Workshop on Socially Relevant Computing Education: Building USA and African Partnerships, Accra, Ghana November 23-24, 2010
Howard University (HU) is organizing a multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary workshop on socially relevant computing in partnership with African faculty and universities. The two-day Workshop on Socially Relevant Computing Education: Building USA and African Partnerships is being organized in conjunction with the African University College of Communications, the Association of Computer and Information Science and Engineering Departments at Minority Institutions (ADMI), the International Network on Appropriate Technology (INAT), and the 4th International Appropriate Technology Conference in Accra, Ghana.
The two-day workshop will take place in Accra, Ghana November 23-24, 2010. Approximately ten US participants, most representing Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), will be invited to participate. The team of US participants will include junior faculty, graduate and undergraduate students as well as senior faculty with experience and focus on socially relevant computing. Ten African participants, mainly from Francophone and Anglophone West Africa have been identified and invited to participate. They represent institutions from eight to ten countries.
Intellectual Merit: Given the increasingly technology-driven features of 21th century society that connect distant parts of the world, there is a critical need to be involved in education and research endeavors that widen our perspectives. The workshop?s primary goals include (1) enabling multidisciplinary / interdisciplinary collaborations that include the scientific and cultural perspectives of institutions of higher education and include both faculty and students (2) Engaging the appropriate and successful design of global computing education models and (3) Developing means to secure grant funding to support diverse partnerships. This project is creating partnerships to enable the development of computing projects that are of societal interest to both American and African participants.
Broader Impact: US higher education has successfully developed partnerships with other parts of the world; China and India are prime examples. Similarly, many other fields such as environmental sciences have successfully initiated collaborations with African Universities. The broader impact of this workshop is to strategically bring together computer science practitioners in a way that will lead to long-term interactions between the two parts of the world. The primary US participants are from HBCUs This workshop will provide a cultural dimension and value to the enterprise of scientific computing for underrepresented students and faculty. This also represents a research opportunity that is well suited to the involved institutions because many education and research opportunities in socially relevant computing are less costly and thus better suited for smaller schools.
Report on National Science Foundation (NSF) workshops on: "Socially Relevant Computing: Building USA and African Partnerships" Hosted by The African University College of Communications Accra Ghana, November 23-24, 2010 And the University of Pretoria, South Africa, August 2-3, 2011 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The first two-day workshop on socially relevant computing was well received by fourteen international participants as well as the eleven participants from our host country Ghana. The workshop presenters demonstrated an understanding of the importance of our focus on ‘social relevance’ by providing a case for why and how social relevance should be addressed within their particular computing sub-discipline. We structured the workshop to allow and encourage information presentations beyond the talks scheduled based on submitted abstracts. This was particularly important in identifying synergism between scheduled presenters and local participants. The president of Africa University College of Communications (AUCC) opened the conference and on the final day we had a presentation by the Director General of the Association of African Universities (AAU). Sixteen different universities were represented including three historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs): Howard University, University of the District of Columbia and Jackson State University. The workshop was very successful in achieving its objective of establishing sound relationships between US-based institutions and African institutions in the pursuit of joint research and curricula development. With the strong financial support from other sources only 11 of the 25 participants had to rely on NSF funding. This resulted in sufficient funds remaining to schedule a 2nd workshop. Approval was given by NSF to schedule a 2nd workshop in South Africa during the summer of 2011. The Principal investigator used his contacts with South Africa, particularly the Howard University Republic of South Africa Project (HURSAP) to identify supporting individuals and institutions in South Africa. In early 2011, Howard University signed a MOU with the University of Pretoria. We were able to use this recently established relationship to get the University of Pretoria to host the 2nd workshop on socially relevant computing. The PI made a planning visit during late May – early June (the expenses were covered through other non-NSF projects) to arrange the venue and hotel accommodations for the workshop. ADMI had been involved in publicizing and participating in the 1st workshop. They served as a co-sponsor for the 2nd workshop and assisted in the organizing process. Three ADMI institutions were represented at the 2nd workshop. The CIO of South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) served as a keynote speaker. Four South African universities participated along with academics from the Sudan, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. Existing relationships between USA and African universities were strengthened and new relationships established. Outcomes of this series of workshops included: 1) multiple presentations at the 4th International conference on appropriate technology; 2) a workshop by a Howard University graduate student on "Socially Relevant Technologies" as well as a presentation by the PI at the National Conference of the National Technical Association; 3) a paper published in the NTA Journal by the PI; and a paper accepted to the Workshop on Knowledge Management Capacity in Africa scheduled for January 2012 in Khartoum Sudan.
