The Authentic Inclusion of Community Colleges in Broadening the Participation in Computing (AICCBPC) project was funded by National Science Foundation (NSF) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) to identify the obstacles community college’s face in increasing the number and diversity of college graduates in computing.
Dr. Amardeep Kahlon was hand-selected by NSF to serve on a seven-member steering committee. The steering committee conducted extensive research for a period of nine months beginning May 2017. To further their mission, a workshop was organized around this research and was held in Mountain View, California on January 30th-February 1st, with the final two days at Google’s campus.
An open invitation went out to those wishing to participate in the AICCBPC workshop, of which 40 participants were chosen. Not only was Dean Linda Smarzik granted one of the coveted seats, she was also asked to be one of 12 presenters. During the three-day event, Dean Smarzik offered strategies for recruiting a diverse population of students into computing and shared lessons learned in ACC’s Accelerated Programmer Training (APT) and Women in IT (WIT) programs.
Congratulations and thanks to both Dr. Amardeep Kahlon and Dean Linda Smarzik for representing ACC and participating in this important national initiative to broaden participation in computing.