A hands-on session for creating department-level plans to coordinate Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) work. Departmental BPC Plans can help provide continuity and greater impact in BPC work and provide opportunities for more faculty to engage. The workshop is organized around a series of guided hands-on activities selecting and refining specific goals and activities with the final result being an outline of a full BPC plan. We also include some discussion of next steps and invite participants to join our active Slack workspace. Individuals interested in this workshop may also be interested in the follow-on workshop, Departmental BPC Plans 2 - Finalizing your Plan.

A hands-on session for finalizing a Departmental BPC Plans for verification on BPCnet.org. Verification of a Departmental BPC Plan enables faculty from an institution to use it as part of a grant submission to the National Science Foundation (NSF). This workshop is intended for people from the United States who have an existing Departmental BPC Plan or who will have created one in the workshop "Departmental BPC Plans 1." The workshop is organized around a series of guided hands-on activities to help participants complete a draft of a Departmental BPC Plan that can be Verified by BPCnet.org.

Broadening participation in computing (BPC) requires our individual and collective effort. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is leading an effort in the USA to encourage NSF grant awardees and all computing departments to create BPC plans. Panelists will share resources and advice for how attendees can get involved. Students, staff, and faculty can all play an important role in broadening participation in computing. Because the NSF effort and supporting resources on BPCnet.org are relatively new, the panel will introduce these efforts and share how attendees can help by sharing information within their institution and broader network. The NSF-funded project BPCnet.org has resources for developing and enacting BPC plans.

This panel provides examples of how faculty refine, expand, and evaluate initiatives to broaden participation in computing using the Data Buddies Survey (https://cra.org/cerp/data-buddies). The Computing Research Association administers the survey annually and prepares summary reports for over 140 member institutions. Participation is free, and the survey gathers information about students' educational experiences, confidence, attitudes, and career goals. Faculty and staff from prospective and participating institutions can benefit from the panelists' discussion of aligning department initiatives for broadening participation with data about students' experiences.

Undergraduate research experiences have been shown to have many positive effects on undergraduates including increased confidence, sense of belonging and retention. However, many previous studies of undergraduate research experiences have focused on advanced undergraduate (juniors and seniors) in one-on-one research experiences with a faculty mentor. Less is known about the effects of early undergraduate research, particularly via opportunities that scale beyond one-on-one faculty-student relationships to encompass large numbers of early undergraduates. The research question addressed in this work is whether a more scalable group-based research model aimed at early undergraduates from groups underrepresented in computing would show the same kinds of benefits for participants as more personalized one-on-one programs aimed at more advanced students. We evaluated a group-based early research program in the computer science department of a large public university. Through survey data and direct measurements of performance and retention several years after students had completed the program, we found that students who participated in this program have higher overall GPAs, more confidence, and more interest in research compared to several different control groups. Our design also allowed us to examine the considerable impact that selection bias can have on the evaluation of research programs. This work both validates the scalable structure of this research program and provides a richer perspective on the benefits of early undergraduate research in CS.

This research examines the relationship between undergraduate computing students' participation in technical conferences and psychological predictors of academic persistence. Studies have shown experiential educational activities, like conferences, encourage students' persistence in STEM; this is especially important for students underrepresented in the field, who are more likely than their well-represented peers to leave their degree programs. In recent years, academic literature has pointed to anecdotal evidence that conference participation for students early in their undergraduate education relates to students' persistence in STEM pathways. Using national survey data, we examine the relationship between conference participation and first and second year undergraduate students' persistence in computer science pathways. This paper presents results from a cross-sectional analysis and a two time-point analysis of national survey data collected from undergraduate students. Overall, we found that first and second year computing majors who attended a technical computing conference reported higher levels of belonging to their field and confidence to persist in their degree program than those who did not attend. We also found that conference participants' levels of belonging and self-confidence is higher than non-participants over time, even after controlling for initial levels at Time 1. Our analyses also showed that conference participation was associated with closing the gap in levels of belonging and self-confidence between students who are underrepresented in computing and those who are well-represented. Empirical results from this paper support anecdotal evidence that conference participation for students early in their undergraduate education may help retain students, and particularly underrepresented students, in computing majors in the long-term.

Underrepresented students in computing (women and non-White/non-Asian men) are known to feel a weaker sense of belonging than majority students (Asian/White men). This difference is important because a low sense of belonging can lead to disengagement and attrition in education settings. In the current study, we assessed whether and how early formal research experience might narrow this gap in sense of belonging. The sample for this study derives from a longitudinal study on undergraduate students affiliated with computing departments across the United States. We used propensity scores to generate an appropriate sub-sample of students to compare against formal research participants (n = 110 formal research students; n = 110 students with no formal research experience). We found formal research experience during students/ first year was associated with a strong sense of mentor support during their second year. Perceived mentor support predicted a strong sense of belonging for underrepresented students, but not majority students. Importantly, the typical gap in sense of belonging among underrepresented and majority students disappeared among students with high mentor support. Our work suggests that formal research, when introduced early, might promote greater diversity in computing in the long term. We present a model for early undergraduate research, and resources for readers who wish to adopt the model.

Cultural stereotypes about women's "fit" and ability in technical fields, like computing, are alive and well. These cultural beliefs can make their way into women's personal belief system. When this happens, women's self-conceptions in computing suffer, namely, self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and identification with computing. The current research examines whether collaborative learning methods (pair programing; supplemental instruction) can erase the negative relationship between women's endorsement of negative gender stereotypes and their computing self-concept. Longitudinal survey data from 48 women computing majors indicated that participation in collaborative learning activities nullified the negative impact of gender stereotype endorsement on women's self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and identification with computing. These findings showcase the benefits of existing pedagogical strategies in computing on increasing the likelihood that women will persist in a computing career path.

College and university professors serve as role models and leaders. Unfortunately, in computing fields, only a small fraction of the professorate is women and/or members of minority racial groups. To address this issue, the current research assessed the role of research experiences for undergraduate students (REUs) on underrepresented students' interest in pursuing a career as a computing professor. We found that REUs utilizing a set of specific practices are linked with underrepresented students' interest in becoming a computing professor. On the other hand, no specific REU practice was associated with majority students' (i.e., White and Asian men's) level of interest in becoming a professor. Thus, this research not only identifies aspects of REUs that may be especially important for increasing diversity in the professorate but also highlights that REUs may serve different purposes for underrepresented versus majority students.