Howard University is a historically black university and the University of Puerto Rico is a Hispanic-serving institution. There is a strong but often unconscious cultural message absorbed by the nation's minority youth by virtue of the too-rare presence of minorities in the SME workforce. The MGE program was developed in response to ongoing U.S. congressional concerns about trends in the nation's education and development of minorities in science, mathematics and engineering fields. It was also created to fulfill NSF's continuing commitment to minority graduate education. Both federal and private institutions have invested significant resources to increase minority representation in advanced SME study and careers.
Some exemplary programs exist, but there has been limited progress overall.
This failure to prepare and develop SME capability in such a large segment of the U.S. population is wasteful of precious human capital resources and has serious consequences for the nation's ability to compete in a world economy driven by technological advances. The nation's citizens also suffer loss of opportunity.