Author: Amani Franklin

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Mays High School and CRC Lab Award Grant from State of Georgia

The Culturally Relevant Computing Lab and Benjamin E. Mays High School were selected as one of the six partnerships to receive the Innovation Fund Tiny Grant for 2017, with the award received being $6998.  The goal of the Innovation Fund Tiny Grant was to develop programs in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM). With this grant students will be provided mentors to help guide them through their virtual AP Computer Science courses. In addition to those students participating in the program, student enrolled in Georgia Virtual AP Computer Science and AP Computer Science Principles courses will also benefit from the Tiny Grant through tutoring and assistance.

 

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CRC Lab Welcomes New Assistant Director

The Culturally Relevant Computing Lab welcomes Ms. Shondrieka Lamb as the new Assistant Director. Ms. Lamb has worked at Morehouse College for the past 6 years, and brings a wealth of experience that will be of great benefit to the growth of the lab. She is passionate about student growth, and has continued her education in Educational Psychology to be of better understand student development, and has stated that she is eager to assist students reach their career goals in Computer Science.

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CRC Lab and APS Collaborate on Coding Summer Program

It is no secret the demand for people with information technology and computing skills is growing nationwide, and students are never too young to learn the necessary skills to help land you a career in that field.

Morehouse College and Atlanta Public Schools are doing their part to expose high school student to computing careers through a 4-week coding workshop.

The Xanadu-Computer Application Development/ X-CAPP Summer Program will be offered to rising 10th-12th grade students from June 5 through June 29.

“This program will provide a unique opportunity for students in the Atlanta metropolitan area to learn computer science even if these courses are not offered at their respective high schools,” said X-Capp co-founder and Morehouse College computer science professor Dr. Kinnis Gosha. “Having computer science training in high school increases the likelihood of retaining students who major in computer science at a significantly higher probability.”

During the camp, students will also be able to familiarize themselves with various computing careers through the ComputingCareersNow.org portal which was developed by Gosha in the Morehouse College Culturally Relevant Computing Lab.

“The ideal students for the X-Capp program are high achieving students who have shown and communicated a strong interest in computer science,” explains Atlanta Public Schools’ Gifted and Talented Education Coordinator, Dr. Quail T. Arnold. “This enrichment opportunity will help students explore a field of interest and further prepare them for college and/or career,”

For more information about X-Capp, please visit http://www.atlanta.k12.ga.us/Page/911 or contact the Xanadu Middle/High Program at 404-802-7585.

Read more: http://www.cbs46.com/story/35535818/morehouse-college-aps-partner-for-summer-computing-camp#ixzz4iVW1DDD2

See the original CBS46 News Story here.

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CRC Lab Presents at Regional Conference

Four members of the Culturally Relevant Computing Lab presented their research this weekend at the ACM Southeast Conference. The title of the poster presentation was titled “Introduction to Computer Science for Urban African American Students Using Sphero Robotics Workshop”. The four students consisted of Trey Ridley, Ernest Holmes, Kevin Womack and Jordan Scott from Morehouse College. An abstract from the submission is provided below:

This paper introduces the use of an all-day coding workshop as an intervention to introduce and expose African American high school students from a southeastern urban school district to coding and computing careers. The workshop is held at a local HBCU and led by African American undergraduates computer science majors who attend that HBCU. The workshop is focused on a robotic ball called an Sphero that allows users to control its motion and color by writing lines of code. Results from workshop showed an increase of interest in pursuing a career in computing after graduation compared to interest before the start of the workshop.

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South Atlanta High School Attends Sphero Coding Workshop

A group of 25 students from South Atlanta High School participated in the Sphero Coding Workshop today at Morehouse College. Students learned how to write code in the morning session, ate lunch in Morehouse’s Dining Hall and competed against each other in coding challenges in the afternoon. The Sphero Coding Workshop was led by Dr. Kinnis Gosha and his Culturally Relevant Computing Lab. The Culturally Relevant Computing Lab is represented by students from Morehouse College, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University. Sponsorship for the workshop was provided by Boeing and the National Science Foundation.

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Stephenson High School Participates in Coding Workshop

A group of 50 students from Stephenson High School participated in the Sphero Coding Workshop today at Morehouse College. Students learned how to write code in the morning session, ate lunch in Morehouse’s Dining Hall and competed against each other in coding challenges in the afternoon. The Sphero Coding Workshop is lead by Dr. Kinnis Gosha and his Culturally Relevant Computing Lab. The Culturally Relevant Computing Lab is represented by students from Morehouse College, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University. Sponsorship for the workshop was provided by Boeing and the National Science Foundation.

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CRC Lab Award Grant from Annie E. Casey Foundation

Morehouse College has been awarded a grant of $60,011 from the Annie E. Casey Foundation with Dr. Kinnis Gosha as the Principal Investigator. The award is another renewal from a long-standing relationship between Gosha and the Casey Foundation. The primary task of this grant is to continue to further develop the data analysis functionality of the annual JDAI (Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiatives) results portal. The portal is one of the largest databases of juvenile detention data in the nation, collecting data from over 200 youth detention facilities. The portal, as well as the grant, were feature on the CBS46 Atlanta website.

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APS Students Participate in Morehouse Coding Workshop

A group of 50 students participated in a workshop at Morehouse College to learn about coding using Sphero Robotics. The Culturally Relevant Computing Lab, directed by Dr. Kinnis Gosha, hosted the all-day workshop for the students who all attended Maynard Jackson High School. Students learn not only some fundamental programming knowledge, they also learned about the many opportunities in computer science and had a chance to interact with members of the CRC Lab who attend Morehouse College, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University. The workshop was funded by the Boeing Company and the National Science Foundation (Award #1042468).

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NSF Awards Data Science Grant to Morehouse and Spelman

A grant award was made on August 15th, 2016 to Morehouse College and Spelman College titled Targeted Infusion Project: Data Science eXtension (DSX): Incorporating data science fundamentals in computing curriculum at Spelman and Morehouse Colleges. The total amount of the grant is of $399,903 over three years. The idea behind the grant is to infuse data science concepts throughout multiple classes at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges, create two new data science courses that students at both institutions can take and submit a proposal to develop a minor in Data Science at both Morehouse and Spelman Colleges. Drs. Brandeis Marshall (Spelman College) and Kinnis Gosha (Morehouse College) are  the Principal Investigators on the grant. Data science is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field focused on processes and systems that extract knowledge and relevant information from either structured or unstructured data (Baker et al, 2011; Chang et al, 2008; Naur 1974). According to the McKinsey Report (Manyika et al, 2011), there will be almost 200,000 positions requiring “deep analytical skills”. The report further outlines the additional job responsibilities of nearly 1.5 million managers and analysts who will need to analyze and interpret data findings in order to make decisions. Given that HBCUs account for only 3% of the higher education institutions, HBCUs are producing nearly 26% of all Black STEM bachelor’s recipients each year with smaller institution endowments and restricted institutional resources (Upton and Tanenbaum 2014). The continued STEM bachelor’s recipient production hinges on sufficient faculty and student exposure and training in emerging fields such as data science. Says Gosha, “This award sets the groundwork to make both Morehouse and Spelman College the national leaders in producing African-Americans data scientist, which will adds to the overall push by both colleges to prepare students for outstanding career and graduate school opportunities after graduation.” More information about the award can be found on the National Science Foundation’s website.