Research has shown that diverse teams achieve greater productivity, reach, and innovation. These teams also face challenges with communication and the sharing of knowledge and resources. In this talk, we will discuss ways to encourage teamwork across disciplines through the affinity research group model:  a set of practices built on a cooperative team framework to support the creation and maintenance of dynamic and inclusive research groups in which members learn and apply the knowledge and skills required for research and cooperative work.  The model creates an integrated research environment in which a collective of diverse students and faculty contribute to research efforts. The three core components are: the definition of a group’s core ideology; active fostering of student connectedness; and application of deliberate management practices that reinforce skills development and promote establishment of cooperative teams. Through the ARG model, faculty mentors create and sustain a cooperative environment that explicitly develops skills to make students successful in research, academe, and the workforce.

BIO | Dr. Ann Quiroz Gates is a Professor and Chair of the Computer Science Department and past Associate Vice President of Research and Sponsored Projects at the University of Texas at El Paso.  Gates directs the NSF-funded Cyber-ShARE Center of Excellence, which was established in 2007 with a mission to advance and integrate cyber-enhanced, collaborative, and interdisciplinary education and research through technologies that support the acquisition, exchange, analysis, and integration of data, information, and knowledge. Her research area is in requirements specification and modeling approaches and techniques.

Gates was a founding member of the NSF Advisory Committee for Cyber-infrastructure, a committee that provided advice to NSF’s director, assistant directors, and office heads regarding the agency’s plans and programmatic strategies to develop, support, and use of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure for advancing fields of science and engineering. She currently serves on the  NSF CISE AC Subcommittee on Education and Broadening Participation.

Gates was given the IEEE-CS Golden Core Award for her service to the IEEE-Computer Society.  She leads the Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI), an NSF-funded consortium that is focused on the recruitment, retention, and advancement of Hispanics in computing, and is a founding member of the National Center for Women in Information Technology . Gates received the 2015 Great Minds in STEM's Education award, the CRA’s 2015 A. Nico Habermann Award and the 2010 Anita Borg Institute Social Impact Award, and she was named to Hispanic Business magazine’s 100 Influential Hispanics in 2006 for her work on the Affinity Research Group model that focuses on development of undergraduate students involved in research.