NSF INCLUDES: Mississippi Alliance for Women in Computing (MAWC)

密西西比计算机女性联盟（MAWC）项目将确定影响和激励密西西比女学生和非裔美国女学生注册并坚持本科工程或科学计算专业的因素。特别需要的是一个包括来自美国南部地区的女性和有色人种女性的项目。这些学生通常很少参加鼓励计算机的课外活动，也不太可能想象自己在计算机专业或职业中。这项提议的研究是为了帮助女孩们了解计算机科学的存在，以及拥有计算机科学学位的女孩可以获得哪些计算机科学方面的工作。密西西比州有一个丰富的环境，可以让联盟专注于建立联合课程和指导机会。一个可扩展的管道模型，可扩展到南方计算机女性联盟（SAWC），将开发三个主要目标：吸引女性和有色人种的女性进入计算机行业，提高女性在本科计算机专业的保留率，并帮助高等教育女性向计算机劳动力过渡。支持这些目标的活动包括：扩大密西西比州国家妇女和信息技术中心在计算机领域的抱负奖励计划，扩大对抱负获奖者的奖学金，扩大学生主导的计算机外展计划，建立密西西比州黑人女孩代码章节，告知并与密西西比州计算机科学倡议合作，为计算机专业的女性创建夏季桥梁和生活学习社区，通过会议、午餐会和学习会、工作见习和实习等方式，增加女性在计算机行业的职业发展机会。该项目将分析MAWC的课外活动是否会导致计算机自我效能感，并最终导致女学生选择并坚持计算机专业和职业。为了了解学生的参与和效能变化，本研究的数据收集将通过人口统计和背景调查进行，调查对象是密西西比州一所大学工程或科学计算专业的本科生，以及mawc赞助项目的学生调查和评估。使用歧视分析方法，具体的研究问题是：1)哪些大学前的经历影响了她们的入学，2)哪些利益相关者影响了这些女孩的决策过程，以及3)哪些项目有效地影响了她们对专业的坚持。每个研究问题的预测变量是：大学前的经历、利益相关者和项目。结果变量为：(a)未参与MAWC计划的女本科生，(b) MAWC活动参与者，或(c) MAWC参与者已获得学士学位？获得STEM专业的学士学位。研究结果将补充已发表的关于密西西比州计算机素养获得的性别和种族维度的纵向研究，以及关于有效的计算机角色榜样规划的研究。

The Mississippi Alliance for Women in Computing (MAWC) project will identify factors that influence and motivate female students and female African American students in Mississippi to enroll and persist in an undergraduate engineering- or science-based computing major. There is a particular need for programming that is inclusive of women and women of color who are from the southern region of the United States. These students typically have less access to extracurricular activities that encourage computing, and are less likely to visualize themselves in a computing major or career. This proposed research is to help girls to know that computer science exists and what jobs in computer science are available with a degree in computer science. A rich environment exists in Mississippi for an alliance focused on building co-curricular and mentorship opportunities. A scalable pipeline model, expandable to a Southern Alliance for Women in Computing (SAWC), will be developed with three major objectives: to attract women and women of color to computing, to improve retention rates of women in undergraduate computing majors, and to help postsecondary women make the transition to the computing workforce. Activities to support these objectives include: scaling the National Center for Women and Information Technology Aspirations in Computing award program in Mississippi, expanding scholarships for Aspirations winners, expanding student-led computing outreach programs, establishing a Mississippi Black Girls Code chapter, informing and collaborating with the Computer Science for Mississippi initiative, creating a summer bridge and living-learning community for women in computing majors, and increasing professional development opportunities for women in computing through conferences, lunch and learn meetings, job shadowing, and internships. The project will analyze whether the co-curricular activities of MAWC lead to computing self-efficacy and ultimately female students selecting to pursue and persist in computing majors and careers. In order to understand student participation and efficacy changes, data collection for this research will be through demographic and background surveys administered to women entering an undergraduate engineering- or science-based computing major at a university in Mississippi and student surveys and evaluations in MAWC-sponsored programs. Using discriminate analysis methods, specific research questions to be addressed are: 1) Which pre-collegiate experiences influenced them to enroll, 2) Which stakeholders influenced these girls in their decision-making process, and 3) What programs are effective in impacting their persistence in the major. Predictor variables for each respective research question are: pre-collegiate experiences, stakeholders, and programs. Outcome variables are: (a) a female undergraduate student with no involvement with MAWC programming, (b) MAWC activity participant, or (c) a MAWC participant having graduated with a bachelor?s degree in a STEM major. Results will complement published longitudinal research on the gendered and raced dimensions of computing literacy acquisition in Mississippi as well as research on effective CS role model programming.