BPC-A Accelerator

The BPC-A Accelerator is a collective of the NSF BPC Alliances to advance the goal of broadening participation in computing by sharing knowledge and maximizing use of the tools, knowledge, and resources available across the Alliances to develop sustainable solutions to address the lack of diversity in computing.

The purpose of the BPC-A Accelerator is to advance the NSF BPC Alliances’ mutual goal of broadening participation in computing by sharing knowledge and maximizing use of the tools, knowledge, and resources available across the Alliances to develop sustainable solutions to address the lack of diversity in computing. As a formal mechanism, these meetings will bring Alliance leadership and evaluators together to share resources, serve as “critical friends,” and identify challenges. We aim to amplify Alliance impact by identifying common goals, metrics, and practices. The BPC-A Accelerator coordinates with BPCnet and leverages additional partners such as the INCLUDES Hub, and CMD-IT, to learn, share, and avoid duplicated efforts. This coordination is critical to the sustainability of BPC, by helping us find common ground among projects to scale and disseminate findings and resources. 

The BPC Alliances, funded by the National Science Foundation, have been informally engaging in collective action, vision setting, and collaboration for over 15 years. As CS education and equity-focused advocacy work has changed, the Alliances have intentionally adapted to meet new challenges and build new opportunities in the BPC space. The Accelerator allows the BPC Alliances to formalize communication and partnerships, and act as a unified force to advance BPC in K-16, across states, and institutions and industry. 

Members of the Accelerator have committed to rotating responsibility for conducting one annual half-day virtual meeting and three quarterly virtual meetings each year. As opportunities to collaborate arise, members are encouraged to reach out to the BPC-A Accelerator network. When possible, the BPC-A Accelerator will meet at various in-person conferences such as RESPECT, Tapia, and SIGCSE.

AccessComputing

Principal Investigator: Maya Cakmak
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2137312

Increasing the participation of people with disabilities in computing fields.

  • A Community of Practice for Computing Educators and Employers to share resources and learn about accessibility.
  • A mentoring community, activities, and research and travel funding for computing students with disabilities.
More Information on AccessComputing

Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI)

Principal Investigator: Ann Gates
Alliance Type: BPC, INCLUDES
NSF Award Number: 2137791 and 1834620

CAHSI is a national alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions and private and public sector partners committed to collectively advance and empower Hispanics in computing. We accelerate inclusive educational cultures and shape future leaders. Our work focuses on the individual (students and faculty), department, and leadership to achieve systemic change. CAHSI serves as a catalyst for research and institutional capacity building through advocacy, data- and knowledge-informed decision-making, mutually reinforcing activities across collaborative networks, and adoption of research- and evidence-based practices.

Visit CAHSI’s website to access our library and learn about our signature practices and programs: CAHSI-Google Institutional Research program, Allyship, Local REU, Latinas+, CAHSI Student Advocate, CAHSI Student Scholars, and the CAHSI Doctoral Student Network.

More Information on CAHSI

Computing Research Association Committee on Widening Participation in Computing Research (CRA-WP)

Principal Investigator: Amanda Stent
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2216270

Our mission is to widen the participation and improve the access, opportunities, and positive experiences of individuals from populations underrepresented in computing research and education.

We run programs for people throughout computing research careers including:

  • Research experiences for undergraduate and master’s degree students.
  • Mentoring workshops and mentoring events for computing researchers in graduate school, early and mid-career in academia, industry, or government labs.
  • An extensive online resource library on our website.
More Information on CRA-WP

CSforAll

Principal Investigator: Alexis Cobo
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2216614

The CSforALL Alliance will activate its membership to implement programs, pathways, policies, or initiatives that result in BPC outcomes for women, black, Hispanic and indigenous students in K-12 educational institutions and OST programs that are age-aligned in the US.

The primary goals of the Alliance are to:

  • (1) Raise awareness of the need to address issues of underrepresentation;
  • (2) Increase the capacity of the CSforALL membership to use examples and research to meet these needs; and
  • (3) Use data to landscape opportunities and measure progress.
More Information on CSforAll

Data Alliance on Persistence and Perception in Computing (DAPPIC)

Principal Investigator: Carla Brodley
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2216629

DAPPIC’s goal is to integrate department-level data on enrollment, persistence, course outcomes, retention and graduation, with student-level data on perception and experience. By combining these two data sources, we seek to provide access to multi-level data that university computing departments can use to inform their BPC efforts.

DAPPIC is a collaboration of the Center for Inclusive Computing (CIC) at Northeastern University and the Computing Research Association’s Center for Evaluating the Research Pipeline (CRA CERP). If you are interested in learning more about the CIC’s data collection, please visit https://cic.northeastern.edu. If you are interested in learning about CRA CERP’s data collection, please visit https://cra.org/cerp/data-buddies.

More Information on DAPPIC

Expanding Computing Education Pathways Alliance (ECEP)

Principal Investigator: Carol Fletcher
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2137834

ECEP is a collective impact alliance dedicated to increasing equitable capacity for, access to, participation in, and experiences of computing education. ECEP state leaders focus on building and sustaining K-14 CS education ecosystems that systematically identify and address disparities in opportunities, outcomes, and representation in computing education. To achieve sustained, systems-level change in a state, ECEP leaders focus on implementing policies, pathways, and practices that advance equity at scale.

  • Building a national infrastructure in people, policy, pathways, and practices.
  • Leveraging states as a unit of change and policy as a mechanism of sustainability.
  • Growing grassroots capacity to create and sustain data systems for tracking BPC.
  • Shifting the narrative from a narrow focus on access and representation to interrogating the systems that perpetuate inequities.
  • Applying a collaborative, multi-sector approach to tackling the root causes of inequities across the CSEd pipeline.
More Information on ECEP

Institute for African-American Mentoring in Computing Sciences (IAAMCS)

Principal Investigator: Kinnis Gosha
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2216622

IAAMCS (pronounced ‘i am cs’) serves as a national resource for all African-American computer science students (undergraduate & graduate) and faculty. The objective of IAAMCS is to increase the number of African Americans receiving Ph.D. degrees in computing sciences, promote and engage students in teaching and training opportunities, and add more diverse researchers into the advanced technology workforce.

  • Fellowship Writing Workshop Series – learn about fellowship opportunities, ways to strengthen your personal statements, and how to articulate your research and goals, and get feedback on your essays and research plans.
  • Future Faculty & Research Scientist Mentoring Program – join meetings that focus on the application process, interview preparation, networking for job opportunities, the academic job calendar, offer negotiation, CV optimization, evaluation of multiple job offers, and knowing what jobs to apply to.
  • Paired Mentoring Program – get support at various stages of your college career by connecting with graduate, industry, or academic mentors.
More Information on IAAMCS

LEAP Alliance

Principal Investigators: Valerie Taylor
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2137937

Increase the diversity of future leadership in the computing professoriate at research universities as a way to increase diversity in computing.

  • Promoting institutional change in recruitment, admission, retention, professional development, and career choices.
  • Targeting African Americans, Native Americans/Indigenous, Hispanics, and People with Disabilities.
More Information on LEAP Alliance

National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)

Principal Investigator: Lucinda Sanders
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 1725018

NCWIT is a non-profit community of more than 1,600 higher education institutions, companies, nonprofits, and government organizations nationwide working to increase the meaningful and influential participation in computing of persons with marginalized gender identities at the intersections of race/ethnicity, class, age, sexual orientation, disability status, and other historically marginalized identities — in the field of computing, particularly in terms of innovation and development. NCWIT equips change leaders with resources and tools for taking action in recruiting, retaining, and advancing these individuals from K–12 and higher education through tech industry and entrepreneurial careers.

  • NCWIT Resources – research-backed resources describing practices and techniques for recruiting and retaining people in computing who have been historically excluded.
  • Counselors for Computing – Training counselors on how to encourage all students to choose to learn computing, enabling them to consider pursuing technical career paths.
  • Aspirations in Computing – Awards for high school students and educators in computing, as well as wards for undergraduate and graduate students in computing.
More Information on NCWIT

Researching Equity and Antiracist Learning in CS (REAL-CS)

Principal Investigator: Jean Ryoo
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2137956

Increase the number of young women and students of color experiencing culturally responsive and engaging computer science education through co-design efforts with teachers to infuse justice-related topics into a high school curriculum and teacher professional development program (Exploring Computer Science), collaborate with school administrators for equity-oriented leadership, and engage in research with teachers and students.

More links:

More Information on REAL-CS

Socially Responsible Computing: Promoting Latinx student retention via community engagement in early CS courses

Principal Investigator: Zoe Wood
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2216687

Our alliance aims to transform the early computing experience to motivate and engage students to opt-in to computing. Our alliance targets the retention of Latinx students in computing via curricular activities in early computing courses that help integrate community needs into computing course pedagogy and projects.

We are actively working on developing the publicly accessible version of our curriculum and open call for participants in our faculty learning community, please reach out to the PI or co-PIs listed on the webpage.

More Information on SRC

STARS Computing Corps

Principal Investigators: Jamie Payton
Alliance Type: BPC
NSF Award Number: 2137338

STARS catalyzes action-oriented academic communities for broadening participation in computing.

  • Propagating evidence-based practices to shift CS experiences in college CS departments to be more equitable and inclusive.
  • Creating a community of faculty and students committed to addressing the exclusion of women, Black, and Hispanic students as computing degree holders.
  • Advancing BPC knowledge with rigorous research/evaluation through research experiences and RESPECT conferences.
More Information on STARS Computing Corps