Broadening Participation in Computing through a Biology Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates

Representation of Hispanics, and in particular Hispanic women, is notoriously low in computer science programs in higher education and in the tech industry. The engagement of undergraduate students in research, often and early in their path towards degree completion, has been championed as one of the principal reforms necessary to increase the number of capable professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The benefits attributed to undergraduate research experiences have been reported to disproportionately benefit individuals from groups that have been historically underrepresented in STEM. The Interdisciplinary and Quantitative Biology Research Experience for Undergraduates (IQ-Bio-REU) summer program was created to engage ten (10) underrepresented undergraduate students in authentic research experiences in emerging fields of biology which integrate quantitative and computational approaches to projects ranging from molecular biosciences to bioinformatics to ecology to bridge the digital and data divide for underrepresented Hispanics and women in computing. Our poster speaks to our observations of our students, faculty, and trainers after participating in our NSF funded summer REU at a Hispanic Serving Institution in a predominantly Hispanic, low socio-economic neighborhood in Puerto Rico.