Update Report on the Partnership Between the USF College of Engineering and Computer Sciences and Hillsborough County Public Schools.

The USF Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Information Systems students participate in the CSE Volunteers community service project. The requirement for participating in this program is admission into the department as a student in good standing. The CSE Volunteers project is open to undergraduate and graduate students who enroll in the one hour credit seminar course. These seminar students are assigned in pairs to technology projects in Hillsborough County K-12 schools. The expected time commitment is four hours per week for an academic semester. The USF students earn one hour of independent study credit for successful participation.

The seminar students work with the Information and Technology Division staff through the direction of the Customer Service & Support Department. The students get hands-on experiences in managing large-scale computer and networking projects while the schools get much needed technical support to help maintain their classroom computer operations. It is a positive arragement for both USF and the schools.

This program began in the fall of 2004 and is in its sixth semester. Additional information is available at URL: http://www.csee.usf.edu/~christen/volunteer.

Through the end of Fall 2006, a total of 69 seminar students have participated in the program assisting 25 different school sites. The total service time completed exceeds 3800 hours, which is the equivalent of 1.9 person years.

Reports from site administrators, Customer Service and Support Department Field Representatives, and USF College of Engineering Staff are collected and evaluated at the end of the academic year.