Sandia National Laboratories has recently announced its participation in the Rio Grande Consortium for Advanced Research on Exascale Simulation (Grande CARES), a government-funded program aimed at providing science and technology learning opportunities to student minorities. The initiative, supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration's Minority-Serving Institute Partnership Program, seeks to address the underrepresentation of minorities in the workforce at national laboratories.
Grande CARES, a five-year program, has been developed in collaboration with four regional universities that have significant minority populations. These universities include the University of Texas at El Paso, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and Prairie View A&M University. Sandia National Laboratories will work closely with these institutions to provide mentorship and opportunities for minority students in the STEM fields.
The late director of Sandia's Center for Computing Research, Scott Collis, was a driving force behind the establishment of Grande CARES. Although Collis was unable to witness the program's realization, his legacy lives on through Irina Tezaur, the lead Sandia scientist on the project. The goal of the initiative is not only to integrate cutting-edge computational algorithms and tools for complex engineering problems but also to develop scientists and engineers from underrepresented communities.
Under the Grande CARES program, students will be paired with Sandia mentors based on their research interests and individual backgrounds. Projects will be assigned to the students, and they will be supported by their mentors throughout the duration of the project. The initiative offers varying timeframes for different levels of students, ranging from a few months for undergraduates to several years for doctoral candidates. Funding will be provided to facilitate collaborations between students, faculty from partner academic institutions, and staff scientists at Sandia.
By providing mentorship and opportunities to minority students, Sandia National Laboratories aims to create a sustainable pipeline of researchers who are well-equipped to tackle the complex problems faced in Sandia's mission spaces. Through the Grande CARES program, the hope is to equalize workforce demographics at national laboratories over time and promote diversity and inclusion within the STEM fields.