Novel Pathways to CS Research Careers: Broadening Target Populations and Scaling Outreach Programs

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The Computing Research Association (CRA, on behalf of its Subcommittee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W), proposes a project to increase and sustain participation in computer science (CS) research by encouraging members of the underrepresented groups in computing (URGs) to earn advanced degrees in computing and engineering in order to pursue research careers in academia, industry or national laboratories. The project builds on CRA-W's previous successes by reshaping and expanding existing programs, both those done on its own and those done in partnerships with others. The proposed work will expand CRA-W's work in three ways:1. Broader Diversity and Improved Scaffolding for Intersectionality. Many CRA-W programs have already broadened beyond their original focus on women to include minorities and persons with disabilities. With this proposal, CRA-W commits to broadening its program portfolio further to partner with orgranizations focused on support for underpresented minorities and persons with disabilities, and to include other diversity demographics such as veterans and LGBTQ people. To support these more diverse constituencies, CRA-W will adapt its mentoring programs to directly address intersectionality concerns.2. Support for Multiple and Unique Pathways into a Research Career. In recent years, the notion of career pathway has become insufficient for describing the many rich and unique pathways by which computing professionals navigate their careers. With this effort, CRA-W plans to adapt its mentoring programs to support entry and re-entry to CS from other disciplines and to support moves between industry development or start-ups and graduate school or academia.3. Implementation at Scale. A fundamental challenge in improving diversity lies in finding enough human and technical infrastructure to support the efforts at scale, in terms of both program operation and in terms rigorous program evaluation. CRA-W will work to bring its expertise in mentoring to scale, identifying features that are critical to success so that its most successful programs can be adopted throughout the computing research community.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.