Retention and Recruitment of Women in Computer EngineeringRobert 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

1. Summer Robotics Camps

2. Ambassadors Cohort

3. 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

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

1. How do students rate the activities

2. 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