Spelman College will expand its work with women and underrepresented students in computer science and robotics nationally through the SpelBots robotics and computing program and the creation of the National SPELBOTS Club for K-12 students. The SpelBots are a team of female, African American students who conduct robotics research, compete worldwide in robotics and computer science competitions, and conduct K-12 outreach. The long-range vision of this project is to leverage the SpelBots activities to provide career role models in cutting-edge computer science and robotics from underrepresented communities. This project will bring attitude-changing computer science and robotics showcase presentations to underrepresented students and their teachers, and in conjunction with these showcases, promote the formation and mentoring of robotics and computer science clubs among K-12 students using social media as well as local workshops. Further, it will recruit, mentor and train undergraduate African American women students in computer science and robotics research, outreach, and competition projects. In addition, this project will provide advising for these activities for students at local historically black colleges and universities. The goals are to (1) investigate the effectiveness of the showcase approach to exposing, exciting, recruiting, and mentoring underrepresented middle and high school students in computing, (2) study the impact of our recruitment and retention activities in computer science among African American women, specifically, and underrepresented students, generally, in order to disseminate best practices, and (3) increase the amount of autonomous humanoid and mobile robotics research performed by African American undergraduate women.
SpelBots: African-American Women Showcasing Robotics and Science to Underrepresented K-12 Students The SpelBots program seeks to use robotics and role modeling to enhance the number of women and underrepresented minorities entering the computer science (CS) pipeline from high school to college. Specifically, the goals of the program were to: Provide role models and attitude-changing computer science and robotics presentations, exhibitions, and workshops to underrepresented students and their teachers. Increase the number of students at Spelman that are involved in computer science and robotics projects. Investigate the effectiveness of this approach to exposing and exciting underrepresented middle and high school students to CS using robotics and roadshows led by underrepresented female students. Study the impact of the recruitment and retention activities in CS among underrepresented groups and disseminate successful and non-successful approaches. Broaden the number of high school students that perceive CS and robotics as accessible areas of focus. Increase the participation of underrepresented students in CS and robotics. At Spelman College, the SpelBots Robotics Team is known for robotic competition, demonstrations about robotics both on campus and off campus, and research about robotics. Because Spelman College is a historically black college for women, the students serve as excellent role models for the young people attending the demonstrations. The demonstrations included information about how robots work and how to program them as well as interactive sessions where audience members interacted with the robots in dancing, game playing, and other activities. The workshops were generally hands-on small group sessions where students interacted with the humanoid robots and constructed robots using LEGO kits. Many members of the audience had never thought of studying computer science or robotics and had never pictured themselves as computer scientists. The SpelBots are living examples of the fact that computer scientists can be women and can be from underrepresented minorities. In addition, students from the team presented research about computer science and robotics at several conferences and at Spelman College’s Annual Research Day. Some outcomes of the recent BCP grant have been the following: More than 4,000 K-12 students have attended demonstrations or hands-on workshop events in 6 major cities U.S. cities and in Puerto Rico. One result of this was that students perceived that they could now see how robotics and/or computer science could be useful in the real world. Messages from the demonstrations about breaking gender and racial barriers in computing came through to many female students. Students attending the workshops and demonstrations often demonstrated through surveys an improvement in general self-efficacy (more self-confidence when it comes to their capacity to engage in computer science/robotics) and egalitarianism (belief that anybody, regardless of race or gender, can do computer science/robotics). Workshop presentations (with their hands-on small group approach) were more effective as rated by participants. Ongoing interactions with middle school teams proved effective in encouraging their interest in computer science and robotics. Participation in the SpelBots team led to increased participation in undergraduate research. Student members of the team were able to participate in research symposia and conferences including the Spelman College Research Days. Several team members won prizes for their oral or poster presentations at these forums. Participation in the SpelBots team was a positive influence toward retention in college and in computer science. Student team members who have graduated so far all graduated on schedule and entered either careers in computer science or graduate programs in computer science. Students successfully competed in an international RoboCup event in 2011 (RoboCup Mediterranean Open) and successfully qualified for the world-wide RoboCup in 2012 and 2014. Unfortunately, various factors prevented the team from competing at those times.
