About LSMRCE
The Louis Stokes Midwest Regional Center of Excellence (LSMRCE) will serve as a national model for fostering
regional connections that contribute to building the NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities
of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering & Science) Network.
The Center collaborates with the NSF INCLUDES coordination hub to deliver the three critical functions of the
national broadening participation (BP) network: communication and networking, network assistance and reinforcement,
and visibility and expansion.
Who We Are
LSMRCE is a partnership among Chicago State University, Indiana University-Purdue University,
The Ohio State University, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and sixteen two and four year institutions in
the Midwest.
Additionally, LSMRCE project formalizes collaborative relationships with six regional Louis Stokes Alliances
for Minority Participation (LSAMP): IINSPIRE LSAMP, IllinoisLSAMP, Indiana STEM LSAMP, Ohio LSAMP, Missouri LSAMP,
and Kentucky-West Virginia LSAMP.
What We Will Do
Dissemination: As a LSAMP regional resource center that focuses on information
dissemination and building a community of practice in BP, LSMRCE will contribute to the NSF INCLUDES National Network
by sharing the Center’s research findings, participating in annual PI meetings, and being responsive to the
coordination hub’s request for collaboration. The Center will develop a robust online resource center about the
LSAMP model, the LSAMP activities, and BP best practices. Additionally, the Center will serve as a dissemination hub
for the activities and outcomes for LSAMP programs, including the
NSF LS Regional Centers of Excellence (LSRCE).
Annual Conferences: The Center will deliver four multi-track conferences for 300 attendees that
include students, faculty, and administrators from higher education institutions in an effort to build a community
of practice in BP. The conference will provide a platform for participants to exchange knowledge, share resources,
and develop connections with others, as well as, provide underrepresented minority (URM) students in STEM the
opportunity to grow their science identity through presentation of their scholarly work.
Student Internships: The Center will provide six undergraduate summer research internships each
year at Fermi Lab, totaling 30 students over the course of the five-year project. The goal is to have 100% of the
students who participate in the summer research internship program to graduate with a STEM undergraduate degrees.
Professional Development: The Center will offer professional development activities annually to
faculty and students through webinars: 6 webinars for undergraduate and 6 for faculty/research mentors.
The webinars will be recorded, posted on the LSMRCE website, as well as, promoted through social media.
As part of the Center’s dissemination activities, LSMRCE will develop a robust website that will serve as an
information hub for BP community, including posts of internship and job opportunities, information about the NSF
LSAMP activities such as Bridge to the Doctorate (BD) and International Research for Undergraduate Experience (iREU).
Education Research: Additionally, the Center’s research component of the project will examine
factors that contribute to and sustain successful research collaborations by STEM faculty as well as the role
organizational leadership plays in faculty members’ engagement in BP research The Center will provide assistance to
selected faculty at partner institutions with one-on-one research design activities and provide workshops on how-to
construct research projects and interpret research findings. The Center will provide small competitive grants to
support collaborative BP research by faculty.
Our Goal
Increasing the participation of all of America's STEM talent is critical to the advancement of science and engineering
for national security, health and prosperity. As a coordinationhub project of the NSF INCLUDES National Network,
LSMRCE aims to obtain and share new knowledge about broadening the participation of URM students in STEM and
specifically on factors that sustain institutional collaborations to advance underrepresented minority STEM student
achievement and degree obtainment. LSMRCE will facilitate scholarly discussions via widely circulated webinars
and post research-related BP journal articles regularly. Our research activities will be presented annually at
professional conferences and at least three BP research manuscripts will be submitted to peer-reviewed publication.
