STEM by Design: Increasing the Competitiveness of the Nation’s Technical Workforce through Institutional Change Using Human-Centered Design

This project aims to graduate digitally literate women to increase the competitiveness of the nation's technical workforce. In the United States, representation of women in the computing field has declined over the past thirty years, despite increased use of technology in society. Current data indicate that only 18 percent of computer science majors are female, 8 percent of programmers are women, and 1 to 3 percent in computing careers are Latina and Black women.

In science and technology, 14 percent of researchers are women. Because information technology is one of the fastest growing industries and innovative technical solutions impact every sector of the US economy, this project seeks to contribute to closing the gender, ethnicity, and race gap in technology so that US companies will have the necessary workforce to create accessible human-technology interfaces to support advances throughout STEM fields.

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program (HSI Program), Mount Mary University, a women’s HSI in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will build capacity to prepare students for the technology-driven workforce and seek to demonstrate that a human-centered design approach is effective for institutional transformation. The project will include faculty development, curriculum redesign, undergraduate research, and communication with academic and industry partners.

These components will work together to introduce strong technology elements throughout the institution and create a new human-technology interface degree program to attract and empower diverse women for full inclusion in the digital STEM workforce.

Five specific aims will guide this project. First is to increase faculty competencies to integrate contemporary digital technology in courses. Second is to increase student self-efficacy in using technology, coupled with a third aim to educate diverse women who feel included and have a voice in the technology-based workforce.

Fourth is to build capacity for human-centered design for institutional change. And fifth to produce research, improvements, and dissemination of best practices for large-scale STEM transformation. The project will be driven by data collected in response to two research questions: (1) does institutional transformation to integrate digital technology literacy increase technology skills and sense of belonging for diverse women? and (2) how does the human-centered design approach in STEM create the buy-in needed for large-scale institutional transformation in digital technology literacy that serves as a model for other institutions?

The two underpinning theoretical bases for these questions are multicultural and minority identity theory and institutional theory, respectively. Research findings will be shared through publications, presentations, and a project website. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs.

Achieving these aims, given the diverse nature and context of the HSIs, requires innovative approaches that incentivize institutional and community transformation and promote fundamental research (i) on engaged student learning, (ii) about what it takes to diversify and increase participation in STEM effectively, and (iii) that improves our understanding of how to build institutional capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also draw from these approaches to generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.