Published: August 2019, Issue: Vol. 31/No.7, Download as PDF

Archive of articles published in the August 2019, Vol. 31/No.7 issue.

Ellen ZeguraEllen Zegura

Message from the Board Chair: CRA Launches Strategic Planning Process


I am writing to share the timeline and process for the strategic planning effort that CRA is undertaking, as well as to highlight some of the opportunities for you to be involved. The ultimate goal of strategic planning is to determine how CRA can best serve its members and the computing research community.  Given the many challenges and opportunities, it is imperative that we clearly understand the needs of our members and focus our activities to address those needs.

Generation CSGeneration CS

Generation CS, Three Years Later


In 2017, CRA published the Generation CS report on the surge in undergraduate computer science enrollments, based on data gathered through an Enrollments Survey of doctoral and non-doctoral academic units of computer science in fall 2015.Since then, enrollments have continued to grow. In fall 2018, as part of the Taulbee Survey of doctoral departments, CRA included some questions to assess the current impact. Are academic units still struggling, or has the increase become the new normal?  What changes have occurred in department resources or policies? What is the observed impact on students and faculty, including student diversity?

TackboardTackboard

Seven Tips for Advertising Your Graduate Program to Undergraduate Programs


Four years ago, I left a tenured faculty position at Grinnell, a selective liberal arts college, to found a brand new computer science program at Whitman, another selective liberal arts college. Since establishing this program, I’ve started to receive mailings not only from my own Ph.D. program, but from a range of graduate programs in computer science and related fields.

If you’re reading this, you probably care about attracting graduate student applicants from institutions like mine. If you don’t, you should: Baccalaureate colleges are second only to “very high research activity universities” in their institutional-yield ratios for graduates who go on to receive a doctorate in science or engineering.

Tisdale-Fellows-2019Tisdale-Fellows-2019

CRA Hosts 2019 Tisdale Fellows


On Tuesday June 25th, the CRA Government Affairs Office welcomed the 2019 class of Eben Tisdale Science Policy Fellows to the CRA office. These fellows, undergraduates at universities and colleges from across the United States, spent the summer at high-tech companies, firms, or trade associations in Washington, learning the intricacies of technology policy. At the CRA office, the fellows attended a presentation by Brian Mosley, policy analyst in CRA’s Office of Government Affairs, covering the policy concerns and issues that the association works on and attempts to influence at the federal level.

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Annual Reports Now Available


We are pleased to announce CRA’s annual reports for the fiscal years 2016-17 and 2017-18 are now available for download as a PDF file. The CRA fiscal year runs from July 1 – June 30 of each year. These reports highlight the activities of CRA and its committees.

CERP infographicCERP infographic

Why Do Undergraduate and Graduate Students Choose Computing?


Interest in the field, job prospects, and a desire to make an impact on the society are the most common reasons for why students choose to enroll in a computing degree program at both undergraduate and graduate level. An understanding of these factors can not only help departments’ recruitment efforts but also guide strategies for student retention.

Expanding the Pipeline: Gender and Ethnic Differences in PhD Specialty Areas


This article examines gender and residency/ethnicity differences in PhD specialty areas as reported to the CRA Taulbee Survey from 2012-2018. The Taulbee Survey is conducted each fall and, among other questions, asks doctoral departments of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Information for data about each PhD they awarded in the previous academic year. The data on each new PhD includes gender, residency/race/ethnicity, and PhD specialty area. A total of 12,968 PhDs were awarded by Taulbee respondents during the 7 year period from 2012-2018.