Computational Thinking for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing President’s Professor of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University and Assistant Director Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate National Science Foundation  2008 Jeannette M. Wing

Outline Computational Thinking Research and Education Implications A Vision for our Field The Two A’s to CT Research and Education Implications Two and a Half Years Later… External Response and Impact Reality Check CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

My Grand Vision for the Field Computational thinking will be a fundamental skill used by everyone in the world by the middle of the 21st Century. Just like reading, writing, and arithmetic. Imagine every child knowing how to think like a computer scientist! Incestuous: Computing and computers will enable the spread of computational thinking. In research: scientists, engineers, …, historians, artists In education: K-12 students and teachers, undergrads, … Thinking computationally not programming Fundamental skill not rote skill Computing not computers: pervasive computing/computers is passe: 20th Century! “used by” ambitious. Certainly needed to function in modern society In research: long-term; in education: nearer-term (outreach, diversity, changing society’s view of our field) J.M. Wing, “Computational Thinking,” CACM Viewpoint, March 2006, pp. 33-35. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~wing/ CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Examples of Computational Thinking C.T. is thinking recursively. C.T. is reformulating a seemingly difficult problem into one which we know how to solve. Reduction, embedding, transformation, simulation C.T. is choosing an appropriate representation or modeling the relevant aspects of a problem to make it tractable. C.T. is using abstraction and decomposition in tackling a large complex task. C.T. is prevention, detection, and recovery from worst-case scenarios through redundancy, damage containment, and error correction. C.T. is modularizing something in anticipation of multiple users and prefetching and caching in anticipation of future use. C.T. is using the difficulty of solving hard AI problems to foil computing agents. C.T. is taking an approach to solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior that draws on concepts fundamental to computer science. CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

The First A to Computational Thinking Abstractions are our “mental” tools The abstraction process includes Choosing the right abstractions Operating simultaneously at multiple layers of abstraction Defining the relationships the between layers CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

The Second A to Computational Thinking The power of our “mental” tools is amplified by our “metal” tools. Automation is mechanizing our abstractions, abstraction layers, and their relationships Mechanization is possible due to precise and exacting notations and models There is some “computer” below (human or machine, virtual or physical) CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Two A’s to C.T. Combined Computing is the automation of our abstractions They give us the audacity and ability to scale. Computational thinking choosing the right abstractions, etc. choosing the right “computer” for the task CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Research Implications CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

CT in Other Sciences, Math, and Engineering Biology - Shotgun algorithm expedites sequencing of human genome - DNA sequences are strings in a language - Protein structures can be modeled as knots - Protein kinetics can be modeled as computational processes - Cells as a self-regulatory system are like electronic circuits Credit: Wikipedia Brain Science - Modeling the brain as a computer - Vision as a feedback loop - Analyzing fMRI data with machine learning Credit: LiveScience CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

CT in Other Sciences, Math, and Engineering Credit: University of Minnesota Chemistry [Madden, Fellow of Royal Society of Edinburgh] Atomistic calculations are used to explore chemical phenomena Optimization and searching algorithms identify best chemicals for improving reaction conditions to improve yields Geology - Modeling the earth’s surface to the sun, from the inner core to the surface - Abstraction boundaries and hierarchies of complexity model the earth and our atmosphere Credit: NASA CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

CT in Other Sciences, Math, and Engineering Astronomy - Sloan Digital Sky Server brings a telescope to every child - KD-trees help astronomers analyze very large multi-dimensional datasets Credit: SDSS Mathematics - Discovering E8 Lie Group: 18 mathematicians, 4 years and 77 hours of supercomputer time (200 billion numbers). Profound implications for physics (string theory) - Four-color theorem proof Credit: Wikipedia Engineering (electrical, civil, mechanical, aero & astro,…) - Calculating higher order terms implies more precision, which implies reducing weight, waste, costs in fabrication - Boeing 777 tested via computer simulation alone, not in a wind tunnel Credit: Boeing CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

CT for Society Economics - Automated mechanism design underlies electronic commerce, e.g., ad placement, on-line auctions, kidney exchange - Internet marketplace requires revisiting Nash equilibria model Social Sciences - Social networks explain phenomena such as MySpace, YouTube - Statistical machine learning is used for recommendation and reputation services, e.g., Netflix, affinity card CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

CT for Society Medicine - Robotic surgery - Electronic health records require privacy technologies - Scientific visualization enables virtual colonoscopy Credit: University of Utah Humanities - What do you do with a million books? Nat’l Endowment for the Humanities Inst of Museum and Library Services Law - Stanford CL approaches include AI, temporal logic, state machines, process algebras, petri nets - POIROT Project on fraud investigation is creating a detailed ontology of European law - Sherlock Project on crime scene investigation CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

CT for Society Entertainment Arts Sports - Games - Movies - Dreamworks uses HP data center to renderShrek and Madagascar - Lucas Films uses 2000-node data center to produce Pirates of the Caribbean. Credit: Dreamworks SKG Credit: Carnegie Mellon University CT for Society Sports - Lance Armstrong’s cycling computer tracks man and machine statistics - Synergy Sports analyzes digital videos NBA games Credit: Wikipedia Arts - Art (e.g., Robotticelli) - Drama - Music - Photography Credit: Christian Moeller CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Educational Impact CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Colleges and Universities are Revisiting Curricula Carnegie Mellon: Tom Cortina’s 15-105 MIT: John Guttag’s 6.00 (for freshmen) Georgia Tech: UG: “Threads”, Mark Guzdial, “Learning Computing with Robots,” Tucker Balch and Deepak Kumar (Bryn Mawr) Grad: Alexander Gray and Nick Feamster Columbia: Al Aho Princeton: PICASso, for non-CS graduate students … Villanova, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Georgetown, … U Wisconsin-La Crosse, … CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

© 2008 Microsoft Corporation CT for Everyone © 2008 Microsoft Corporation Jeannette M. Wing

Reach Through NSF CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

CISE CPATH Broadening Participation in Computing Revisiting undergrad curricula Enlarge scope to include outreach to K-12 Broadening Participation in Computing Women, underrepresented minorities, people with disabilities Alliances and demo projects CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

CPATH Awards Specific to CT Brown De Paul Georgia State North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Middle Tennessee State University Penn State University Towson University University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign University of Nebraska University of Texas, El Paso Utah State Villanova Virginia Tech Washington State CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Beyond CISE Challenge to Community: What is an effective way of teaching (learning) computational thinking to (by) K-12? Computational Thinking for Children National Academies Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB): Workshops on CT for Everyone. Collaborating with Board on Science Education. Cyber-enabled Learning Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate, Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI), Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE), and CISE CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Other Educational and Outreach Activities Peter Denning’s “Rebooting Computing Summit”, Jan 2009 Andy van Dam is CRA-E “Education Czar” ACM Ed Council CS4HS: Lenore Blum’s vision: “CS4HS in every state!” Women@SCS Roadshow Image of Computing Task Force: Jill Ross, Rick Rashid, Jim Foley CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Two Messages for the General Public Intellectually challenging and engaging scientific problems in computer science remain to be understood and solved. Limited only by our curiosity and creativity One can major in computer science and do anything. Just like English, political science, or mathematics CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Two and a Half Years Later: Research Computing Community NSF CMU Microsoft NEH, ILMS Computational Thinking CDI all sciences and engineering Center for CT computer science, arts, humanities, … CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Research Challenges and Opportunities CT for other sciences and engineering and beyond It’s inevitable They need us, they want us It’s about abstractions and symbolic “calculations” not just number-crunching CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Two and a Half Years Later: Education ACM-Ed CRA-E CSTA Computing Community NSF Rebooting K-12 National Academies workshops Computational Thinking CPATH BPC AP CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Educational Challenges and Opportunities Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education continues to be a huge challenge ~15,000 school districts in the US HS science and math teachers Public perception of STEM disciplines CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Bigger Picture: Societal and Political Issues Climate Change Energy Environment Economics Human Behavior Sustainability Healthcare National security … Competitiveness, Innovation, Leadership CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Broad Charge To You Help the community define a strategy for determining what, if anything, of computational thinking makes sense to teach at the K-12 level. where community = computer scientists, educators, learning/cognitive scientists what, if anything, of computational thinking = concepts/principles/skills underlying computing K-12 = especially early grades CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Questions What are the fundamental concepts of CT? Elemental? What would be an effective ordering of these concepts? How best should we integrate The Computer with teaching the concepts? CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Long-term view Analogy It’s NOT just curriculum design. What physics did for itself decades ago. What math did and continues to do periodically. It’s NOT just curriculum design. How do children learn what when? CT for Everyone Jeannette M. Wing

Thank you!