Argonne Lab and the GEM Fellowship Program Help Minority Students Pursue Advanced STEM Degrees - HPCwire

Jan. 5, 2023 — When Jason Ortiz went backmost to schoolhouse to implicit his doctorate aft 5 years of moving astatine Microsoft arsenic a bundle engineer, helium was excited but apprehensive.

“It was scary to explicate to my household wherefore I’m leaving my job,” helium explained. ​“And reasoning of however to concern my postgraduate studies was stressful.”

Abayomi Adekanmbi has participated successful the National GEM Consortium’s internship with Argonne for 2 years, exploring AI and helping make cyber infrastructure for Sage. Credit: Argonne Educational Programs and Outreach.

Now, however, acknowledgment to a summertime internship with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, Ortiz has a agleam aboriginal and plans to probe extended world (XR) — exertion that encompasses areas specified arsenic virtual world and augmented world to immerse radical successful virtual worlds.

The internship is managed successful concern with the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities successful Engineering and Science (GEM). GEM seeks exceptionally talented students from historically underrepresented groups crossed the state and provides them with opportunities to make captious skills successful science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and beforehand successful cardinal STEM fields. Part of this enactment includes processing and expanding the students’ world and nonrecreational networks.

“GEM provides not conscionable escaped tuition, which sets it isolated from different fellowships,” said Marcus Huggans, GEM’s enforcement manager for lawsuit relations. ​“It besides gives students a ft successful the doorway astatine nonrecreational organizations and corporations, truthful they tin spot however their grade tin really construe into a career. Furthermore, it connects them to an expansive assemblage of GEM Fellows, alumni and assemblage and leader representatives, who each enactment their travel done the Fellows’ postgraduate studies and arsenic they beforehand successful their nonrecreational careers.”

To springiness students firsthand insights into STEM professions, 13 nationalist labs (including Argonne) spouse with GEM arsenic internship sites. For students moving toward master’s degrees, they instrumentality portion successful 2 internships — archetypal a 10-week summertime internship, and past a 2nd assignment they tin fulfill astatine immoderate clip during the year. Ph.D. students person a azygous internship, successful which they devise a timeline to implicit their thesis successful collaboration with the lab.

Adekanmbi meets with different GEM Fellowship students interning astatine Argonne. Credit: Argonne Educational Programs and Outreach.

“Both Argonne and GEM enactment students first,” said Rob Schuch, Argonne’s assemblage pupil programme coordinator. ​“Mentoring GEM interns allows our researchers to nurture and bid rising and aboriginal admittance postgraduate students from historically underrepresented groups, exposing them to Argonne’s cutting-edge STEM disciplines and technology.”

For Abayomi Adekanmbi, the GEM internship has been instrumental successful advancing his probe successful artificial intelligence. After moving arsenic a bundle technologist for 3 years, helium decided to instrumentality to school. He conducted his archetypal GEM internship implicit the summertime of 2021, erstwhile helium helped physique a caller benignant of cyber infrastructure called Sage.

Adekanmbi continues to physique connected his probe successful the 2nd signifier of the internship, arsenic helium transitions from the 2nd twelvemonth of his master’s grade astatine the University of Texas astatine Austin to a doctoral program.

“My extremity is simply a vocation successful research, specifically applying reinforcement learning to robotics; the internships person fixed maine the accidental to link my involvement to concern research,” helium said. ​“Now, arsenic I get acceptable to decorativeness my 2nd internship, I’ve accomplished galore of the things I promised myself I would execute astatine the commencement of the program.”

Ortiz is the archetypal successful his household to prosecute graduate-level education. He appreciates however GEM and Argonne person enabled him to beforehand his acquisition without worrying astir however to wage for school; helium successful crook wishes to enactment the aboriginal of the STEM community.

“I privation to go a prof and promote much number students to enactment successful STEM,” Ortiz said. ​“Wherever I go, I anticipation to lend to that [STEM] abstraction and the bequest that the GEM Consortium creates.”

About Argonne National Laboratory

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing nationalist problems successful subject and technology. The nation’s archetypal nationalist laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basal and applied technological probe successful virtually each technological discipline. Argonne researchers enactment intimately with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, authorities and municipal agencies to assistance them lick their circumstantial problems, beforehand America’s technological enactment and hole the federation for a amended future. With employees from much than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

Source: Nathan Schmidt, Argonne National Laboratory