CISE Undergraduate Research Opportunities Evaluation

Computer and Information Science and Engineering has unique, longstanding challenges attracting and retaining diverse students in academia and research careers. The total number of CISE PhDs increased by 20% between 2011-2019, however, the relative participation of underrepresented groups has remained flat during this time. Women have consistently represented approximately 20% of PhDs since 2011, and American Indians/Alaskan Natives, African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Hawaiian Pacific Islanders have collectively comprised only 3.5% of CISE PhDs and have experienced no significant increase since 2011[1]. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the longitudinal impact of research experiences (that is, REU Sites, internships, other independent research experiences) for CISE undergraduate students on several important career outcomes, such as student interests in research careers and their enrollment in CISE graduate programs. Findings from this evaluation will be used to inform the CISE REU program as well as other programs in the Education Workforce Cluster aimed at diversifying the CISE community. Outcomes of this work include: 1) collection and reporting of comparative data about CISE undergraduate research experiences, and 2) a better understanding of student attitudes and pathways to research careers in computing with a particular emphasis on underrepresented groups. [1] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System ( IPEDS ), 2011-2019, survey data. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data on Sept 2020.