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SUMMARY:What is — and what isn't — computational thinking? And\, why a
 nd how should universities include it in curricula
DTSTART:20171110T121500
DTEND:20171110T131500
DTSTAMP:20260510T232434Z
UID:ec7f1762edfb03a3bd462619ddddd9ea45909e260b9e253774fefee5
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. W. Craig Carter from MIT and invited professor at EPFL\n
 This MARVEL ACCES Seminar is presented in the framework of the 2017 AC
 CES Visualisation Contest.\n\nAbstract — Many universities are consider
 ing how to include "Computational Thinking" into their required curriculum
 .  I think this is a worthy goal.  MIT is struggling with it\; Carnegie 
 Mellon has a Center for Computational Thinking\; Google has a resource for
  educators.  You can google for other instances.  Of course\, I googled 
 on my laptop and used my computer’s word processing program as I was wri
 ting this abstract — these are not examples of computational thinking.
 \n\nHowever\, many — if not all — definitions of Computational Thinkin
 g (CT) are so vague that they are worthless. Some descriptions include sor
 ting and searching algorithms. These remind me of a "Computer Science for 
 Poets" class.  Some descriptions include "algorithmic thinking"\, "decomp
 osition into independent components"\,  "abstraction"\, "pattern recognit
 ion"\, and blah-blah-blah.  Is there any discipline that doesn't inclu
 de these things?  Some of my colleagues at MIT are offended that a "new w
 ay of thinking" would appropriate their traditional tools-of-the-trade.\n\
 nI will give some examples of what I think computational thinking is. I do
 n't try to define it.  I don't think CT is coding or computer languages o
 r apps\, although these are some of the tools a computational thinker mi
 ght use.\n\nI will also describe my efforts to teach computational thinkin
 g in the context of academic disciplines — in my case\, materials scienc
 e\, physics\, and math.  I believe that CT can — and probably should 
 — appear in a wide range of disciplines from arts to zoology.  It certa
 inly would be better if computational thinking (however we define it) woul
 d be taught in the classroom in the context of a discipline.\n\nBio: W. C
 raig Carter is the POSCO Professor of Materials Science at MIT and teaches
  a class at EPFL on Problem Solving for Materials Scientists. He is a Macv
 icar fellow and has received less than five awards for teaching excellence
 . He has also received MIT's Big Screw for the professor who makes student
 s' lives the most miserable — he is obviously a masochist and a sadist.
   Much of his work involves computation and mathematics. Most of his recr
 eational time involves computation and math too.  When he is not doing co
 mputation and math\, mostly he feels ashamed and guilty.
LOCATION:ME B3 31 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room=MEB331
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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