This project will contribute to the national need for well-educated scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians by supporting the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need at San Francisco State University. This university is one of the 23 campuses of the California State University system and is designated as a Hispanic-serving institution. Over its four-year duration, this project will provide one-year scholarships to 80 first-year, full-time students who are pursuing bachelor?s degrees in computer science. The project will support a three-pronged wrap-around support system that ensures students make steady academic, social, and professional progress in the first year. This support system will include academic advising, winter and summer programs, co-curricular activities, and professional development activities. The project has the potential to broaden the participation of low-income students in the fields of artificial intelligence and computer science and to increase the economic competitiveness of the US artificial intelligence sector. The results from this project may be valuable for other higher education institutions seeking to increase retention of socioeconomically diverse students in their artificial intelligence/computer science programs.
The overall goal of this project is to increase STEM degree completion of low-income, high achieving undergraduates with demonstrated financial need. The objectives through which the project goal will be realized are: (1) to improve information equity through intensive and tailored academic and professional advising; (2) to increase academic and professional self-efficacy through co-curricular activities that provide early exposure to, career coaching in, and research and industry experiences in artificial intelligence; (3) to develop students? sense of belonging and identity as computer scientists by helping them become part of the computer science community and by humanizing computer science and artificial intelligence via showcasing role models and social good projects. Students? sense of identity as computer scientists has been shown to be critical to their persistence and success in the field, especially for students from underrepresented populations. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which students develop a positive sense of computer science identity. This project will investigate if and how low-income students? sense of computer science identity changes during their first year of undergraduate computer science study, and if a stronger sense of computer science identity predicts greater retention in the computer science major. The impact of early artificial intelligence exposure on student?s achievement and retention will also be studied. A mixed-methods approach including both formative and summative components will be used to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of the project. The resources developed as part of this project will be disseminated through the project website, and the results from the project will be disseminated through publications in journals and at conferences in artificial intelligence and computer science education. This project is funded by NSF?s Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics program, which seeks to increase the number of low-income academically talented students with demonstrated financial need who earn degrees in STEM fields. It also aims to improve the education of future STEM workers and to generate knowledge about academic success, retention, transfer, graduation, and academic/career pathways of low-income students.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
