A Multidisciplinary Approach Towards Computational Thinking

by Susanne Hambrusch

Department of Computer Science, Purdue University

Date

Friday, December 11

Time

3:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m.

Place

Informatics East, Rm. 130

Abstract: This talk describes two on-going projects on integrating computational thinking into courses for non-CS majors. Project SECANT is a multi-disciplinary effort developing a course on computational thinking for science majors. At Purdue, all science undergraduates must fulfill a computing requirement, generally by taking a CS course. A new course was developed by CS faculty in collaboration with faculty in Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Statistics. It uses a problem-driven approach focusing on scientific discovery through computational methods grounded in computer science principles. The main objective is to give science majors a firm foundation of basic programming concepts and to establish an understanding of the algorithmic thought process. Python was chosen as the language as it quickly allows the writing of meaningful programs and is used in serious ways by many scientific communities. Project CS4EDU aims to create new pathways for undergraduate education majors to become computationally educated secondary teachers. This joint effort between CS and Education plans to create a Computer Science Endorsement program based on the Educational Computing Standards set by the International Society for Technology in Education. The pathways to the endorsement program include creating modules on computational thinking for education courses to highlight the pervasiveness of computational metaphors in topics like reasoning, knowledge construction, critical thinking and problem solving.
 

Biography: Susanne Hambrusch is a professor of computer science at Purdue University. She served as the Department Head from 2002 to 2007. Her research interests are in query and data management in mobile environments, parallel and distributed computation, and analysis of algorithms. She leads two interdisciplinary NSF funded projects, “Science Education in Computational Thinking” and “Computer Science for Education.” She is a member of the editorial boards of Parallel Computing and Information Processing Letters, and she is a co-chair for CACM's Viewpoints section. She also serves on the board of directors of the CRA and the CRA-W.
 

A printable version of the colloquium flyer is available for printing.   

Colloquium Provided By:

the School of Informatics