Increasing the quality of the physics and technology programs at the UPR-Humacao by promoting gender diversity

The University of Puerto Rico (UPR) has one of the highest rates of recruitment and graduation of women in science, mathematics, and engineering programs. At the Humacao campus, more than 60% of the students in the Biology and Chemistry programs are women and about 50% of the students in Computational Mathematics are women. Even though the statistics of women participation in these Departments are above the national average, the Physics and Electronics programs do not show such impressive statistics. Only 17% of the students in Physics and Electronics are women. Since 1994, we have implemented a program to increase women participation and retention that includes activities such as workshops for women students and mentoring. Our statistics show that the programs have contributed to the retention of women and have improved the quality of their participation in our programs. Among the facts we use to support this statement are the increased participation of women students in undergraduate research and the number of women presenting their research projects in scientific conferences and participating in NSF-REU programs. We discuss the results of our program, its impact in the UPR and future plans to improve physics and electronics education in Puerto Rico by promoting diversity.