| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 26, 2021 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 26, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 2128721 |
| Award Instrument: | Cooperative Agreement |
| Program Manager: |
Rajesh Mehta
rmehta@nsf.gov (703)292-2174 TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2021 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $999,978.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $999,978.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1800 N GREENE ST STE E GREENVILLE NC US 27834-9013 (617)702-2471 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1733 Woodside Rd, Suite 360 Redwood City CA US 94061-3400 |
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Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | SBIR Phase II |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project involves both reduced costs for technology companies as well as increased access to cutting-edge engineering jobs for people from all backgrounds. Commercializing this product will provide the market with an innovative, automated solution that reduces the time hiring managers spend on recruiting and growing the best candidates. Until now, metacognitive skill development has been the purview of in-person mentors ? a practice that provides fewer on-ramps into engineering careers for individuals from backgrounds historically underrepresented in technology as they often lack access to in-person engineer mentors. A scalable system which delivers metacognitive benefits to users in an automated way may create greater access to technology education by reducing the need for in-person mentorship. The product will also enable job seekers to enhance their engineering potential by strengthening the "hard to teach" practices which distinguish professional engineers from aspiring ones. Overall, the product commercialized during Phase II seeks to increase broader participation in engineering careers and a more equitable set of hiring practices in technology companies.
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project brings cutting-edge Cognitive Science to bear on the problems of manual candidate screening and ongoing employee upskilling. For the first-time, it marries an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) with an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and opens the door to build talent pipelines for individuals whose metacognitive traits match closely with the needs of tech employers. The proposed project combines key advances in the field of Cognitive Science with best practices in software design in order to create novel user interactions inside a Computer-Based Learning Environment (CBLE). Objectives include: 1) collecting microdata (also called "trace data") from user interactions to make automated inferences about the user's metacognitive traits and 2) creating inputs designed to foster metacognitive growth. Correlating real-time trace data with metacognitive ability is a new area of research enabled only recently by the increased adoption of CBLEs. The proposed project contributes to the fields of Cognitive Science and Human-Computer Interaction by validating novel methods measuring metacognition against existing static look-back techniques. The project also pioneers new modes of delivering personalized metacognitive growth through CBLE interaction.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This NSF-funded work began with the question, “how can technology help people learn difficult things?” We first assumed the word “difficult” meant “computer-related”, as in, “how can technology help people learn to work with computers?” Under this framework, we built an online learning system called Stackmaps designed to help people learn how to write and debug software. After watching our customers use Stackmaps, we saw that the most “difficult” tasks for humans did not involve interacting with computers but rather interacting with other humans in the creation of technology. In Phase II, we expanded the functionality of Stackmaps and then went further, developing an entirely new piece of software and a novel curriculum. We called this new product the Bird Leadership Program.
In contrast to standard leadership training, the Bird Leadership Program immerses participants in interactive games. The program inspires people to think deeply about specific, real-world problems and to imagine creative solutions. During Phase II, the program delivered these games to Silicon Valley tech giants, aerospace companies and financial firms.
Customers have used the Bird Leadership Program to grow talent, help teams navigate change, and screen candidates for technical leadership roles. By testing game parameters in Phase II, we discovered methods for producing real behavioral change. Our clients report enhanced ability to explore complex systems, engage with customers, and build technical solutions in teams.
The opportunity to gain open-ended problem-solving skills has historically hinged on access to dedicated professional mentors. The Bird Leadership Program offers a new way to gain “out of the box” thinking skills via a time-efficient, scalable, widely-accessible approach.
Last Modified: 09/19/2024
Modified by: Robyn Allen
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