The Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) through Targeted Infusion Projects supports the development, implementation, and study of evidence-based innovative models and approaches for improving the preparation and success of HBCU undergraduate students so that they may pursue science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) graduate programs and/or careers. The project at Southern University (SU) will enhance undergraduate STEM education by establishing the SU-Computing and Data Education (SU-CoDE) program to equip computer science, as well as other STEM majors, with computing and analytical skills across a range of contexts, disciplines, and problems. The project activities can serve as a model for other institutions that desire to strengthen undergraduate education in the area of computer and data science.
The objectives of SU-CoDE are to: enhance the role of the computing curriculum to have short- and long-term impacts on non-CS STEM programs; improve access to computational research experiences for undergraduate students to educate qualified STEM graduates for the workforce or graduate school; increase the interest, broaden participation, and thereby improve recruitment and retention of African American students in STEM fields; improve students’ transition from K-12 to undergraduate and undergraduate to graduate school; and enhance collaborations, partnerships, and professional developments to promote the research capacity of STEM faculty in computing and data science. A team of faculty from all STEM departments at the institution will be involved in this project. The project is guided by an external evaluation.
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.
