computer science

Mark Guzdial

Mark Guzdial is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mark Guzdial rather than just read about it. In short: Mark Joseph Guzdial (born September 7, 1962) is a Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He was formerly a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology affiliated with the College of Computing and the GVU Center.

Key takeaways

Mark Guzdial belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mark Guzdial to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mark Guzdial from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mark Joseph Guzdial (born September 7, 1962) is a Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan. He was formerly a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology affiliated with the College of Computing and the GVU Center. He has conducted research in the fields of computer science education and the learning sciences and internationally in the field of Information Technology. From 2001–2003, he was selected to be an ACM Distinguished Lecturer, and in 2007 he was appointed Vice-Chair of the ACM Education Board Council. He was the original developer of the CoWeb (or Swiki), one of the earliest wiki engines, which was implemented in Squeak and has been in use at institutions of higher education since 1998. He is the inventor of the Media Computation approach to learning introductory computing, which uses contextualized computing education to attract and retain students.

Education Mark Guzdial was born in Michigan and attended Wayne State University for his undergraduate studies, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science in 1984. He received a master's degree in 1986 in Computer Science and Engineering at Wayne State University. Guzdial went on to receive a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in 1993 in Computer Science and Education where he was advised by Elliot Soloway. His thesis created an environment for high school science learners to program multimedia demonstrations and physics simulations. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Guzdial accepted a position as an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing. In 2018, he became a full professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Research and teaching Guzdial's research projects include Media Computation, an approach that emphasizes context in computer science education, using programming languages, lectures examples, and programming assignments from those contexts that students recognize as being authentic and relevant for computing. Guzdial's Media Computation curriculum is being used at universities across the country. He received a grant from the National Science Foundation in 2006 to pursue his “Using Media Computation to Attract and Retain Students in Computing” curriculum. Guzdial was Director of Undergraduate Programs at Georgia Tech (including the BS in Computer Science, BS in Computational Media, and Minor in Computer Science) until 2007. He was Lead Principal Investigator on Georgia Computes, a National Science Foundation Broadening Participation in Computing alliance focused on increasing the number and diversity of computing students in the state of Georgia.

Publications

His publications include:

2015 Learner-Centered Design of Computing Education: Research on Computing for Everyone (Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics). 2006. Introduction to Computing and Programming with Java: A Multimedia Approach. (with Barbara Ericson) 2004. Introduction to Computing and Programming in Python: A Multimedia Approach. 2001. Squeak: Open Personal Computing and Multimedia. (with Kim Rose) 2000. Squeak: Object-Oriented Design with Multimedia Applications.

Awards and honors In 2010, Guzdial was awarded the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award "for [his] contributions to computing education, through the Media Computation (MediaComp) approach that they have created, supported, and disseminated, and its impact on broadening participation in computing." In 2012, he received the IEEE Computer Science and Engineering Undergraduate Teaching Award "for outstanding and sustained excellence in computing education through innovative teaching, mentoring, inventive course development, and knowledge dissemination." In 2014, Guzdial was elected a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery "for contributions to computing education, and broadening participation." In 2019, Guzdial was awarded the ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education at the 50th SIGCSE Technical Symposium "in recognition of a significant contribution to computer science education".

Personal life Guzdial was married to Barbara Ericson in July 1985. They have three children, Matthew, Katherine, and Jennifer.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mark Guzdial

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mark Guzdial claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mark Guzdial before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mark Guzdial ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mark Guzdial

In research: Mark Guzdial appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mark Guzdial in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mark Guzdial is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1962 births, Computer science educators, Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mark Guzdial outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mark Guzdial in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mark Guzdial means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mark Guzdial out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mark Guzdial in simple terms?

Why does Mark Guzdial matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mark Guzdial?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mark Guzdial.