Northwest Workshop on Integrative Computing Education and Research
Stanford University has received a CISE Special Projects award to convene a workshop in the Northwest of the United States on the transforming of undergraduate computing education in response to rapid changes in technology and its applications. The purpose of this workshop is to begin a nationwide discussion to catalzye the transformation of undergraduate computing education. Such a transformation is critical to information technology (IT) workforce preparation and the continued preeminence of the U. S. in technology innovation. The workshop will identify areas of needed change and strategies for effecting the change.
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 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 nations economy but also in preserving equality of opportunity.
