How Do Students View Race in Computing Environments?

The “In Their Own Words” series features team-written profiles by members of our 2024-2025 Bass Connections teams that showcase the discoveries, challenges and impact of teams who spent the year tackling real-world problems.

Greater diversity and inclusion are needed to make computer science education and tech workforces more equitable and develop ethical, unbiased technologies. The Understanding Perceptions of Race Among Computer Science Undergraduates team investigated how undergraduate computing students define race and how these definitions influence their perceptions of racial bias in academic and professional computing environments. Drawing on survey data, the team aimed to understand how undergraduate computer science students, both inside and outside of the U.S., conceptualize, perceive and experience race within their university departments.

This team was led by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (Sociology), Tori Callais (Computer Science), Shaundra Daily (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Brean Prefontaine (Computer Science) and Nicki Washington (Computer Science).

By: Members of the Understanding Perceptions of Race Among Computer Science Undergraduates team

Despite global demands for computing expertise, Black, Latine, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander people remain significantly underrepresented among students, faculty and industry professionals. While prior efforts to broaden participation focus on increasing representation, less attention has been paid to how students’ perceptions of race may influence their recognition of racial bias in computing contexts. Our team therefore explored the relatively under-researched topic of undergraduate computing students’ perceptions of race and the impact of these perceptions on their experiences and worldviews, especially in the context of academic and career trajectories.

Our work was guided by the following research question: How do undergraduate students’ definitions of race and perceptions of biological differences between races influence beliefs about racial bias in computing environments?

This is the final year of a three-year project on understanding computing undergraduates’ perceptions of race. In 2022-2023, our Bass Connections team designed and implemented a national survey that elicited over 550 responses from students from 50 unique institutions. The team then collected 46 follow-up interviews with students from various backgrounds.

In 2023-2024 we continued analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data, edited the data collection instruments for additional data collection and wrote a full-length conference paper about our findings.

In 2024-2025, we analyzed a subset of interview and survey questions related to students’ understanding of race and their beliefs about racial bias in computing departments. The relevant survey questions were:

1. Do you think there are biological differences between races? (yes or no)
2. If you had to give a definition of the word “race” or explain what it was, what would you say? (open-ended)
3. How much do you agree with the following statements? (strongly agree, somewhat agree, neither agree nor disagree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree)
   1. University computing departments are neutral and racially unbiased.
   2. Professional computing environments are neutral and racially unbiased.

Open-ended responses were categorized as one or more of “cultural,” “physical,” “place of origin” or “social.” Survey responses were disaggregated by race, gender, formative country and perceptions of biological differences between races. Interview data relevant to the survey questions was also analyzed to gain more insight into how students are defining race and understanding racial bias in computing.

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Overall, students perceived racial bias as less prevalent in academic versus professional environments, which was underscored using statistical information to describe racism in professional environments versus anecdotal examples for academic environments. While most students did not cite biological differences between races, those who did had higher rates of agreement that academic and professional spaces were neutral. Additionally, most students defined race through physical attributes.

These findings demonstrate a discrepancy between students’ perceptions of neutrality in academic and professional environments: this discrepancy can be addressed via curricula, programs and discussions that better incorporate topics of race and racial bias as well as student insights.

To share the findings of this study, the team presented their poster at the 2025 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections showcase in April.  This work will also be published by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and virtually presented at the annual ASEE conference in Montreal, Canada.

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Learn More

• Read another student- and faculty-authored team profile from the “In Their Own Words” series.
• Explore current and previous Bass Connections teams.
• Learn about the project team experience through stories from students.