Repositioning CS

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Repositioning CS

• Increasing Diversity and Creativity
• in Computer Science Education.

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Why Im Here

• John Nordlinger (MSR)
• Kim Pallister (MS WGGT)
• Chris Butcher (Bungie)
• Casey Muratori (MollyRocket)

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Why Im Here

• John Nordlinger (MSR)
• Kim Pallister (MS WGGT)
• Chris Butcher (Bungie)
• Casey Muratori (MollyRocket)
• Passionate About Games!

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What I Do

• PhD in CS _at_ Northwestern University
• Robotics
• Art Technology
• AI and Games
• Thesis Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment

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Also

• GDC, IGDA, etc.
• Study Games Game Development
• Teach Game Design and Tuning
• Conduct Academic Outreach

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Goals

• Confront technical problems
• Consider the design perspective
• Facilitate interdisciplinary dialog
• Diversity, diversity, diversity

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Making Another Me

• Exposure
• K-8, 9-12
• Undergraduate
• Graduate
• Connections
• New Directions

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Repositioning CS

• A foundation for procedural thinking
• Extended via interdisciplinary work
• Applied to real-world problems
• Attract (and keep) new folks

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The Wonder Years
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1984

• Dad Nuclear Engineer, TQM
• Mom Historian, Basket Weaver
• Brother Music, Sports
• Me Cosmos and Cartoons

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Mac Gyver Indiana Jones

• Tinkering
• Making new stuff
• Taking apart stuff
• Exploring
• Climbing things
• Getting lost
• Archeology

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Games!

• ATARI
• NES/SNES
• SNES
• M.U.L.E

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Games!

• ATARI
• NES/SNES
• SNES
• M.U.L.E
• Property of Your Brother!

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Gifted

• Separate course, once a week
• Stories with holes, brain teasers
• Computer Typing Game
• Early Mac
• Limited exposure
• No notion of programming

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Skidmore Summers

• Make Stuff!
• Use Computers to draw!
• Again, limited access
• Focus on special or gifted kids
• Never tied to programming or math

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Night and Day

• Science
• In school
• Fixed
• About them
• Art
• Outside
• Flexible
• About me!

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The Life of the Mind
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7-12 Ugh!

• Aptitude in math and science
• Increased focus on humanities and
  extracurriculars (yearbook, literature)
• Decreased overall enthusiasm

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Camp Saves the Day (Again)

• Homerton College, Cambridge UK
• Poetry and Creative Writing
• Fine Art and Photography
• William Blake
• Computers!
• Art vs. Liberal Arts

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Programming as a Liberal Art

• Bill Sterner Don Crabb
• Aristotle, Turing, Turkle, Tversky
• Ecologies and Architecture
• Creating new artifacts

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Choose Your Own Adventure

• General Studies in the Humanities
• Film
• Fine Art
• Oral/Historical Narrative
• Womens Studies
• Computer Programming
• Focus Storytelling and memory

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No CS Major

• Take classes
• Seek mentors
• Experiment
• This worked pretty well!

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Lab Work

• AI
• Stories as memory (CBR)
• Context/Remindings
• Opportunism/Learning
• Games
• Graduate Studies?

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Connections
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Grad School?

• Women in CS
• Should I take the plunge?
• Ellen Spertus
• Math Lovers Only!

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Grad School?

• Women in CS
• Should I take the plunge?
• Ellen Spertus
• Math Lovers Only!
• I AM STUBBORN.

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Grad School!

• Day Basics
• Traditional CS curriculum
• Individual assignments
• Night Projects
• KR and IR systems
• Pair-wise, often
• Architecture and Interface Design
• Games

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Grad School II

• New School
• New Group
• New Areas
• Narrative Intelligence
• Game Studies
• Game AI

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New Community

• Opportunities to volunteer
• Explore new ideas
• Learn from each other
• Make better games

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New Resources

• Indie Game Jam
• Experimental Gameplay Workshop
• Game Design Workshop

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Familiar Challenges

• IGDA
• Education Committee
• WomenDev
• Student Mentoring

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Theory and Practice

• Working with people
• Towards a common goal
• Using procedural knowledge to communicate about
  hard problems
• Improving the community as a whole

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However

• Publishing?
• Funding?
• Long-term value?

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Repositioning CS
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Enrollment

• Why is it falling?
• How to people think about CS?
• What can we do about it?

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Why CS?

• Accessible?
• Expressive?
• Useful?
• Enjoyable?
• Profitable?

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CS as a Discipline

• Credibility, Specialization Focus
• Common Languages Styles

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CS as a Discipline

• Credibility, Specialization Focus
• Common Languages Styles
• Boundaries and Inertia
• Stereotypes
• Dark room, screen full of code

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CS as a Tool

• Expertise is awesome but.
• Teach tools first
• Polish craft later
• Start early
• Stories with holes
• Scientific method
• Expand view of machines
• Highlight procedural thinking

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Expression and Impact

• Project Choice
• Art Class, Camp, etc.
• What does your work say about you?
• What you have to show it?
• Real world applications?

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Support

• Trailblazing is nice
• Bridges may be better
• Journals and conferences
• Web sites, mailing lists and student groups
• Travel and internship programs

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Integration

• Core values

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Integration

• Core values
• Community

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Integration

• Core values
• Community
• Projects

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Integration

• Core values
• Community
• Projects
• Assess Problems
• Share Knowledge
• Create Solutions

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Game Curriculums

• Digipen
• CMU
• MIT
• USC
• IT Copenhagen
• Others

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Other Areas

• Robotics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Environmental Science
• Economics and Business
• Design and Innovations Research

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What about

• Film
• Fine Art
• Music
• Theatre and Performance
• Gender and Cultural Studies
• Critical Theory

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Animate Arts

• Bauhaus model
• Scheme-based tools
• Demystify procedural thinking
• Reinforce creative drives
• Service-oriented approach

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Inspiration

• New contributors
• Cross-pollination
• Long-term relationships
• Groundbreaking work

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Questions?

• IGDA www.igda.org
• GDC www.gdcon.com
• EGW www.experimental-gameplay.com
• IGJ www.indiegamejam.com
• Or www.cs.northwestern.edu/hunicke

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