Increasing women's impact on technology: the UTEP-VDC site

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) has established a Virtual Development Center (VDC) site to provide an opportunity for women in the larger community to participate in the creation of technology applications that will benefit the community. The VDC is a consortium of nine universities sponsored by the Institute of Women and Technology, whose goal is to increase the impact of women on technology. In this paper, we discuss the UTEP-VDC site experience, which revolves around a "pre-capstone" design course and serves as a venue to develop VDC team members' professional skills. Then we discuss the innovation workshop, in which non-technical women from the community participate in the development of need-based ideas for applications of technology. Next, we describe the selected project, along with lessons learned. Lastly, we provide a model for describing how this type of course serves as positive reinforcement tool for retention and promotes a culture change within the university that highlights the importance of diversity.