Mark Guzdial Honored with 2012 Computer Science and Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 24 April, 2012 – Mark Guzdial’s innovative teaching methods at Georgia Institute of Technology have won him the IEEE Computer Society 2012 Computer Science and Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award.
Guzdial, a professor in the School of Interactive Computing in the College of Computing, received the award “for outstanding and sustained excellence in computing education through innovative teaching, mentoring, inventive course development, and knowledge dissemination.”
The award recognizes outstanding contributions to undergraduate education through both teaching and service. The award is intended to highlight the Computer Society’s commitment to undergraduate education, as well as affirm its support for excellence in undergraduate education.
Guzdial is the inventor of the Media Computation approach to learning introductory computing. The approach uses contextualized computing education, where the choice of programming languages, lecture examples, and programming assignment are chosen around a particular application area. The approach has shown success in attracting and retaining students. His Media Computation course has been taught at Georgia Tech since 2003 and has shown to have an impact in retaining students in underrepresented groups, including women and minorities. The Media Computation curriculum is being used at universities across the country.
Guzdial and his students the Contextualized Support for Learning (CSL) lab study how people come to understand computing and how to make that work better. They publish frequently in computing education conferences. Guzdial has published several books (with his wife and colleague, Barbara Ericson) on the use of media as a context for learning computing. He publishes a computing education blog, which averages over 400 pageviews per day.
He received a PhD in education and computer science from the University of Michigan in 1993. He serves on the ACM Education Board and the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Board, and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Learning Sciences, ACM Transactions on Computing Education, and Communications of the ACM.
Any faculty member in a degree program in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, or a similar program is eligible to be nominated. The award consists of a stipend of $2,000, a plaque, and certificate.
About the IEEE Computer Society
The IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading computing membership organization and the trusted information and career-development source for a global workforce of technology leaders including: professors, researchers, software engineers, IT professionals, employers, and students. The unmatched source for technology information, inspiration, and collaboration, the IEEE Computer Society is the source that computing professionals trust to provide high-quality, state-of-the-art information on an on-demand basis. The Computer Society provides a wide range of forums for top minds to come together, including technical conferences, publications, and a comprehensive digital library, unique training webinars, professional training, and a Corporate Affiliate Program to help organizations increase their staff’s technical knowledge and expertise. To find out more about the community for technology leaders, visit http://www.computer.org.
____________________________________________________
Benjamin Hescott of Tufts University Wins Undergrad Teaching Award
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 3 March, 2011 – Benjamin Hescott, a senior lecturer and research assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Tufts University’s School of Engineering has been named the 2011 recipient of the IEEE Computer Society Computer Science and Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award.
The award recognizes outstanding contributions to undergraduate education through both teaching and service. The award is intended to highlight the Computer Society’s commitment to undergraduate education, as well as affirm its support for excellence in undergraduate education.
Hescott was recognized “for making computer science accessible to a broad spectrum of students through his energy, enthusiasm, and dedication to teaching.” At Tufts, he is credited with helping boost interest in computer science classes through the use of humor, creativity, and intense classroom discussions.
Any faculty member in a degree program in computer science, computer engineering, computer information systems, or a similar program is eligible to be nominated. The award consists of a stipend of $2,000, a plaque, and certificate. The award will be presented at an awards dinner on Wednesday, 25 May in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Hescott’s research interests include computational complexity, Kolmorgorov complexity, approximation algorithms, and computational biology. Most recently, within the school's computational biology research group, he is working to discover genetic motifs that represent redundant systems.
Hescott says his favorite place to be is in the classroom. He is continually searching for new tools and analogies to help make computer science and programming accessible to all. His teaching tools include everything from rolls of paper towels to model Turing Machine tapes to nesting Tupperware containers for linked lists. He is currently working on new curricula for the first year sequence of computer science.
Hescott graduated from Boston University with a PhD in computer science in 2008. While at BU, he received the Department Teaching Award. At Tufts, he is the faculty supervisor for the student ACM chapter and serves as liaison to the New England Undergraduate Computer Science Symposium. He is member of the leadership team for Empowering Leadership Alliance, whose main purpose is encouraging, preparing, and retaining underrepresented minorities in computer science.
The 2009 recipient of the Computer Science and Engineering Undergrad Teaching Award was Judy Robertson, a senior lecturer in computer science at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Robertson was also the principal investigator of a grant, funded by Britain's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, that provided support to high school teachers in the use of game-making projects with their students. She received her BSc in computer science and artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh in 1997 and a PhD in artificial intelligence at the same university in 2001.
____________________________________________________
Judy Robertson Wins UndergraduateTeaching Award
LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 7 December, 2009 – Scottish computer science professor Judy Robertson has been named the 2009 recipient of the Computer Science and Engineering Undergrad Teaching Award.
Robertson is senior lecturer in computer science at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Her research interests include technology-enhanced learning, particularly exploring new and motivating ways to engage learners of all ages with the use of computing concepts. Her recent research has focused on the use of virtual world-building to facilitate the learning process.
Robertson is also the principal investigator of a grant, funded by Britain's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, that provides support to high school teachers in the use of game-making projects with their students. She received her BSc in computer science and artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh in 1997 and a PhD in artificial intelligence at the same university in 2001.
Robertson’s citation reads: “For outstanding contributions to the undergraduate education through teaching and the innovative use of pioneering technologies in teaching.”
Colleagues describe Robertson as an inspiring lecturer who freely shares her experiences, ideas, and knowledge, and embeds her research into her undergraduate teaching. Particularly noted was her ability to mentor, enthuse, and motivate her students so they achieve higher than average results.
