SIGCSE 2019 paper #1: 50 Years of CS1 at SIGCSE: A Review of the Evolution of Introductory Programming Education Research

Computing, Conferences, cszero.wordpress.com, Education, Programming, SIGCSE

Today Keith Quille and I presented our SIGCSE 2019 paper “50 Years of CS1 at SIGCSE: A Review of the Evolution of Introductory Programming Education Research” which was published as part of the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education’s Technical Symposium 50th Anniversary Celebration. We had a great time writing this paper and even more fun presenting it at a special discussant-led session that lasted a whole hour and fifteen minutes! Full details including paper, slides, and supplementary data here.

Join ITiCSE 2019 Working Group 10: Compiler Error Messages

Uncategorized

Brett, Ray and Paul would like to invite you to consider joining our ITiCSE 2019 working group on “Compiler Error Messages: Difficulties, Design Guidelines and Effectiveness”. A detailed description of the goals for this working group is here: https://iticse.acm.org/working-group-details/#WG10. You can also find our contact information there.

Compiler error messages have been researched for over 40 years with one obvious consensus: they present substantial difficulty and could be more effective, particularly for novices. They are often vague, imprecise, confusing and at times seemingly incorrect. For example, here is one of Brett’s favorite C error messages: “expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ at end of input”. Various studies have analyzed the types and frequency of Compiler Error Messages (CEMs) that students generate; others have explored how ‘standard’ error messages can be enhanced to make them more usable; and others have sought to determine how the effectiveness of CEMs can be measured. Additionally, many sets of CEM design guidelines (explicit and implicit) exist but they span several decades and many of them are conflicting, leaving the way forward unclear.

Our working group will review these guidelines and evidence and present a state-of-the-art report. We hope this will serve as a starting point for those who wish to design better compiler error messages or measure their effectiveness, more effectively!

If you are interested in joining us, please send an email to all three of us (contact info here) with the following information:

  • your name, institution, country, and email address;
  • an explanation of your interest in the working group;
  • your experience relevant to the goals of the working group;
  • any further information requested in the description of the particular working group;
  • an assurance of your availability and willingness to take active part in the work of the working group before, during, and after the conference;
  • an assurance of your intention to register for and attend ITiCSE (this is a condition of working group membership) as described on the working groups information page for ITiCSE 2019: https://iticse.acm.org/working-groups/

We hope to see you in Aberdeen!

Brett, Ray and Paul

EpimiRBase update

Bioinformatics

EpimiRBase is a comprehensive, manually curated database of microRNA-epilepsy. The project was started in 2015 to provide complete and up-to-date information on all publications relating to microRNA and epilepsy, as research has shown that microRNAs are important regulators of gene expression in epilepsy.

The latest version of EpimiRBase is available for searching and for download in .csv, .xml and .json formats. The latest version includes data from 33 new publications. EpimiRBase now contains 2,152 microRNA-epilepsy associations from 74 publications including 998 unique microRNA (1,244 up and 907 down regulated) from three species: human (202), mouse (866) and rat (1,083).

ACM Global Computing Education Conference (CompEd 2019) – Reviewers Needed

Computing, Conferences, Education, SIGCSE

CompEd 2019 – Call for Reviewers
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ACM Global Computing Education Conference
17-19 May 2019, Chengdu, China, www.acmcomped.org

We invite expressions of interest in serving as a reviewer or an associate program chair (APC) for full papers, or a reviewer for posters.  If you are interested, please let us know by completing the form at http://www.acmcomped.org/reviewers/.

For more information about CompEd 2019, see the CfP at http://www.acmcomped.org/call-for-participation/

Important Dates: All deadlines refer to 23:59 Anywhere on Earth on that day
* Tuesday, 16 October 2018: Paper Abstracts (250 words maximum)
* Tuesday, 23 October 2018: Full Papers, Panels, Working Groups
* Tuesday, 11 December 2018: BoFs and Posters

Feel free to contact me if you have questions about CompEd 2019. I am happy to be serving as the Chair of the CompEd Steering Committee.

What should Computing Education researchers study? Have your say!

Computing, Education

Some colleagues and I are conducting a study to find out what questions people who teach computing would most like researchers to answer. If you teach programming, web design, or anything else that involves writing code of any kind, in classrooms or otherwise, at any level, we would like to invite you to take part.

Our study will be done in two parts: the first involves collecting possible research questions and the second involves ranking the questions collected. As a participant, you will be involved in only one of these parts, and your participation will take no more than 5-10 minutes.

If you would like to take part, please provide us with your name and email address at:

https://goo.gl/forms/5j18OK6J6bgRvh6D3

We will randomly assign you to one of the two rounds (either collecting questions or ranking questions) and contact you shortly thereafter to participate. You may choose to be entered into a draw for a $250 gift card.

If you can’t reach the above link due to geographical restrictions, please feel free to email any of us (details below).

Thank you very much – we greatly appreciate your contribution!

This study has Ethics Approval from the University of Toronto (Protocol #: 00036495)

ACM Global Computing Education Conference

Education, SIGCSE

I am proud to be serving as Chair of the Steering Committee for the ACM Global Computing Education Conference (CompEd). CompEd is the 4th conference to be sponsored by SIGCSE.

The first CompEd will be held in Chengdu, China in May, 2019. We are considering a site in India for the second offering. The language of the conference will be English, and we are projecting a 33% acceptance rate.

The conference may be held anywhere on Earth, outside North America and Europe, where the other three SIGCSE conferences are frequent: the SIGCSE Technical Symposium (always held in the US), ITiCSE (always held in Europe*), and ICER which floats between North America, Europe, and Australasia.

*In 2016 ITiCSE was held in Peru, and this was part of the decision to launch a 4th ‘global’ conference.

More information on the conference can be found here. I will be sharing regular updates here and at CS0 as things progress.

Final call: Calling all Irish Introductory Programming lecturers!

Computing, cszero.wordpress.com, Programming

This is a final call for my survey of Introductory Programming modules (courses) at third-level institutions in Ireland and Northern Ireland. If you happen to teach a current Introduction to Programming course (during any semester) I would really appreciate if you would be willing to complete the survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Ireland_CS1). If you don’t teach on an intro course, but know someone who is, I would similarly appreciate you spreading the word!

The survey will close on April 15. If you have already completed the survey, thank you!

The details:

I am interested in modules at Universities, Institutes of Technology as well as private colleges. This survey is motivated by surveys already undertaken in Australia and New Zealand (http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2667507) and the UK (https://repository.cardiffmet.ac.uk/handle/10369/8417) over the past number of years. The questions in this survey closely follow the questions in the latest UK and Australasian surveys to allow us to compare trends in Ireland to those in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. I am very grateful to Ellen Murphy and James Davenport of the University of Bath who generously provided us with their survey questions.

The survey is designed to determine what languages, tools, and paradigms are in use in Irish introductory programming modules and the reasons for these choices. It is hoped that this survey will be taken on a regular basis so that a clearer picture of trends in this area can be created to help those involved in teaching introductory programming.

If you are an introductory programming lecturer I would very much appreciate you completing this survey and I would also appreciate if you could share this link with others at your institution (or elsewhere in Ireland) that teach introductory programming.

The survey is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Ireland_CS1

If you have any questions, you can contact me here.

Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity – Artificial Intelligence in Education

Computing, Education

Please note that a candidate has been selected for this proposal and we are not seeking further applications. If you would be interested in similar opportunities, please contact me via email and provide your CV. I expect a similar position coming up later this year. 

University College Dublin, CeADAR (Ireland’s National Centre for Applied Data Analytics and Research), and Adaptemy, are seeking a candidate for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow specializing in Artificial Intelligence in Education. Link to flyer for more information here.

Key facts:
  • Three-year 100% FTE position based in Ireland with a 6-12 month industry secondment
  • Salary: €56,191 (€61,608 with family allowance)
  • Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships are among Europe’s most prestigious awards, aimed to support the best, most promising scientists
  • This position is fully-funded by Enterprise Ireland and the European Union
  • By funding excellent research and providing attractive working conditions, these fellowships offer high-quality professional opportunities open to researchers of any age, nationality or discipline
  • Candidate must have completed a PhD or four years of full-time equivalent research experience by start of fellowship (early 2019)
  • Expressions of interest open now, full proposal deadline April 30, 2018

Please email me with queries or to express interest:

Dagstuhl Seminar 18061: Evidence about programmers for programming language design

Computing, cszero.wordpress.com, Programming

Last week I was fortunate to attend a seminar at Schloss Dagstuhl. Seminar 18061 was titled: Evidence About Programmers for Programming Language Design. Read more about it over on CS0. It was a unique, immersive, possibly once-in-a-lifetime experience of computer science flavoured academic inquiry.

Irish Third-Level Introduction to Programming Lecturer Survey

Computing, cszero.wordpress.com, Education, Programming

I excited to be conducting a survey of Introductory Programming modules (courses) at third-level institutions in Ireland and Northern Ireland (Details and survey link are here). The survey is modelled on previous surveys conducted in Australasia and the UK. If you happen to teach a current Introduction to Programming course (during any semester) at any Irish third-level university, institute of technology, or private college, I would really appreciate if you would be willing to complete the survey. If you don’t teach on an intro course, but know someone who is, I would appreciate you spreading the word!