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Computing
Science grant funds scholarship
By Dana Imperia '05
A recent grant of almost $400,000 from the National
Science Foundation to the Department of Computing Sciences has made
available 29 scholarships for students in the College of Liberal Arts and
Sciences. Created to increase the number and diversity of computer science
majors, the grant is being divided into $3,125 scholarships which can be
renewed throughout a student’s college career. The University was one of 20
in the nation to be awarded this grant.
The Villanova Computing Scholars Program (ViCS) is a
scholarship program administered by the Department of Computing Sciences and
funded by the grant. The program is open to new and existing computer
science majors. While students from outside the major are welcome to apply,
those accepted must declare a computer science major.
Besides just providing scholarship money, ViCS
scholars participate in the Enrichment Seminar in Computing (CSC 1990).
Small groups of scholars work with faculty mentors and junior and senior
scholars are typically involved in student-faculty research programs. Dr.
Frank Klassner, a member of the management committee of ViCS, said that this
grant is great for those “looking to merge computer work with their other
work.”
After statistics illustrated that the nation would
demand more than double the number of current computer science employees in
the upcoming years, Congress authorized the grant program for the National
Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation based its acceptance on
the “intellectual merit and broader impact” of its applicants.
The ViCS
program is currently accepting applicants for the scholarship. For more
information visit their web site at www.csc.villanova.edu/vics. |
