A HBCU Program Strategy for Broadening Participation in Computing through Local Collaboration to Increase CHIP-related Professions

For most predominantly undergraduate HBCUs, developing new academic and research programs to support the nation's need to expand the workforce in response to the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act is challenging and unrealistic without strategic partnerships. With Morehouse College, an Atlanta HBCU, being located less than a 10-minute drive from Georgia Tech, a nationally ranked computer engineering program, new possibilities exist to form robust pipeline programs. Currently, many of these HBCUs have MoUs with nearby research institutions, however, these programs are not being optimized to their full potential. Throughout this paper we outline several planning materials, goals, and workshops that can be used to support strategy, discussion, and activity finalization of pipeline programs. At current, the workshops are a work in progress and awaiting early results; however, this paper should act as a blueprint that can be used by other HBCUs with strong nearby research-intensive institutions to increase the yield of African Americans who are able to go into CHIPS-related careers and graduate programs. The planning materials of this program are not limited to HBCUs, computing, or CHIPS-focused collaboration. It is hypothesized that the planning materials from this program will be useful for other MSI, other areas of STEM, and other strategic focuses. It will also serve as a resource for research-intensive institutions that be integrated into their departmental Broadening Participation in Computing plans to produce their own program.