Excellence in Research: Evaluating the Use of Virtual Mentoring for HBCU Undergraduates in Computer Science

莫尔豪斯学院（Morehouse College）和阿拉巴马a&m大学（Alabama a&m University）提出了一项合作研究项目，探索化身（正式名称为embodied conversational agents）的使用，为考虑攻读计算机研究生学位的计算机科学本科专业学生提供职业指导。这项研究将包括来自十所不同的传统黑人学院和大学（HBCUs）的学生。拥有计算机科学最终学位的非裔美国人很少，然而hbcu在培养非裔美国学生继续获得计算机高级学位方面有着悠久的历史。该领域的研究将使计算机科学领域的有效导师能够将他们的最佳实践推广到hbcu的更大比例的本科生中。该项目还将资助莫尔豪斯学院与佐治亚理工学院计算机科学在线硕士项目之间的正式合作。这个开创性的项目将允许首席研究员担任佐治亚理工学院硕士研究生的论文导师，同时他们将在莫尔豪斯学院接受研究人员培训。该项目将调查非裔美国学生在决定攻读计算机高级学位时面临的障碍，以及智能虚拟导师如何影响他们的决定。它将研究具体化会话代理与这些特定学生群体互动的最有效方式。一旦完成，本研究的结果将用于扩展到其他代表性不足的群体，为各种科学职业提供职业指导。此外，这项研究的结果将有助于莫尔豪斯学院和阿拉巴马a&m大学这两所hbcu的研究能力建设。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。

Morehouse College and Alabama A&M University proposes a collaborative research project to explore the use of avatars, formally known as embodied conversational agents, to provide career mentoring for undergraduate computer science majors who are considering pursuing a graduate degree in computing. The study will include participating students from ten different Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). African Americans with terminal degrees in computer science are scarce, however HBCUs have a strong history of producing African American students who go on to get advanced degrees in computing. Research in this field will enable effective mentors in computer science to scale their best practices to a larger percentage of undergraduate students at HBCUs. This project will also fund the development of formal collaboration between Morehouse College and the Online Masters in Computer Science Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This groundbreaking program will allow the Principal Investigator to serve as the thesis advisor for Masters students at Georgia Tech while they are trained as researchers at Morehouse College.This project will investigate the barriers faced by African American students when deciding on pursuing advanced degrees in computing as well as how intelligent virtual mentors affect their decision. It will examine what is the most effective way for an embodied conversational agent to interact with these specific group of students. Once completed, the findings from this study will be used to expand to other underrepresented groups to provide career mentoring for an assortment of science careers. Additionally, the findings from this research will help to build the research capacity at two HBCUs, Morehouse College and Alabama A&M University.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.