Spelman College proposes the ARTSI (Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact) Alliance in collaboration with Florida A&M University, the University of the District of Columbia, Hampton University, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, Winston-Salem State University, the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Brown University, Duke University, the University of Alabama, the University of Washington, and the University of Pittsburgh. Seven of these partners are HBCUs and seven are Carnegie Research I institutions. Their collaboration joins the strengths of HBCUs in conducting outreach and education in a nurturing learning environment with those of the R1's for conducting world class research. The ARTSI Alliance will motivate students to pursue computer science careers by emphasizing the creativity and socially beneficial aspects robotics technology with hands-on projects, curriculum, and media. ARTSI activities will span the academic pipeline from K-12 through the faculty ranks. At the K-12 level, students will be recruited with community outreach using robotics and art, robotics road shows, and a robotics educational film online repository. At the undergraduate level, HBCU students will be exposed to new robotics curriculum, and they will be encouraged to pursue advanced training in graduate school through summer research experiences, collaborative, interdisciplinary robotics projects in the arts and health, instruction in technical film documentation, student virtual film festivals, annual robotics conferences, and instruction in entrepreneurship for computer science. At the faculty level, it will increase the number of HBCU faculty who educate students in robotics and involve students in robotics research by providing faculty mentoring, summer research experiences for underrepresented faculty at R1 robotics labs, robotics summer workshops, and development and dissemination of robotics educational material through a web-based portal. The Alliance will have industry partners, including Seagate, iRobot, Microsoft Research, and Juxtopia, as well as educational partners, including Florida-Georgia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation and Computer Science Teachers Association.
??This collaborative project, jointly led by Spelman College and Carnegie Mellon University, established a consortium of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and major research universities called the ARTSI Alliance, whose mission was to explore the use of robotics for increasing interest in computer science research among African American students. ARTSI's major activities included establishing new robotics courses at HBCUs, operating a summer REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program each year, holding an annual student research conference and robotics competition, and holding an annual faculty summer workshop. Over the course of the project the Alliance grew from an initial 8 HBCUs to a total of 17. They are: Spelman College, Bowie State University, Elizabeth City State University, Florida A&M University, Fort Valley State University, Hampton University, Howard University, Jackson State University, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T University, Tennessee State University, the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, the University of the District of Columbia, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Virginia State University, and Winston-Salem State University. The Alliance adopted a standard robotics hardware platform based on the iRobot Create and an ASUS netbook, and purchased robots for every school. HBCU faculty received training on the hardware and on the Tekkotsu robotics software framework developed at Carnegie Mellon. In 2011 8 HBCUs offered a total of 11 courses, six for the first time, up from 5 campuses offering one course each in 2007. Undergraduate student participation in ARTSI activities and courses increased 185%, from 68 from 2007 to 250 in 2011. The annual student research conferences, held at a different HBCU each year, were attended by 125 to 250 students and faculty. Roughly a dozen teams competed in each year's robotics competition. Other conference activities included a Computer Science Olympiad (knowledge and skill competition), a student poster session, and oral presentations by students and faculty. Other Alliance activities include K-12 outreach events conducted by HBCUs at local schools with large minority enrollments, and computing and robotics summer camps. Since 2007 About 1850 children were reached by ARTSI activities designed to spark interest in technology among younger students, and to give HBCU undergraduates the experience of speaking publicly about their interest in computing. The Research Experiences for Undergraduates program matched HBCU students with mentors in robotics research labs at Carnegie Mellon, Brown, Duke, Georgia Tech, Rice, the University of Alabama, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Washington. Students spent 8-10 weeks working with other undergraduates, graduate students, and their faculty mentor on robot design, construction, or programming projects. A total of 70 REU slots were filled by 54 students (38% female) from 2008 through 2011. With the grant extension an REU preparation program has been established at many partner HBCUs to improve the readiness of students for research opportunities and graduate school. The intellectual merit of these activities lies in the development of a proven successful program for recruiting African American students to pursue advanced training in computer science. The broader impact of ARTSI has been an increase in the number of students at participating schools who have in fact gone on to pursue graduate training in computer science at either the masters or doctoral level. In addition, participating HBCUs have acquired their own robotics laboratories and developed faculty expertise in robotics education and research.
