Planning a Dual Institution Research Center in Socially Relevant Computing

Spelman College, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Morehouse and Spelman Colleges will plan and design a collaborative center in Socially Relevant Computing. The center will provide interdisciplinary education, research, and workforce development for African American undergraduate computer science students, particularly those who are at risk for degree completion. In addition, the center will create an ecosystem of partners to conduct research that leads to innovations to address critical societal problems of national priority and demonstrated interventions to increase the representation of African Americans in graduate school and the STEM workforce. The principal investigators will implement the proposed project in multiple stages that include an internal assessment of capability and infrastructure requirements, an external assessment of relevant existing computer science centers for benchmarking, curriculum enhancements, and a pilot education research project to test an evidence-based socially relevant computing intervention concept. The project will help articulate strategies for developing degree pathways to increase persistence in computing for African Americans.