At the recent Association for Computing Machinery SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education in Portland, Oregon, a team of seven students from Marquette’s Department of Computer Science represented the department. SIGCSE is ACM’s flagship international conference addressing educator challenges in computing education, fostering idea exchange on curricula and teaching methods.
The conference attracted a diverse group of attendees, including students, educators, and researchers from around the world. Among the presenters were several Marquette students who showcased their innovative research and curriculum development projects.
Sam Mazzone, a first-year doctoral student and undergraduate alumnus from the class of 2023, won third place in the ACM Student Research Competition for his work on “Energizing Web Development in the Exploring Computer Science Curriculum.” To present their posters at the conference, students must have their abstracts accepted. The top three presenters are then invited to present their work orally during the event.
Mazzone’s research focuses on analyzing data from the Exploring Computer Science Web Lab (ECS-WL) curriculum to evaluate its effectiveness and make curriculum adjustments to ensure inclusive computer science education. His project was praised by conference attendees for its rigorous methodology and innovative approach to curriculum development.
Doctoral students Jack Forden and Alex Gebhard, along with undergraduate REU fellow Oliver Laufenberg, presented a research paper on their curriculum development project, “Using Embedded Xinu to Teach Operating Systems on Baremetal RISC-V.” This project is groundbreaking as it combines Embedded Xinu, a standard for teaching operating system concepts, with RISC-V, a system used by companies such as Google, Nvidia, and Huawei. The team’s presentation was well-received by attendees who appreciated their innovative approach to teaching operating systems concepts.
Other students from Marquette who presented their work at the conference include doctoral student Sujeeth Ramagoni (Analyzing State-Level High School CS Teacher Certification Through Dataset Exploration), doctoral student Maverick Berner and undergraduate REU fellow Max Berner (Co-Designing Integrated CS Curriculum Artifacts with K-5 Classroom Teachers), and research associate Heidi Williams (Becoming Core: Curriculum Planning Tools for Integrating CS into K-5 Content Areas). All of these projects showcase Marquette’s commitment to developing innovative curricula that prepare students for success in an ever-changing technological landscape.