CENTER Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon Computer Science DepartmentSchool of Computer Science
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Outreach Roadshow

The main goals of the ALADDIN Center's education component are to:

  • Make algorithms accessible and enjoyable to a wider audience.
  • Educate more rapidly domain experts about new algorithms and algorithmic techniques.
  • Educate further the theory community on the needs of the domains.

To address and meet these goals, ALADDIN will be sponsoring a series of interrelated activities which include development, dissemination, outreach and collaboration:

CASE STUDIES

Based on the PROBEs, case studies will be developed on how algorithms get used in a range of applications. These case studies will describe both the experience of getting algorithms into use, as well as details of their implementation. These studies will serve to help domain experts see how algorithms can be used, to help algorithm designers learn how to effect technology transfer, and to help motivate the study of algorithms in course work.

TUTORIALS

The ALADDIN Center will develop tutorials geared to specific domain experts.
We intend that these tutorials could be used in the context of a course, in conjunction with a conference, or for individual study. Some of these tutorials will be developed in conjunction with presentations given at initial PROBE meetings aimed at facilitating communication between researchers from different disciplines.

NEW APPROACHES TO DEVELOPING ALGORITHMS

The ALADDIN Center will develop courses, which integrate applications with theory, at least as motivation, while maintaining the same level of theoretical rigor as traditional courses. In particular, we will develop an undergraduate course based on Guy Blelloch's graduate course "Algorithms in the Real World" .

PROGRAMS for HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

The Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon has developed a highly acclaimed summer program for high school students called "Andrew's Leap" , co-developed and run by Steven Rudich. In collaboration with the Center, a significant algorithms component will be introduced into the program.

WORKSHOPS FOR COLLEGE FACULTY AND STUDENTS

The Center will run summer Workshops for college faculty interested in introducing "Algorithms in the Real World" into the undergraduate curriculum. Sessions for students are also included (REU Summer 2002 Symposia). In addition to the evident curricular goals, we intend that our Workshops will help promote the participation of underrepresented groups in computer science. We believe that the Center's research programs and our experiences in recruiting women into computer science (see Women@SCS ), make us ideally suited to accomplish these goals.

The Educational Component will be fully integrated with the Research Component. For example, the case studies will be largely based on the problem-oriented explorations and will in turn be used in the course development and Workshops. In designing our Workshops, we will work collaboratively with a core planning group including faculty from undergraduate colleges and our industrial partners. We intend that these joint educational efforts will also foster a climate for ongoing research collaborations.

 

THE WOMEN@SCS OUTREACH ROADSHOW

The Outreach Roadshow is supported in part by the NSF-ALADDIN Center . It is a presentation by a group of women undergrads and grads in the school of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon who talk about their early thoughts on Computer Science, why/how they began studying the area, their current experiences, what Computer Science means to them now, and their future hopes and expectations. The presentation includes a slide show, Q and A interaction, and a simple demo. The intended audiences include middle school girls and boys, parents and teachers, and all who are interested in gender equity and computer science.

 

This material is based upon work supported by National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0122581.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Science Foundation