BPC-AE: Widening Participation in Computing Research via Deepening Mentoring Programs

Computing Research Association, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The computing and tech fields have not seen adequate participation from people who identify as female, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, Hawaiian, Alaskan, Asian Pacific Islander, and people with disabilities. The fundamental issues the project offers potential benefits to education, society and establishing evidence for the experience of different demographic groups in computing. The Computing Research Association’s Committee on Widening Participation’s (CRA-WP) mentoring programs proposed support education and diversity of the computing workforce which ultimately benefit society as a whole. of the computing professoriate. These activities have been very successful at encouraging diverse undergraduate and graduate students in the past. The Computing Research Association's Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP) plans to grow its mentoring programs with three main goals:1) Mentoring for re-entry into computing research through non-traditional pathways; 2) Encouraging, tracking, and evaluating mentoring pathways through their programs to improve retention; and 3) Growing a pool of leaders through mentor mentoring to improve their scale and reach. Alumni tracking will also help characterize medium and long term impacts on underrepresentation. 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.