IMS2014 Project "Connects" Undergraduate Students to the Microwave Field [MTT-S Society News]

The inaugural Project Connect program was held at the 2014 International Microwave Symposium (IMS). Twenty undergraduate students were selected and invited to participate in this three-day IMS immersion experience. With support from IMS2014 and the National Science Foundation, Project Connect's aim is to increase the talent pool in the RF/microwave/wireless fields and establish this as a model program to broaden participation within the IEEE. A key component of the Project Connect agenda was to provide students with an opportunity to learn about career paths in microwave engineering. The panelists shared strategies of how to effectively transition from academia to the workplace. The experiences were diverse, as the panelists had backgrounds in areas that included technical marketing, management and product development, and management of funded research programs. Students were selected based on a competitive application that included school transcripts, letters of recommendation, and a personal statement video. At the culmination of the program, student teams created videos that summarized the IMS conference through their own eyes.