Ohio State University and the US Air Force are forming a consortium to increase opportunities for minority science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students.
The six-year, $40 million project will be funded by the Air Force Research Laboratory. Ohio State will co-led the effort with Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and North Carolina A&T State University.
The project will include summer internships for minority engineering students and provide them access to research equipment and laboratory space at the participating institutions.
It will also collaborate with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and help them develop technical proposals for research funding.
“This funding provides an exciting opportunity for Ohio State to partner with minority institutions from across the nation to develop creative approaches to cultivating a prepared, diverse research workforce for the next generation of scientists for the US Air Force,” said Morley O. Stone, senior vice president of research at Ohio State.
More Diverse STEM Workforce for USAF
The long term goal of the project is to help the US Air Force hire a more diverse STEM workforce.
“The longer-term, grander goal is to better position HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions to be able to competitively respond to any science and technology call for proposals, and specifically to defense-related calls,” said Michael Groeber, an associate professor in integrated systems engineering at Ohio State and research director for the project.