CISE-MSI: RPEP:S&CC:Information Systens meet CUltural COmpetencies (IS-CUCO): Enabling data-driven decision-making in underserved Hispanic populations

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

The United States Department of Agriculture reported that in 2020 more than 34 million residents struggled to secure enough food to sustain an active and healthy lifestyle. Underrepresented communities, such as Hispanics in urban areas, make limited use of Information Systems (IS) when making decisions to access resources such as food. The goal of the Information Systems meets CUltural COmpetencies (IS-CUCO) project is to integrate cultural, linguistic, data, and infrastructure factors into IS that provide access to food-security services such as food pantries.

The project focuses on the development of IS to increase their use by Hispanics and other underserved populations. The project members are from Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) located in communities with large Hispanic populations (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and El Paso). IS-CUCO builds research capacity and trains the next generation of professionals who develop more inclusive IS.

Key activities for the IS-CUCO project include identifying how cultural, linguistic, data, and infrastructure factors impact the use of IS by Hispanic populations, and incorporating these factors into the software engineering process. The project uses an innovative community-based approach that brings together an interdisciplinary research team from the social sciences, computer science, and software engineering across HSIs serving diverse Hispanic populations.

Expected outcomes include: i) knowledge base of key IS-usage factors that support the effective design of food-security IS targeting Hispanic communities; ii) software-engineering models and practices that inform development of food-security and related IS to meet the needs of diverse communities; and iii) increased capacity at the participating HSIs with respect to research, curricular, and co-curricular activities. This project can potentially transform the way organizations in urban areas address information needs of underserved populations to support their decision-making.

The collaborations created in this project with local organizations will foster the sustainability and adoption of the expected outcomes.

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.