Below are examples of computer scientists whose work demonstrates best practices for broader impact. The list includes one example project in detail, and other example projects with links, for each of the five broader impact criterion. The list also includes example projects that span multiple broader impact criterion. The information on this page was developed for the Summit.

1: Advance science while promoting teaching, training and learning

Group 1 Report

Speaker: Jim Kurose, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Title: From Centers to Single-PI Awards to Textbooks: advancing science at scale and over the long term
Project URLs: http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/personnel/kurose.html
Slides     Video

Speaker: Mary Beth Rosson, Penn State University
Title: Building Online Repositories of Scaffolded Examples
Project URLs: http://ucs.ist.psu.edu
Slides     Video

Speaker: Valerie Barr, Union College
Title: Intellectual Push & Pull: Broader Impact Through Curricular Infusions
Project URLs: http://cs.union.edu/~barrv
Slides     Video

Speaker: Susanne Hambrusch, Purdue University
Title: Integrating Computational Thinking into Courses for Non-majors
Project URLs: http://secant.cs.purdue.edu, http://cs4edu.cs.purdue.edu
Slides     Video

Speaker: Greg Hislop, Drexel University
Title: Active Communities and Repositories for Computing Educators
Project URLs: http://computingportal.org, http://xcitegroup.org/softhum, http://hfoss.org
Slides     Video

An exemplar BI activity in this area is: Pizza and Consulting

University faculty could offer a pizza and consulting period for high school or middle school teachers. During this consulting period, high school or middle school teachers ask the faculty member for advice on a technical issue they have. The underlying idea of pizza and consulting is to offer technical knowledge to high school and middle school teachers that they may not otherwise be exposed to. In this model, the university faculty become resources for the high school and middle school faculty members. Interaction can be characterized as an as-needed consulting relationship in which the door is open and high school and middle school faculty self-select attendance and topics of discussion. (Kerri Stone, writer for BI area 1)

2: Broaden participation of underrepresented groups

Group 2 Report

Speaker: Steve Cooper, Purdue University
Title: Broader Impacts of Alice
Project URLs: http://www.aliceprogramming.net
Slides     Video

Speaker: Kathleen Fisher, AT&T Labs Research / CRA-W
Title: Broadening Your Impacts by Partnering with the CRA-W/CDC Alliance
Project URLs: http://www.cra-w.org, http://www.cdc-computing.org
Slides     Video

Speaker: Ann Gates, University of Texas El Paso
Title: Establishing Meaningful Collaborations with HSIs
Project URLs: http://cahsi.org
Slides     Video

Speaker: Deanna Kosaraju, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
Title: Recruiting, Retaining and Advancing Technical Women While Changing the Culture of Technology
Project URLs: www.anitaborg.org, www.gracehopper.org
Slides     Video

Speaker: Lecia Barker, University of Texas
Title: Broadening Participation of Underrepresented Groups in Computing: Resource and Community Access
Project URLs: http://www.engineeringpathway.com/bpc/comm/match.jhtml
Slides     Video

An exemplar BI activity in this area is: Organizing or Helping Out with a Discipline-Specific Workshop

Discipline-specific workshops such as the annual Workshop for Women in Machine Learning and the Women in Theory Workshop provide an opportunity for underrepresented minority graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to network and learn from experienced researchers in their own fields. PIs interested in starting a new discipline-specific workshop for women specific to their research area can build on CRA-W's existing Discipline-Specific Mentoring Workshops program. Similar discipline-specific workshops could be organized for other underrepresented groups too, in cases in which there are sufficiently many potential participants. (Jenn Vaughan, writer for BI area 2)

3: Enhance infrastructure for research and education

Group 3 Report

Speaker: Shaowen Wang, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Title: TeraGrid Broader Impacts - A Perspective from Science Gateways
Project URLs: http://www.gisolve.org, http://www.teragrid.org
Slides     Video

Speaker: Suzy Tichenor, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Title: Expanding Modeling and Simulation with HPC for National Competitive Gain
Project URLs: http://www.ornl.gov
Slides     Video

Speaker: Peter Steenkiste, Carnegie Mellon University
Title: A Community Testbed for Repeatable, Easy to Control Wireless Networking Experiments
Project URLs: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~emulator/
Slides     Video

Speaker: Andrew Bernat, Computing Research Association
Title: Broadening Your Impact
Project URLs: http://www.cra-w.org/dmp, http://cifellows.org/, http://www.cra.org/
Slides     Video

Speaker: Tracy Camp, Colorado School of Mines
Title: Wanted: A Dissemination Infrastructure
Project URLs: http://www.computingportal.org/home
Slides     Video

An exemplar BI activity in this area is: The Southern California Earthquake Center

The Southern California Earthquake Center is an example of a shared data repository. The mission of the center is to gather data on earthquakes, integrate data into a physics-based understanding of earthquakes and to communicate to society useful knowledge for understanding earthquake risk. This center was described as exemplary because it is organized around a particular research area with distributed researchers around the country who collaborate to build a shared collection of data available for public use. (Quincy Brown, writer for BI area 3)

4: Provide broad dissemination to enhance scientific and technological understanding

Group 4 Report

Speaker: Mitchel Resnick, MIT Media Lab
Title: Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society
Project URLs: http://www.media.mit.edu/~mres
Slides     Video

Speaker: Tom Cortina, Carnegie Mellon University
Title: Reaching Out to K-12 Teachers to Broaden Interest in Computing
Project URLs: http://www.cs4hs.com, http://www.csunplugged.org, http://www.cs.cmu.edu/activate
Slides     Video

Speaker: Lucy Sanders, NCWIT
Title: Enhancing Learning Through Broad Dissemination of Research-Based Resources
Project URLs: http://www.ncwit.org
Slides     Video

Speaker: Julie Benyo, National Center for Media Engagement
Title: Dot|Diva Talking to Young Women about Computing
Project URLs: http://www.dotdiva.org
Slides     Video

Speaker: Donna J. Cox, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Title: Data Visualization for Public Outreach: an interdisciplinary approach
Project URLs: http://avl.ncsa.illinois.edu, http://edream.illinois.edu
Slides     Video

An exemplar BI activity in this area is: Science cafes - Presentations for the Public

For the cost of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer, people interested in various scientific topics converge to hear talks by local scientists and engineers. These informal talks are a chance for researchers to bring their ideas and work to the local community. Examples include domestic grassroots events announced on the Nova ScienceNow webpage sciencecafes.org, and the Cafe Scientifique events in the UK sponsored by the Wellcome Trust. Many of these events are founded by university groups, such as the Boulder Colorado Cafe Scientifique. (Miriah Meyer, writer for BI area 4)

5: Highlight the benefit to society

Group 5 Report

Speaker: Richard Ladner, University of Washington
Title: Access to Computing Careers for Disabled Students
Project URLs: http://www.washington.edu/accesscomputing
Slides     Video

Speaker: Juan Gilbert, Clemson University
Title: Broader Impacts through Accessible Voting Research
Project URLs: http://www.HumanCenteredComputing.org
Slides     Video

Speaker: Camsie Matis, CISE/CNS
Title: From Computational Geometry to Radiation Cancer Treatment
Project URLs: http://www.nationallabday.org
Slides     Video

Speaker: Danny Z. Chen, University of Notre Dame
Title: From Computational Geometry to Radiation Cancer Treatment
Project URLs: http://www.nd.edu/~dchen
Slides     Video

Speaker: Justine Cassell, Northwestern / Carnegie Mellon
Title: Torquing the "Norm" and the "Abnormal" User: Broader than What?
Project URLs: http://articulab.northwestern.edu
Slides     Video

An exemplar BI activity in this area is: Influencing Policy

Research done by Johnathan Lazar's Universal Usability Lab focuses not only on accessibility within human computer interaction (HCI), but also how to affect public policy that governs the regulation of publicly available resources to ensure that they are fairly accessible to all. The methods recommended for this undertaking were to respond and become involved in proposed regulations through research by making contact with local policy makers, and serving on standards boards. The research activities should seek to inform local regulations and policy as well as inform others within the regulation and standards community of issues to be addressed as found by these activities. Also keep yourself informed and provide feedback when requests for comments (RFC's) are solicited with policy proposals. (Deidra Morrison, writer for BI area 5)

Spanning Multiple Catagories

Speaker: Jeannette M. Wing, CISE
Title: The Importance of Broader Impacts at NSF
Project URLs: http://www.cise.nsf.gov
Slides     Video

Speaker: Deborah Estrin, UCLA CS and CENS
Title: Participatory Sensing: citizen science, scientific citizens, computational thinking
Project URLs: http://research.cens.ucla.edu/projects/2007/Urban_Sensing/Applications
Slides     Video

Speaker: Neil Gershenfeld, MIT
Title: How To Make (almost) Anything
Project URLs: http://cba.mit.edu/
Video

Speaker: Jim Shelton, U.S. Department of Education
Project URLs: http://data.ed.gov/

An exemplar BI activity spanning areas is: RET, not just REU

The NSF Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program supports the active involvement of K-12 teachers and community college faculty in engineering research in order to bring knowledge of engineering and technological innovation into their classrooms. This program not only reaches out to teachers, but it can also serve as a great source of local-interest stories for media organizations. For example, an article in The Lowell Sun highlighted the RET program at UMass Lowell. Not only does this increase infrastructure for education, it also advances science while teaching, is disseminated to a large audience, and highlights the benefits the university is making to the local community. (Miriah Meyer, writer for BI area 4)