La Vista
to look. We have 17 laboratories in our portfolio. DOE is second to the De- partment of Defense in the number of contracts that we let every year. We’ve done quite a bit with small businesses. I’ve done a number of listening sessions across the country since I’ve been here. I’ve been with a number of minority national contracting associations. The thing I hear from a lot of small and minority businesses is just knowing who to go to and having that connec- tion to not only to bid on the contracts but having some personal connection to some of the procurement guys. We have to mend that a lot with a lot of the listening sessions we have. In some of them, we invite a lot of the buyers and the pro- curement folks. Putting faces with names and all that helps. One of the areas we have been supporting a lot of the businesses
between our labs and minority-serving institutions and pulling in small busi- nesses. One thing we are focusing on is minority technology transfer and com- mercialization. That is where we have the labs, which house our engineering jewels and connect with the schools. There is a lot of technology that exists in the labs that we are making more avail- able to our minority-serving institutions in conjunction with our small busi- nesses. We have identified maybe three or four labs already where we have minority-serving institutions partner with them and small businesses. We try to include K-12 schools. At Clark Atlanta University, for example, we have a sus- tainable energy program funded there.
HE&IT: Is this direct effort enough to get more students and businesses involved in these and other STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) industries, or is there more that needs to be done?
In 2011, the Department of Energy supported $8 billion in prime and sub-prime contracting to small businesses across the country.
in is having them understand through a lot of the presentations that we do with some of the businesses that do have contracts supporting our facilities. We have procurement managers put on ses- sions to tell small business people about upcoming contracts. We are helping minority businesses through regional small business conferences. That has been a way for us to sit in front of small businesses and have these matchmaking sessions.
HE&IT: So you find that these are ef- fective?
Harris: Absolutely.
HEIT: What is the biggest problem that minority-serving institutions face in trying to work with the national labs and trying to win some of the lucrative collaborations that the big boys have?
Harris: That is one of the focus areas I am taking here, to try to have minority- serving institutions work more closely with our labs. One strategy we have is we do a pretty interesting collaboration
www.hispanicengineer.com
Part of that program brings in students by the busload to come work with the college and learn more about green en- ergy. We have small businesses partner with the school and they, in turn, can provide student internships. The end result for me is the economic impact of creating jobs. This becomes a partner- ship between DOE and schools and giving the schools an opportunity to do more than just research. The whole idea here is to identify a technology that can be transferable for commercial use.
HE&IT: Is there any one area that is more promising than another for small minority businesses to focus on?
Harris: It could be any source of energy. There is a lot in the oil and gas industry, which has been underwhelmed by par- ticipation from minorities. We had one organization visit us and say that they are not getting enough interest from the minority business community for that industry. We’ll be working closely with them on the technology and trying to get small businesses interested as well as students when they get out of college.
Harris: It is just taking these things head-on that is required. We have a number of STEM-membership programs for college undergraduates focused on women. We are going straight into the community working with women and girls in particular. Along those lines, we have a specific partnership we are seek- ing with Susan Taylor. She founded this national mentoring cares program [Na- tional Cares Mentoring Movement]. She is doing some phenomenal work around STEM mentorship. She has visited DOE and other agencies. We have discussed supporting her and other programs like that.
HE&IT: Why is it that some schools
do a much better job than others pro- ducing minority STEM graduates?
Harris: Secretary Chu and I recently visited Delaware State University, which was selected to be one of five schools to participate in an energy efficiency program. That was fantastic. That school has a phenomenal program. In fact, when I was meeting recently with presidents of HBCUs to talk strategies and about ways that government can continue to support them, I used Dela- ware State as a model that they should pay more attention to. And their secret sauce was that they have really reached across the table to their government officials to support them. When I am sitting in a meeting and the governor stands up to talk about how the school has gone from a college to a university and how the president is doing phe- nomenal things, that is important. They were just arm in arm with the university. They got a whole lot of support and that helps.
continue on page 8 HISPANIC ENGINEER & Information Technology | 2012 7
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40