North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, together with collaborating institutions Clemson University, Prairie View A&M University, the University of Colorado, the University of Wisconsin, Auburn University, the University of Indiana, Norfolk State University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Fort Valley Sate University, and Jackson State University, proposes an extension of the successful Alliance for the Advancement of African-American Researchers in Computing (A4RC, pronounced "A-Force"). A4RC aims to increase the number of African-Americans obtaining advanced degrees in computing, particularly at the Ph.D. level. A4RC establishes and develops student pipelines from HBCUs to universities offering advanced degrees in Computing. A4RC has amassed a body of knowledge and experience with respect to what it takes to build effective HBCU/R1 faculty collaborations, develop productive HBCU/R1 research teams that include graduate and undergraduate students, and prepare undergraduate and master's students for research at the Ph.D. level. A4RC uses a "research pod" concept that is efficient, flexible, and effective in terms of HBCU/R1 research collaborations. With this extension, A4RC plans to expand the alliance to include a greater number of HBCU/R1 research collaborations, and to build new partnerships. A new category of partners -- Affiliate Partners -- will engage additional HBCUs and national labs and A4RC will become formal partners with the very effective BPC Demonstration Project, African-American Researchers in Computing Sciences (AARCS). A4RC will build collaborations with the BPC STARS and Empowering Leadership Alliances, and ADMI: The Symposium on Computing at Minority Institutions.
Final Report Summary: BPC-A: Alliance for the Advancement of African-American Researchers in Computing - A4RC for Change Award #: NSF-0940464 The overall goal of the Alliance for the Advancement of African-American Researchers in Computing (A4RC) was to increase the number of African-American recipients of advanced degrees in Computer Science (particularly at the Ph.D. level). This was to address a problem where approximately 1% of recipients of Ph.D.s were African-Americans even though they make up roughly 12% of the U.S. population. It was envisaged by the A4RC leadership that introducing HBCU computer science students early to year-round research oriented activities would provide these students with increased knowledge about, motivation and a competitive advantage in terms of higher graduate level enrollment and retention rates. A4RC originally began as an alliance of consisting of three HBCUs (NCA&T, Jackson State, and Norfolk State) and three R1 universities (Colorado, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech) and has grown to include a total of 20 universities (13 HBCUs and 7 R1 universities). NSF data shows a 9% decline in computer science graduate student enrollment in HBCUs while the original A4RC HBCU schools have grown their enrollments by 15% over the life of A4RC. In an effort to develop a research climate at teaching-oriented institutions, A4RC created the research pod concept. The pod concept was used to construct research teams composed of an R1 researcher, an HBCU researcher, and a number of MS and undergraduate students from the HBCU. Pod members worked together on a research project throughout the academic year. During this time, the students of the research pod would also take a one semester research methods course. The A4RC research methods course provides for an online repository of materials that have been successfully used to engage students in the research process and increase knowledge about graduate school options. The repository includes student and faculty video profiles, professional interest panels, and in-class activities that highlight diversity and research-related resources. The class materials are all captured on the A4RC web site (www.a4rc.org) under the "Course Materials" tab, along with a sample syllabus. Each participating school from A4RC has reused the materials, though encouragingly in very different ways based on current needs (e.g., larger seminars, smaller focus groups, introductory graduate school sessions and seminars). There have been both formal and informal presentations at conferences and meetings—including the BPC PIs meeting and the ACM SIGCSE meeting—toward expanding dissemination of the materials to others. During the summer, the undergraduate students participated in an 8-10 week REU at the R1 researcher’s university. Students reported that participation in A4RC has changed their perceptions in regards to their ability to succeed in computing by demythologizing computing—as a field reserved to geniuses and one completely out of reach—into perceiving the field as accessible to individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds, skill-sets and abilities. A number of lessons have been learned with respect to this very challenged pipeline of students from HBCU’s to the PhD in computing: 1) The highest levels of success (i.e. increased MS level and PhD students) occurred in institutions where there was a passionate champion of the A4RC mission, regardless of whether the institution was HBCU or Research university. 2) The computer science graduate school pipeline from HBCU’s continues to be in competition with corporations who seek these very same students and will pay them highly for their knowledge as a BS or MS in CS. 3) The development of strong and positive relationships between research universities and HBCU faculty champions and ultimately students is important to support student applications beyond GRE scores. In large part, these scores continue to be used as a threshold for admissions and disadvantage many of our students in the graduate admissions process.
