New Jersey Institute of Technology has received a CISE Special Projects award to convene a workshop in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States on the transformation of undergraduate computing education. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a forum to catalzye the transformation of undergraduate computing education and to disseminate information about new NSF initiatives, such as CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH). Such a transformation is critical to the information technology (IT) workforce preparation and the continued preeminence of the U. S. in technology innovation.
The intellectual merit of this project lies in the synergies that will follow from bringing together thoughtful individuals with wide-ranging expertise in the area of undergraduate computing education.
The broader impact lies in the potential impact on computing education and thus a broad range of students across the United States. The number of students majoring in computing disciplines has declined in recent years even though employment demands for graduates in these disciplines continues to climb. Significantly, the number of women and minority students who consider the possibility of majoring in computing has fallen even more dramatically, further restricting the pool of available talent. Identifying innovative strategies to add and attach a broad range of students in computing disciplines will have enormous impact not only in terms of strengthening the nation's economy but also in preserving equality of opportunity.
