Tech+Research: Welcoming Women to Computing Research, Hackathon Style

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

A major hurdle to having more women researchers and professors in computer science is that many undergraduate women are simply not exposed to what computer science research entails or provided opportunities to explore as a career path. This project will design and run the Tech+Research workshop, an all-female Computer Science research hackathon with the goal of highlighting the diversity and opportunities in the field of computing research. The weekend event will be hosted in collaboration with Technica (https://gotechnica.org), the largest all-female hackathon. Computing faculty from institutions across the state of Maryland will mentor groups of attendees on projects in their prospective research areas. Along with providing hands-on research experience in a dynamic hackathon setting, Tech+Research will include sessions introducing attendees to the basics of computing research and highlight the exciting opportunities that come with pursuing a graduate degree in computer science. This hackathon-centered approach to introducing students to research has the potential to be a low-overhead step towards a more equitable, inclusive field of computer science. To measure its impact, this project will perform surveys and track the students' progress in their pursuit of Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) funding and graduate school. Finally, this project will share its findings and materials to help foster similar workshops at other institutions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.