah (Alumni)
Irving Barron
Tre DiPassio (Alumni)
Michele Foster
Evelyn Goldman
Nazmul Hasan
Michael Heilemann
Keira Kymissis
Brian Ly
Teju Oluwadamilare
Caleb Oshinsky
Newt Perlman
Jack Rochkind
Linda Weidman
Hui Wu
Awards
2021 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award
For the second year in a row, the University has been recognized for its efforts to support equity and inclusivity across campus. As a recipient of the 2021 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award, a national honor recognizing US colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion, Rochester will be featured, along with 100 other recipients, in the November 2021 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversitymagazine.
America’s Best Employers for Diversity
The Medical Center is included in Forbes’ annual list of “America’s Best Employers for Diversity.” The list highlights 500 employers most identified by employees as being dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Those on the list have the most diverse boards, as well as the most proactive diversity and inclusion initiatives.