The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at the National Science Foundation has announced a new program, “CISE Pathways to Revitalized Undergraduate Computing Education (CPATH)” aimed at transforming and revitalizing undergraduate computing education on a national scale.  Through CPATH, CISE hopes to engage the community in alliances and activities that will shape a positive future for undergraduate computing education. CPATH seeks to support community building, leadership development, evaluation and extension of promising models, and institutional transformation. (Link to CPATH  program solicitation).

The National Science Foundation will be sponsoring a New England “town hall” meeting on Thursday, November 16, from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM at the Hyatt Regency Hotel , One Avenue de Lafayette, in Boston MA. The meeting will focus broadly on undergraduate computing education as well as on the CPATH program in particular, and its potential to meet the needs of the audience in strategic initiatives and directions in computing education that seem promising. The meeting will provide the computing community with an opportunity to engage in the CPATH initiative by:

• Discussing the goals and rationale for CPATH, and providing a forum for discussion of the CPATH initiative
• Engaging in a dialog on revitalizing undergraduate computing education, including a discussion the current state and future needs of undergraduate computing education

The November 16 Town Hall meeting will include a morning of presentations on the goals and rationale for CPATH, background information, and an open Q&A session. Afternoon breakout sessions will allow town meeting attendees to discuss the issues surrounding the revitalization of undergraduate computing education. There will also be time during the meeting to build alliances and form communities. See the agenda below for more details.

Interested members of the computing education community (both within New England and beyond, and within higher education and beyond) are invited to attend. Participants are welcome from all segments of higher education, from industry, government, professional societies, and beyond. Participants are welcome from any part of the US, but NSF expects to hold similar town meetings in other parts of the country.  A Mid-atlantic CPATH town hall meeting is currently scheduled for December 1 at The New Jersey Institute of Technology, in Newark NJ:

• NSF Mid-atlantic Town Hall Meeting, December 1, NJIT, Newark NJ.