The goals of the SIAM MDS22 BE program are to:
- bring students, faculty, and professionals to the conference
- engage them in conference activities and the mathematics of data science (MDS) community
- provide special programming to enhance the experience as well as impact career trajectories
BE participants are recruited from groups underrepresented in MDS, such as Black or African American, Hispanic/Latinx, American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islanders, women, persons with disabilities, first generation scholars, and students from smaller colleges and universities. For many of the BE participants, SIAM MDS22 will be their first experience at a scientific conference. Many will be undergraduate students from minority serving institutions, women’s and community colleges, or small liberal arts colleges. For some, attending SIAM MDS22 will have a dramatic impact on their future.
You can learn more about the Broader Engagement program at MDS22 here.
We are currently recruiting volunteers to serve as Mentors.
Mentors
A mentor is someone more knowledgeable and experienced than the mentee who guides the mentee, informally transfers knowledge, social capital, and often provides psychosocial support. Mentoring relationships are a learning and developmental partnership and typically both the mentor and the mentee derive a variety of benefits. At SIAM MDS22 the BE program will provide structured, semi-structured, and unstructured mentor-mentee activities. Some of the activities will include mentor/mentee pairings and some will not. Mentors who have been matched with a specific mentee will be asked to meet with the mentee at least once during the conference and will be encouraged to continue communication beyond the conference.
If you are interested in volunteering please send an email to: info@shinstitute.org.
Guides
Guides lead small affinity groups in activities at the conference with the goal of improving the learning for the group members. Through the learning groups students explore conference topics from an entry level perspective by meeting with their guide prior to the conference session, attending the conference session together, and then meeting afterwards. BE attendees will meet with affinity group leads virtually prior to the conference and then meet daily with leads. Attendees will provide a 5-10 minute presentation on what was discovered and learned from the experience at the BE Wrap up session. Guides meet with the group after conference sessions to demystify, further discuss, and answer any questions. Guided activities should involve activities directly related to MDS22 conference sessions and should aim to improve learning.
We have recruited enough guides for these groups. Please keep this role in mind for future programs.