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Northwest Missouri State University students will benefit over the next several years from a half-million-dollar grant recently awarded to the university’s Department of Computer Science and Information Systems.
The S-STEM grant, which totals $517,075 over five years, was awarded through the National Science Foundation and will help Northwest provide 25 S-STEM scholarships to financially disadvantaged students pursuing undergraduate degrees in computer science and interactive digital media-computer science.
Grant funds are associated with a project titled "Using Socially Relevant Computing to Attract and Retain Computer Science Majors," through which the department is seeking to increase enrollment in the so-called STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
In addition to scholarships, the grant will be used to help fund research and internship opportunities, field trips and tutoring. Computer science faculty will also work with area K-12 teachers to integrate computing into the public school curriculum in order to enlarge the pool of potential scholarship recipients.
According to a university release, resources developed through the project will be made available to other colleges and universities so results obtained at Northwest can be replicated elsewhere.
Merry McDonald, a Northwest professor of computer science and information systems, said two main factors played into the decision to apply for the grant: the need for more computer science majors in a field where career opportunities are growing, and the need to attract under-represented groups such as women, minorities and students from low-income families.
The National Science Foundation will award $60,995 to Northwest during the first grant year and $456,080 in the second year to fund the program through 2015. McDonald said the department plans to award scholarships to its first cohort of 10 to 12 students in fall 2012. Remaining funds will be awarded to students beginning the program in fall 2013.
Northwest Missouri State University students will benefit over the next several years from a half-million-dollar grant recently awarded to the university’s Department of Computer Science and Information Systems.
The S-STEM grant, which totals $517,075 over five years, was awarded through the National Science Foundation and will help Northwest provide 25 S-STEM scholarships to financially disadvantaged students pursuing undergraduate degrees in computer science and interactive digital media-computer science.
Grant funds are associated with a project titled "Using Socially Relevant Computing to Attract and Retain Computer Science Majors," through which the department is seeking to increase enrollment in the so-called STEM disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
In addition to scholarships, the grant will be used to help fund research and internship opportunities, field trips and tutoring. Computer science faculty will also work with area K-12 teachers to integrate computing into the public school curriculum in order to enlarge the pool of potential scholarship recipients.
According to a university release, resources developed through the project will be made available to other colleges and universities so results obtained at Northwest can be replicated elsewhere.
Merry McDonald, a Northwest professor of computer science and information systems, said two main factors played into the decision to apply for the grant: the need for more computer science majors in a field where career opportunities are growing, and the need to attract under-represented groups such as women, minorities and students from low-income families.
The National Science Foundation will award $60,995 to Northwest during the first grant year and $456,080 in the second year to fund the program through 2015. McDonald said the department plans to award scholarships to its first cohort of 10 to 12 students in fall 2012. Remaining funds will be awarded to students beginning the program in fall 2013.
