 Hello, everyone. Welcome to our fifth, sixth Tuesday talk. It's hard to keep track. Numbers get difficult as the semester continues, but so excited to be chatting today with Rachel from Renew CS, an initiative that really seeks to make the CSE program more accessible to students and provide some support, especially in those introductory courses alongside some other support resources that are offered. My name is Grace Strain. You're probably tired of hearing my name by now. I'm one of the staff academic advisors in the CSE UAO and I'm hosting our Tuesday talk series. But I want to pass things over to Rachel to introduce herself and talk a little bit about the work that she does in Renew CS. Hi, everyone. I'm Rachel. I'm the program coordinator for Renew CS. Renew CS is a grant funded project initiative here at CSE, and it stands for recruitment and retention of women in computer science. So as the program coordinator, I manage the six initiatives that are part of Renew CS and assist the Renew CS team of professors with their initiatives, as well as lead the data gathering and analysis initiative. So Renew CS is funded by the Center for Inclusive Computing CIC out of Northeastern University. CIC funds, maybe 20 to 30 implementation grants, and that makes CSE part of a really inspiring community of professors across the country, piloting initiatives like we are to support diversity, equity and inclusion in their computer science programs. I'm really excited to get into some of the meat of Renew CS and hear about the various pieces that are happening, but always good to hear kind of how things start and where they come from with the initiative and the drive is for something like Renew CS. So I know a major component of Renew CS is assisting students with a transition into computer science, which we know can be really rigorous here at the University of Michigan. So I want to ask first about the course EECS 110 Discover CS and how that might be helping bridge the gap for students who are new to the discipline. Absolutely. Yeah, so Discover CS is a two credit course geared towards students without any prior coding experience, particularly women, non-binary, and BIPOC students. Students are welcome, but it is geared towards those students while the first required course, the first computer science course EECS 183 is open to students without previous instruction. We developed Discover CS as a lower stakes introduction to the many applications of computer science for students who may be interested in having a little bit of a bridge, if you will. So the course provides helpful experience if you're an undeclared student, if you're looking for a minor, or if you're considering a change of major. Throughout the semester, students learn core computer science concepts, including coding. We get hands on experience in several different computer science areas, as well as meet with researchers and computing professionals to hear about their experiences, their career trajectories, as well as explore interdisciplinary applications of computer science. So a lot of students who are maybe interested in computer science, but not quite sure what their options are, are really drawn from a whole lot of different disciplines and computer science can give them a little bit of like an aspect of expertise that can really help propel their forward, regardless of if they want to be computer science majors or if they just want to have that kind of expertise in their back pocket. I think that computer science is like one of those things that's increasingly important, regardless of discipline, having at least some background and understanding coding in the various pieces that go into computer science, I think just helps folks in a broader way in a variety of fields. I do appreciate there are a lot of students who come in, and who've never even considered CS and they take one course historically it's been maybe 183 and say oh my goodness I didn't know this was an option this is great. So I think 110 you know helps do that even more and do it like you said in a more low stakes way to get students interested in thinking about possibilities so I really love that. I am curious though about the support that is available through renew CS for two of our intro courses specifically each 183 as previously mentioned in each 203. Could you share a little bit about the changes that might be in the works for those courses to support students. Yes, absolutely. So, overall, renew CS is really hoping to make changes to better synchronize our computer science intro sequence so that would be you know, possibly discover CS into each 183 into our 200 level courses which you know would be 203 to 80 and 281. So we want to provide better support for our students to progress successfully through that sequence. For example, in each 203. We are piloting discussion sections that are partially modeled after the CSP sections that you might find in each 183. In these sections are called focus on fundamentals in 203. And these focus on fundamentals discussion sections have two eyes teaching 20 students, rather than two eyes teaching 40 students which is the regular load. So these students who take focus on fundamentals can have, you know, more one on one interactions with the eyes are able to ask more detailed questions and get more detailed and hands on responses. Additionally, we hope to provide more structure and more like comfortable community through these focus on fundamental sections having smaller, having smaller classes means that students can interact with each other more, more easily as well. As well as these discussion sections are required, their attendance is required. So this was kind of came out of a lot of conversations we've had with students, different professors and myself included. And the number one thing I hear most often from students is that cultivating community is simultaneously really difficult at CSC and also like one of the most important or most helpful things, which may sound counterintuitive if you're thinking, you know, it doesn't really help with, you know, keeping those students grades up like not directly but I think indirectly that's a huge thing for all of us we want to feel, you know, connected. And we're hoping that these kinds of discussion sessions can help with that. And then EECS 183, we're piloting similar discussion sections that could be for students who aren't officially part of the CSP program, but still want that kind of like community aspect, as well as there are some other just, you know, restructuring how the courses are taught, and how the professors are aware of different kinds of student groups in their classes that may need different kinds of, you know, learning help. And those kinds of things are, we're kind of implementing semester by semester so we're hoping that maybe in the fall of 2023, we can have a really bigger presentation of those changes to to CSC. Well, that focus on the fundamentals. I was just going to say focus and then I realized I need to finish the phrase here we're using this language now, but that that focus on you know, smaller class size and those those discussion sections making them a mandatory attendance so it's really a hands on for students. I love that because I think you know when you get that interaction with an IA or with an instructor and you're able to ask like you said those questions I think it can really go such a way towards understanding, but I really want to hone in on that community piece, because I do think that is simultaneously like you said so important and so difficult within CSC you know we are such a large major. So many students, you know, such full classes. There is of course that aspect of competition within just the field of CS at large, even outside of our university. But I always talk to students who say you know they found their people in CSC and that was so important for their success, you know, not just in the classroom having folks to help with debugging code or to study with, but also just having those networking opportunities and those social engagements. So I'm curious, you know, outside of the strictly core support resources that you have in renew CS. What other programs or initiatives are there to help students acclimate to CS and maybe experience a culture within CSC that is positive for them. Yeah, thank you that's a great question. Renew CS has launched a student led peer mentorship program. It piloted in fall 2021 and it's been every semester since. So this mentorship program helps primarily underrepresented genders succeed in the introductory computer science courses so that includes x 183 and x 203 like before, but also x 280. So students can sign up to attend weekly help sessions. There are both in person and remote help session options. And these help sessions are run by near peer undergraduate students. So that's, you know, students who have taken these courses before. And have done have gone through training to be mentors and really care about, you know, kind of helping students after them progress through these courses. So this program also offers monthly kind of special topic sessions where mentees from all the different, you know, groups or help sessions can come together and discuss topics like resume building, or interviewing skills, or, you know, some of the more difficult computer science skills like debugging, and these mentorship program also offers startup tech company jures and visits every semester so I think last semester they visited Honda. And the works of getting everything ready for this semester as well. So that's just another option for, you know, students. Looking for community and support, and maybe an extra, an extra leg up and help in some of those more difficult skills and computer science topics. I'm very excited about all the mentorship opportunities that I think are really recent within CSC I know we have obviously through a new CS I think also through kind of some of the DEI initiatives within the department as well some mentorship opportunities. But I think that is important just not for creating community but also it mirrors I think what students are going to experience in the workforce right you know that they're working under people who maybe been in a company longer they're going to do some learning on the job, I think it models that for students I'm very excited for all these mentorship opportunities that are available. So we're coming kind of to the end of our time here for our chat. So I just want to ask if there's maybe anything else you can give us a peek at behind the scenes with renew CS anything that's kind of coming on the horizon, or how students who want to learn more about the initiative can reach out to get more information. So, yeah, there's always a lot happening behind the scenes with renew CS. I would say, if students who are taking any of these intro courses currently are interested in in learning more about it they can reach out to the professors who are teaching their classes. So we are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to help these intro courses you know really find their greatest potential and really care about the students in those courses, as well as you are welcome to sign up for the mentorship program. I think 12 different mentors this semester who are eager to help students in those courses succeed, as well as if you have either questions or concerns or just want to talk about how you can be a part of renew CS you're welcome to reach out to me personally. I'm on, I'm on campus every week and I'd be happy to talk to students about anything that they have on their minds regarding the renew CS project. So yeah, thank you so much for having great. Of course, thanks for being here and we'll share out information on how to apply for the mentorship program I think we actually might have shared up previously but we'll of course share it again and also give students your email address in case they do want to reach out and have any questions but appreciate you being here and glad to talk about renew CS looking forward to all the great things there to come. Yes, thank you so much, we are very excited as well. We don't have a new Tuesday talk schedule just yet for the future, pre recording this so maybe, you know, future gray will have updates, but stay tuned to our Instagram for more conversations with students services offices and perhaps some other folks on campus. Thanks so much Rachel for your time, and have a great rest of your day.