Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Program

• Overview
• BPC Alliances
• Recent Activities / Resources

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Overview

The Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), aims to significantly increase the number of students who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving post secondary degrees in the computing disciplines. Initially, its emphasis will be on students from communities with longstanding underrepresentation in computing: women, persons with disabilities, and minorities. Included minorities are African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. The BPC program seeks to engage the computing community in developing and implementing innovative methods to improve recruitment and retention of these students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Because the lack of role models in the professoriate can be a barrier to participation, the BPC program also aims to develop effective strategies for identifying and supporting members of the targeted groups who want to pursue academic careers in computing. While these efforts focus on underrepresented groups, it is expected that the resulting types of interventions will improve research and education opportunities for all students in computing.

The AAAS Center for Advancing Science & Engineering Capacity (www.aaascapacity.org) is conducting a 3-year portfolio assessment of the Alliance component of the NSF-BPC program.  The Alliances formed through BPC projects extend organizational commitments to education, train, and utilize STEM professionals in various communities.  The portfolio assessment offers data-collection, analysis, and technical assistance that would build on, while standardizing wherever possible, the project-specific formative and summative evaluation data.

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BPC Alliances

Alliance:		Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education (CAITE)
Institution:		University of Massachusetts, Amherst
PI / Co-PI:		Rick Adrion
Website URL:		http://caite.cs.umass.edu
Alliance:		Statewide Vertical Alliance to Broaden Participation through Innovation, Inviting & Relevant Computing Education (Georgia Computes!)
Institution:		Georgia Institute of Technology
PI / Co-PI:		Mark Guzdial
Website URL:		www.georgiacomputes.org
Alliance:		Widening the Research Pipeline
Institution:		Computing Research Association
PI / Co-PI:		Lori Clarke
Website URL:		www.cra.org/Activities/craw ; www.cdc-computing.org
Alliance:		Collaborative Research: Alliance between HBCU and RU for Collaborative Education & Research in Computing Disciplines
Institution:		North Carolina A&T State University
PI / Co-PI:		John Kelly, Gerry Dozier
Website URL:		www.hbcuresearchpartnership.ncat.edu
Alliance:		Computing Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Institution:		University of Texas, El Paso
PI / Co-PI:		Ann Gates
Website URL:		http://cahsi.fiu.edu
Alliance:		STARS Alliance: A Southeastern Partnership for Diverse Participation in Computing
Institution:		University of North Carolina, Charlotte
PI / Co-PI:		Teresa Dahlberg
Website URL:		www.starsalliance.org
Alliance:		AccessComputing Alliance
Institution:		University of Washington
PI / Co-PI:		Richard Ladner,  Sheryl Burgstahler
Website URL:		www.washington.edu/accesscomputing
Alliance:		Choctaw Nation
Institution:		Southeastern Oklahoma State University
PI / Co-PI:		Betty Clay
Website URL:		n/a
Alliance:		Empowering Leadership (EL): Computing Scholars of Tomorrow Alliance
Institution:		Rice University
PI / Co-PI:		Richard Tapia, Cynthia Lanius
Website URL:		www.empoweringleadership.org ; www.cs.utexas.edu/~yadi/ela
Alliance:		Into the Loop: Computer Science Equity Alliance
Institution:		University of California, Los Angeles
PI / Co-PI:		Jane Margolis
Website URL:		n/a
Alliance:		Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact (ARTSI) Alliance
Institution:		Spelman College
PI / Co-PI:		Andrew Williams
Website URL:		http://artsialliance.org

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Recent Activities / Resources

• EL Alliance
  Newsletter, January 2008 [HTML], [DOC]
  December 2007 [HTML], [DOC]
  
  
• CRA-W/CDC Alliance
  Widening the Research Pipeline: Update to NS F/CISE BPC Evaluation Workshop, AAAS, Washington, DC, December 7, 2006 [PPT]
  CRA-W/CDC Systems Research Mentoring Workshop, University of Delaware, June 16-18, 2008, [PDF]
  
  
• Project IMPACT
  Project IMPACT: Increasing Minority Participation in Academic Computer Training, BPC Evaluation Meeting, AAAS Washington, DC, December 7, 2006 [PPT]
  
  
• HBCU-RU
  HBCU-Research Alliance Evaluation Update, BPC Evaluation Meeting, AAAS, Washington, DC, December 7, 2006 [PPT]
  
  
• CAHSI
  GEM Overview [PDF]
  SHPE/GEM GRAD Lab and SHPE RLDC at UTEMP Flyer, April 4-6, 2008 [PDF]
  CAHSI Flyer [PDF]
  CNS PI Highlight 2008 [PDF]
  
  
• STARS Alliance
  STARS Alliance: Experiences in BPC, BPC Evaluation Meeting, AAAS, Washington, DC, December 7, 2006 [PPT]
  Site Visit 2007 [PPT]
  STARS Celebration 2007 Program [PDF]
  STARS Alliance Sponsorship Model [PDF]
  
  
• AccessComputing Alliance
  University of Washington AccessComputing, BPC Evaluation Meeting, AAAS Washington, DC, December 7, 2006 [PPT]
  
  
• Other
  BPC Baseline Data DOC]
  Assessing the BPC Portfolio of Alliances [DOC]
  2006 Annual Report: Evaluating Alliances [PDF]
  Cohort 1 and 2 Goals as Stated in Abstract [PDF]
  Methods of Evaluation: Cohort 1 [PDF]
  Methods of Evaluation: Cohort 2 [PDF]
  Scorecard: Cohort 1 and 2 [PDF]
  “Making it Better: Using Data to Improve Projects and Programs” [PDF]
  “The Soup, the Cook and the Guest: A Metaphor for Evaluation” [DOC]
  BPC Alliance Evaluation Workshop [PPT]
  BPC at NCWIT: Evaluation of the BPC Alliance Projects [PPT]