Socially Relevant Computing Education: Building USA and African Partnerships

Howard University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Workshop on Socially Relevant Computing Education: Building USA and African Partnerships, Accra, Ghana November 23-24, 2010 Howard University (HU) is organizing a multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary workshop on socially relevant computing in partnership with African faculty and universities. The two-day Workshop on Socially Relevant Computing Education: Building USA and African Partnerships is being organized in conjunction with the African University College of Communications, the Association of Computer and Information Science and Engineering Departments at Minority Institutions (ADMI), the International Network on Appropriate Technology (INAT), and the 4th International Appropriate Technology Conference in Accra, Ghana. The two-day workshop will take place in Accra, Ghana November 23-24, 2010. Approximately ten US participants, most representing Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), will be invited to participate. The team of US participants will include junior faculty, graduate and undergraduate students as well as senior faculty with experience and focus on socially relevant computing. Ten African participants, mainly from Francophone and Anglophone West Africa have been identified and invited to participate. They represent institutions from eight to ten countries. Intellectual Merit: Given the increasingly technology-driven features of 21th century society that connect distant parts of the world, there is a critical need to be involved in education and research endeavors that widen our perspectives. The workshop?s primary goals include (1) enabling multidisciplinary / interdisciplinary collaborations that include the scientific and cultural perspectives of institutions of higher education and include both faculty and students (2) Engaging the appropriate and successful design of global computing education models and (3) Developing means to secure grant funding to support diverse partnerships. This project is creating partnerships to enable the development of computing projects that are of societal interest to both American and African participants. Broader Impact: US higher education has successfully developed partnerships with other parts of the world; China and India are prime examples. Similarly, many other fields such as environmental sciences have successfully initiated collaborations with African Universities. The broader impact of this workshop is to strategically bring together computer science practitioners in a way that will lead to long-term interactions between the two parts of the world. The primary US participants are from HBCUs This workshop will provide a cultural dimension and value to the enterprise of scientific computing for underrepresented students and faculty. This also represents a research opportunity that is well suited to the involved institutions because many education and research opportunities in socially relevant computing are less costly and thus better suited for smaller schools.