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Retention and Recruitment of Women in Computer Engineering. Robert Akl and Ryan Garlick. Details. University of North Texas Denton, TX ICEE Paper 3318 Sponsored by the Texas Technology Workforce Development Grant Program (2005)
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Retention and Recruitment of Women in Computer Engineering Robert Akl and Ryan Garlick
Details • University of North Texas • Denton, TX • ICEE Paper 3318 • Sponsored by the Texas Technology Workforce Development Grant Program (2005) • Recruiting and Retention Strategies for Computer Science and Engineering at UNT
Goals • Attracting more women to Computer Science and Engineering degree programs and retaining them once they are there. • Only 17% of 2003 - 2004 Computer Science and Computer Engineering degrees awarded to Women [1]
Strategy • Summer Robotics Camps • Ambassadors Cohort • Mentors Cohort
1. Robo-Camp • One-week camps for women in grades 9-11 • Mobile labs allowed camps at multiple locations • Expanding reach to underserved regions • Ethnically diverse South-Dallas campus
1. Robo-Camp • BOE-BOT (click for more info) • Problem-based learning approaches, similar to [2] • Problem Analysis • System Design • Construction • Programming • Emergent Behavior: Students’ attached pens and programmed the robots to draw - RoboArt
1. Robo-Art News Coverage .mov file
2. Ambassadors • CSEagles Ambassador Program • Instrumental in Recruitment and Retention
2. Ambassadors • Accompany faculty on recruiting visits to high schools • Serve as hosts during prospective student visits • Serve as mentors for easing the transition into CSE • Astin[3] maintains that a student’s peer group is the single most potent source of influence for enhancing student learning and personal development
3. Mentors • Upper-level undergraduates • Maintain hours in the Help Clinic • Building a sense of community • Introduce Activities such as the Society of Women Engineers
Evaluation • How do students rate the activities • How do instructors, mentors, and cohorts view the usefulness of their activities or participation • Maintaining statistics on recruitment and retention rates • Will have statistics at the conclusion of future programs
Evaluation • Follow our progress: • RoboCamp 2006 homepage
Sources [1] 2003-2004 Taulbee Survey [2] Duch, B., Groh, S., and Allen, D. The Power of Problem-Based Learning. 2001. [3] Astin, A., What matters in college: Four critical years revisited. 1993