National Academies Press: OpenBook

Assessing NASA's University Leadership Initiative (2021)

Chapter: 3 Options to Increase Awareness of ULI Among Universities, Departments, and Faculty

« Previous: 2 Efforts to Increase the Participation of Women, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Underrepresented and Minority Participants in ULI
Suggested Citation:"3 Options to Increase Awareness of ULI Among Universities, Departments, and Faculty." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Assessing NASA's University Leadership Initiative. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25996.
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Page 17
Suggested Citation:"3 Options to Increase Awareness of ULI Among Universities, Departments, and Faculty." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Assessing NASA's University Leadership Initiative. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/25996.
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Page 18

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3 Options to Increase Awareness of ULI Among Universities, Departments, and Faculty The NASA ULI program has implemented a variety of practices to increase the publicity and awareness of the program. Some of the practices reach a broad audience—for example, published solicitation on ULI’s website and NASA’s Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System. ULI program representatives also talk at applicant workshops, professional conferences, and advisory board meetings. Others specifically target audiences according to the nature of the research thrusts of the ULI program. For example, the ULI program advertises at the professional societies such as the Engineering Deans Institute (through the ASEE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. The ULI program also engages in direct and indirect communications with multiple selected universities for its special topics and with their female faculty. The committee believes that there are ways to improve the current practices of ULI in order to further increase the diversity of the proposers. For example, the ULI could reach out to Advancing Minorities’ Interest in Engineering (AMIE), which represents HBCU Schools of Engineering with ABET-accredited programs. Through AMIE, the ULI program can engage directly with those HBCUs that have the talents and relevant expertise in their engineering faculty and students with regard to ULI’s research thrusts. Engineering societies such as the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) also have student chapters that could prove to be a useful resource for ULI to engage. The ultimate goal of increasing awareness of the ULI program is to raise interest and foster participation in ULI among faculty with the appropriate research areas in departments and universities. Direct measurement of public awareness of ULI appears difficult. However, the committee found that the webpage “ULI Interested Partners List”1 enabled potential university faculty or industry partners with relevant areas of research interest to sign up for the past three rounds of the ULI program (2017–2020). Almost all of the university awardees are on that list. However, the ULI Interested Partners List contains only a only a small percentage of HBCUs and MSIs. The committee believes that there is still a lack of public awareness of the ULI program, despite ULI’s past efforts. 1 NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, “University Leadership Initiative Interested Partner List,” updated April 30, 2020, https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/uli_partners. 17

18 ASSESSING NASA’S UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE FINDING: The ULI program lacks sufficient visibility among HBCUs and MSIs that offer programs in aerospace, aviation science, and related disciplines. The current ULI Interested Partners List shows that ULI lacks strong interest and participation of MSIs. RECOMMENDATION: In order to increase the overall visibility of the ULI program, as well as among women and minorities in related disciplines, NASA should undertake the following actions:  Employ social media to showcase success stories of the program;  Encourage the project teams to present at major conferences to reach out to the public; and  Address and consult with relevant networking groups such as Women in Aerospace, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Women in Engineering, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the Society of Women Engineers, among others. The committee notes that NASA could sponsor a ULI-specific special session at an appropriate major conference (such as AIAA’s SciTech) to provide overviews of each relevant project. Within the conference, each of the individual research pieces could then be presented within their own discipline areas. This would provide maximum exposure to the projects, both at a higher level and within each of the discipline areas. NASA may also consider holding regional workshops (or webinars during the pandemic) for a smaller group of universities to explain the scope of ULI. The Department of Defense (DoD) has successfully held such workshops during the past several years. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense has sponsored these regional technical assistance workshops. Participants were faculty, students, and administrators of universities in the region; representatives of all DoD departments; and some PIs who had been successful in winning and implementing DoD grants. The Office of Naval Research has also held such webinars. NASA has a diversity outreach office. The committee believes that introducing a program liaison with proper technical background in the ULI program will strengthen the ability of the program to reach out to and communicate with potential proposers in universities, departments, and the broader NASA community to increase diversity of the participants. FINDING: The ULI program lacks an organizational structure that enables effective outreach and communications to faculty and departments at universities, including HBCUs and MSIs that have expertise in the ULI topics. RECOMMENDATION: ULI should introduce a program liaison with the relevant technical background to enhance communications and outreach. A goal of this program liaison should be to communicate to faculty and departments, as well as to the public. This program liaison should work with the relevant NASA communications and outreach offices to increase ULI’s focus on partnerships.

Next: 4 The Aviation Industry's Perception of ULI and the Advantages and Disadvantages of Its Role as a ULI Team Member »
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NASA created the University Leadership Initiative (ULI) to engage creative and innovative minds in the academic arena to identify significant aeronautics and aviation research challenges and define their unique approach to their solution. The ULI was started in 2015 as part of the larger University Innovation Project, with the goal of seeking new, innovative ideas that can support the U.S. aviation community and NASA's long-term aeronautics research goals, as established by its Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

Assessing NASA's University Leadership Initiative reviews the ULI and makes recommendations to enhance program's impact to benefit students, faculty, industry, and the U.S. public.

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