Mark Joseph Guzdial (born September 7, 1962) is a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the College of Engineering at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. He was formerly a professor in the School of Interactive Computing at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

affiliated with the College of Computing and the GVU Center. He has conducted research in the fields of

computer science education Computer science education or computing education is the field of teacher, teaching and learning the discipline of computer science, and computational thinking. The field of computer science education encompasses a wide range of topics, from b ...

and the learning sciences and internationally in the field of

Information Technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

. 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 Squeak is an object-oriented, class-based, and reflective programming language. It was derived from Smalltalk-80 by a group that included some of Smalltalk-80's original developers, initially at Apple Computer, then at Walt Disney Imaginee ...

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 Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and attended

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

for his undergraduate studies, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

in 1984. He received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in 1986 in Computer Science and Engineering at

. Guzdial went on to receive a Ph.D. at the

in 1993 in

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

Education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

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 Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the

College of Computing. In 2018, he became a full professor in the College of Engineering at the

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 The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

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 iscontributions 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 The IEEE Computer Science & Undergraduate Teaching Award is a Technical Field Award of the IEEE that was established by the IEEE Computer Society in 1999. It is presented for outstanding contributions to undergraduate computer science education ...

"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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guzdial, Mark Living people 1962 births University of Michigan College of Engineering alumni Wayne State University alumni Georgia Tech faculty Human–computer interaction researchers Computer science educators 2014 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery