Editor's Note: This op-ed by Tirupalavanam Ganesh is part of Title IX week at ASU – a celebration and examination of the 40th anniversary of the landmark piece of legislation that paved the way for equal opportunities in education and sports for women and girls.

As a 12 year old, I read a slim Oxford University Press edition of "Madame Curie," authored by Eve Curie. Reading Marie Curie’s biography again now reminded me of what inspired me to explore science when I was in grade school.  Curie moved from Poland to Paris where she eventually discovered radium through her dedication and long hours in her laboratory leading to two Nobel prizes in physics and chemistry. Her life and eventual death due to physical illness, caused by her exposure to radioactivity, was inspirational. Download Full Image

Curie’s life was remarkable not only for her successes, but also for the struggles she faced – poverty, single motherhood after her famous husband Pierre Curie died in a road accident, her refusal of a pension from the French government, and eventual appointment to the physics chair at the Sorbonne that was created for her husband in the face of resistance that a woman was to be given such a position in French higher education – reminded me that scientists are human after all.

Since 1906 social attitudes about women in science have changed considerably in the western hemisphere, if not all over the world. I subsequently read "Giants of Science and 100 Great Scientists" (circa 1960s) only to be struck by how few women were featured in these compilations. Conversations with my mother, a teacher, and grandmother, a homemaker, helped me better understand the challenges women faced in pursuing their academic interests.

Why do we have so few women in our nation’s “hard” sciences – physics and chemistry and engineering degree programs?

Reflecting on this question in 2012, at the 40th anniversary of Title IX, helps me appreciate the function social structures, families, role models and mentors play to ensure that females have opportunities to explore and pursue education and career pathways in science. Women scientists, mathematicians and engineers are needed to enhance our research and development enterprises. Their creativity and perspectives will only enrich the design and development of technological innovations that improve the quality of our lives in this global economy.

We need persistent efforts to ensure that women have access to successful educational and career pathways in science. For instance, through ASU’s Girls in Engineering program where 60 sixth-grade students engaged in a year-round effort to understand the role engineering plays in our lives through hands-on design challenges, I learned that long-term and deep learning opportunities are needed for all learners.

Creating opportunities for all students – female and male – to explore science and its relevance to our daily lives is essential to ensure a well-informed, literate citizenry.

Arizona State University is making strides in facilitating such development through its design aspiration of being a “socially embedded” institution. ASU’s efforts are not to simply offer degree programs, but are to play a significant role in facilitating learning at all levels through opportunities for all of our citizens. Creating access to high quality learning is vital.

ASU’s recent collaboration with the Arizona Science Center extends learning opportunities from the formal to the informal realm. Through experiences for children and their families, year-round outreach programs for K-12 students from our science and engineering colleges, and community embedded teacher preparation programs in neighborhood “hub schools,” ASU is now more socially embedded than ever before. These programs help foster learners’ inherent curiosity and facilitate long-term interest in understanding how science, engineering and technological innovation impact our daily lives.

Motivating our next generation of scientists by embracing diversity is what ASU is all about.

Tirupalavanam Ganesh is principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-sponsored study Learning through Engineering Design & Practice. He is presently in India working to develop a K-12 teaching and learning innovation organization in support of public education. He can be reached at tganesh@asu.edu.

Editor's Note: This op-ed by Charli Turner Thorne is part of Title IX week at ASU – a celebration and examination of the 40th anniversary of the landmark piece of legislation that paved the way for equal opportunities in education and sports for women and girls.
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Title IX week: Turner Thorne will speak at a special panel event Wednesday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX.
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Earlier this year – June 23 to be exact – the 40th anniversary of Title IX was recognized and celebrated around the country. I recall how many great stories I came across that week from people – both athletes and non-athletes – whose lives were forever changed by the 37-word bill. It was fascinating to read the accounts and narratives of all those who not only benefitted from Title IX, but also those who championed its cause and whose efforts made this legislation possible.

However there was something else that stood out to me that week and that was the number of people – particularly those who today have opportunities because of this legislation – who either were oblivious to the significance of Title IX or who quite simply had a distorted and/or erroneous perception of it.

For me, personally, Title IX meant having the opportunity to get a scholarship and play basketball for a fully funded program. It meant not being denied simply because I was female, which was not the case before Title IX.

As a woman in education and athletics, I will be forever indebted to Senator Birch Bayh and President Nixon and his administration for helping pass this legislation. I especially think it is important for today’s generation of young women to know the reason why they are afforded the opportunities they have.

Equally important as educating this generation and reeducating others about the benefits of Title IX is making people aware of the misnomers that have caused so many to have a negative perception of Title IX.

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Title IX women's basketball season-opener: The Sun Devil women's basketball team faces powerhouse Texas Tech at 2 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 11, in Wells Fargo Arena, for the season-opening game. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the Sun Devils will hold a special halftime ceremony to honor 40 extraordinary individuals who have helped create opportunities for girls and women.
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First and foremost, Title IX was not born out of athletics but rather education. Because athletics usually tends to be the ‘front porch’ – the part that receives the most attention in the media – of universities and even many high schools, it is usually going to receive exponentially more concentration than the same issues on the academic side. For that reason, people often associate Title IX with taking away opportunities rather than giving them. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In its most simple form, Title IX represents equal opportunity for men and women to participate in educational programs and activities. It does not mandate which sports schools must carry. Those decisions are the result of economical and financial choices made by administrators. Did you know there are some schools that don’t sponsor softball? Women’s gymnastics? Women’s soccer? The point is that for every school that does not have a men’s soccer program or a men’s hockey or men’s lacrosse program, there is also a school that does not have the aforementioned sports I named for women. Does that mean opportunities are being taken away from them, too?

With that in mind we – all those involved in the Sun Devil women’s basketball program – came up with the idea of launching a campaign that would serve to reeducate today’s generation about Title IX.

The tagline we attached to our celebration of Title IX is "Every One Wins," simply because the legislation dictates that no one "shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination…”

Using social media as the primary vehicle for our campaign, we have made efforts to inform the public about the facts of Title IX and, most importantly, illustrating its effects by telling the stories of those whose lives were shaped by it, both before and after its inception.

This campaign will culminate with our home opener against Texas Tech on Nov. 11 when we will be honoring some local heroes and pioneers who helped pave the way for what we have today. We will also be recognizing others who took advantage of all their opportunities, not only for themselves, but for all men and women coming up.

We hope you will join us for this event as we celebrate that which is the simplest thing any of us can hope for in life: opportunity.

Charli Turner Thorne is head coach of the ASU women's basketball team. She is returning for this her 16th season after taking a voluntary leave of absence during the 2011-2012 season. She is the winningest coach in Sun Devil history and No. 3 in the Pac-12 in most career wins.

Editor's Note: Title IX week at ASU – Follow us at ASU News and on Twitter for articles, op-eds, photo galleries and videos, as ASU professors, legal scholars, coaches, student-athletes and faculty and staff address the impact of Title IX, as well as discuss what work still needs to be done.

The week of Nov. 5, ASU will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX – the federal legislation that paved the way for equal opportunities in education and sports for women and girls. Download Full Image

That young women today find it difficult to imagine a world with barriers to education and other gender inequalities speaks to the impact Title IX has made over the last four decades.

Up until 1970, it was not uncommon for women applicants to be routinely denied access to sports clubs and university programs. ASU's late economist and Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom, considered a pioneer in her field, said she had been steered away from her high school math courses and later dissuaded from studying political science in college. At the time, the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields were thought to be the exclusive domains of men. 

"There was a time (in the not so distant past) when it was not common for women in the U.S. to gain admission to undergraduate programs in physics – in fact, they were actually discouraged from even applying," says Tirupalavanam Ganesh, assistant professor of engineering education in ASU's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. "The social structures that Title IX helped create have been essential to simply give women access to science and engineering degrees."

However, Ganesh says, there is more work to be done, particularly in the STEM fields.

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Nov. 5-11 – Title IX Week at ASU:
Email us and share your Title IX story/photos.

Monday, Nov. 5: Charli Turner Thorne's live interview on Twitter – 10-10:30 a.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 7: Title IX panel event at Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa – 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 11: Sun Devil women's basketball opens season in Wells Fargo Arena; honors "Title IX 40" – 2 p.m.

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While some argue Title IX has not done enough in the equality realm – equal pay is still an issue – there is great evidence of progress. More women than ever before are receiving advanced education degrees – many of them in fields from which they were once denied access, such as law – and women now make up half the workforce.

Last summer in London – in what some have dubbed the "Title IX Olympics" – more U.S. women brought home gold medals than U.S. men. This Olympics feat could not have been possible 40 years ago when there was little support for women athletes and women's athletic programs.

Not the case today, say Christina Wombacher, director of basketball operations at ASU, and graduate assistant Wendy Woudenberg, who are coordinating the ASU women's basketball Title IX event, Sunday, Nov. 11, when the Sun Devils open the season against Texas Tech at 2 p.m., in Wells Fargo Arena.

In honor of 40 years of women's advancement in education and sports, Arizona State University and Sun Devil Athletics will honor 40 extraordinary individuals at halftime of the season-opening basketball game.

Some of the honorees include Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court; sportscaster Brad Cesmat; Lin Larsen, who was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008; Mary Littlewood, considered the founder of ASU women's sports; and Don Petranovich, who led the Winslow High School girls basketball team to eight State Championships and finished his career as the winningest coach in Arizona high school basketball history.

A post-game panel will discuss the impact and opportunities of Title IX.

ASU women's basketball head coach Charli Turner Thorne will speak on Wednesday, Nov. 7, at the Title IX: Inspiring Opportunity event, co-sponsored by the ASU Alumni Association, the Sun Devil Club and the Women & Philanthropy group of the ASU Foundation for a New American University. The event is scheduled to take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa.

Turner Thorne also will be available for a live ASU Tweetup from 10 to 10:30 a.m., on Monday, Nov. 5, to answer questions about Title IX and the upcoming basketball season. Hashtag for the live Twitter interview is #ASUTweetup and #ASUWBBTitleIX.

Coverage of the 40th anniversary will continue all week, as ASU professors, legal scholars, coaches, student-athletes and faculty and staff discuss how the United States' social landscape has changed in the years since Indiana Senator Birch Bayh introduced the Title IX constitutional appendage that was signed into law by President Nixon as part of the education amendments of 1972.

Also up for discussion: ways we can build on the Title IX legacy of gender equality.

ASU’s Center for Indian Education has been awarded a $1.2 million grant for an innovative teacher preparation project that will enroll 16 Native American participants in an ASU bachelor’s degree program offered onsite within the Gila River Indian Community. The four-year project is a joint partnership between ASU and the Gila River Indian Community’s Tribal Education department and funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education.

The project “Gila River Early Educators Attaining Teaching Excellence” (GRE²ATE) has been designed to serve American Indian educators already working with children in Head Start and Early Education classrooms on the Gila River Indian Community reservation. Participants will complete this interdisciplinary bachelor’s program while continuing to teach at their schools Download Full Image

The program focuses on early years curriculum planning, child development, family involvement, transitioning children from Head Start and tribal preschools to K-3, and integrating culture and Native language into early childhood classrooms. Also built into the program are features to ensure participant success, including mentoring and test-taking and technology training.

The site-based cohort will graduate with a concentration in early childhood education, leading to Arizona Early Childhood Teacher Certification. A year of induction mentoring will follow, to help graduates initiate an ongoing professional network of support in using culturally relevant and language-rich early education teaching practices.

“The Center for Indian Education believes that partnering with tribal nations like Gila River Indian Community fulfills part of the New American University’s design aspirations to leverage our place, transform society, enable student success, and be socially embedded,” says center co-director Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, Borderlands Associate Professor of Indigenous Education and Justice in the School of Social Transformation and principal investigator on the grant. “We are honored to collaborate with the Gila River Community in this important work.”

Mario Molina, Tribal Education director for the Gila River Indian Community, sees the program as a sustainable model for instruction that will build capacity from within the community.

“The GRE²ATE program will provide my community an opportunity to develop our own teaching cadre that will recognize and encompass the essence of the Akimel O’Otham and Pee Posh culture, language and heritage as we teach our young members,” says Molina. “We see this as a positive attribute that will help sustain the community for years and generations to come, and will serve as a model of instruction that we hope will work in concert with the beliefs that we hold dear as an indigenous community.”

A number of teacher preparation degree projects coordinated by ASU’s Center for Indian Education have served well to inform the development of this new program. Deborah Chadwick, project director for GRE2ATE, has successfully overseen a number of them. She also worked as an educator within the Gila River Indian Community for eight years.

About this work, Chadwick says, “Through my years of experience working with the community, I’ve had the opportunity to discuss with colleagues and community members the need for more highly qualified early childhood teachers who are from the community. This is important because it adds to the pool of teachers who know their children, are best likely to understand the community’s educational needs, and are less likely to leave the community. Our program will help add to the pool of highly qualified early childhood teachers without pulling these important educators away from the preschools and children who rely on them. We are hoping to continue this partnership beyond the life of this grant and help the community build teacher capacity.”

“Having someone with Debby’s stature, experience and wisdom leading this program is good for both ASU and GRIC,” agree Molina and Brayboy. “We’re fortunate to have her overseeing this important work.”

The program is accepting applicants now, with courses to begin in spring 2013. Priority in the selection process will be given to current Gila River Head Start and Early Education/Child Care teachers and teacher assistants. Applicants who have earned or are nearing completion of an associate’s degree will receive priority. To learn more about the project, financial support involved, or to begin an application, visit http://center-for-indian-education.asu.edu/gre2ate.

The Center for Indian Education was established at ASU more than 50 years ago. Over the years its mission has been continually revisited and reinterpreted to reflect changing contexts and evolving needs. The center has an abiding commitment to tribal nations of Arizona and to ASU, while expanding its emphasis on world-class research, the preparation of future generations of Indigenous scholars, and involvement with a global community of scholars, policy makers, and practitioners in Indigenous education. The Center is part of ASU’s School of Social Transformation, an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Project contacts:

Deborah.Chadwick@asu.edu, project director
ASU’s Center for Indian Education
480-727-6405

Patricia.Valenzuela@gric.nsn.us, assistant Tribal Education director
Gila River Indian Community, Tribal Education Department
520-562-3662

Media contact:

An ASU professor calls immigration law “a multi-layered jurisdictional patchwork” that requires essential maintenance. However, she believes a more reasonable approach to reform is in the offing.

“There’s a paradox with immigration in our country,” said Marie Provine, a professor emerita with ASU’s School of Social Transformation. “We think of ourselves as a nation of immigrants and yet it takes as much as 15 years to enter legally as a family member of someone already in the U.S. We invest billions of dollars a year on this issue and clearly still have a problem.” Download Full Image

Provine’s lecture, “Arizona Policy on Unauthorized Immigration,” will conclude the fall 2012 Humanities Lecture series, which is hosted by ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences on the Downtown Phoenix campus. The lecture is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 8, at the Nursing and Health Building Two, 550 N. Third St., Innovation Auditorium, room 110. The lecture series is free and open to the public.

“The issue of immigration and documentation is not only a legal and economic one, but of a global and local humanitarian concern,” said Mirna Lattouf, lecture series organizer. “It is in our interest as responsible citizens to have a fair, just and reasonable reform package that takes into account all aspects of this very hot and at times divisive topic.” 

Provine said her lecture will address the power struggle between the historical federal government and Arizona on immigration reform, the Supreme Court’s recent handling of SB 1070, and what laws should the state adopt in the future?

According to Provine, the devolution of immigration reform policing powers was authorized by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) passed by Congress in 1996. The IIRIRA does not require that state and local law enforcement authorities enforce federal immigration laws. Rather, it simply invites them to do so. However, federal rules do not require coordination between the various and overlapping policymaking bodies. The issue of immigration enforcement has significant potential for cross-jurisdictional conflict and overlap.

“These conflicts tend to create significant levels of uncertainty among immigrant residents about what policy approach prevails,” Provine said. “Overlapping enforcement authority also constrains some localities as they seek to balance enforcement options against their commitment to community policing.”

Provine believes a more common sense approach to immigration will ultimately prevail as voting demographics shift and angry political rhetoric becomes less emotional. 

For more information on the lecture series, call Mirna Lattouf at 602-496-0638 or email her at Mirna.Lattouf@asu.edu.

Morrison Institute for Public Policy officially launched its Latino Center Oct. 22, with a mission to increase the state’s understanding of Latino issues as they relate to Arizona public policy, education, workforce, leadership and the economy.

Morrison Institute Latino Public Policy Center will add focus and emphasis to Latino issues. The center’s first director is Joseph Garcia, a longtime educator, communication specialist and editor with experience and understanding of public policy and political issues in Arizona. Download Full Image

“The new center is borne from the fact that by 2030 our state will be a majority minority,” said Sue Clark-Johnson, executive director of Morrison Institute. “As Morrison found in its 2012 study ‘Dropped? Latino Education and Arizona’s Economic Future,’ there are very pragmatic consequences for Arizona if the Latino education gap is not addressed – issues of poverty, low income, high welfare, lower tax revenues. Those issues, from a public policy perspective, need to be discussed and dealt with as appropriate today.

“The new center will not be an advocacy center, but rather a center for greater communication and dialogue for policymakers, citizens, community groups, business leaders and educators – all of whom are stakeholders in Arizona’s future,” she added.

The center already has produced its first publication, “Arizona’s Emerging Latino Vote,” which uses data and projections to illustrate how the state’s political landscape will continue to change because of the increasing Latino voter population, especially by 2030. That’s when the number of Latino citizens ages 20 and older will have increased by at least 178 percent since 2010. In contrast, the number of adult non-Latino Arizona citizens is expected to increase by just 42 percent during this period, according to the report.

“More and more of our research, analysis and polling have to do with Latino public policy, as should be the case given our state and nation’s changing demographics,” said David Daugherty, director of research at Morrison Institute. “It makes perfect sense for Morrison Institute to house a Latino Center to collect and disseminate such important data and analysis for a more focused dialogue in recognition and informed anticipation of a changing Arizona.”

“Arizona’s Emerging Latino Vote” is available for reading or downloading at morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/latinos, along with “Dropped?” and other Latino-related briefs, blogs, videos, news and reports.

“We must work together, live together and succeed together,” Garcia said. “There is only one Arizona – there cannot be two, as data suggest exists today and even more so tomorrow if we allow two populations to be separated by inequities ranging from education to opportunity to financial security.

“There must be integrated balance to strengthen our state’s collective sustainability and chances for future success. And that begins with a greater understanding and appreciation of changing demographics, shifting dynamics and nuanced complexities in public policy,” Garcia added.

Established in 1982, Morrison Institute for Public Policy is a leader in examining critical Arizona and regional issues, and is a catalyst for public dialogue. An Arizona State University resource, Morrison Institute uses nonpartisan research and communication outreach to help improve the state’s quality of life.

T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics seeks better future for children, youth, families

Entrepreneur T. Denny Sanford is being honored by Arizona State University with the naming of the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics in recognition of his long-time support.   Download Full Image

Sanford has helped advance the university over many years of philanthropic program commitment by bringing a unique partnership with Teach for America to the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and creating the Sanford Harmony Program, which is intended to help children as young as three years old better understand the opposite gender and to create respect, trust and understanding between boys and girls before adolescence.

 “When you match Denny Sanford’s energy, drive and resources with what ASU is committed to do to find the solutions to the great challenges we as a society face, you have the perfect combination to create real change,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow in announcing the new name of the school. “Denny has helped put ASU at the forefront of social innovation – building what is needed to improve the health and welfare of families. 

“I believe T. Denny Sanford will be the name associated with discovery in the areas of harmonious and healthy human development and relationships to ultimately reduce divorce and abuse rates.”

Through the Sanford School, an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, ASU is developing and promoting collaborative efforts that involve faculty, practitioners, staff, students and community members, and that focus on core Sanford themes: relationships, families, children, education, health and well-being. The Sanford Harmony Program is a centerpiece of the school.

“I am a pioneer of new ideas, new thoughts and new programs,” said Sanford. “Arizona State University gave me the opportunity to bring forth the Sanford Harmony Program and now the Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics. These programs benefit the country by teaching children respect, trust and understanding.

“It is my dream to reduce the divorce rate in the U.S. by 50 percent within the next 50 years,” Sanford added. “Dr. Crow shares that dream. ASU is a world-class university, and we expect many significant endorsements for this world-changing program that will be made available to all preschool and elementary schools nationwide.”

The Sanford School boasts:

• a faculty of more than 60 world-class scholars that generate almost $7 million annually in research expenditures

• a large and diverse student body of more than 1,600 undergraduate and 120 graduate majors who are dedicated to understanding and improving the lives of children, youth and families

• award-winning initiatives that break traditional academic boundaries and seek innovative solutions to our most pressing social problems

• entrepreneurial leadership that is cutting-edge in creating opportunities for self-investment and transformational change

• increasing recognition as an aspirational peer for many universities across the United States and the world

ASU and the Sanford School are not traditional academic institutions,” said Richard Fabes, Sanford School director. “As a New American University, we’re aligned closer to a teaching and research hospital model – taking ideas and delivering solutions with real-world implications. Our research is used to improve well-being and provide the prevention and intervention tools to help build better relationships and live better lives. 

“Denny Sanford’s significant investments have been transformative as we further our important work and find solutions that will create a better future for children, youth and families.”

Sanford, a native of St. Paul, Minn., graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in psychology in 1958. A successful entrepreneur who serves as chairman and CEO of United National Corporation in Sioux Falls, S.D, his philanthropic endeavors have left a legacy across ASU. He has placed a focus on children through his support of ASU’s Sanford Harmony Program, created in 2008 to bridge the gender divide by providing girls and boys with opportunities and support for positive peer classroom interactions and friendships, and laying the foundation for healthy and successful relationships throughout the early childhood years and beyond. The program is based on the notion that facilitating harmonious relationships between boys and girls will improve the learning environment and set the stage for positive relationships throughout a lifetime. 

In total, Sanford has invested more than $25 million in the School of Social and Family Dynamics and Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. His support of Teachers College has helped transform the way teachers are prepared. The resulting Sanford Inspire Program has earned national recognition, redefining teacher preparation by integrating best practices of Teachers College and Teach For America. 

R.F. “Rick” Shangraw Jr., CEO of the ASU Foundation for A New American University, said Sanford’s support represents the best kind of private-university partnership. “Denny’s contributions are groundbreaking in the sense that he is an innovative partner who has laid the foundation in developing a model for how we understand and enhance relationships among young children. He has changed the way the university recruits, selects and prepares future K–12 teachers, and he has built programs through his advocacy and resources that hold significant promise for the improvement of well-being for children, families and the world. The breadth and reach of his philanthropy are profound.

“It is an Arizona State University point of pride to have the Sanford name so prominently associated with this great university for the inspiration of children.”

Arizona State University is taking another step to tailor engineering education to meet the needs of industry and working professionals.

This semester ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering has launched a distance-learning program in collaboration with Intel Corp. that offers company employees in Vietnam an opportunity to earn advanced engineering degrees. Download Full Image

Sixteen engineers are enrolled for the fall semester as the first group of students in the Intel Vietnam Graduate Program.

Intel is the world’s leading semiconductor chip maker. It designs and builds technologies to support a broad array of computing devices.

The company’s multinational expansion is creating a growing need for more of its employees to acquire graduate-level education. Many of its facilities are in countries without extensive higher-education resources.

ASU’s new program is structured to enable the engineers to earn graduate degrees within three years while they continue to work full-time.

The program has been designed “to give the employees the specific competencies Intel needs them to acquire, but also to develop the individual students’ skills to match their own interests and career aspirations,” says Octavio Heredia, associate director of Global Outreach and Extended Education for the engineering schools.

Students will take classes taught by ASU tenure-track engineering faculty through video conferencing, and apply lessons learned in classes in projects overseen by ASU faculty.

In the quest to increase the productivity of a global engineering workforce, ASU has pioneered a true industry-university collaboration in the development and delivery of a global multidisciplinary program, Heredia says.

“Vietnam has recognized that education transformation is a long-term process, and is working with academic and industry partners such as Intel to aid the endeavor,” says Rick Howarth, general manager for Intel Products Vietnam.

Intel invests more than $100 million in education worldwide, and has been investing about $10 million in educational system transformation over the past five years in Vietnam, Howarth says.

“The ASU Intel Graduate Program is another benefit for our employees. It helps to cultivate the next generation of innovators and to enhance our employee’s skills and knowledge at ASU. We aim to develop a quality workforce for ramping up factory operations and for the overall high-tech industry,” he says.

All students in the ASU program will receive advanced training in semiconductor design, processing and packaging to align with Intel’s workforce education needs. Beyond that, students can choose curriculum with concentrations in either electrical engineering or industrial engineering.

In addition, all students will receive advanced training in project- collaboration management skills.

“We are focused on providing availability and flexibility. We are focused on balancing Intel’s needs with the individual students’ own professional goals,” Heredia says.

About 15 to 20 new students are expected to begin studies in the program each semester. Enrollment in the program is expected to grow as Intel continues expansion throughout Southeast Asia.

ASU’s engineering schools will also explore opportunities to work with other companies to provide advanced education to professionals in other parts of the world.

“We view what we are launching now as a pilot program for something that could become much bigger,” Heredia says.

A team of four construction management majors in the Del E. Webb School of Construction Programs at Arizona State University recently placed first in the Western Pacific Region 2012 Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) student competition.  

Overall the ASU team placed fourth among about 30 teams from universities across the country. The accomplishment earns $2,000 from the DBIA for team members to attend the industry organization’s national conference in New Orleans in November. Download Full Image

Seniors Skyler Holloway, Todd Scott and Myles Morton and graduate student Arundhati Ghosh took on the competition’s challenge to develop a design-build proposal based on stipulations for a real-life architectural design and construction project.

Competitors had a little over a week to complete their proposals, with the requirement to integrate all aspects of project design and construction.

The ASU team came out on top in the regional competition against teams from nine other universities, including the University of California-Berkeley, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and San Diego State University.

Holloway, the team captain, says the training ASU construction school students are given in a wide range of construction- and engineering-related disciplines – as well as hands-on experiences in the field – helped prepare the team to go up against tough competition.

The Del E. Webb School of Construction Programs is part of the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced the establishment of the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations and has named ASU professor Wei Li as a member of the committee.

The National Advisory Committee will advise the Census Bureau on a wide range of variables that affect the cost, accuracy and implementation of the Census Bureau's programs and surveys, including the once-a-decade census. The committee, which is made up of 31 members from multiple disciplines, will advise the Census Bureau on topics such as housing, children, youth, poverty, privacy, race and ethnicity, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other populations. Download Full Image

“We expect that the expertise of this committee will help us meet emerging challenges the Census Bureau faces in producing statistics about our diverse nation,” said Thomas Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau's acting director. “By helping us better understand a variety of issues that affect statistical measurement, this committee will help ensure that the Census Bureau continues to provide relevant and timely statistics used by federal, state and local governments as well as business and industry in an increasingly technologically oriented society.”

The National Advisory Committee members, who serve at the discretion of the Census Bureau director, are chosen to serve based on expertise and knowledge of the cultural patterns, issues and/or statistical needs of hard-to-count populations.

Wei Li is a professor of Asian Pacific American studies and geography in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at ASU, with appointments in the School of Social Transformation and the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Her research specialties are international migration and integration, highly skilled migration and transnational connections, immigrant settlement and minority finance, focusing on the Pacific Rim. She chaired the Census Bureau's Race and Ethnic Advisory Committees on the Asian Population from 2010-2012.

Professor Li is an inaugural member of the National Asia Research Associates with the National Bureau of Asian Research and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2010-2011), and the Fulbright Research Chair in Queen's University, Canada (2006-2007). She received the 2012 Distinguished Scholar of Ethnic Geography Award from the Association of American Geographers' Ethnic Geography Specialty Group, and the 2009 Book Award in Social Sciences from the Association for Asian American Studies for her book on suburban immigrant communities.

Li also currently serves as a member of the International Steering Committee for the International Metropolis Project; she is North American director for the International Society of Studying Chinese Overseas and a member of the Asian American Community Justice Council for the Attorney General, State of Arizona.

Li earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in geography in Beijing and her doctorate in geography at the University of Southern California.