| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | January 19, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | January 19, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1746920 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Rajesh Mehta
rmehta@nsf.gov (703)292-2174 TI Translational Impacts TIP Dir for Tech, Innovation, & Partnerships |
| Start Date: | January 15, 2018 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $225,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $225,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3423 PIEDMONT RD NE ATLANTA GA US 30305-1754 (478)278-7622 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
3423 Piedmont Rd Atlanta GA US 30305-1754 |
| Primary Place of Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | SBIR Phase I |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project provides a tool to allow for computer science curricula modifications to better prepare computer science graduates for workforce demands. 69% of working software developers are self-taught and 43% utilized on-the-job training as their primary learning source. The United States is becoming increasingly dependent on technology to remain competitive on the global stage and our education system must evolve to more effectively train our next generation of technology workers. There were only 59,581 computer science graduates in 2015 compared to 527,169 open computing jobs. This shortfall is magnified considering the majority of graduates must teach themselves critical skills to become productive workers in private industry. This tool not only impacts higher education institutions and their graduates, but also coding academies, high schools, workforce development agencies, private companies, recruiters, and government bodies. There are 2,650 institutions offering computer science degrees in the United States and all are potential users of this tool. The market size for this tool is estimated to be over $400 million.
The intellectual merit of this project is the development of a tool that can 1) assess what higher educational institutions should be teaching within computer science as demanded by private industry, 2) determine how effectively institutions are currently teaching these skills, and 3) benchmark these institutions compared to their peers. The innovation inherent in this project is a real-time measurement of skills demanded in the private sector, rather than lagging years behind, and a real-time score of how well institutions are currently performing. The data provided by this tool will allow institutions to modify curricula at a significantly faster pace and dramatically increase the productivity of graduates. The tool proposed will be based upon an aggregation of millions of data points from disparate sources such as university catalogs, job postings, and resumes. Raw data is then cleansed and analyzed to produce actionable insights for end users in a visual presentation layer, tailored to individual institutions.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project sought to address the alarming technical skills gap in the United States. The majority of working software developers are self-taught or must utilize on-the-job training to function adequately. Universities are not reacting rapidly enough to new technologies and incorporating these into curricula. The probability of employment increases significantly when the skills being demanded by the private sector are taught by respective institutions. The United States is becoming increasingly dependent on technology to remain competitive on the global stage and our education system must evolve to more effectively train our next generation of technology workers. The original objective to develop an interactive university curricula assessment evolved into a more comprehensive tool following the customer discovery phase. It became clear that the fundamental problem was also affecting technical recruiters and this path would be more promising from a commercialization perspective.
All objectives were achieved during this project including a) discovering pain points to be addressed with proposed platform, b) acquiring massive datasets for analysis, c) architecting a novel infrastructure to process data in real-time, d) creating and enhancing analytical measures, and e) generating a Minimum Viable Product for real users to test. The original education-focused objectives were satisfied with the beta prototype and were exceeded by also addressing recruiting needs in an innovative platform. Recruiters using the beta platform can now discover previously unknown pools of talent, with their exact criteria, while also viewing analytics regarding the candidate pools. This tool is helping recruiters discover previously overlooked students and job candidates while also streamlining the recruiting process with data transparency.
As the platform evolves, it will help bring transparency to all stakeholders across the education/employment industries and help democratize opportunity for students everywhere.
Last Modified: 01/23/2019
Modified by: Carlo Martinez
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