Building a Montana Computing Consortium

该项目将通过支持蒙大拿州高等教育机构留住和毕业高成就、低收入学生来促进国家对受过良好教育的科学家、数学家、工程师和技术人员的需求。在为期一年的时间里，该项目将：在蒙大拿州的学院和大学计算教职员工和其他利益攸关方之间建立合作和基础设施；确定需求并收集关于计算机科学身份代表性不足的数据，特别是针对女性和美国印第安人学生；以及支持资助来自蒙大拿州各地的20名学生进行为期两天的访问，他们将在那里学习蒙大拿州的计算机研究生学位。收集到的数据将有助于以后制定奖学金标准。在智力上，研究结果找出了阻止低收入家庭、女性和美国印第安人学生攻读计算机学位和职业的原因。总的来说，这个项目将启动一个系统的过程来增加蒙大拿州的计算机人口。这个项目的总体目标是增加低收入、高成就、有经济需求的学生完成STEM学位。作为一个更大的S-STEM Track 3未来项目的规划项目(其目标是增加蒙大拿州所有级别的计算机科学学生)，该项目的目标是促进对阻止蒙大拿州学生，特别是少数族裔选择计算机作为职业的原因的理解，当然，也是为了让学生参与进来，帮助他们建立职业生涯。新的衡量标准，如坚持意图(即，一个学生继续他/她的计算机职业生涯的可能性)将被用来收集数据，这些数据将有助于为稍后阶段的相应学生建立奖学金标准。该项目还将加强蒙大拿州计算机人员的合作，并将通过在两个访问日支持20名外地本科生攻读研究生学位来吸引学生参与。除了所有这些，这个项目的成果之一是一个更大的Track-3计划。这个项目由NSF的科学、技术、工程和数学计划奖学金资助，该计划旨在增加有经济需要的低收入学生在STEM领域获得学位的数量。它还旨在改善未来STEM工作者的教育，并产生关于低收入学生的学业成功、留住、转移、毕业和学术/职业道路的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at institutions of higher education across Montana. Over its one-year duration, this project will: build collaboration and infrastructure among college and university computing faculty and other stakeholders in Montana; identify the needs and gather data on the underrepresentation of computer science identity, especially for women and American Indian students; and support funding 20 students from across Montana for two Visit Days, where they will learn about graduate degrees in computing in Montana. The data gathered will be useful for setting up standards for scholarships in a later stage. Intellectually, the research results identify reasons preventing low-income, women, and American Indian students from pursuing computing degrees and careers. Broadly, this project will initiate a systematic process to increase computing populations in Montana.The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high-achieving students with demonstrated financial need. As a planning project for a larger S-STEM Track 3 future project (whose goal is to increase computer science students at all levels in Montana), the goals of this project are to advance understanding of the reasons preventing Montanan students, especially minorities, from choosing computing as careers, and certainly, and to involve student participation to help build their career. New measures, like persistence intentions (i.e., how likely a student is to continue his/her career in computing) will be used to collect data which will help setting up standards on scholarships for the corresponding students in a later stage. The project will also strengthen collaboration for computing personnel in Montana and will attract student participation by supporting 20 out-of-town undergraduate students pursuing graduate degrees on two Visit Days. In addition to all of these, one of the outcomes of this project is a larger Track-3 proposal.This project is funded by NSF’s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers, and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.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.