Five questions for Sylvia Mendez

Underrepresented ethnic minorities make up about one-third of the U.S. population, but when it comes to undergraduates who earn engineering degrees, only 4 percent are African-Americans, 10 percent are Latinx, and less than 1 percent are indigenous. Even fewer underrepresented minorities – only about 6 percent – become engineering faculty members, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF).