Diversity at Georgia Tech

Director: Dr. Maureen Biggers
School of Interactive Computing
Computing Research Diversity Lab
Sr. Research Scientist
Georgia Institute of Technology
maureen@cc.gatech.edu

Mission

The Diversity Lab focuses on creating and assessing initiatives to broaden participation in computing at all levels of the educational pipeline. Specific focus is on underrepresented talent: women and minorities.

Current Projects

NSF STARS Alliance (co-PI)
NSF Alliance for the Advancement of African-American REserachers in Computing(A4RC)- Project Manager for Alliance
NSF C-Path: CPATH EAE: Extending Contextualized Computing in Multiple Institutions Using Threads (co-PI)
NSF Alliance GA Computes! (co-PI)
NSF ITWF Collaborative Research: Increasing the Representation of Undergraduate Women and Minorities in Computer Science (co-PI)
Student Perceptions of Computer Science: A Retention Study Comparing Graduating Seniors v.s. CS Leavers (paper accepted for SIGCSE 2008: 'http://db.grinnell.edu/sigcse/sigcse2008/Program/Program.asp' (search by author)
Works in Progress

Using a Theory-based Student Retention Paradigm to Strategically Grow Computer Science Undergraduate Enrollments
Exploring Differences that Relate to Student Computing Degree Path Choices
Why NOT Computer Science? 1100 Georgia Tech non-CS majors responded to survey
The Impact of using Peer Led Teem Learning in CS1 fof majors (in collaboration with Monica Sweat)

October 2007 Grace Hopper Workshop on Retaining Women in Computing (co-presenter: Joanne Cohoon) Retention final Biggers Cohoon.ppt

Biggers and Cohoon: Departmental assessment worksheet: To what extent is your department using best practices for retaining women in computing? GH Retention Assessment and Goals Sheet Final.doc

Publications

Biggers, M., Brauer, A., Yilmez, T. Student Perceptions of Computer Science: A Retention Study Comparing Graduating Seniors v.s. CS Leavers 'http://db.grinnell.edu/sigcse/sigcse2008/Program/Program.asp' (search by author)
Biggers, M. and Grad Women@CC Booklet from November 2006 NCWIT meeting on our pipeline for improving computing education: NCWIT Booklet FINAL.pdf
Guzdial, M., Ericson, B., Biggers, M. Improving Secondary CS Education: Progress and Problems. Paper presented at SIGSCE 2007, Covington, KY.
Guzdial, M., Ericson, B., Biggers, M. A Model for Improving Secondary CS Education In Proceedings of the ACM SIGSCE Conference (SIGSCE 2005) (St. Louis, MO, USA, February 23-27, 2005). ACM Press, New York, NY, 2005, 332-336.