Who's Not at the Table?: Building Research Capacity for Underserved Communities in Engineering

该研讨会提案的重点是制定一项国家研究议程，以扩大那些自认为是残疾人，退伍军人，低收入/第一代或LGBTQ社区成员的人对工程的参与。努力增加学习计算机科学和工程的学生人数是国家的当务之急。此外，有必要确保这支劳动力队伍代表全国人口，因为多样化的劳动力队伍将通过在技术创造中纳入多种观点和经验，激发更大的创新和创造力。创造更多样化的劳动力队伍的努力往往侧重于征聘和留住任职人数不足的人口。因此，进展速度并不快，因为这些努力往往是地方性的，不容易扩大规模。需要进行更多的研究，以了解阻碍和影响这些得不到充分服务的群体充分参与的各种因素。该项目将召开一次思想领袖讲习班，包括学者、从业人员、决策者和来自社会科学各学科的其他人。 来自全国各地的与会者将寻求了解如何最好地提高研究能力，以更好地了解为什么这些群体在计算机科学和工程劳动力中的代表性如此不足。 与会者将确定现有的研究和新的研究的可能性，有关计算和工程参与的人从指定的服务不足的群体。其目标是帮助确定国家议程的研究领域，在工程和计算机科学的劳动力扩大参与这些目标人群的领域。

This workshop proposal focuses on developing a national agenda for research in broadening participation in engineering by those who self-identify as persons with disabilities, veterans, low income/first generation or members of the LGBTQ community. The effort to increase the numbers of students who study computer science and engineering is a national imperative. Furthermore, there is a need to ensure this workforce is representative of the nation's populations as a diverse workforce will spark greater innovation and creativity through the incorporation of multiple perspectives and experiences in the creation of technology. Efforts to create a more diverse workforce have often focused on interventions to recruit and retain under-represented populations. As a result progress has not occurred at a substantial rate as these efforts tend to be localized and not easily scaled. What is needed is greater research in understanding the various factors that impede and influence the full participation of these underserved groups.The project will convene a workshop of thought leaders, including scholars, practitioners, policy makers and others from a broad spectrum of social science disciplines. Brought together from across the nation, the participants will seek to develop an understanding of how best to increase research capacity to better understand why these groups are so underrepresented in the computer science and engineering workforce. Participants will identify existing research and new research possibilities regarding computing and engineering participation by persons from the specified under-served groups. The goal is to help define the national agenda for areas of research in the field of broadening participation for these targeted populations in the engineering and computer science workforce.