Vim Autotemplates
When I create a brand new file in Vim, I automatically insert template text into it. For Java, the template looks like this: public class CLASS { CURSOR } The C template looks like this: #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> int main(int argc, char **argv) { CURSOR return 0; } The HTML template looks like this: […]
Computer Science in High School
A student is working on a project about teaching computer science classes in high school and is trying to gather insights from folks about how it might be done. His questions and my answers follow. Could you give a quick overview of what your process is for implementing these classes? There’s a term sometimes comes […]
ITiCSE 2016 Rejection
I submitted two things to ITiCSE 2016: a paper on Madeup and a proposal for working group to make games for computer science education. The paper was rejected. Though ITiCSE is usually a little more forgiving of papers that don’t have a lot of data collection and rigorous experimental analysis, I didn’t include enough. I’m […]
NSF S-STEM Rejection
Last year I submitted a proposal for the National Science Foundation’s S-STEM scholarship program. Our intent was to provide scholarships for women to attend my university and pursue degrees in math or computer science. It was not funded, but I got some helpful direction for revising it and resubmitting. In our revision, we opened up […]
Comparing High-dimensional Objects
Lots of researchers have studied children’s perceptions of the size of multidimensional objects. Children compare two lines with reasonable accuracy, but how about comparing two rectangles of differing aspect ratios? Or two containers of liquid, one short and squat, the other tall and narrow? Based on a some experiments I read in Duckworth’s The Having […]
Biosketch
Last week I gave a talk at a local coffee shop on my programming language for generating 3D models. Since I’m teaching a couple of game development courses this semester, I offered some extra credit to students who attended. For proof of attendance, students had to submit a selfie, a receipt, a soiled napkin, or […]
Changing Minds
I recently finished reading Andrea diSessa’s Changing Minds: Computers, Learning, and Literacy. My work on Madeup had me reading many books that mentioned this book, and I spent a good deal of time in diSessa’s earlier Turtle Geometry. So, it was only a matter of time before I read Changing Minds. In it, physicist diSessa […]
Ask a Scientist Talk
This is the manuscript of a talk I gave at the Acoustic Cafe on April 20, 2016, as part of UWEC’s Ask a Scientist speaker series. Thanks, Paul Thomas, for the opportunity to share my work! Introduction Hi, I’m Chris. I teach machines. I also teach people to teach machines. I like both of these […]
Tyrannosaurus Rex
I assigned this model to my students in 3D Game Development the other day: This is his T-pose.
Administrator Rights
Yesterday my system administrator told me that administrator privileges were going to be taken away from my account on my university laptop. As a computer science professor who does a lot of software development, I crumpled at this news. Let me share a few reasons why revoking administrator privileges is a bad idea: Yesterday, my computer was a […]