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Collaborating Across Boundaries to Engage Undergraduates in Computational Thinking (CABECT) is funded by the National Science Foundation DUE Award #1141170.
(Samantha Swartz, IMM major, designed the CABECT logo and site.)
The primary goal of the project is to develop a model for students and faculty to collaborate across diverse disciplines and with a community organization to develop technology-based solutions to address complex real-world problems. As a proof-of-concept, students in my courses are collaborating with students in courses taught by Professor Kim Pearson, and Habitat for Humanity, Trenton Area to address the problem of brownfields and pollution in the Trenton area through the SOAP (Students Organizing Against Pollution) system. We are studying the collaborative learning environment to articulate the processes, products, challenges and effective strategies that manifest creativity and computational thinking. With assistance from Professor Diane Bates, our assessment expert, we are developing quantitative and qualitative instruments that will ultimately contribute to the knowledge base of STEM workforce preparedness in computing as they are applied to environments beyond our institution.
During Summer 2012 two computer science majors, Shahzore Qureshi and Francisco Estevez, were funded through TCNJ’s MUSE program to work on the project “Balancing Open Information Access With Maintaining Privacy, Security And Reliability In The Age Of Social Computing”. They also worked on the project as mentored research during Spring 2012 and Fall 2012. They followed this up with a poster presentation at the ITiCSE Conference in Canterbury, UK in July 2013. <more info.>
During Summer 2013 two computer science majors, Conor Kelton and Joseph Canero, were funded through TCNJ’s MUSE program to work on the project “Using Social Computational Concepts to Enhance Project Dissemination and Sustainability”. <more info.>
In March 2014 Conor Kelton and Joseph Canero presented their work on CABECTPortal at the ACM Student Research Competition at SIGCSE. Their poster was one of five that made it to the semi-finals.
REU Supplemental Funding
NSF recently awarded supplemental funding for CABECT to support Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) at TCNJ for the 2014-2015 academic year and summer of 2015. Soon I will post more information on the REU project and how to apply.
Funding Details:
TUES: Collaborating Across Boundaries to Engage Undergraduates in Computational Thinking (CABECT). National Science Foundation (NSF). DUE Division of Undergraduate Education. NSF Award #1141170. Funding Period August 2012 – July 2015.
Principal Investigator (PI): S. Monisha Pulimood, Computer Science
Co-PI: Kim Pearson, Journalism
Evaluator: Diane Bates, Sociology
Project Abstract: To develop a model for students and faculty to collaborate across diverse disciplines and with a community organization to develop technology-based solutions to address complex real-world problems. As a proof-of-concept, this project is focusing on collaboration between computer science and journalism faculty and students, and the Habitat for Humanity, Trenton Area (HH) to address the problem of pollution in targeted neighborhoods of Trenton, NJ. SOAP (Students Organizing Against Pollution) is an online system that is intended to manage data on brownfields in the area. One goal is to enable HH make informed decisions before acquiring properties that could be contaminated and require expensive cleanup prior to construction. Another goal is to empower citizens to learn, share, and contribute pollution data, and become active participants in environmental advocacy and public policy deliberations.
Award information on the NSF website: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1141170.
More on NSF: http://nsf.gov/.
More on the TUES program: http://nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5741.