Session____                                                                               
                                                                
                     Looking Back Over 30 Years--AT&T Labs and Lucent Bell Laboratories 
                                        Ph.D. Fellowship Programs 1972 - 2002 
                                                                
                                                Elaine P. Laws--AT&T Labs 
                                                                
                                                                
                   During 2002, AT&T Labs and Lucent Bell Laboratories will celebrate the 30th 
                   anniversary of their sponsorship of Ph.D. fellowship programs for under-represented 
                   minorities 1and women in science and engineering.  In the early 1970s AT&T's research 
                   and development organization, then known as "Bell Laboratories," initiated efforts to 
                   recruit minority students for technical positions within the Labs.  These efforts were the 
                   result of suggestions from the African American and women's communities within the 
                   R&D organization. Since the numbers of under-represented minority and women students 
                   graduating with Ph.D.s in disciplines relevant to the work of the Labs was very small, the 
                   Labs leadership realized that they would have to take an active role in identifying, 
                   encouraging, and supporting students in these groups to pursue studies in mathematics and 
                   engineering.  This paper summarizes the common histories and goals of the programs, 
                   their launch and operation, their use of internships and mentors and the results of the 
                   combined AT&T and Lucent programs over the 30 year period of their operation.  
                    
                   Introduction 
                   Doctoral fellowship and grant programs were launched at AT&T's Bell Laboratories for 
                   under-represented minorities in 1972 and for women in 1974.  They were respectively 
                   named the Cooperative Research Fellowship Program (CRFP) and the Graduate Research 
                   Fellowship Program for Women (GRPW). These two programs were funded by the Bell 
                   Laboratories research and development organization until 1992 at which time the AT&T 
                   Foundation assumed responsibility for their funding while Bell Labs R&D staff 
                   continued to support student recruiting, selection, internships and mentoring of students 
                   in these programs.  With AT&T's trivestiture in 1996, Bell Labs was split between AT&T 
                   and the newly formed Lucent Technologies.  The Bell Labs name was retained by 
                   Lucent, and AT&T's R&D organization became known as AT&T Labs.  The fellowship 
                   and grant programs continued in the two companies with each company's foundations 
                   providing funding for the programs. The students in progress in the programs were split 
                   between the two organizations based on their disciplines and research focus and the R&D 
                   staff of each organization continued its efforts in recruiting, selecting, and providing 
                   internships and mentoring for the students.  AT&T Labs combined the elements of the 
                   fellowship and grant programs for minorities and women into one program and named its 
                   program the AT&T Labs Fellowship Program (ALFP) while Lucent Bell Laboratories 
                   continued to maintain the two programs separately.  
                           
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                   1 Minorities considered under-represented in engineering, mathematics, and science include African      age 8.829.1
                   Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics.  
                   "Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition 
                   Copyright  2003, American Society for Engineering Education"                              
                   Fellowship and Grant Program History 
                   In the early 1970s when the effort to develop Doctoral fellowship and grant programs 
                   was undertaken, the Bell Laboratories R&D leadership had few models on which to base 
                   their programs.   Programs such as the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for 
                   Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM) were introduced in 1974 to support 
                   students in completing Master's degrees.  Other minority fellowship programs were 
                   initiated later, such as the National Science Foundation's Graduate Minority Fellowship 
                            2
                   Program  and the Ford Foundation Fellowships for Minorities that began making awards 
                   in 1978 and 1980 respectively3. Each of these provided students with funds for graduate 
                   study.  The Bell Laboratories program, however, from its earliest beginnings sought to 
                   build close relationships with the students chosen for its programs, providing mentoring 
                   and summer internships for them.  The early supporters of the programs took a personal 
                   interest in the development and the success of the students.  They worked to improve 
                   recruiting efforts through close contacts with universities where promising students might 
                   be found.  They also worked with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities 
                   (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) as well as other colleges and 
                   universities to improve and expand their undergraduate curriculums to better prepare 
                   students for graduate school.   They established committees of technical leaders to 
                   oversee the recruitment, selection, and progress of the students and assigned technical 
                   staff to work closely with students.  
                   In 1970’s underrepresented groups accounted for less than 2.0% of the Engineering and 
                   Physical Science doctoral degrees awarded to American citizens and permanent residents 
                   in the US4. In 1975 34 doctoral degrees in Engineering and 53 in the Physical sciences 
                   were awarded to students from under-represented minority groups. As is evident from the 
                   low number of doctoral degrees awarded to minorities 1970s, universities were not 
                   proactive and maybe risk-adverse when dealing with minority candidates. The process of 
                   considering and successfully guiding minorities to doctoral degrees was heavily weighted 
                   against success. The objective was to significantly increase the number of doctoral 
                   degrees awarded to minority candidates in technical areas of expertise present at Bell 
                   Labs. 
                   The first of the programs, CRFP, was started in 1972 by seeking highly qualified under-
                   represented minority students enrolled from universities local to New Jersey Bell Labs 
                   facilities.  The schools from which students were recruited were City College of New 
                   York, Columbia University, New York University, Polytechnic University, Rutgers 
                   University, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Princeton University.   
                   Students selected for the program spent the first summer after their senior year of college 
                   working at the Labs under the guidance of a technical mentor who was a member of the 
                   R&D staff.  Top researchers were selected as mentors. They worked closely with 
                   students, guiding the student's work in a research project and monitoring their progress.  
                                                                        
                   2 National Research Council, Minority Science Paths:National Science Foundation Minority Graduate 
                   Fellows of 1979-81(Washington,D.C.:National Academy Press, 1995) p.1.  
                   3 National Research Council, Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Recipients (Office of Scientific and 
                   Engineering Personnel, Fellowship Programs Unit, October 1996), p.2.                                    P
                   4 National Science Foundation, Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and          age 8.829.2
                   Engineering: 2000, (NSF, 2000) NSF 00-237, Appendix B, Table 4-12. 
                   "Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition 
                   Copyright  2003, American Society for Engineering Education"                              
                    In the fall, the students went on to graduate school but maintained a relationship with 
                    their mentors who helped them navigate through their Ph.D. programs, acting as 
                    sounding boards and champions for the students as well as ensuring that they were 
                    making satisfactory progress towards their degrees. Bell Labs also provided financial 
                    support for graduate study.  Since students had their own funds to pay for school and a 
                    stipend for their living expenses, they were not dependent on identifying funding through 
                    their university advisors or having to take on laboratory or teaching assistantships in 
                    order to finance their studies. This funding provided the students with full financial 
                    support while the mentoring provided professional support not available through other 
                    fellowship programs. In doing so, Bell Labs endorsed the student and became a 
                    stakeholder in the student's success . 
                    An additional feature of this program was that of the academic advisor who was selected 
                    by the Labs to act as an advocate for students in academic matters on the company's 
                    behalf.  This neutral party could work with university graduate advisors on behalf of 
                    students to address issues that company mentors could not handle. Examples of such 
                    issues include interventions on behalf of students to help change the focus of their 
                    research, change graduate advisors, or adjust their programs based on unforeseen 
                    personal needs.  In many cases this support made the difference in students being able to 
                    successfully complete their Ph.D. studies.   
                    In 1974 GRPW was launched as a result of the need to develop a program that would 
                    address the challenges of women pursing advanced degrees in the sciences.  The concerns 
                    of competing in male dominated fields, the need for professional role models as well as 
                    the competitive nature and limited funding to support advanced studies in technical 
                    disciplines by women were contributing factors to the establishment of GRPW.  In this 
                    program the awards were equally divided between fellowships and grants, while in CRFP 
                    only fellowships were awarded. Grants were designed to provide small annual stipends 
                    that could be used towards expenses not generally covered by other financial awards.  
                    Expenses covered by grants included funds for childcare, personal computing hardware 
                    and software and visits to other university research labs. Grant students were assigned 
                    mentors and were required to spend the first summer before attending graduate school as 
                    interns at the Labs, establishing close connections between them and their Bell Labs 
                    mentors.  
                    In the early years, four to five students were identified annually for fellowship or grant 
                    support in each of the CRFP and GRPW programs with support continuing for a five to 
                    six year period provided students were making adequate academic progress toward the 
                    doctoral degree. Over the years, recruitment of candidates for the programs expanded 
                    beyond the initial local schools to include public and private universities across the 
                    country as well as the HBCUs and HSIs.  Additionally, to help identify students early in 
                    their undergraduate careers who might have the potential to seek graduate technical 
                    degrees, the Labs established undergraduate summer intern programs to give women and 
                    minorities the opportunity to work in an industrial research environment.  To further 
                    reach students in high school before they went on to college, the Labs provided a week 
                    long series of seminars and laboratory visits for high school students that gave them 
                    exposure to the work of scientists and engineers across the Labs.                                          P
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                    "Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition 
                    Copyright  2003, American Society for Engineering Education"                                
                   By the 1990s, the number of students grew to a total of 16 students selected annually in 
                   the combined programs with a portion being awarded grants. When Bell Labs was split in 
                   1996 between AT&T and Lucent Technologies, half of the students in the programs were 
                   designated to be supported by AT&T Labs based on their technical area of study while 
                   and the balance were to be supported by Lucent's  Bell Labs.  Lucent retained the CRFP 
                   and GRPW program names and continues to administer these programs, selecting 
                   approximately 6 students for CRFP and 6 for GRPW annually and now providing 
                   funding support for up to 4 years.  AT&T Labs combined these two programs and 
                   renamed the combined program the AT&T Labs Fellowship Program (ALFP).  Each year 
                   AT&T Labs selects 4 students for fellowships and 4 students for grants, half of each 
                   being designated for under-represented minorities and the other half for women.  Funding 
                   support for students in the ALFP is renewable annually for a period of up to six years 
                   provided the student is making satisfactory progress toward their Ph.D.    Both companies 
                   continue to support high school student awareness seminars, science fairs and laboratory 
                   visits as well as summer intern programs for undergraduates, graduates, and post 
                   graduates to encourage students to pursue science and engineering studies and careers.                                               
                    
                   Application and Selection to the Programs 
                   On average, each program receives about 125 student applications annually.  Of those, 
                   about half of the applicants meet the standards of the programs.  The qualifications 
                   required for the programs include the following: the student must be beginning full-time 
                   Ph.D. studies in a graduate program accepted by the company; must have demonstrated 
                   high potential for success in scientific research;  and must be a woman or a member of a 
                   minority under-represented in the sciences in the U.S.  Awards are given only to U.S. 
                   citizens or permanent residents since the support provided is to help improve the number 
                   of women and under-represented minorities in the science and technology arena in the 
                   U.S. versus other countries across the world.  To apply for a fellowship or grant, 
                   applicants are required to complete an application to the program; provide official 
                   transcripts of grades from all undergraduate schools attended; a written statement of 
                   interest and their research and career goals; three letters of recommendation by college 
                   professors who can evaluate the student's potential for research; and Graduate Record 
                   Examination scores on the Aptitude Test and appropriate Advanced Test.  
                   Of those students who apply, 15-25 are selected for each program for on-site interviews 
                   during which prospective fellowship and grant candidates meet with Labs professionals 
                   in their areas of academic interest.  During the on-site company interviews, students get 
                   to talk with and select their prospective mentors.  This is an important activity since these 
                   mentors will work to develop the initial intern assignment for the students selected and 
                   will continue to work with and evaluate the student's progress towards completion of the 
                   Ph.D. over the period of the fellowship or grant.   Matching the candidate to a staff 
                   member who is willing serve as a mentor to the student is essential and an award is made 
                   only if a mentor match is found. This particular selection criterion differentiates CRFP, 
                   GRPW and ALFP from other fellowship programs. The mentor’s belief in the capability 
                   of the applicant  is critical in properly supporting women and minority candidates in   
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                   Ph.D. studies. Over the 30 years of the programs operation this feature has been tested               age 8.829.4
                   when student problems with faculty, or personal or technical difficulties have arisen. The 
                   "Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition 
                   Copyright  2003, American Society for Engineering Education"