DEI Efforts in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois

Abstract:
Grainger Engineering’s 2020 strategic plan highlights diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as one of the six major thrusts. The Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA Institute) collaborates with numerous undergraduate and graduate program offices to implement the vision. The Institute, founded in 2019, has the mission to support scholarly research, innovation, collaboration, and leadership in the areas of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access at all levels: faculty, staff, students, and K-12 outreach/public engagement. It brings together over 200 faculty, staff, and students from engineering, across campus, and the local community to collaborate towards a shared objective. This large and diverse collective enables substantive improvements and impact at scale.
In this talk, I will present a few highlights of Institute activities including the Grassroots Initiatives to Address Needs Together (GIANT) program, which funds and mentors teams led by students, staff, or faculty. I will also discuss the College’s comprehensive ecosystem for diversity and societal impact through sustained engagement and programming.

Biography:
Dr. Lynford Goddard received his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford in 2005. His thesis topic was 1.5-micron gallium arsenide-based lasers. He conducted postdoctoral research at Lawrence Livermore National Lab on photonic integrated circuits and sensors. He is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Founding Director of the IDEA Institute, and the Associate Dean for DEI in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. His research group fabricates, tests, and models photonic sensors, circuits, and instrumentation, develops novel device processing techniques, and applies quantitative phase microscopy for nanoscale science and for semiconductor wafer metrology. He received the PECASE award from President Obama and the Early Career Public Engagement Award from AAAS. He is a Fellow of SPIE and of Optica and co-author of over 200 publications and has 15 issued patents.