Diversity and Outreach

The Department of Computer Science is deeply committed to broadening participation in computing. Computer science as a discipline has historically suffered from underrepresentation of many demographics. This is now coinciding with the increasingly pervasive role of computing in our society and our innovation ecosystem. There is a growing demand for IT specialists at all levels of the workforce. Locally, this demand has translated into tremendous growth in student interest in CS at SBU. Enrollments have nearly doubled in the last 7 years making the CS department one of the largest departments in Stony Brook campus.

During 2019, the department formed a diversity committee in order to understand and analyze relevant broadening participation issues and plan appropriate actions. In Fall 2020, the committee has developed a strategic plan for diversity and outreach available via this link.

A more focused 2-page version of this strategic plan in the form of  the Departmental Plan for  Broadening Participation of Computing (BPC) is available via this link. The plan has been verified by BPCnet.  This plan provides a context for the activities proposed by departmental investigators in their Project BPC Plan for NSF proposals.