STEM by Design: Increasing the Competitiveness of the Nation’s Technical Workforce through Institutional Change Using Human-Centered Design

该项目旨在培养具有数字素养的女性毕业生，以提高国家技术劳动力的竞争力。在美国，尽管社会上技术的使用越来越多，但在过去的三十年里，计算机领域的女性代表人数有所下降。目前的数据表明，只有18%的计算机科学专业的学生是女性，8%的程序员是女性，1%到3%的计算机职业是拉丁裔和黑人女性。在科学技术领域，14%的研究人员是女性。由于信息技术是发展最快的行业之一，创新的技术解决方案影响着美国经济的各个部门，该项目旨在为缩小技术领域的性别、种族和种族差距做出贡献，以便美国公司拥有必要的劳动力来创建可访问的人机界面，以支持整个STEM领域的进步。在“改善本科STEM教育：西班牙裔服务机构计划”（HSI计划）的支持下，位于威斯康星州密尔沃基的玛丽山大学（Mount Mary University）将建立能力，帮助学生为技术驱动的劳动力做好准备，并试图证明以人为本的设计方法对机构转型是有效的。该项目将包括师资发展、课程重新设计、本科生研究以及与学术界和工业界合作伙伴的沟通。这些组成部分将共同努力，在整个机构中引入强大的技术元素，并创建一个新的人机界面学位课程，以吸引和赋予不同的女性充分融入数字STEM劳动力的权力。五个具体目标将指导这个项目。首先是提高教师在课程中整合当代数字技术的能力。第二是提高学生在使用技术方面的自我效能感，第三个目标是教育多元化的女性，让她们感到被包容，并在以技术为基础的劳动力中拥有发言权。第四，建设以人为本的制度变革设计能力。第五，为大规模的STEM转型提供研究、改进和最佳实践的传播。该项目将由两个研究问题收集的数据驱动：(1)整合数字技术素养的制度转型是否提高了不同女性的技术技能和归属感？(2) STEM中以人为本的设计方法如何为数字技术素养的大规模制度转型创造所需的支持，并作为其他机构的典范？这些问题的两个基本理论基础分别是多元文化和少数群体认同理论和制度理论。研究成果将通过出版物、演讲和项目网站进行分享。HSI计划旨在加强本科STEM教育，扩大STEM参与，并在HSI进行能力建设。考虑到hsi的多样性和背景，实现这些目标需要创新的方法来激励机构和社区转型，并促进基础研究(1)关于参与式学生学习，(2)关于如何有效地使STEM多样化和增加参与，以及(3)提高我们对如何在hsi建立机构能力的理解。HSI计划支持的项目也将借鉴这些方法，为如何实现这些目标提供新的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to graduate digitally literate women to increase the competitiveness of the nation's technical workforce. In the United States, representation of women in the computing field has declined over the past thirty years, despite increased use of technology in society. Current data indicate that only 18 percent of computer science majors are female, 8 percent of programmers are women, and 1 to 3 percent in computing careers are Latina and Black women. In science and technology, 14 percent of researchers are women. Because information technology is one of the fastest growing industries and innovative technical solutions impact every sector of the US economy, this project seeks to contribute to closing the gender, ethnicity, and race gap in technology so that US companies will have the necessary workforce to create accessible human-technology interfaces to support advances throughout STEM fields. With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program), Mount Mary University, a women’s HSI in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will build capacity to prepare students for the technology-driven workforce and seek to demonstrate that a human-centered design approach is effective for institutional transformation. The project will include faculty development, curriculum redesign, undergraduate research, and communication with academic and industry partners. These components will work together to introduce strong technology elements throughout the institution and create a new human-technology interface degree program to attract and empower diverse women for full inclusion in the digital STEM workforce. Five specific aims will guide this project. First is to increase faculty competencies to integrate contemporary digital technology in courses. Second is to increase student self-efficacy in using technology, coupled with a third aim to educate diverse women who feel included and have a voice in the technology-based workforce. Fourth is to build capacity for human-centered design for institutional change. And fifth to produce research, improvements, and dissemination of best practices for large-scale STEM transformation. The project will be driven by data collected in response to two research questions: (1) does institutional transformation to integrate digital technology literacy increase technology skills and sense of belonging for diverse women? and (2) how does the human-centered design approach in STEM create the buy-in needed for large-scale institutional transformation in digital technology literacy that serves as a model for other institutions? The two underpinning theoretical bases for these questions are multicultural and minority identity theory and institutional theory, respectively. Research findings will be shared through publications, presentations, and a project website. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs. Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.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.