Harford Community College to use National Science Foundation grant to enhance AI literacy and skills

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Harford Community College plans to use subaward of a National Science Foundation grant to enhance the number of students and faculty focusing on Artificial Intelligence and to ease students’ transition into four-year programs in computer science and AI. Here are the details provided by the college:

Harford Community College Receives NSF Subaward

Harford Community College was recently granted a subaward of a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, “CUE-P: Integrating Artificial Intelligence Literacy into Community College Programs,” in the amount of $99,892. The overall grant, headed by the nonprofit Education Development Center (EDC) in Washington, DC, totals $1,999,999 and includes partnerships with a total of four community and technical colleges. 

The project builds on work that the Education Development Center previously performed with an NSF Advanced Technical Education (ATE) grant regarding data science. It proposes to develop a model pathway from two-year to four-year degree programs in computer science and artificial intelligence (AI). The participating colleges will develop and implement a strategic plan for pathway development; co-design, test, and implement an AI literacy course for students; and integrate foundational AI skills into data science courses.

The grant proposes to (1) increase the number of students learning AI fundamentals in community colleges while increasing their understanding of AI careers across industry sectors, (2) increase the number of faculty experienced in integrating AI literacy into their teaching, and (3) explore infrastructure models to ease students’ transition from two-year to four-year programs in computer science and AI. 

At Harford Community College, Professor Chris Jones, who teaches Mathematics and Data Science, will serve as co-Principal Investigator. Jill Peregino, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Data Science; Nick Schoeb, Assistant Professor of Computer Technology; and Amy Cedrone, Associate Professor of Philosophy; will also contribute to this project. 

This project is funded by the “Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Computing in Undergraduate Education” (IUSE-CUE-P) program under award #2436098 that aims to better prepare a broader, more diverse range of students to collaboratively use computation across a range of contexts and challenging problems.