Global Utilities

Seminars - Abstract

Department of Computer Science & Computer Engineering

Topic:   Teaching Tips, Best Practices, and other Initiatives to Improve CS Education
Speaker:   Dr Dan Garcia
Date:   12-11-2007
Time:   3:00 PM
Venue:   PS1 221 - SEMS Meeting Room
Abstract:   ABSTRACT This talk will bring together the common themes of three presentations at SIGCSE earlier this year aimed at improving computer science education. * A collection of great (but often overlooked) teaching tips * The best practices learned from surveying the introductory courses at the top 25 CS programs in the US * The recent activities of the ACM Education Council, pecifically addressing the CS enrollment crisis and providing technology resources for educators. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own teaching tips to share, as well as any "Big Ideas" for improving computer science education globally. About the speaker: Dr Dan Garcia is a Lecturer SOE in the Computer Science Division of the EECS Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and joined the Cal faculty in the fall of 2000. He has won the departmental Diane S. McEntyre Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2002, the departmental Information Technology Faculty Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in 2004, and was chosen as a UC Berkeley "Unsung Hero" in 2005. He recently earned the highest teaching effectiveness ratings in the history of the department's lower-division introductory courses (tied with one other at 6.7 / 7). He has taught (or co-taught as a graduate student instructor, where he won both departmental and campus outstanding GSI awards) courses in teaching techniques, computer graphics, virtual reality, computer animation, self-paced programming as well as the lower-division introductory curriculum. He is active in SIGCSE, and serves on the ACM Education Board as well as BFOIT, a wonderful Berkeley outreach effort. When not on sabbatical (as he is this Fall of 2007 at the University of Melbourne), he mentors over seventy undergraduates spread across four groups he founded in 2001 centered around his research, art and development interests in computer graphics, Macintosh OS X programming, computational game theory and computer science education. He also recently co-developed a computing course for all freshman engineers. Dan received his PhD and MS in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 2000 and 1995, and dual BS degrees in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990.
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Page maintained by: Applications Programmer
Last Updated: 14 October, 2009

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