Project Grant 2415872

This Project Grant award of $1,156,140.00 was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the STEM Education program (CFDA 47.076) to the University of Pittsburgh. The project focuses on developing learner-co-created social robots to support middle school girls from historically underrepresented backgrounds in developing AI and computing skills. The project will carry out three design-based research iterations with a total of 140 girls in collaboration with two community partners, one serving a majority Black population and one serving a more racially diverse group. The project aims to: 1) develop co-creative technology design principles to facilitate culturally responsive computing, 2) model the dynamic collaborative context, and 3) understand how the resulting principles, outcomes, and implementation guidelines may differ based on participant cultural backgrounds. The findings, curriculum, technologies, and professional development materials will be made publicly available. A sub-award of $XXX,XXX.XX was provided to the Manchester Youth Development Center, Inc., a minority-owned non-profit organization, to support this project.