The WISE Network was founded by members of a collaborative interdisciplinary research team at WPI called Data Driven Material Science (DDMS). The faculty members, Prof. Rodica Neamtu and Prof. Danielle Cote, first met at a WIN Fellowship event. Despite researching in different fields, they connected as women sharing a passion for STEM and for empowering other women. Thus, after first becoming friends, they later decided to join forces and their expertise in material science and data/computer science research to solve interdisciplinary problems. Within a year, this research group, comprising of 14 members with 5 identifying as female, already has extensive funding and has published one article in a top level Big Data conference and three posters in the 2022 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition.

The work in DDMS provided a gateway for students at WPI to become involved in interdisciplinary research. However, there was still a lack of support and awareness for involving women in interdisciplinary research, a problem that was later solved with the creation of the WISE network. Trying to find partners from diverse and unfamiliar disciplines can be challenging and intimidating. As women, it is even more challenging to establish meaningful research connections due to the lack of support, networking opportunities, and funding for women. In April of 2021, the WISE network was created as a way to raise awareness of the work in interdisciplinary research as well as to bridge the gap in resources for women by using our own experiences in the creation of interdisciplinary research groups to guide others to do the same. We understand the need for resources to promote women in interdisciplinary research, and it is our hope that we can help to promote interdisciplinary relationships among the women of the WPI community by encouraging female students to engage in an academic conference and promote women in academia and research.