The University of South Florida is teaming up with two other state university giants to help hundreds in the computer science field.
USF, the University of Central Florida and Florida International University received a $5 million cumulative grant from the National Science Foundation this week. The trio will use the funding to create the Florida IT Graduation Attainment Pathways program or Flit-GAP.
Each university will choose 50 students to benefit from the program, which awards scholarships up to $10,000 annually, professional pathway experience including research and internship opportunities and an adviser or faculty member.
The program will specifically target underrepresented students in the computing field majoring in computer science, computer engineering, cybersecurity or information technology.
"While Ph.D. students in computer-related disciplines do not have to pay for graduate school because they work as TAs or RAs, most [master's degree] students have to pay their own way," said Mark Heinrich, UCF's senior design coordinator at the department of computer sciences. "There are very few scholarship opportunities for MS students, and Flit-GAP fills that void."
The program will also use technology to allow students from across all three institutions, each of which is in large employer markets, to collaborate and open the talent pipeline for each of the regions.
"Success breeds success — when you get NSF funding, now you're in with the NSF," USF St. Petersburg Chancellor Martin Tadlock said in a previous interview with the Tampa Bay Business Journal. "And the funding, it feeds upon itself."
