Siena College received a $687,876 grant from the National Science Foundation to support the Siena Plan for Attracting and Retaining Computer Scientists. SPARCS focuses on recruiting and retaining computing majors in high school and the first two years of college. The program includes a high school dual enrollment program that introduces computer science education to Capital Region high schools that are not currently offering it.
“The SPARCS program will improve recruitment, in part, by bringing computer science education into local high schools and preparing high school faculty to teach it, thereby increasing the pipeline of students interested in CS as they enter college,” said Meg Fryling ’97, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science and the principal investigator on this grant.
The other Siena faculty members working on the grant include Sharon Small, Robin Flatland, Larry R. Medsker, Scott L. Vandenberg and Maryanne Egan.
The need for computer science graduates is on the rise nationally. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that every computer science-related occupation will experience job growth over the next decade, resulting in more than 1.3 million job openings by 2022.
Components of the grant include a program to introduce computer science education to local high school, a weeklong summer program for rising high school sophomore students, outreach to eligible students not able to attend the summer program, a summer internship experience and student teaching assistantships.
This is announcement is the latest in a series of STEM research grants award to the college. Siena’s School of Science has been awarded more than $14 million in grant funding in the areas of physics and astronomy, computer science, artificial intelligence, chemistry, biology, environmental science, engineering and mathematics.
