GE supports CU math projects for female and minority students

By Margaret Corbit

The GE Fund, the philanthropic foundation of General Electric Co., has awarded $200,000 to Cornell to support an integrated range of projects in the fund's Math Excellence initiative over two years.

Daisy Fan, left, assistant professor of computer science, assisted by engineering undergraduate Sarah Chung '03, works on a GE Fund project to assist female and minority students studying math in high school and college. The fund's Math Excellence initiative has awarded $200,000 to Cornell to support a range of projects. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

The projects are aimed at encouraging female and underrepresented minority students studying math in high school and college. According to Cornell computer science professor Charles Van Loan, the program's leader, "With resources provided by the GE Fund, we will be able to define new programs and approaches that will increase the number of women and under-represented minorities who study computer science. Moreover, the GE Fund is able to provide us with an evaluation framework that permits us to track our progress and make midcourse corrections as necessary so that stated goals are achieved."

At the high school level, Cornell is receiving funds to encourage minority students to participate in the Curie Academy for Girls summer program, to develop a new pre-calculus program for Cornell's Summer College for high school students and to encourage young people, led by GE volunteers, to participate in SciCentr, the online outreach program at the Cornell Theory Center (CTC).

Undergraduate programs are aimed at attracting, directing and retaining minority students in computer science. The programs include expansion of a team-based project in game development, support for women mentoring women and enhancements to three undergraduate courses.

Cornell faculty and staff project leaders, besides Van Loan, include Krishna Athreya, Daisy Fan, Dan Jenkins, Lillian Lee and David Schwarz, all from the Department of Computer Science; Abby Eller from Summer College; and Margaret Corbit from CTC.

Math Excellence is focused on strengthening the math skills of under-represented minority students in kindergarten through high school, leading to greater participation in engineering, information technology and quantitative business careers. In addition to Cornell, GE Fund grant recipients include the College Board, Duke University, Lynchburg City Schools and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering. The GE Fund invests in improving educational quality and access and in strengthening community organizations in GE communities around the world. GE, the GE Fund and GE employees and retirees contributed more than $100 million to community and educational institutions last year.