Peer Assistant Role Models in a Graduate Computer Science Course

This paper reports the development and testing of a new intervention to recruit terminal Master’s students into computer science (CS) PhD programs and to enhance diversity in academic CS. We introduced peer assistants (i.e., successful PhD students) to CSCI 549: Intelligent Systems, a popular course for Master’s students with approximately 40–50% women and 90% international students. Although there is a fair amount of diversity in this course and in the CS Master’s program generally (i.e., international female students), many of these students do not continue to earn a PhD or get involved in research during the Master’s program. Because increasing the diversity of CS professors is imperative for enhancing the diversity of CS majors and the CS workforce, it is critical to test new methods to recruit Master’s students from underrepresented groups into academic CS. To address this need, we introduced PhD student peer assistants into Intelligent Systems not only to help Master’s students with in-class research projects but to also act as role models to promote Master’s students’ interest in CS research and PhD programs. Thus, this paper suggests a new and innovative technique for an enhancing diversity in academic CS and STEM generally.