Areas of Interest: computer science, computers, cognition, World Wide Web, Internet, artificial intelligence, robotics. As director of the Computers and Cognition Group (CCG), I am interested in understanding such issues as whether computers can behave intelligently, what it would mean if they could be intelligent, and how they can help us to be more intelligent. The CCG currently has two federally funded research projects: The Semantic Web: The existing web is very good at letting people share information, but it is not so good at letting computers understand that information. We are collaborating with the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT to build next-generation web infrastructure. This project involves both some specific hacking projects - gluing existing systems together, for example - and some technical work in philosophy and semantics. Rethinking CS101: We have designed a new and somewhat radical way to teach introductory computer programming. In this project, we're exporting that curriculum to other institutions and building a web version. We'll also prepare the infrastructure for this spring's Olin Software course. In addition, we have some smaller projects: Gender and Science: We have an annotated bibliography of readings; we'd like to turn it into a web site, expand it, and connect it with some other resources out in the world. We'd especially like to hook it up with the efforts of the Institute for Women and Technology. Robotics and Education: We are working to publish the proceedings of a workshop on this topic in 2001.
Articles
Casting a Wider Net, Science (2012)
This article is a book review of Mung Chiang's book Networked Life: 20 Questions and...
(Re)defining Computing Curricula by (Re)defining Computing (with Charles L. Isbell, Robb Cutler, Jeffrey Forbes, Linda Fraser, John Impagliazzo, Viera Proulx, Steve Russ, Richard Thomas, and Yan Yu), ACM SIGCSE Bulletin (2009)
What is the core of Computing? This paper defines the discipline of computing as centered...
The Olin Curriculum: Thinking Toward the Future (with Mark Somerville; David Anderson; Hillary Berbeco; John Bourne; Jill Crisman; Diana Dabby; Helen Donis-Keller; Stephen Holt; Sherra E. Kerns; David V. Kerns, Jr.; Robert Martello; Richard Miller; Michael Moody; Gill Pratt; Joanne C. Pratt; Christina Shea; Stephen Schiffman; Sarah Spence Adams; Jonathan Stolk; Brian D. Storey; Burt S. Tilley; Benjamin Vandiver; and Yevgeniya Zastavker), IEEE Transactions on Education (2005)
In 1997, the F. W. Olin Foundation of New York established the Franklin W. Olin...
If Emulation is Representation, Does Detail Matter?, Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2004)
One property of the emulator framework presented by Grush is that imagery operates off-line. Contrary...
Challenging the Computational Metaphor: Implications for How We Think, Cybernetics and Systems: An International Journal (1999)
This paper explores the role of the traditional computational metaphor in our thinking as computer...
Conference Proceedings
Designing a Small-Footprint Curriculum in Computer Science (with Allen B. Downey), 36th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference (2006)
We describe an innovative computing curriculum that combines elements of computer science, engineering and design....
Work in Progress - A Provisional Competency Assessment System (with Mark Somerville, Debbie Chachra, Jonathan Chambers, Ellen Cooney, Kristen Dorsey, John B. Geddes, Gill Pratt, Kathryn Rivard, Ann Schaffner, Jonathan Stolk, Stephen Westwood, and Yevgeniya V. Zastavker), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference (2005)
Over the last two years Olin College has been defining and implementing a provisional system...