PPSE Project Goals

  1. Transform programming-centric computer science education approach to a systems-oriented and software engineering-centric one

  2. Infuse professional skills development process into the entire curriculum

  3. Dramatically increase retention and graduation rates

  4. Recruit significantly more students from underrepresented groups

  5. Personalize teaching and learning in both formal and informal settings

  6. Work with community colleges and early college high schools in the region to increase the number of transfer students and enhance their success in college

About the Project

        Many computer science departments in general and less-research-intensive departments in particular, experience high dropout of undergraduate students. This is particularly worrisome given that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2020, half of all STEM jobs will be in computing. Several research advances and technological innovations have fundamentally changed the computing discipline in recent years. Such advances include cloud and mobile computing, web technologies, high-performance computing, social media, big data, and machine learning. Also, similar advances have occurred in learning science and educational technologies. Learning science informs how students actually learn and educational technologies leverage mobile computing and learning analytics to enable formal and informal learning. Millennial students learn differently and the above advances provide unprecedented opportunities to enhance student learning.

        The project seeks to dramatically improve computer science students retention and graduation rates through a transformational process that involves curricular innovations, design and development of inclusive pedagogy, and faculty development. Both technical and professional skills will be interspersed throughout the curriculum to better prepare them for industry careers. The project addresses diversity in student learning through personalization. The project enables significantly increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in computing education and careers. Lastly, the project strives to increase the number of transfer students from community colleges and early college high schools completing undergraduate computing degrees in universities. The results of the project will be widely disseminated across the country to help other computer science departments improve their students’ success.