November 2014

Universities in the US and Canada are struggling to manage the exponentially growing enrollments in computer science courses, while continuing to attract and retain women and underrepresented minorities. Often, the option to grow capacity is not available. Therefore, new strategies and innovation for scaling are drastically needed.

Google recognizes that this is an important issue and that more can be done to find new and scalable capacity solutions that include opportunities for all students. To this end, Google is proud to announce the CS Capacity (3X in 3 Years) awards program to support faculty in finding innovative ways to address the capacity problem in their CS courses.

We are requesting proposals from faculty members at selected CS degree-granting institutions for this pilot program, and would be delighted with your participation. We expect to make several awards under this program. We welcome proposals from individual schools or from multiple CS departments and institutions in partnership.

Institutions can request between $50K and $150K per year for smaller departments

(faculty < 15), and $300K to $500K per year for larger departments. Proposals are due January 5, 2015 and more details can be found in the RFP below.

We hope you will consider applying for this award.

Best,

Maggie Johnson

Director of Education and University Relations

Request for Proposals

CS Capacity Awards: Growing Computer Science Capacity at the Undergraduate Level

The Computing Research Association’s annual Taulbee Report showed undergraduate enrollment in computing majors rose 13.4% in 2012-2013, the 6th straight year of strong growth. Investment in computer science (“CS”) in K-12 schools will only increase the demand for undergraduate CS courses. In addition, many undergraduate majors now require at least the first two CS courses, which is adding to the enrollment crisis. Oversubscription at top universities has received significant attention, as reported by the universities and covered in the press. Universities across all levels are struggling to grow enrollment in computer science, and especially with attracting and retaining women and underrepresented minorities, without a corresponding investment in growing capacity. 

Because of this vast increase in enrollment in computing majors and courses, new avenues for scaling capacity in these departments are drastically needed. Google recognizes that this is an important issue and that more can be done to find innovative and scalable solutions in this area that include opportunities for all students. To this end, Google is creating the Program to support Universities in finding innovative and unique ways to address capacity problems in their CS courses.

Award Information

We are requesting proposals from select faculty members at CS degree-granting institutions and would be delighted with your participation. We expect to make several awards under this program and welcome proposals that include faculty from multiple computer science departments and institutions. Proposals that include partnerships across multiple institutions are also welcome.

Our goal is to establish an open, collaborative partnership between Google and the awarded projects. This initial request has been sent to faculty who have expressed an interest in this area to us; however, we are open to including other interested universities. Please feel free to contact us with recommendations of other institutions you believe would be exemplary candidates for this project so that we can share the relevant information with them' 

These can be multi-year awards (up to 3 years) at funding levels between $50K and $150K per year for smaller departments (faculty < 15), and $300K to $500K per year for larger departments. These awards are given as unrestricted gifts to the university. Please note that Google does not pay overhead on gifts to universities.  

Review Criteria for Proposals

The focus for all grants is education innovation, and specifically not investment in capital projects or faculty hiring. The proposed program must be:

1. Scalability and sustainability: Proposals must address scalability, preferably with models that can scale beyond a single University. Programs must also be self-sustaining within 3 years.
2. Measurability: Proposals must define and include success metrics, including year-over-year enrollment growth and retention of women and diverse students. Second- and third-year funding will be decided based on measurable success.
3. Diversity: We want to see growth in areas of historically underrepresented groups in computer science: women, underrepresented ethnic minorities, and first-generation college students -- and will prioritize Proposals that have a specific strategy for positive impact in this area.

Possible project ideas (but not limited to):

• Creative space. While we will not fund capital projects, we will support projects that make creative use of existing university spaces. Approaches that lessen the need for space, such as incorporating internships as a requirement for a CS major, or increasing the online component of lecture courses, will be considered.
• Instructors. PIs may choose to grow capacity through introducing blended learning approaches to alleviate the pressure on existing faculty, run programs to recruit and retain CS faculty, or work with other universities to share instructors through online courses with live TAs.
• TAs. CS departments may invest in recruiting and training more graduate student TAs to facilitate or scale blended programs.
• Peer-based learning. A program could include experienced undergraduates acting as section leaders to teach skills-based content.
• Pilot projects. Projected industry and economic needs will require creative solutions. In vetting this award program with trusted partners in CS departments, some creative ideas surfaced, for example, universities near each other combining forces; separating introductory courses into (1) online first for students that have some CS background (and who may be more likely to create a non-welcoming environment for those without such background) and (2) in-person for those who don’t have the same background.

RFP Requirements

• Proposal title;
• Principal investigator (“PI”) full name, postal address, e-mail address, and phone number;
• University affiliation;
• Collaborators within and, if applicable, outside your University;
• Proposal objectives and expected results;
• Proposal’s benefit to the CS education community;
• Links to PI and any additional investigator CVs; and
• A budget summary that provides a breakdown of major line items. Please note that Google will not pay any overhead expenses to Universities under this Program. Google prefers budgets be formatted as a short bulleted list of overall costs with basic explanations where needed.

As guidance, we'd prefer the body of the proposal to be four pages maximum, including budget. You might refer to this guide for specific advice [1].

To submit your proposal, please fill out this form [2] and then email your proposal materials as a single PDF file to cs-capacity@google.com. The title section of your PDF proposal should include the email address of the primary PI.

The deadline for submissions is January 5, 2015. We expect to make final decisions by the end of January. If you have a process, technical, or scope question, please contact cs-capacity@google.com.  

[1] http://research.google.com/university/relations/proposal_advice.html

[2] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cOEFrY9eVq3kLThtVrn_OjrLU60U_TvYW660XOXbTq8/viewform