Georgetown University proposes a project aimed at attracting underrepresented students to computing. Traditional approaches target individuals those, for example, with an interest in math and/or science or those who have already taken a computer science course who have a good likelihood of pursuing computing. This project targets an untapped, but potentially higher impact, target audience: students who are not already attracted to science. Students will be recruited from the general population using mainstream sources as well as science-based venues. The effort will investigate whether untapped mainstream venues can be used to recruit new computing professionals. In particular, can sports and computer games attract unrepresented students? Can marketing techniques, perhaps from sports, gaming, and television sitcom venues, be exploited to broaden participation in computing? This project will develop marketing techniques and recruitment approaches, with corresponding dissemination methods, to popularize the idea of computing across a variety of demographics, targeting women and minorities in K-12. It will also develop methods for introducing and training students in computing by transforming low-level technical concepts into high-level modules appealing to mainstream populations using storyboards where students will act as private investigators, solving mysteries in which the more exciting computing technologies such as robotics, augmented reality techniques, intelligent software agents, and avatars are used as tools to find each clue. The major outcomes of this project will be:
Reusable storyboard modules and tools that leverage visual technologies in computing and embeds them into investigative scenarios, and teaming approaches similar to popular sports activities. Curriculum and materials for one-week summer institutes piloted at Georgetown and Georgia Tech exploiting/experimenting/evaluating modules that build upon the PIs current research programs. Teacher training kits/documentation for integrating the modules into the classroom. Slogan/marketing plan to advertise computing (and the modules) to the target populace.
