BPC Pipeline: Five Year Extension

Computing Research Association, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) award funds the collaborative project between thenComputing Research Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Research (CRA-W) and the Coalition to Diversify Computing (CDC) to increase the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in computing research on a national level. This BPC Alliance plans to accomplish their goal by providing mentoring, networking, community building, and highly visible role models to women and underrepresented minorities in computing. The alliance addresses all stages of the CISE research pipeline from undergraduates to senior faculty and researcher levels. With this extension, the CRA-W/CDC Alliance proposes to improve, extend and evaluate its programs in the following ways: The highly effective Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (DREU) program will continue and be expanded to include students with disabilities in partnership with AccessComputing. The Community Research Experiences for Undergraduates (CREU) will become more flexible and open to new ways of creating a community of undergraduate researchers. Undergraduate Research Mentoring Workshops (URMW) will be offered in various formats, including the Distinguished Lecture Series (DLS), CRA-W sessions at the Grace Hopper Celebrations, and increasingly, to regional conferences such as the STARS Celebrations and with the new partnership with the ABI/ACM-W Grace Hopper Regional Consortium. By developing a portable package of materials and services, the CRA-W/CDC Alliance will enable other groups to incorporate research mentoring workshops into their events. The materials will be disseminated on the CRA-W website and with its partner, NCWIT, as "Programs-in-a-box". The Discipline-Specific Workshops (DSW) will continue to provide graduate students and young researchers with skills and networking opportunities tailored for a successful research career in their particular subfield of CS&E. Career Mentoring Workshops (CMW) aimed at fresh PhDs and new Assistant Professors will be expanded to provide meaningful new content for the emerging postdoc population. Materials for CISE PIs will be designed to facilitate incorporating CRA-W/CDC programs as broader impacts of their research proposals. The alliance will emphasize mechanisms for program sustainability and institutional change, such as increased mentor funding of DREUs and ownership of DSWs by professional organizations. Extensive evaluation of programs will include the goal of answering the specific question of how women and minorities that participate in the programs of the CRA-W/CDC Alliance fare with respect to those who do not. The CRA-W/CDC Alliance will continue its existing partnerships with the STARS Alliance and the Anita Borg Institute and will establish new partnerships with ACM-W and the AccessComputing Alliance. Intellectual Merit: The proposed programs facilitate a broad range of research activities in computer and information science and engineering. These efforts will increase our understanding of the issues and remedies for underrepresentation in computing, and possibly more broadly, across STEM. In particular it will provide information on the extent to which programs that have already proven successful for women can be adapted for other underrepresented groups. Broader Impacts: The proposed programs provide mentoring and networking opportunities and increase awareness of diversity issues across the computing disciplines. They address every rung of the ladder of computing research, from undergraduates to full professors and senior researchers. They have the potential to give many members of underrepresented groups the knowledge, skills and confidence to succeed in the existing world of computer science.