Kathi Fisler

About

Kathi Fisler is a Research Professor of Computer Science at Brown University, where she also serves as the Director of CS Undergraduate Studies and Research Director of Bootstrap. Her research interests lie at the intersection of human learning, cognitive science, education, data structures, and socio-technical systems, with a foundation in formal methods. Over her career, her research has evolved through several areas including diagrammatic logics for hardware design in the late 1990s, modular verification of feature-oriented programs in the early 2000s, reasoning about access-control and privacy policies in the late 2000s to early 2010s, and computing education from the 2010s through the 2020s. She has taught introductory computing and data structures for over two decades and is actively involved in Brown's efforts in socially-responsible computing education. Fisler has also held various official and unofficial administrative and leadership roles that have influenced her interests. She is one of the lead authors of a textbook focused on teaching computing through a data-centric lens, combining data science and data structures. Since the late 1990s, she has been heavily involved in outreach for K-12 computing education, primarily through Bootstrap and participation in standards committees for K-12 computing education. Much of her work is conducted in collaboration with teams in cognitive engineering, computing education, and programming languages and tools at Brown, as well…

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Mathematics education
• Psychology
• Engineering
• Artificial Intelligence
• Pedagogy
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• A New Model for Weaving Responsible Computing Into Courses Across the CS Curriculum

  2021 · 52 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  CS departments in the USA have used various models for teaching about ethics, including standalone ethics courses and expert-designed assignments. At Brown University, we are trying a different approach: a group of undergraduate teaching assistants dedicated to socially-responsible practices in computing work with faculty to integrate content into multiple assignments both across a course and across the curriculum. This "responsible computing" initiative has resulted in a variety of assignments…

  PublisherDOI

• Data-centricity

  Communications of the ACM · 2020 · 24 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Rethinking the content of introductory computing around a data-centric approach to better engage and support a diversity of students.

  DOI

• Evolving a K-12 Curriculum for Integrating Computer Science into Mathematics

  2021 · 16 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Integrating computing into other subjects promises to address many challenges to offering standalone CS courses in K-12 contexts. Integrated curricula must be designed carefully, however, to both meet learning objectives of the host discipline and to gain traction with teachers. We describe the multi-year evolution of Bootstrap, a curriculum for integrating computing into middle- and high-school mathematics. We discuss the initial design and the various modifications we have made over the years…

  PublisherDOI

• Integrated Data Science for Secondary Schools

  Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education · 2022-02-22 · 15 citations

  article

  We propose that secondary-school data-science curricula should be based on four key ingredients: two are technical (programming and statistics, with visualization sitting at their intersection), while two are human-facing (meaningful domains, and civic responsibility). We describe their relationship and argue for their importance.

  PublisherDOI

• Iterative Student Program Planning using Transformer-Driven Feedback

  2024-07-03 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  Problem planning is a fundamental programming skill, and aids students in decomposing tasks into manageable subtasks. While feedback on plans is beneficial for beginners, providing this in a scalable and timely way is an enormous challenge in large courses.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• BPC-DP: Deploying a Vertically-Integrated Computing Curriculum to At-Risk Students

  NSF · $615k · 2011–2015

• Designing Professional Development to Foster Mastery and Interest for Integrating Computer Science into Mathematics Classes

  NSF · $1000k · 2021–2025

• Collaborative Research: Hybrid Professional Development to Enhance Teachers' Use of Bootstrap

  NSF · $683k · 2017–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Shriram Krishnamurthi

  143 shared

• Emmanuel Schanzer

  23 shared

• Joe Gibbs Politz

  University of California, San Diego

  20 shared

• Ren Yan-yan

  Brown University

  12 shared

• Daniel J. Dougherty

  10 shared

• Preston Tunnell Wilson

  John Brown University

  10 shared

• Benjamin S. Lerner

  Northeastern University

  9 shared

• Francisco Enrique Vicente Castro

  New York University

  9 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Computer Science

  University of Washington

  1990

• M.S., Computer Science

  University of Washington

  1986

• B.S., Mathematics

  University of California, San Diego

  1983

Similar researchers at Brown University

• Michael L. Littmanh-83
• Maurice P Herlihyh-72
• Roberto Tamassiah-69