Fiona McNeill

Fulbright-Rita Allen Scholar Award - University of California, San Diego

Fiona McNeill is a Reader in Computing Education at the University of Edinburgh.  She is passionate about access to computing and STEM education, especially for groups that are often excluded, such as women and girls, and people from economically deprived backgrounds.  A key focus of her research is inclusive computing education, which aims not only to support and develop a broad range of students beyond those who conform to stereotypes of computer scientists, but also to embed ethical and social issues in the computing curriculum to create graduates who are equipped for the modern world, where technology increasingly drives all our lives. 

The Fulbright scholarship gives her the opportunity for collaborative research in this area with the University of California, San Diego.  Both UCSD and UoE have been developing inclusive student support programmes over the past two years. The focus of the scholarship is to share experience in implementing these programmes to develop a broader understanding of how to do this effectively in different contexts, and specifically to explore how lessons learnt from an initiative designed in a US university can be implemented in the very different context of a UK university, and vice versa.