Annual Report 2018-2019

LETTER FROM THE DEAN I am pleased to share with you the 2018-19 College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) annual report, highlighting the important work done by our faculty, students, and staff. We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again: it was a big year. In 2018-19, programs across all three of our schools (Computing, Cinematic Arts, and Design) were ranked nationally. Our faculty were published in dozens of scholarly journals, screened their films over 100 times, and had their work exhibited globally. Student and alumni accomplishments included an Emmy nomination, a first place win in a Department of Energy competition, and features in trade publications--to name just a few. We worked to create new programs (including undergraduate and graduate comedy filmmaking programs in collaboration with The Second City) and continued our work in others (our NSF- funded Medical Informatics Experiences program celebrated its fifteenth year). Our makerspace, the Idea Realization Lab, clocked its 10,000th visit as we made plans to open a new IRL in Lincoln Park. And, we will continue to create the innovative programs and facilities that make us CDM. You can look forward to new programs like industrial design, and new labs that focus on everything from Internet of Things to design industry collaborations. I am proud of our CDM community, and I hope you feel that same sense of pride as you read through this report. David MillerDeanhttps://via.library.depaul.edu/cdmannual/1002/thumbnail.jp

Annual Report 2020-2021

LETTER FROM THE DEAN As I write this letter during the beginning of the 2021–22 academic year, we have started to welcome the majority of our students to campus— many for the very first time, and some for the first time in a year and a half. It has been wonderful to be together, in-person, again. Four quarters of learning and working remotely was challenging, to be sure, but I have been consistently amazed by the resilience, innovation, and hard work of our students, faculty, and staff, even in the most difficult of circumstances. This annual report, covering the 2020–21 academic year—one that was entirely virtual—highlights many of those examples: from a second place national ranking by our Security Daemons team to hosting a blockbuster virtual screenwriting conference with top talent; from gaming grants helping us reach historically excluded youth to alumni successes across our three schools. Recently, I announced that, after 40 years at DePaul and 15 years as the Dean of CDM, I will be stepping down from the deanship at the end of the 2021–22 academic year. I began my tenure at DePaul in 1981 as an assistant professor, with the founding of the Department of Computer Science, joining seven faculty members who were leaving the mathematics department for this new venture. It has been amazing to watch our college grow during that time. We now have more than 40 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, over 22,000 college alumni, and a catalog of nationally ranked programs. And we plan to keep going. If there is anything I’ve learned at CDM, it’s that a lot can be accomplished in a year (as this report shows), and I’m committed to working hard and continuing the progress we’ve made together in 2021–22. David MillerDeanhttps://via.library.depaul.edu/cdmannual/1004/thumbnail.jp

Annual Report 2017-2018

LETTER FROM THE DEAN I am pleased to share with you the College of Computing and Digital Media’s (CDM) 2017-18 annual report, highlighting the many achievements across our community. It was a big year. We began offering five new programs (two bachelor’s, two master’s, and one PhD) across our three schools, in addition to several new certificate programs through our Institute for Professional Development. We built new, cutting-edge spaces to support these and other programs— most notably a 4,500 square-foot makerspace, a robotics and medical engineering lab, an augmented and virtual reality lab, and plans for a cyber-physical systems project lab. Our faculty continued to pursue their research and creative agendas, offering collaborative opportunities with students and partners. CDM students and alumni were celebrated for their many achievements— everything from leading the winning teams at the U.S. Cyber Challenge and Campus 1871 to showcasing their games at juried festivals and winning national screenwriting competitions. We encouraged greater research and teaching collaboration, both between our own schools and with units outside CDM. Design and Computing faculty are working together on an NSA grant for smart home devices that considers both software and interface/design, as well as a new grant-funded game lab. One Project Bluelight film team collaborated with The Theatre School and the School of Music while CDM and College of Science and Health faculty joined forces to research the links between traumatic brain injury, domestic violence, and deep games. It has been exciting and inspiring to witness the accomplishments of our innovative and dedicated community. We are proud to provide the space and resources for them to do their exceptional work. David MillerDean, College of Computing and Digital Mediahttps://via.library.depaul.edu/cdmannual/1001/thumbnail.jp

Widening the Pipeline: Identifying Practices and Structures That Effectively Recruit and Retain African-American Females in Undergraduate Computer Science Programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

The underrepresentation of women and women of color in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is of little surprise to those of us who have kept abreast of the statistical data supporting this phenomenon. In order for the United States (U.S.) to remain “economically and globally competitive” (Ong, 2011, p. 32), it needs to increase its “advanced domestic science and technology workforce” (Ong, 2011, p.32). Perhaps, it is not a coincidence that the majority of students attending U.S. colleges are female, and the number of minority students entering college is on the rise. However, when one looks at the number of women of color entering college and the number of whom are pursuing a STEM degree, there is a significant decrease. Furthermore, the pipeline is even narrower for women pursuing computer science (CS) degrees. This exploratory qualitative study was focused on one historically Black university located in the southeast region of the U.S. This study utilized a grounded theory qualitative inquiry approach to identify practices and strategies utilized by the historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) to effectively recruit and retain undergraduate African-American women in its CS program. The findings suggest the importance of K-12 experiences, supportive relationships among students and faculty, industry partnerships, and relevant and challenging experiences

Annual Report 2016-2017

The College of Computing and Digital Media has always prided itself on curriculum, creative work, and research that stays current with changes in our various fields of instruction. As we looked back on our 2016-17 academic year, the need to chronicle the breadth and excellence of this work became clear. We are pleased to share with you this annual report, our first, highlighting our accomplishments. Last year, we began offering three new graduate programs and two new certificate programs. We also planned six degree programs and three new certificate programs for implementation in the current academic year. CDM faculty were published more than 100 times, had their films screened more than 200 times, and participated in over two dozen exhibitions. Our students were recognized for their scholarly and creative work, and our alumni accomplished amazing things, from winning a Student Academy Award to receiving a Pulitzer. We are proud of all the work we have done together. One notable priority for us in 2016-17 was creating and strengthening relationships with industry—including expanding our footprint at Cinespace and developing the iD Lab—as well as with the community, through partnerships with the Chicago Housing Authority, Wabash Lights, and other nonprofit organizations. We look forward to continuing to provide innovative programs and spaces this academic year. Two areas in particular we’ve been watching closely are makerspaces and the “internet of things.” We’ve already made significant commitments to these areas through the creation of our 4,500 square foot makerspace, the Idea Realization Lab, and our new cyber-physical systems bachelor’s program and lab. We are excited to continue providing the opportunities, curriculum, and facilities to support our remarkable students. David MillerDean, College of Computing and Digital Mediahttps://via.library.depaul.edu/cdmannual/1000/thumbnail.jp

Senior Computer Science Students’ Task and Revised Task Interpretation While Engaged in Programming Endeavor

Developing a computer program is not an easy task. Studies reported that a large number of computer science students decided to change their major due to the extreme challenge in learning programming. Fortunately, studies also reported that learning various self-regulation strategies may help students to continue studying computer science. This study is interested in assessing students’ self-regulation, in specific their task understanding and its revision during programming endeavors. Task understanding is specifically selected because it affects the entire programming endeavor. In this qualitative case study, two female and two male senior computer science students were voluntarily recruited as research participants. They were asked to think aloud while answering five programming problems. Before solving the problem, they had to explain their understanding of the task and after that answer some questions related to their problem-solving process. The participants’ problem-solving process were video and audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed. This study found that the participants’ were capable of tailoring their problem-solving approach to the task types, including when understanding the tasks. Given enough time, the participants can understand the problem correctly. When the task is complicated, the participants will gradually update their understanding during the problem-solving endeavor. Some situations may have prevented the participants from understanding the task correctly, including overconfidence, being overwhelmed, utilizing an inappropriate presentation technique, or drawing knowledge from irrelevant experience. Last, the participants tended to be inexperienced in managing unfavorable outcomes

Diversity in Computer Science

This is an open access book that covers the complete set of experiences and results of the FemTech.dk research which we have had conducted between 2016-2021 – from initiate idea to societal communication. Diversity in Computer Science: Design Artefacts for Equity and Inclusion presents and documents the principles, results, and learnings behind the research initiative FemTech.dk, which was created in 2016 and continues today as an important part of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen’s strategic development for years to come. FemTech.dk was created in 2016 to engage with research within gender and diversity and to explore the role of gender equity as part of digital technology design and development. FemTech.dk considers how and why computer science as a field and profession in Denmark has such a distinct unbalanced gender representation in the 21st century. This book is also the story of how we (the authors) as computer science researchers embarked on a journey to engage with a new research field – equity and gender in computing – about which we had only sporadic knowledge when we began. We refer here to equity and gender in computing as a research field – but in reality, this research field is a multiplicity of entangled paths, concepts, and directions that forms important and critical insights about society, gender, politics, and infrastructures which are published in different venues and often have very different sets of criteria, values, and assumptions. Thus, part of our journey is also to learn and engage with all these different streams of research, concepts, and theoretical approaches and, through these engagements, to identify and develop our own theoretical platform, which has a foundation in our research backgrounds in Human–Computer Interaction broadly – and Interaction Design & Computer Supported Cooperative Work specifically

Diversity in Computer Science

This is an open access book that covers the complete set of experiences and results of the FemTech.dk research which we have had conducted between 2016-2021 – from initiate idea to societal communication. Diversity in Computer Science: Design Artefacts for Equity and Inclusion presents and documents the principles, results, and learnings behind the research initiative FemTech.dk, which was created in 2016 and continues today as an important part of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen’s strategic development for years to come. FemTech.dk was created in 2016 to engage with research within gender and diversity and to explore the role of gender equity as part of digital technology design and development. FemTech.dk considers how and why computer science as a field and profession in Denmark has such a distinct unbalanced gender representation in the 21st century. This book is also the story of how we (the authors) as computer science researchers embarked on a journey to engage with a new research field – equity and gender in computing – about which we had only sporadic knowledge when we began. We refer here to equity and gender in computing as a research field – but in reality, this research field is a multiplicity of entangled paths, concepts, and directions that forms important and critical insights about society, gender, politics, and infrastructures which are published in different venues and often have very different sets of criteria, values, and assumptions. Thus, part of our journey is also to learn and engage with all these different streams of research, concepts, and theoretical approaches and, through these engagements, to identify and develop our own theoretical platform, which has a foundation in our research backgrounds in Human–Computer Interaction broadly – and Interaction Design & Computer Supported Cooperative Work specifically

Learning Programming Through Robots: A Mixed-Methods Study on the Effects of Educational Robotics on Programming Comprehension and Motivation of Preservice Teachers

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the effect educational robotics have on the programming comprehension and motivation of preservice teachers. Computer science is increasingly being integrated into K-8 curricula across the country. However, there are few teachers trained to teach basic computer science concepts. Core subject teachers are being asked to shoulder the load of integrating computer science concepts into their instruction. Educational robotics have gained attention for their potential to aid users with comprehension and motivation while learning to program. This convergent parallel mixed methods research thus investigated (1) the effect of educational robotics on preservice teachers’ comprehension of programming concepts, and (2) how and to what extent that educational robotics influence preservice teachers\u27 motivation related to programming. This study utilized educational robotics to teach preservice teachers (N = 18) programming. Data were obtained through a pretest/posttest Programming Comprehension Assessment, a pre/post Programming Motivation Survey, individual interviews, and field notes. Paired sample t-tests, Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests, and inductive analysis were used to analyze the data. Quantitative data exhibited significant score increases from pretest to posttest, and significant motivation increases from pre-survey to post-survey. Qualitative data revealed five themes; (1) participants perceived that a problem-based robotics curriculum improved their intrinsic motivation toward programming, (2) participants agreed that knowing programming as a skill had advantages as a teacher, (3) participants experienced self-determination toward programming in the face of robotics challenges, (4) participants perceived that the gradually increasing level of difficulty in the robotics curriculum improved their self-efficacy about programming from initially low levels, and (5) participants perceived programming as a viable fit in their future classrooms. The findings of this study indicate that preservice teachers’ comprehension of programming concepts and motivation related to programming can be improved through educational robotics. This research has implications for informing preservice teacher educators integrating programming concepts into their instruction. Recommendations are provided for programming curriculum design