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Engaging undergraduates in research has been shown to improve retention, increase students' sense of computer science identity, and increase their chances of continuing to graduate school. Yet research experiences at most universities are ad hoc, and many undergraduates-particularly those from groups underrepresented in computing-do not have the opportunity to participate. The Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP) is a structured, academic-year group-based undergraduate research program designed to help universities vastly increase participation in research for early computing undergraduates. ERSP launched at UC San Diego in 2014 where it now annually engages over 50 second-year undergraduates, 59% of whom are women, and 22% of whom are from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. The program's portable design has enabled its expansion to 7 other colleges and universities. This workshop will train participants in launching ERSP (or any part of it) at their university to increase and diversify the undergraduates participating in research. Workshop leaders are the ERSP directors at four universities. They will address how to launch and run the program in different contexts. They will provide an interactive, hands-on experience of running the program covering the following topics: developing and teaching a research methods class, student application and selection to ensure a diverse and supportive cohort, and creating a dual-mentoring structure to engage and retain early undergraduates without overburdening faculty. Workshop participants will be invited to join the ERSP virtual community to get support launching their own version of ERSP.
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Scaling and Adapting a Program for Early Undergraduate Research in Computing
The Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP) was launched in 2014 at UC San Diego as a way to provide the benefits of research experiences to a large and diverse group of students early in their undergraduate computing career. ERSP is a structured program in which second-year undergraduate computing majors participate in a group-based, dual-mentored research apprenticeship over a full academic year. In its first four years ERSP engaged 139 students with a high proportion of women (68%) and racially minoritized students (19%), and participation in ERSP correlated with increased class grades. In 2018 we partnered with three additional universities to launch their own version of ERSP. Implementations at our partner sites have seen similar diversity and initial success, and have taught us how to implement the program in different contexts (e.g. quarters vs. semesters, different credit structures). This paper describes the structure of ERSP and how it can be adapted to different contexts to construct a scalable and inclusive research experience for early-career undergraduates in computing and related fields.
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- PAR ID:
- 10355914
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1 (SIGCSE 2022)
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 50 to 56
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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This conference paper provides an update on the Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP) background, structure, and implementation at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), developed at the University of California San Diego and funded by the National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program. The program aims to support retention of students from marginalized backgrounds in the fields of computing as well as electrical and computer engineering. This paper provides program updates, including data from the 2022-2023 academic year and preliminary results from a reflection study that began in spring 2020. The reflection study examined the impact of the ERSP on a student's computing and engineering identity development based on student reflection responses. In this paper, we also discuss student demographics, retention rates, and changes made to the program's curriculum at UIC. The evaluation results from the last three years of the program are also shared, which show how students are impacted by the program, as well as areas for improvement. Preliminary results show that the program has positively impacted students' computing or engineering identity development for at least three identity dimensions: recognition, competence, and community.more » « less
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Undergraduate research experiences are a promising way to broaden participation in computer architecture research and have been shown to improve student learning, engagement, and retention. These outcomes can be more profound and lasting if students experience research early. However, there are many barriers to early research in computer architecture some of which include the gap between pedagogy and research, the lower emphasis on hardware design compared to software in first-year courses, and the lack of online resources. We propose lowering these barriers through a methodical approach by involving undergraduates in early research and by creating freely available and innovative educational tools for designing hardware. We present the experience of a team of undergraduate students with research over one academic year using a Python hardware description language, PyRTL. PyRTL was developed to enable early entry into digital design. Its overarching goals are simplicity, usabil- ity, clarity, and extensibility, a stark contrast to traditional languages like Verilog and VHDL that have a steep learning curve. Instead of introducing traditional languages early in the undergraduate curriculum, PyRTL takes the opposite approach, which is to build on what students already know well: a popular programming language (Python), software design patterns, and software engineering principles. The students conducted their research in the context of the Early Research Scholars Program (ERSP), a program designed to expand access to research among women and underrepresented minority students in their second year through a well-designed support structure.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3478431.3499336
