Keaton PetersThe National Science Foundation wants to make the fields of science and technology more representative of the diversity present throughout the United States — and it’s backing up that desire with dollars. Investing $48 million for projects across the county, NSF is pouring funding into efforts aiming to increase diversity through the Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances program.
This latest round of funding, announced earlier this month, is part of NSF’s goal to address the underrepresentation of women and other historically marginalized groups in STEM fields, particularly in computer science and engineering.
According to recent data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, while women make up half of the U.S. workforce, they represent only 28% of the science and engineering workforce. Similarly, Black and Hispanic workers remain underrepresented in these fields relative to their presence in the overall workforce.
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The Broadening Participation in Computing Alliances program focuses on creating large-scale programs, or “alliances,” with education institutions to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups successfully pursuing computing careers.
Among the largest awards is a nearly $6 million grant to the University of Colorado for the National Center for Women & Information Technology. This project focuses on expanding the role of women among all computing disciplines, with a special emphasis on rapidly advancing research subfields such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Another significant award of almost $6 million goes to the University of Texas at Austin for the Expanding Computing Education Pathways project. This initiative looks to address state-level systemic barriers that perpetuate the marginalization of students in K-12 computing education. The program’s approach includes supporting 30 states and territories to broaden computing education through expanding access to educational pathways into computing fields.
The University of Washington received $5.6 million for its AccessComputing project, which focuses on increasing the participation of people with disabilities in computing careers. This initiative addresses disabilities affecting sight, hearing, mobility, learning, and mental health while also promoting accessible design practices that will make it easier for people with disabilities to break into computing.
A noteworthy project is the Institute for African Americans in Computing Sciences National Network, led by Morehouse College, a prodigious historically Black college in Atlanta. With a $3.7 million grant, the initiative looks to increase the representation of African Americans in computing research and academia.
Together, these and the other five projects receiving funding through this grant round will work to bring more diversity to STEM fields in high tech industries or in academia, where a mere 5.3% of faculty at PhD-granting universities are from underrepresented communities.
These projects are set to kick off in 2025 and the grant funding is provided for them to run for four years.
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