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| Feb 2007 - Feb 2013 |
The Frontier Opportunities in Computing for Underrepresented Students (FOCUS) project, UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, is aimed at increasing the number of underrepresented minorities interested in, prepared for, and retained to baccalaureate degree completion in computing disciplines. A collateral goal is to prepare students who possess these skills, knowledge and resiliency, to competitively enter and succeed in either the computing workforce or in graduate studies. FOCUS has partnerships with the regional NSF STEP-UP project, the UCLA Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity (CEED), and industries. It has built learning communities around transition and bridging programs to provide an academic and non-academic support system that includes mentor networks, and industry and research internships. FOCUS offers summer computing immersion experiences and computer programming modules for community college students and UCLA computing undergraduates.
FOCUS conducts Counselor and Faculty Institutes to produce effective and lasting communities of practice and commitment to diversify the computing student population and workforce. The FOCUS project has impacted over 200 students in the first two years and can serve as a model for other institutions.
Community Colleges
Five Southern California community colleges: Cerritos, East Los Angeles, El Camino, Pasadena and Santa Monica, principally partner with UCLA to identify and support targeted students towards participation in computing and a successful transfer into computing at a four-year university. A relationship with a larger set of colleges will initiate in Fall 2009.
Industry Partners
A number of corporations support seminars, workshops and projects as well as summer internships. Among these corporations are Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Disney, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and Cisco.