In March 2023, Jennifer Rosales, Vice President for Inclusion and Engaged Learning, and Chief Diversity Officer, and Rebecca Wright, Director of the Vagelos Computational Science Center (CSC) and Druckenmiller Professor of Computer Science, together with several Barnard co-authors, published a new paper as part of the Proceedings of the 2023 Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), titled “Computing Fellows across Disciplines: Preliminary Results.” Additional collaborators are Melissa Wright, Executive Director of the Center for Engaged Pedagogy (CEP); Saima Akhtar, Senior Associate Director of the CSC; Elizabeth Melville, a graduate student at Teachers’ College who works as a graduate assistant with the CEP; and Zoë Webb-Mack ‘20, a former CSC postbaccalaureate fellow.
Their research explores the impact of Barnard’s Computing Fellows program, which provides computing-related peer mentoring in undergraduate courses across disciplines. The undergraduate fellows are matched with undergraduate courses across disciplines (so far including environmental science, chemistry, neuroscience, cognitive science, history, education, first-year seminars, and computer science itself) in order to integrate and support computing in the courses. The program aims for students across disciplines to understand the role that computing can have to answer important real-world questions and for the students to feel empowered to learn more. The Computing Fellows program is led by the CSC, and pedagogy research about the program is carried out in collaboration with the CEP and the CSC. Initial results from this ongoing program have been promising, suggesting that the program and similarly designed initiatives can positively contribute to both fellows’ and students' engagement with computing. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under award #2142628.
The 54th annual Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) took place this year in Toronto, Canada, with the theme “Prepared for Anything.” The symposium serves as a forum for top educators and researchers to share new research and insights in the field, and this analysis stands as an important contribution to this effort.