A Project-Based Curriculum for Computer Science Situated to Serve Underrepresented Populations

ABSTRACTBuilding on known best practices, this paper describes a newly implemented project-based curriculum for undergraduate computer science majors. The program, designed to provide all students the known benefits of the project-based approach, is being implemented in a context that focuses heavily on drawing students of color, women, and other underrepresented groups into STEM careers. Our Fall 2021 upper-division entering student cohort is 70% female and 80% people of color. Our new computer science program builds on our strong and internationally recognized track record in applying project-based learning (PBL) in engineering. We believe our PBL CS program to be the first program of its type in North America. Key components of the program are: project-based learning across multiple courses in the upper-division, project-based learning within lower-division courses, straightforward articulation with regional and national community colleges that are minority serving institutions (MSIs), industry and research connections that drive projects, and vertical integration of teams across upper-division semesters. Core to this is a commitment to addressing access and equity issues. The foundation for the new upper-division program is a revamped lower-division core curriculum that also feeds into the information technology and information systems majors offered at our school. The core curriculum is designed to reduce barriers to a degree in computing while encouraging more students to explore a degree in the math-intensive computer science program. This curricula initiative paper describes the curriculum, the supporting theory, implementation challenges, and current outcomes.