July 2020 – The Culturally Relevant Computing Lab launched a two week virtual app development program for middle and high school students. The program utilized MIT’s App Inventor software. The Atlanta University Center Consortium Data Science Initiative and the Boeing company provided funds to help support scholarships for students with financial need. Approximately 60 students participated in the program.
The National Science Foundation has funded a five year grant (NSF #1818458) for nine million dollars to support the continuation of the HBCU STEM Undergraduate Success Center. Culturally Relevant Computing Lab Director, Dr. Kinnis Gosha, is one of the co-investigators on the grant. The grant is a collaboration between Morehouse College, Spelman College and Virginia State University.
On July 20th, 2020 Dr. Kinnis Gosha participated in the STEM for All Multiplex video and panel discussion. The videos and panel discussion covered the latest scientific innovations at HBCUs and explored ways to use HBCUs as a strategic resource to advance excellence and diversity in STEM. Click the link to watch Dr. Gosh’s video on Using Conversational Agents to Broaden Participation in CS
Autodesk has agreed to fund a collaboration with the Culturally Relevant Computer Lab to create an externship program at Morehouse College. The program will support five computer science and software engineering majors for one academic year to collaborate on a project focused on enhancements to their Fusion 360 software product.
Dr. Kinnis Gosha, Division Chair for Experiential Learning and Interdisciplinary Studies was recently featured in the San Francisco Business Times article titled, “Moving Diversity Beyond a Hashtag”. The article focuses on how tech companies specifically Silicon Valley can increase their diversity in the workplace. Dr. Gosha expresses his thoughts on this issue stating that companies should do more than just focus on recruitment. He expresses that they should focus on collaborating with colleges to design curriculums that can help students become more qualified for computer science positions.
As a way to expand the number of Blacks in computing, Morehouse College took a virtual approach. In 2020, Morehouse College partnered with Momentum Learning and Opportunity Hub to develop the Momentum@Morehouse Coding Bootcamp. The 12 week program was targeted to adult learners regardless of gender. Over 300 individuals applied to the program and ultimately 27 enrolled in the cohort. Many of the coding students reside outside of the state of Georgia and most already had an undergraduate degree before starting the program. Those who completed the boot camp were awarded a certification in Full Stack Web Development.
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FEAT Workshop
A workshop funded by the National Science Foundation was hosted on the Georgia Tech campus on August 29 and August 30, 2019. The purpose of this workshop was to address the fairness, ethics, accountability, and transparency (FEAT) in computing-based research, practice, and educational efforts. The workshop was organized by PI Ayanna Howard, School of Interactive Computing and Co-PI Jason Borenstein, School of Public Policy and Office of Graduate Studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Co-PI Kinnis Gosha, Division of Experiential Learning and Interdisciplinary Studies at Morehouse College. The final report can be found here .
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Boeing Grant Award
In 2019 Morehouse College launched the first and only undergraduate Software Engineering Program at an HBCU. This February, Morehouse was awarded a grant from Boeing TMCF HBCU Strategy Team to fund the growth and development of the Software Engineering Degree program. This grant will provide funding for accreditation fees, a robust tutorial program, student organization support, and classroom enhancements.
The CRCL partnered with The Lee County Youth Development Center in Opelika, AL and the Razor Foundation in a three-day workshop that used Sphero robotics to introduce students to basic coding concepts using block programming and Java Script. The workshop ran from January 11-13 where there were 27 participants, a mix of boys and girls ranging from junior high to high school age. The lab had undergraduate students from Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University teaching the coding concepts. A competition was held on the last day, which gave participants an opportunity to showcase everything they had learned.
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New Grant Alert
The National Science Foundation Recently awarded a trio of investigators, including Culturally Relevant Computing Lab Director Dr. Kinnis Gosha, $100,000 ( Award Abstract # 1903909) to host a workshop that assists in the development of strategies that address fairness, ethics, accountability, and transparency (FEAT) in computing based research, practice, and educational effects. The workshop will be developed to bring together diverse researchers with FEAT-related expertise to explore best practices and integrate disparate approaches. The workshop will be hosted at Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center on August 29th-30th. Click here to read more about the grant.
Kinnis Gosha, PhD 