NextCom is committed to embracing outreach and broadening participation through welcoming and supporting those who have been underrepresented in CSS and the broader IEEE community through its mission to help students, early career researchers, and young professionals become the next generation of established control systems engineers and researchers. In recent years, demographic trends in CSS have increased representation of historically absent groups in the community. For example, in Fall 2023 women members comprised only 9.68% of CSS membership; however, amongst students the rate was almost double at 18.21%. This presents NextCom with a unique opportunity to support and foster a more representative future in the control systems community which better represents the multitude of perspectives and experiences present within broader global society. Here are our initial goals:

Enhancing bottom-up feedback capabilities within CSS  Positive change can only be achieved when we actively listen and address the needs of those underrepresented in the community. Feedback provides an insight to a more comprehensive understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities presented to the ever evolving community.

Fostering international collaboration and broadening participation among students, early career researchers, and young professionals  The next generation sets the standard for the new normal. Cultivating connections that span various identities and cultures improves the compassion and understanding for the needs of those with different backgrounds. This allows science to be more inclusive and thus improves the quality of research in the future.

Helping students, early career researchers, and young professionals to learn, grow, and connect in their research community  The leaders of tomorrow are the students of today. Retention is critical to maintaining a productive and inclusive environment, and nurturing a strong sense of belonging is critical to increasing retention. Building a supportive network allows students, early career researchers, and young professionals to unabashedly learn and grow, and helps to prevent losing members to other career paths in the future.

• Share your thoughts and opinions on CSS on the IEEE CSS State-Space Forum!

• IEEE CSS Women in Control

• IEEE Women in Engineering 

• National Society of Black Engineers

• Advancing Indigenous People in STEM

• Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers

• Society of Women Engineers

• MIT EECS Rising Stars Workshop - Open to grads from any university, it is "an intensive workshop for graduate students and postdocs of historically marginalized or underrepresented genders who are interested in pursuing academic careers in electrical engineering and computer science"

• CPS Rising Stars Workshop - "This workshop aims to identify and mentor outstanding PhD students and postdocs who are interested in pursuing academic careers in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) related areas" and "increase representation and diversity in CPS, especially encouraging women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities to apply"

• Amelia Earheart Fellowship - This fellowship is "awarded annually to up to 30 women pursuing Ph.D./doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering and space sciences"