INCLUDES Program
NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) is a comprehensive effort to enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering discovery and innovation by proactively seeking and effectively developing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent from all sectors and groups.
UC Merced is part of a consortium of more than 40 other institutions and organizations from the public and private sector which were awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant worth nearly $10 million as part of a national effort to increase the number of Hispanic students who participate in computing.
CAHSI INCLUDES Alliance
The Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) was first funded by the NSF in 2006 to address the low representation of Hispanics in the computing field. This effort has involved both faculty and professional staff, administrators and partners from both public and private sectors. With the wide range of those involved, CAHSI had major success in graduating and retaining Hispanics in computation by creating support networks and providing resources within each institution. CAHSI now aims to expand its efforts across the nation.
The CAHSI INCLUDES Alliance is an NSF funded national effort to augment the number of Hispanics in computing in both academia and the workforce. CAHSI serves as the lead partner of the INCLUDES Alliance and as a whole uses these proposed goals to grow and sustain the efforts of the Alliance:
- Alliance Expansion to scale up the alliance;
- Reinforcing Activities on Hispanic Student Success to improve efforts in recruiting, retaining, and advancing Hispanics in the computing workforce and academia;
- Data Management and Analytics to establish shared managing practices for data to measure the progress of collective efforts; and
- Knowledge Creation and Dissemination to share the success and expertise of Hispanic students in computer science.
With these goals in mind, the CAHSI INCLUDES Alliance works together with participating institutions to expand its network to better serve Hispanic students in the computing field nationwide.
INCLUDES Conference
The 2017 NSF INCLUDES Conference was held at the Kellogg Conference Center on the campus of Gallaudet University, Washington D.C. The conference began with a reception at the Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center, and concluded the afternoon of March 8. The participants came from many regions across the U.S.
This award supports a conference and related activities which will bring together researchers, higher education administrators, industry representatives, members of professional societies, and other community members to design collective impact initiatives to improve the retention and continuation of Hispanics, women, and other underrepresented groups in STEM fields.
INCLUDES Broadening Participation Alliance
In 2016, in the NSF funded Broadening Participation Alliance built upon CAHSI’s success to establish a networked community for broadening participation of Hispanics in Graduate Studies. The goal was to reach parity in the number of Hispanic students that complete studies in computation-based graduate studies through expanded partnerships across regions of the U.S. with significant Hispanic populations.
The Broadening Participation Alliance pilot project aimed to establish a unified approach across different partners that built upon proven practices and identified novel approaches to significantly increase the number of Hispanic graduates who possess the skills needed to meet our nation’s workforce demand for scientists, engineers, and computer scientists.
