Tech Hustle is a project to build upon indications from an earlier project, Glitch. Glitch found that many low-income African American male high school students were more willing and able to engage in computer education when it was situated in authentic work environments. The high school students in this previous work exhibited pride and excitement in being responsible workers, making their own money, and used work as a way to justify the time spent on learning computer science and other more academic pursuits. We are researching programs to help young people set up their own side businesses (side hustles) providing tech support, web development, and computational and physical prototyping.
The CAT Lab studies how culture impacts the use and production of technology with a focus on learning applications, computer science education and designing new technologies with culture as a point of convergence.
