IU Bloomington School of Informatics and Computing diversity efforts garner over $500K in grant monies

The IU Bloomington School of Informatics and Computing has received three grants that are aimed at fostering diversity and broadening participation in computing-related disciplines. The three grants, totaling $555,000, come from a variety of sources and are part of the School’s ongoing initiative to become a national exemplar for diversity.

The first, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) CISE division—broadening participation in computing, is a part of the Alliance for the Advancement of African-American Researchers in Computing (A4RC) program. IU’s portion of the $1.5 million, two-year extension grant is $427,000 and will be used to continue to increase the number of African-Americans pursuing advanced degrees in computing, particularly at the PhD level. Over the past three years, the A4RC team has laid the groundwork for this by building effective collaborations between historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and faculty and research teams. This two-year extension grant will enable the alliances with HBCUs to expand considerably while joining forces with the African-American Researchers in Computing group that supports PhD’s already in the pipeline.

The second grant, a one-year planning initiative worth $78,000, proposes the creation of the IN-STARS Alliance between Indiana University Bloomington, Purdue, Depauw, IUPUI, Notre Dame, Ivy Tech Bloomington, Butler, Rose-Hulman, IU Southeast and IPFW. This project will be based on the existing STARS model (Students & Technology in Academia, Research & Service), which is a national alliance of 20 institutions up and down the East Coast, formed to increase the participation of women, under-represented minorities, and persons with disabilities in computing disciplines through multi-faceted interventions and interactions.

IN-STARS will enhance opportunities for traditionally underrepresented students (women and minorities) in computing by creating local networks of students within each institution —with online social networks and statewide conferences to bridge the local networks. Additional outreach will include pre-college programs, a series of statewide conferences for the different audiences, and programs for exploratory students already attending one of the participating alliance institutions. The product of this grant is expected to be a proposal submitted to NSF in May 2010 to support a three-year statewide initiative. Dennis Groth and Maureen Biggers are the co-PI’s.

The final grant is part of the new Department of Homeland Security VACCINE Center of Excellence in Visual Analytics for Command, Control and Interoperability. As part of the $50,000 IU portion of the grant, assistant dean for diversity Maureen Biggers will coordinate a Minority Serving Institution education piece for the Center.

“An important part of our strategic plan focuses on making the IUB School of Informatics and Computing a leader in diversity—both for our own students and faculty and for the computing and informatics fields nationally,” said dean Bobby Schnabel. “These three grants are instrumental in helping us achieve that goal, and will make significant strides to developing programs that will introduce the dynamic computing field to students who otherwise might not have the opportunity.”

Founded in 2000 as the first School of its kind in the United States, the Indiana University School of Informatics is dedicated to research and teaching across a broad range of computing and information technology, with emphases on science, applications, and societal implications. The School includes the School of Informatics at IUPUI and the School of Informatics and Computing at Bloomington, where programs include computer science and informatics. The School administers a variety of bachelor and masters degree programs in computer science and informatics, as well as PhD programs in computer science, and the first-ever PhD in informatics. The School is dedicated to excellence in education and research, to partnerships that bolster economic development and entrepreneurship, and to increasing opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities in computing and technology.