Computational Thinking: Two and a Half Years Later Jeannette M. Wing President’s Professor of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University and Assistant Director Computer and Information Science and.
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Computational Thinking: Two and a Half Years Later Jeannette M. Wing President’s Professor of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University and Assistant Director Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate National Science Foundation 2008 Jeannette M. Wing Outline • Computational Thinking • A Vision for our Field • The Two A’s to CT • Research and Education Implications Two and a Half Years Later… • External Response and Impact • Reality Check CT: 1.5 Years Later 2 Jeannette M. Wing My Grand Vision for the Field • Computational thinking will be a fundamental skill used by everyone in the world by the middle of the 21st Century. – Just like reading, writing, and arithmetic. – Imagine every child knowing how to think like a computer scientist! – Incestuous: Computing and computers will enable the spread of computational thinking. – In research: scientists, engineers, …, historians, artists – In education: K-12 students and teachers, undergrads, … J.M. Wing, “Computational Thinking,” CACM Viewpoint, March 2006, pp. 33-35. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wing/ CT: 1.5 Years Later 3 Jeannette M. Wing The First A to Computational Thinking • Abstractions are our “mental” tools • The abstraction process includes – Choosing the right abstractions – Operating simultaneously at multiple layers of abstraction – Defining the relationships the between layers CT: 1.5 Years Later 5 Jeannette M. Wing The Second A to Computational Thinking • The power of our “mental” tools is amplified by our “metal” tools. • Automation is mechanizing our abstractions, abstraction layers, and their relationships – Mechanization is possible due to precise and exacting notations and models – There is some “computer” below (human or machine, virtual or physical) CT: 1.5 Years Later 6 Jeannette M. Wing Two A’s to C.T. Combined • Computing is the automation of our abstractions – They give us the audacity and ability to scale. • Computational thinking – choosing the right abstractions, etc. – choosing the right “computer” for the task CT: 1.5 Years Later 7 Jeannette M. Wing Research Implications CT: 1.5 Years Later 8 Jeannette M. Wing CT in Other Sciences, Math, and Engineering Biology - Shotgun algorithm expedites sequencing of human genome - DNA sequences are strings in a language - Protein structures can be modeled as knots Credit: Wikipedia - Protein kinetics can be modeled as computational processes - Cells as a self-regulatory system are like electronic circuits Brain Science - Modeling the brain as a computer - Vision as a feedback loop - Analyzing fMRI data with machine learning CT: 1.5 Years Later Credit: LiveScience 9 Jeannette M. Wing CT in Other Sciences, Math, and Engineering Chemistry [Madden, Fellow of Royal Society of Edinburgh] - Atomistic calculations are used to explore chemical phenomena - Optimization and searching algorithms identify best chemicals for improving reaction conditions to improve yields Credit: University of Minnesota Credit: NASA Geology - Modeling the earth’s surface to the sun, from the inner core to the surface - Abstraction boundaries and hierarchies of complexity model the earth and our atmosphere CT: 1.5 Years Later 10 Jeannette M. Wing CT in Other Sciences, Math, and Engineering Astronomy - Sloan Digital Sky Server brings a telescope to every child - KD-trees help astronomers analyze very large multi-dimensional datasets Credit: SDSS Mathematics - Discovering E8 Lie Group: 18 mathematicians, 4 years and 77 hours of supercomputer time (200 billion numbers). Profound implications for physics (string theory) - Four-color theorem proof Credit: Wikipedia Engineering (electrical, civil, mechanical, aero & astro,…) Credit: Wikipedia - Calculating higher order terms implies more precision, which implies reducing weight, waste, costs in fabrication - Boeing 777 tested via computer simulation alone, not in a wind tunnel CT: 1.5 Years Later 11 Jeannette M. Wing Credit: Boeing CT for Society Economics - Automated mechanism design underlies electronic commerce, e.g., ad placement, on-line auctions, kidney exchange - Internet marketplace requires revisiting Nash equilibria model Social Sciences - Social networks explain phenomena such as MySpace, YouTube - Statistical machine learning is used for recommendation and reputation services, e.g., Netflix, affinity card CT: 1.5 Years Later 12 Jeannette M. Wing CT for Society Medicine - Robotic surgery - Electronic health records require privacy technologies - Scientific visualization enables virtual colonoscopy Humanities Credit: University of Utah - What do you do with a million books? Nat’l Endowment for the Humanities Inst of Museum and Library Services Law - Stanford CL approaches include AI, temporal logic, state machines, process algebras, petri nets - POIROT Project on fraud investigation is creating a detailed ontology of European law CT: 1.5 Years Later 13 scene investigation Jeannette M. Wing - Sherlock Project on crime CT for Society Entertainment - Games - Movies Credit: Dreamworks SKG - Dreamworks uses HP data center to renderShrek and Madagascar - Lucas Films uses 2000-node data center to produce Pirates of the Caribbean. Credit: Carnegie Mellon University Arts - Art (e.g., Robotticelli) - Drama - Music - Photography CT: 1.5 Years Later Credit: Christian Moeller 14 Sports Credit: Wikipedia - Lance Armstrong’s cycling computer tracks man and machine statistics - Synergy Sports analyzes digital videos NBA games Jeannette M. Wing Educational Implications CT: 1.5 Years Later 15 Jeannette M. Wing Pre-K to Grey • K-6, 7-9, 10-12 • Undergraduate courses – Freshmen year • “Ways to Think Like a Computer Scientist” aka Principles of Computing – Upper-level courses • Graduate-level courses – Computational arts and sciences • E.g., entertainment technology, computational linguistics, …, computational finance, …, computational biology, computational astrophysics • Post-graduate – Executive and continuing education, senior citizens – Teachers, not just students CT: 1.5 Years Later 16 Jeannette M. Wing Question and Challenge to Community What are effective ways of learning (teaching) computational thinking by (to) children? - What concepts can students best learn when? What should we teach when? What is our analogy to numbers in K, algebra in 7, and calculus in 12? - We uniquely also should ask how best to integrate The Computer with learning and teaching the concepts. CT: 1.5 Years Later 17 Jeannette M. Wing Two and A Half Years Later CT: 1.5 Years Later 19 Jeannette M. Wing External Community Response CT: 1.5 Years Later 20 Jeannette M. Wing External Community … • • • • Outside of CMU Outside of Computer Science Outside of Science and Engineering Outside of US • Impact on research and education through NSF CT: 1.5 Years Later 21 Jeannette M. Wing Research Impact CT: 1.5 Years Later 22 Jeannette M. Wing “Computational Thinking,” Andrew Hebert (Director, MSR/Cambridge), p. 20, 2006. CT: 1.5 Years Later 23 Jeannette M. Wing Volume 440 Number 7083 pp 383-580, March 23, 2006 CT: 1.5 Years Later 24 Jeannette M. Wing CT: 1.5 Years Later 25 Jeannette M. Wing Spearheaded by Alan Bundy CT: 1.5 Years Later 26 Jeannette M. Wing Also, report by Conrad Taylor on my talk at Grand Challenges in Computing Conference, British Computer Society, London, March 2008 CT: 1.5 Years Later 27 Jeannette M. Wing CACM Viewpoint • Translated into Spanish and Chinese CT: 1.5 Years Later 28 Jeannette M. Wing Reach Through NSF CT: 1.5 Years Later 29 Jeannette M. Wing CDI: Cyber-Enabled Discovery and Innovation Computational Thinking for Science and Engineering • Paradigm shift – Not just our metal tools (transistors and wires) but also our mental tools (abstractions and methods) • It’s about partnerships and transformative research. – To innovate in/innovatively use computational thinking; and – To advance more than one science/engineering discipline. • Fortuitous timing for me … CT: 1.5 Years Later 30 Jeannette M. Wing CDI Response • 1800 Letters of Intent, 1300 Preliminary Proposals, 200 Final Proposals, 36 Awards • FY08: ~$50M invested by all directorates and offices CT: 1.5 Years Later 31 Jeannette M. Wing Range of Disciplines in CDI Awards • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Aerospace engineering Atmospheric sciences Biochemistry Biophysics Chemical engineering Communications science and engineering Computer science Geosciences Linguistics Materials engineering Mathematics Mechanical engineering Molecular biology Nanocomputing Neuroscience Robotics Social sciences Statistical physics … advances via Computational Thinking CT: 1.5 Years Later 32 Jeannette M. Wing Range of Societal Issues Addressed • • • • • Cancer therapy Climate change Environment Visually impaired Water CT: 1.5 Years Later 33 Jeannette M. Wing Educational Impact CT: 1.5 Years Later 34 Jeannette M. Wing Colleges and Universities are Revisiting Curricula • Carnegie Mellon: Tom Cortina’s 15-105 • MIT: John Guttag’s 6.00 (for freshmen) • Georgia Tech: • • • • – UG: “Threads”, Mark Guzdial, “Learning Computing with Robots,” Tucker Balch and Deepak Kumar (Bryn Mawr) – Grad: Alexander Gray and Nick Feamster Columbia: Al Aho Princeton: PICASso, for non-CS graduate students Harvard: Alyssa Goodman, Institute for Innovative Computing Northwestern: Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling • … • Villanova, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Georgetown, … • U Wisconsin-La Crosse, … CT: 1.5 Years Later 35 Jeannette M. Wing CT: 1.5 Years Later 36 Jeannette M. Wing CT: 1.5 Years Later © 2008 37 Microsoft Corporation Jeannette M. Wing Reach Through NSF CT: 1.5 Years Later 38 Jeannette M. Wing CISE • CPATH – Revisiting undergrad curricula – Enlarge scope to include outreach to K-12 • Broadening Participation in Computing – Women, underrepresented minorities, people with disabilities – Alliances and demo projects CT: 1.5 Years Later 39 Jeannette M. Wing CPATH Awards Specific to CT • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Brown De Paul Georgia State North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Middle Tennessee State University Penn State University Towson University University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign University of Nebraska University of Texas, El Paso Utah State Villanova Virginia Tech Washington State CT: 1.5 Years Later 40 Jeannette M. Wing Broadening Participation • AP Revision – Academic Advisory group includes NSF, ACM, CSTA, university reps (e.g., Cortina), and high school teachers • New Image for Computing – Working with Image of Computing and WGBH (Boston) • Alliances – e.g., ARSTI (HBCU/R1 Robotics, Touretzky, et al.) CT: 1.5 Years Later 41 Jeannette M. Wing Beyond CISE Challenge to Community: What is an effective way of teaching (learning) computational thinking to (by) K-12? • Computational Thinking for Children – National Academies Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB): Workshops on CT for Everyone. Collaborating with Board on Science Education. • Cyber-enabled Learning – Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate, Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI), Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE), and CISE CT: 1.5 Years Later 42 Jeannette M. Wing Other Educational and Outreach Activities • • • • • • Peter Denning’s “Rebooting Computing Summit”, Jan 2009 Andy van Dam is CRA-E “Education Czar” ACM Ed Council CS4HS: Lenore Blum’s vision: “CS4HS in every state!” Women@SCS Roadshow Image of Computing Task Force: Jill Ross, Rick Rashid, Jim Foley CT: 1.5 Years Later 43 Jeannette M. Wing Two and a Half Years Later: Research Computing Community NSF CMU NEH, ILMS Microsoft Computational Thinking CDI Center for CT all sciences and engineering computer science, arts, humanities, … CT: 1.5 Years Later 44 Jeannette M. Wing Two and a Half Years Later: Education CRA-E Computing Community ACM-Ed CSTA NSF Rebooting National Academies Computational Thinking BPC CT: 1.5 Years Later CPATH workshops AP 45 K-12 CSTB “CT for Everyone” Steering Committee • Marcia Linn, Berkeley • Al Aho, Columbia • Brian Blake, Georgetown • Bob Constable, Cornell • Yasmin Kafai, U Penn • Janet Kolodner, Georgia Tech • Uri Wilensky, Northwestern • Bill Wulf, UVA Jeannette M. Wing Looking Ahead: Reality Check: Challenges and Opportunities for Computer Science CT: 1.5 Years Later 46 Jeannette M. Wing Big Science means Big Data and Big Systems CT: 1.5 Years Later 47 Jeannette M. Wing CT: 1.5 Years Later 48 Jeannette M. Wing Examples CT: 1.5 Years Later 50 Jeannette M. Wing CT: 1.5 Years Later 51 Jeannette M. Wing CT: 1.5 Years Later 52 Jeannette M. Wing CT: 1.5 Years Later 53 Jeannette M. Wing CT: 1.5 Years Later 55 Jeannette M. Wing CT: 1.5 Years Later 56 Jeannette M. Wing Research Challenges and Opportunities • CT for other sciences and engineering and beyond – It’s inevitable – They need us, they want us • It’s about abstractions and symbolic “calculations” not just number-crunching CT: 1.5 Years Later 57 Jeannette M. Wing Educational Challenges and Opportunities • Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education continues to be a huge challenge • ~15,000 school districts in the US • HS science and math teachers • Public perception of STEM disciplines CT: 1.5 Years Later 58 Jeannette M. Wing Bigger Picture: Societal and Political Issues • • • • • • • • • Climate Change Energy Environment Economics Human Behavior Sustainability Healthcare National security … Competitiveness, Innovation, Leadership CT: 1.5 Years Later 59 Jeannette M. Wing Thanks for Helping to Spread the Word! Make computational thinking commonplace! To fellow faculty, students, researchers, administrators, teachers, parents, principals, guidance counselors, school boards, teachers’ unions, congressmen, policy makers, … CT: 1.5 Years Later 60 Jeannette M. Wing Thank you! Credits • Copyrighted material used under Fair Use. If you are the copyright holder and believe your material has been used unfairly, or if you have any suggestions, feedback, or support, please contact: [email protected] • Except where otherwise indicated, permission is granted to copy, distribute, and/or modify all images in this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation license” (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:GNU_Free_Documentation_License) CT: 1.5 Years Later 62 Jeannette M. Wing