Georgia Tech Receives CMD-IT University Award for Retention of Minorities and Students With Disabilities in Computer Science

I have not been directly involved in the computer science undergraduate major at Georgia Tech since “Georgia Computes!” started (and ECEP continued). Today, I teach graduate courses in the Human-Centered Computing PhD program and the undergraduate non-CS majors course Introduction to Media Computation, and only rarely teach CS undergraduates.

So, I am pleased that this award to the undergraduate program in the College of Computing mentioned things that Barb and I were part of.  The College of Computing won the award in part for Threads (I co-chaired the implementation committee), “Georgia Computes!” (which was mostly Barb and me), Project Rise Up 4 CS (which is Barb’s invention which she developed for ECEP), and our three mandatory CS classes, one of which is the Media Computation class I created. I feel like Barbara and I had a role in this.

The CMD-IT University Award decision was based on both Georgia Tech’s impressive quantitative reported results, which reflected high retention and graduation rates and qualitative reporting on their various retention program.  In particular, Georgia Tech highlighted the following four programs highlighted as directly impacting retention and graduation:

• Threads Undergraduate Curriculum:  Students are given the opportunity to take control over their curriculum by choosing two of eight Threads to create their degree plan which gives them more than 28 different degree plans to follow. This resulted in students feeling they have more control and a better understanding of their degree plan.

• Georgia Computes and Project Rise Up:  The two programs are spearheaded by Georgia Tech to help increase engagement in computing by broadening participation in computer science at all educational levels by underrepresented groups.  These programs increase interest in Computer Science.

• Mandatory Introductions to Computer Science classes:  All students enrolled in Bachelor’s degree programs at Georgia Tech must take one of three computer science classes. The three programs enable students to take courses that fit their level of experience in Computer Science.

• Travel Scholarships to Conference:  Georgia Tech provides between 40 and 120 travel scholarships to leading tech conferences with a diversity focus.  Students build networks of support and return with a feeling of renewed commitment to their degree program.

Source: Georgia Tech Receives CMD-IT University Award for Retention of Minorities and Students With Disabilities in Computer Science | Markets Insider