Vviewpoints
DOI: 10.1145/1897852.1897866
Broadening Participation
a Program greater
than the Sum of its Parts:
the BPC alliances

Photo Courtesty oF aaas Center For aDVan CIng s CIenCe & engIneerIng Ca PaCIty

TheRe iS viRtually no disci- pline or aspect of our daily livesthatisnotpositivelyim- pacted by advances in com- puter science. It has become the backbone of our technologically dependent society. In fact, computer software engineers are among the occupations projected to grow the fastest and add the most new jobs over the 2008–2018 decade. 6 Yet, bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees earned by U.S. citizens and permanent residents continue to decline. 3, 7 Further, degrees earned by women, persons with disabilities, and underrepresented minorities (American Indians/Alaskan Natives, African Americans, Native Ha-waiian’s/Pacific Islanders or Hispanics) lag those of non-resident Aliens, Asians, and White males.

Program focus

Rather than focus on the problems that beset computing, we will emphasize solutions in the form of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program.a The BPC-A program supports three categories of awards: Alliances; Demonstration projects (DPs); and Leveraging, Scaling, or Adapting Projects, a For additional information on the BPC program, visit: http://www.bpcportal.org/bpc/ shared/home.jhtml.

students at the cahsi 2009 annual meeting held at Google headquarters.

or Demonstration Projects (LSA). Typi-
cal DPs pilot innovative programs that,
once fully developed, could be incorpo-
rated into the activities of an Alliance
or otherwise scaled for wider impact.
LSA projects can leverage, scale, and
adapt the work of Alliances or DPs, as
well as efforts by other organizations
to extend the impact of effective prac-
tices. Alliance and Alliances Extension
Projects (Alliances) represent broad
coalitions of academic institutions of
higher learning, secondary and middle
schools, government, industry, profes-
sional societies, and other not-for-profit
organizations designing and carrying
out comprehensive programs to reduce
underrepresentation in the computing
disciplines. Projects may target stages
of the academic pipeline from middle
school through the early faculty ranks,
and are expected to have significant im-
pact on both the quality of opportunities
afforded to participants and the number
of participants potentially served. 5