New $1.25 million Wei LAB project seeks to warm ‘chilly climate’ in STEM for underrepresented

Driven by the goal of improving the country’s ability to solve complex problems, a partnership led by UW–Madison’s Wei LAB will help engineering societies apply a newly released international standard on diversity and inclusion. It aims to foster STEM disciplinary excellence by supporting fuller engagement of women and minoritized people in the STEM workforce and academic settings.

Project leaders say science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional societies are uniquely positioned to advance national-level diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) reform for underrepresented groups. Engineering societies were selected from among the STEM disciplines for the project because engineers are seen as especially attuned to standards...