Events
Technology Leadership Initiative (TLI): TLI is a summer program for underrepresented and underserved students in grades 6-12. TLI has two major components, Tech Divaz, a one-week summer camp for middle school girls, and High School Academy, a three-week summer camp for high school students. Both programs are free to participate in, and teach students programming, mobile application development, and web development skills.
WiCStart: WiCStart is a one-week program for incoming female freshman students, who either want to learn more about computer science and information science or who plan to major in CS or IS.
She Innovates: As Pitt’s only female hackathon, She Innovates is a weekend of ideation, programming, bonding, and creation, with mentors from both industry and academia. This event features keynote speakers and discussions about a variety of important topics such as being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field, empowerment, and leadership.
She Creates: She Creates is held annually during Women Entrepreneurship Week and provides an opportunity for attendees to learn about entrepreneurship from female business professionals and founders in an interactive setting.
Programming
PittInclusion: PittInclusion is a new paid undergraduate research program in collaboration with the Google Explore-CSR program that aims to foster a supportive, encouraging learning environment for historically underrepresented minority students in computer science.
Community Engagement Centers: SCI engages with the Community Engagement Centers both at the Hill District and Homewood to provide consistent STEAM programming to students in the community from 1st through 12th grade. This creates the opportunity for exposure as well as skill building in the field of computing through various activities such as game design workshops, robotics, and computational thinking.
Student Organizations: The School of Computing and Information has a number of student organizations aimed at promoting equity and inclusion such as the Underrepresented Minorities in Computing and Women in Computer Science organizations.
3Sixty: A primary focus of 3Sixty is to support the research, educational development, and social activities of Pitt students who have been denied access to opportunities like this due to targeted systemic oppression, discrimination, and exclusion. Students participate as a cohort, completing three courses (worth three credits each) and an out-of-the-classroom project with a community partner.
Fellowships
Commonwealth Scholar Assistantship: Each year, the School receives Commonwealth Funds, which offer both tuition and stipend support for graduate students from underrepresented groups.
SCI/ULS Alliance Fellowship and Residency Program: This initiative between the School of Computing and Information and the University Library System offers candidates from underrepresented or marginalized communities an opportunity to pursue the Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree while gaining valuable, hands-on experience in a large academic library system.
Partnerships
iSchool Inclusion Institute: As part of the iSchool Consortium, SCI participates in the iSchool Inclusion Institute (i3), an undergraduate research and leadership development program that prepares students from underrepresented populations for graduate study and careers in the information sciences. The i3 program is housed at the University of Texas Austin.