R07: Human-Computer Interaction

Philio Guo Links to an external site. created the PythonTutor Links to an external site. website that can be used to visually demonstrate Python (and Java!) code in large lecture classes. He is an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science (not Computer Science) at UC Berekely. This is similar to Adam's situation as an Assistant Professor of Computational Media (not Computer Science) at UC Santa Cruz. They both teach very large Introduction to Programming classes that emphasize the relationship between computers and the human beings who use or are used by them.

Read Philip's short article What is HCI research? And What is its relationship to computer science? Links to an external site. Here's a brief glossary of potentially unfamiliar terms:

• HCI: human-computer interaction
• Internet-of-things: the network of programmable devices that don't look like traditional computers (including "smart" devices like refrigerators, smoke detectors, thermostats, security cameras, household electrical/gas meters, etc.)
• faculty: the professors hired by a certain academic department
• CS: computer science
• AI: artificial intelligence
• humans in the loop: computer systems that ask for human input before proceeding (not fully automated)
• Stanford, CMU, UC Berkeley, MIT, UW, UIUC, Georgia Tech: a bunch of universities that are known to be among the best for computer science research (UC Santa Cruz is #44 on one commonly referenced international ranking of CS schools: http://csrankings.org/ Links to an external site. -- rankings are highly influenced by the size rather than the quality of CS department)
• systems-building: work that involves programming to make new software rather than studying how people use existing systems
• subjectivity: is the idea/result/outcome specifically relevant to a one specific person (subject) or a specific people (subjects) rather than the entire physical/mathematical universe?
• operationalize: turning an abstract idea/theory into a concrete, repeatable process (often in the form of a computer program)

Additionally, read his article On Grades Links to an external site. for some reflection on the importance (and not-so-importance) of course grades.