DO-IT is a partner in the Alliance for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Computing Education (AiiCE), which is led by Nicki Washington and Shaundra Daily at Duke University. AiiCE was awarded $10 million to develop tools and strategies in computing education that increase the entry, retention, and course or degree completion rates of high school and undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups. AccessComputing Co-PI Brianna Blaser leads accessibility efforts within the Alliance, ensuring that accessibility is addressed within the Alliance's work and that activities are accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities.
AiiCE focuses on creating more equitable computing spaces, encouraging technology creators from a diverse range of identities to occupy development and leadership positions in order to avoid creating potentially discriminatory technologies. However, this is only possible with an investment from the entire community of computer science (CS) educators.
AiiCE is founded upon evidence that student-focused (and often deficit-based) strategies do not adequately address institutional cultures, policies, and practices that continue to marginalize people from non-dominant identities. AiiCE aims to create systemic change by blending aspects of social science with CS to
- Increase CS student and educator knowledge and use of identity and related topics,
- Support CS educators and leaders in fostering academic cultures that are more inclusive of non-dominant identities, and
- Increase K-16 policy-driven changes to CS education that infuse identity-inclusive strategies.
AiiCE enacts this change through training, curricula, pedagogy, research, and policy.