NSF Award
2413801
Creativity is a fundamental aspect of computing innovation and a driving force in arts, sciences, and engineering. It plays a crucial role in our economic and social advancement, serving as a precursor to scientific breakthroughs, technological developments, and novel cultural and aesthetic experiences. Established in 1993, the ACM Creativity and Cognition (C&C) conference provides a platform for a diverse community of researchers, designers, engineers, and artists who converge to offer innovative, interdisciplinary insights on the nexus of creativity and cognition in technological innovation. The 16th edition of C&C will take place June 24-26 in Chicago, IL; through supporting travel to Graduate and Undergraduate Symposia at the conference, this award will provide students with a unique opportunity to present early stage research and receive feedback from mentors with different disciplinary backgrounds. They will gain experience and skills in communicating their own work and critiquing the work of peers. They will come away with new research insights and possible directions, with better understanding of prior work and of the field overall, and with new awareness of potentially useful methods that draw from different disciplines.<br/><br/>This grant will provide travel support to about 8 graduate and 8 undergraduate students who otherwise have limited travel funding and so might not be able to attend. Students will be selected based on their likely sustained interest around the conference topics and community and their financial need, with an eye toward supporting students from a diversity of disciplinary, personal, and institutional backgrounds. Since many applicants will be first time conference attendees and writers, the organizing committee will also provide mentoring workshops for prospective attendees to both improve applications and build connections even for students who ultimately cannot attend.<br/><br/>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.
