The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2007 announced a new program, “CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH)” aimed at transforming and revitalizing undergraduate computing education on a national scale. The first year of competition has just been completed. (The fiscal year 2007 CPATH Program Solicitation may be downloaded as a PDF file). A new program solicitation is under development.

Through CPATH, CISE hopes to engage the community in alliances and activities that will shape a positive future for undergraduate computing education. CPATH seeks to support community building, leadership development, evaluation and extension of promising models, and institutional transformation.

The National Science Foundation will be sponsoring a Town Hall Meeting on Monday, December 3, from 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel and Spa, in Orlando (Lake Buena Vista), Florida. The meeting will focus broadly on undergraduate computing education as well as on the CPATH program in particular, and its potential to meet the needs of the audience in strategic initiatives and directions in computing education that seem promising. The meeting will provide the computing community with an opportunity to engage in the CPATH initiative by:

• Discussing the goals and rationale for CPATH, and providing a forum for discussion of the CPATH initiative.

• Engaging in a dialog on revitalizing undergraduate computing education, including a discussion the current state and future needs of undergraduate computing education.

The December 3rd Town Hall meeting will include a morning of presentations on the goals and rationale for CPATH, background information, and an open Q&A session. Afternoon breakout sessions will allow town meeting attendees to discuss the issues surrounding the revitalization of undergraduate computing education. There will also be time during the meeting to build alliances and form communities. See the agenda page for more details.

Interested members of the computing education community within the southeastern region of the U.S., Puerto Rico, and beyond are invited to attend. Participants are welcome from all segments of higher education,  industry, government, professional societies, and beyond.  Participants are welcome from any part of the U.S., but NSF expects to hold similar town meetings in other parts of the country.

Participants are responsible for arranging and paying for transportation and hotel accommodation costs. Visit the travel and hotel accommodations page for more information. Registration is required and it is limited to the first 100 persons. Visit the Registration page for further details.  

For more information, contact registercpath@fit.edu.