|
From www.blackengineer.com Plugged-In Computer and information scientists is one of the job categories the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will be among the fastest growing occupations over the next decade. But with African Americans accounting for just 4.8 percent of two million US computer and information scientists it would require new and innovative ideas for increasing the number African Americans who study computer science and robotics in college, and pursue advanced training in graduate school. Spelman College, a historically black college for women in Atlanta, Georgia, is leading the Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact Alliance, in partnership with several other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)—Hampton University, Morgan State University, Florida A&M University, Norfolk State University, Winston-Salem State University, the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, the University of the District of Columbia— and Research One (R1) institutions. Funded by a three-year, $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact Alliance (ARTSI) will develop outreach programs to encourage African American students at both the K-12 and college levels to pursue careers in computer science and robotics and will provide mentoring programs for undergraduates. Curricula, research internships and mentoring opportunities will be made available by Carnegie Mellon and other alliance members, including the University of Pittsburgh, the Georgia Institute of Technology, Brown University, Duke University, the University of Alabama and the University of Washington. Corporate partners include Seagate Technology, Microsoft, Apple, iRobot and Juxtopia. Carnegie Mellon will host a faculty development workshop this summer in Pittsburgh. The Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact (ARTSI) Alliance grew out of a previous collaboration between Andrew Williams, associate professor of computer and information science at Spelman College and, David Touretzky, research professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon, which established robotics education labs at Spelman and three other HBCUs. The alliance, with Williams as principal investigator and Touretzky as director of robotics education, also will provide professional development activities for HBCU faculty teaching computer science and robotics courses. Touretzky said ARTSI activities would vary from institution to institution, depending on the need of each. "Some of these schools are getting their first research-quality robots," he said, adding that those institutions will need to develop basic curricula. Spelman and three other schools have established robotic programs based on ARTSI. The Advancing Robotics for Society Web portal can be viewed at: http://artsialliance.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 © Copyright by Career Communications Group, Inc. 729 East Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21202 410.244.7101 |