The CyberAmbassadors project was funded through a workforce development grant from the National Science Foundation (Award #1730137). Starting in 2017, the initial focus of this project was to develop, test, and refine new curriculum to help CyberInfrastructure (CI) Professionals strengthen their communications, teamwork and leadership skills. With support and collaboration from a number of academic and professional organizations, the CyberAmbassadors project was expanded to offer professional skills training to college students and professionals working across STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) disciplines.

In partnership with Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, the CyberAmbassadors project offered online training during the global pandemic. We continue to offer a variety of in-person and real-time virtual trainings to help STEM students and professionals practice their communications, teamwork, and leadership skills in the context of interdisciplinary work and study.

In 2023, the CyberAmbassadors project was recognized for its global impact by the American Society for Engineering Education, which inducted the co-PIs (Katy Luchini Colbry and Dirk Colbry) into the 2023 ASEE Hall of Fame.

(as of May 29, 2024)

14,090+ Participant Trainings     |     565+ Certificates Earned

130+ Trained Facilitators     |     495+ Sessions Completed

The CyberAmbassadors project was developed by a team from Michigan State University, with contributions and support from a number of academic and professional organizations. In addition to the core team members listed below, Lillian Gosser, TJ VanNguyen, and Cameron Hurley contributed as undergraduate research assistants.

1. K. Luchini-Colbry, D. Colbry, A. Briliyanti, J. Rojewski. (2024) “Professional Skills to Support Interdisciplinary Work: Lessons Learned from a Successful Collaboration between Universities, Training Programs, and Professional Societies.” Proceedings of the 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, OR.

2. K. Luchini-Colbry, D. Colbry, A. Briliyanti, J. Rojewski. (2022) “Training the Trainers: Preparing Facilitators to Provide Professional Development for Engineers and Scientists.” Proceedings of the 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. https://strategy.asee.org/40642

3. M. Luchini, D. Cribbs, D. Colbry, K. Luchini-Colbry. (2021) “Adapting an NSF-Funded Professional Skills Curriculum to Train Engineers in Industry: A Case Study” Proceedings of the 2021 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. https://doi.org/ 10.18260/1-2--36648

4. A. Briliyanti, J. Rojewski, K. Luchini-Colbry, D. Colbry. (2020) “CyberAmbassadors: Results from Pilot Testing a New Professional Skills Curriculum.” Proceedings of PEARC’20: Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, Portland, OR. https://doi.org/10.1145/3311790.3396619  Best Paper, Workforce Development, Diversity and Professionalization Track.

5. A. Briliyanti, J. Rojewski, D. Colbry, K. Luchini-Colbry. (2020) “STEMAmbassadors: Developing Communications, Teamwork and Leadership Skills for Graduate Students.” Proceedings of the 2020 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--35207

6. K. Luchini-Colbry, C. McComb, J. Rojewski, A. Briliyanti, D. Colbry. (2019) “Engineering Futures: Updating a Successful Professional Development Program to Address New Challenges.” Proceedings of the 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Tampa, FL. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--32724

7. K. Luchini-Colbry, D. Colbry, J. Rojewski, A. Briliyanti. (2019) “Partners in Professional Development: Initial Results from a Collaboration Between Universities, Training Programs, and Professional Societies.” Proceedings of the 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Tampa, FL. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--33159

8. A. Briliyanti, J. Rojewski, T. VanNguyen, K. Luchini-Colbry, D. Colbry. (2019) “The CyberAmbassador Training Program.” PEARC ’19: Proceedings of the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing on the Rise of the Machines (learning), Chicago, IL. https://doi.org/10.1145/3332186.3332218