According to Jermey Waisome, Ph.D., Thomas O. Hunter Rising Star Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education (EED), the underrepresentation of black women and girls in computing is a critical issue that impacts both the advancement of science and overall welfare of our society. Using a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Dr. Waisome will look to help the advanced technology workforce contribute to a more equitable and innovative future.
“I became interested in this area of research in 2017 while I was finishing my Ph.D. in civil engineering,” Dr. Waisome said. “I began collaborating with a computer science education faculty member at another institution, which began my research in this space. I realized there weren’t many available resources to support black women and girls’ pursuit of advanced degrees.”
In 2018, Dr. Waisome and Kyla McMullen, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE), created and currently co-host the “Modern Figures Podcast,” a platform with the goal of inspiring the next generation of the advanced technology workforce. Each episode features an hour of content with a black women or girl as a guest who is encouraged to share their life from grade school to their current roles. Using this content, a consistent structure is provided that can be looked at for themes across each individual experience in pursuit of opportunities in computing.
“We will take a subset of over 60 episodes we’ve recorded and have them transcribed,” Dr. Waisome said. “Then we will analyze these transcriptions using reflective thematic analysis to search for themes that acknowledges our experiences, knowledge, and beliefs.”
The researchers also plan on collaborating with the Black Women in Computing (BWiC) research community to help foster collaborations and knowledge exchange through a roundtable, scoping review, and listening sessions. Dr. Waisome said several organizations are also anticipated to be involved such as blackcomputeHER, The Institute for African-American Mentoring in Computing Sciences (iAAMCS), Reboot Representation, Black Girls CODE, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), and more.
“Our largest challenge will be figuring out a convening time that will work for everyone,” Dr. Waisome said. “As you can imagine, it’s very hard to bring people together, especially experts within a space. We may align our roundtable with an existing event to help drive up attendance.”
Researchers hope to ensure more research is done to learn how to improve computing education and careers for black women and girls. The outcome of this project will help identify gaps in knowledge and encourage researchers to address these gaps by fostering community between them.
“I hope this will inspire new collaborations, programs, and opportunities to improve computing for everyone,” Dr. Waisome said. “Overall, I’m grateful my journey led me here, and I’m honored to do this work. Hopefully, it will inspire others to do the same within their community.”
Brady Budke
Marketing and Communications Specialist
Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering