Devika Subramanian, Rice

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Using social relevance to enhance CS

• Devika Subramanian, Rice
• Mike Buckley, Univ of Buffalo
• John Nordlinger, Microsoft Research
• SIGCSE 08

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Agenda Social Relevance Computer Science (CS)

• Problem Declining enrollment of CS
• Opportunity Make better CS better with socially
  relevant themes.
• What is being done and what is available?
• Mike Buckley, Univ of Buffalo
• Devika Subramanian, Rice.

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U.S. Gov (finally) takes notice

• Emergence of Asia as major locus of technical
  expertise concerns U.S. policymakers.
• For instance, China produces 4x as many engineers
  as the U.S.
• Merrilea Mayo, National Academy of Science

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Socially relevant top down

• What problems are affecting society from the
  students perspective?
• Global warming, environment
• How are students influenced?
• http//www.digg.com/
• Movies and TV- especially The Daily Show
• Not Newspapers, not slashdot
• Some radio talk, including NPR.

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Socially relevant - bottom up

• What is most relevant to students and how can we
  make computers and programming more compelling to
  them.  
• MP3 music file management, MySpace, facebook,
  enhancements, shopping bots for best price,
  accessibility, tools for personal finance or
  health, and so on. 
• Building community and relationships.

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Why include social relevance as part of a
traditional CS curriculum?

• Students get EXCITED! Reach more diverse set of
  students.
• Hands on/practical approach to using computer
  science solve real problems.
• An ability to scale degree of difficulty over
  time
• A chance to make kids feel better about their
  role in society and CSs role in the world.

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Where have all the freshmen gone?

• To other branches of engineering and science
• Why?
• Believe CS curriculum to be narrow (CS
  programming)
• Computing for its own sake is unappealing
• Foresee Dilbertian futures as programmer cogs
• Perceive other fields (especially BioE and EE) as
  having greater opportunities, and as empowering
  them with concepts and tools to solve important
  problems in the real world.
• Can always hire/work with a CS grad to program
  their creative ideas.
• CS perceived as a support function/overhead not
  a main line/value-generating function in most
  of the business world.

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The price of success

• Ubiquity of computers and computation in our
  daily lives has made it less interesting as an
  object of study.
• The action has shifted to the next innovative USE
  of computation and our current curricular
  structure does not prepare students for
  recognizing and leveraging these opportunities.
• Memorizing /-// tables vs solving
• Larry and Moe weigh 170 pounds together. Moe and
  Curly weigh 150 pounds together. What is the
  weight difference between Larry and Curly?
• We have, for the most part, let outsiders define
  who we are .
• Fortunately, this is changing.

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What Computer Science really is

• The place where a small group of people can still
  make revolutionary advances in all areas of
  society.
• Microsoft which made computers accessible to the
  masses started only 25 years ago (1981)
• Google which made information accessible to the
  masses less than 10 years ago (1998)
• More than half the top 10 discoveries in 2007 in
  Science enabled by computation.
• The home of an amazing number of transformative
  ideas and technologies (Wikipedia, Facebook,
  eBay)
• The primary technological enabler for solving
  real-world problems creating needs and meeting
  them!

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So, what is socially relevant computing?

• It is computing
• for a cause, for a purpose.
• Can we evacuate Houston in 72 hours?
• Can we predict the efficacy of a cancer drug for
  patients by using their genomic and proteomic
  profiles?
• that meets a need in some context.
• How can computation help me organize my music, my
  thoughts?
• Embeds the study of computer science in the
  context of problems of relevance to society and
  to students.

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Courses that tie computer science to real world
needs

• There is plenty of room for innovation in courses
  that tie CS to the real world.
• New CS1/CS2 course at offered in Fall 2007/Spring
  2008 in conjunction with Civil Environmental
  Engineering and Political Science, with support
  from the City of Houston, to build computational
  tools for planning citys response to major
  hurricanes.
• New freshman course in computation and problem
  solving funded by a seed grant from Microsoft.
• Amazing examples from Mike Buckley at Buffalo and
  their incorporation in courses from
  freshman/sophomore to junior/senior.

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BioE 301 at Rice

• This course provides an overview of contemporary
  technological advances to improve human health.
  We will consider four questions throughout the
  semester
• What are the problems in healthcare today?
• Who pays to solve problems in healthcare?
• How can we use science and technology to solve
  healthcare problems?
• Once developed, how do new healthcare
  technologies move from the lab to the bedside?
• http//www.owlnet.rice.edu/bioe301/kortum/class/c
  ourseinfo/syllabus.asp

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Course objectives BioE301

• compare and contrast answers to these questions
  throughout the developed and developing worlds.
• consider legal and ethical issues associated with
  developing new medical technologies.
• use case studies to examine a number of diseases
  and healthcare technologies.
• explore a disease and a health technology in more
  detail as course project.

http//www.owlnet.rice.edu/bioe301/kortum/class/c
ourseinfo/syllabus.asp
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Evacuation Zoning

• Current disaster management strategies

• ZIP code level evacuation policy
• Requires large scale evacuation
• Relies on intercity sheltering
• Aggregates data at the ZIP code level

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Agent-Based Modeling

• Multi-disciplinary Approach

What is the actual risk?
Estimation of flood and wind risk
at individual households
What is the perceived risk?
Behavioral characterization of households
Data-Rich Environment Demographic
characterization Post-disaster utility
availability Best intra-city sheltering and
escape routes Evacuation policies
Agent-based modeling of evacuation and sheltering
What are the resulting collective dynamics?
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Computational Thinking
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The new face of computer science

• Computation offers fundamental conceptual and
  technological tools for solving real-world
  problems.
• New curriculum will give students the
  intellectual foundations and tools to
• Identify or create tasks/needs
• Abstract and model computational aspects of
  tasks.
• Design and implement computational solutions,
  with deep understanding of its embedding in the
  world.
• This is the vision of socially relevant
  computing.

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Socially relevant computing

• Offers interesting problems to illustrate
  foundations of computer science.
• Provides opportunities to students/teachers to
  solve problems that are meaningful to them and to
  their communities.
• Emphasizes problem solving, recognizing or
  creating needs, and engineering solutions using
  computation.
• Creates a more entrepreneurial, broadly educated
  computer scientist.

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Our Clients Customers
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Our First Client ElderWood Senior Care at
Oakwood, Williamsville, NY

• Motivation
• David, a 43-year old stroke patient who has been
  speech impaired for over 20 years.
• Previously communicated using a letter board
• Commercial technology solutions were not adequate
  for David
• Result
• The UB Talker was developed for David by students
• VESID (Vocational and Educational Services for
  Individuals with Disabilities) has purchased a
  tablet PC for David.
• David will be working with our research group as
  a consultant.

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UB Talker
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Social Relevance Community Website

• Academic course materials, project ideas,
  project registration, networking site
• Community Outreach organizations can request
  help
• Industry companies can sponsor projects
• Organizational a community and a clearinghouse
  of ideas