Inclusive Excellence Grant Will Improve Undergraduate Learning Experience

The School of Data Science was recently awarded a $9,600 Inclusive Excellence grant from the University of Virginia's Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This funding will support a year-long project to make undergraduate courses more accessible and inclusive, led by Assistant Professor of Data Science Peter Alonzi and Associate Director of Equity & Belonging Rebecca Schmidt. 

They will co-design an undergraduate syllabus template, a GitHub repository, and a Data Science GitHub webpage for data science minor students. The project supports the objectives in the School's Inclusive Excellence Plan under the "Education and Scholarship" pillar and will serve as a pilot for future work to support data science graduate programs. Alonzi and Schmidt plan to engage faculty to ensure tools produced are effective in reducing workload, enhance clarity and accessibility of courses, and build upon existing work the School has invested through partnerships with the UVA Center for Teaching Excellence, Access Computing, among others.