Hello Research! Developing an Intensive Research Experience for Undergraduate Women

This paper describes the design and implementation of a three-day intensive research experience (IRE) workshop for undergraduate women in Computer Science. Expanding on a model pioneered at Carnegie Mellon University, we developed and piloted a regional variant called HelloResearch at Indiana University. Participants were actively recruited from our own and neighboring states. Industry partners provided travel scholarships for low-income and first-generation college students, people with disabilities, and students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the country. The primary goal of HelloResearch was to encourage the pursuit of research careers, enabling participants to reach the highest levels of leadership in their fields. In this paper, we report on the demographics of our 92 participants, outline best practices to ensure an authentic short-term research experience for the students, describe our assessment plans, and share our survey instruments to assist others in jump-starting their own regional workshops.

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