Effort to diversify technology field wins $2m grant
An alliance of educators that aims to get more women and minorities into careers in information technology and computing has received nearly $2 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Led by UMass Amherst, the Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education (CAITE) will use the funding to design and launch a series of outreach programs in Boston, greater Springfield and southeastern Massachusetts.
The programs will address groups that are underrepresented in information technology (IT) education and the workforce including women, minorities and economically, academically, and socially disadvantaged residents who may be left out of the Massachusetts innovation economy.
Through its community college partners, CAITE will use the three-year, $1,899,087 grant to increase awareness among high school teachers, staff, counselors, parents and students of career opportunities and required preparation for information technology careers. CAITE hopes to create pathways from high school to community colleges to upper division and graduate programs in computing and IT that will be supported by advising, mentoring and community groups.
Alana Wiens, Computer Science, is the CAITE project manager. Project leadership includes Computer Science professors Rick Adrion and Lori Clarke; Jane Fountain, professor of Political Science; Deborah Boisvert of UMass Boston, Priscilla Grocer of Bristol Community College, and Adrienne Smith of Springfield Technical Community College.
UMass Amherst forms the core of the Pioneer Valley Alliance, which will include area community colleges and K-12 districts.
CAITE is funded under the NSF Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program, which aims to significantly increase the number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving post secondary degrees in the computing disciplines, with an emphasis on students from communities with longstanding underrepresentation in computing: women, persons with disabilities, and minorities. Included minorities are African-Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska natives, native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
CAITE is one of eight NSF BPC Alliances across the nation, each of which is a broad partnership of institutions and organizations that focus on particular strategies or groups underrepresented in computing.
Collaborators include the Commonwealth Information Technology Initiative, the Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Center, regional Louis Stokes Alliances and NSF Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate programs, and other partnerships and initiatives focused on information technology education and sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) pipeline issues.
March 22, 2007.
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