Each week, we will hold an optional "exploration session" featuring a presentation, discussion, or activity on a topic related to computer science, but outside the normal scope of CSE 142. These sessions will provide opportunities to engage and interact with your classmates, the TAs, and a variety of guests, as well as to explore aspects of CS, STEM, and related areas in ways beyond the programming focus of CSE 142.
For every 3 Exploration Sessions you attend, you will receive 1 token that grants an extension for a late checkpoint. See the Ed post for complete details. If you missed a checkpoint, go ahead and submit it even though it'll be marked as late on Ed. At the end of the quarter, we will automatically accept Math.floor(# of sessions you've received credit for / 3) checkpoint submissions you have successfully completed.
Concerned that AI will replace you and/or your job prospects—including software engineering? Curious about how AI could be used today to identify Russians in news reports whose faces are blurred to avoid their being imprisoned by the Russian government? How does one even get started with the complicated world of AI? Feel free to join me as we explore these difficult and important questions together through demos and discussions!
Speaker: Rinav Kasthuri
Speaker Info: Rinav is a 3rd year undergraduate who’s TAing CSE 143 and double-majoring in Computer Science and Sociology.
Zoom Link
This beginner's coding workshop will cover basic Python programming. We will explore how Python has its similarities and differences from a Java perspective. Also we will create mini-games that you can continue to develop and play with after the event. Hope to see you there! (No prior knowledge or experience necessary. All resources needed to participate in the mini-game coding activity will be provided during the session.)
Speaker: Chloe Fong
Slides
Speaker Info: This session will be led by Chloe Fong, one of the current CSE 143 TAs.
Zoom Link
Interactive technology is changing society. Some of todays interfaces are used by a billion people at a time. Almost everything we create is created for people to use, through user interfaces. Many of these interfaces are created to connect a human to a machine - even a new machine learning algorithm or a database system requires some human connection in order for those systems to work. These user interfaces are incredibly important, but interactive user interaction requires a different programming paradigm than you may have learned before. In this exploration session you'll learn why we would want to create usable and inclusive interfaces in general, and more specifically how we might want to create interfaces for mobile platforms.
Speaker: Lauren Bricker
Speaker Bio: Dr. Lauren Bricker is currently in her fifth year as an Associate Teaching Professor in the Allen School after having taught middle and high school Computer Science (CS) for ten years. Her interests vary greatly but she primarily focuses currently on teaching Introductory CS, Interactions Programming, Web Development, and also facilitates CS teacher trainings. Her other passions include 3D Modeling and Printing and designing Makerspaces. Dr.Bricker was recognized as one of three GeekWire STEM Educators of the year in May, 2021, and was featured as Geekwire's Geek of the Week
in January, 2012 and has been invited to give talks at Ignite Seattle, NerdNite, Fremont Women in Tech, and Maker Faire Seattle. She is also the president of the Puget Sound Computer Science Teachers Association, a chapter of ACM's CSTA. Prior to teaching, she worked as a software engineer, consultant and manager for companies large and small. Dr. Bricker holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from University of Washington, and B.S. in Theoretical Math from the University of Michigan.
Zoom Link
Computer science can be useful not only in designing systems, but also in understanding critical societal problems. Misinformation is one of the defining issues in our current society. This presentation will show how, through data analysis, visualization techniques, and other related research techniques, CS can help us better understand the problem of misinformation and its spread online.
Speaker: Joseph Schafer
Speaker Bio: Joey Schafer is a fourth-year undergraduate computer science and ethics student at the University of Washington. He works as a research assistant at the UW Center for an Informed Public studying online misinformation and social media platforms, where he is advised by Professor Kate Starbird, Professor Emma Spiro, and Professor Jevin West.
Zoom Link
Have you ever wondered how the web works? Or, have you even clicked on those mysterious buttons View Source
or
Inspect
and wondered
what the heck is going on here?
In this session, we'll talk about the web, HTML, the internet and how it comes together.
Speaker: Andrew S Fitz Gibbon
Speaker Bio: Fitz first started teaching CSE 154 in 2019, complimenting his day job working at Google. He's been in the software industry professionally for over 10 years, focusing on making it easier for other people in the software world to do things. His foray into software and education started even earlier, when in the early 2000s he started teaching coding to kids. This quarter, Fitz is teaching CSE 160 and reprising 154 in the spring.
Zoom Link
This week, you will hear from Eric Fan about building academic success through the study and practice of metacognition. Metacognition in this context means awareness and understanding of your own learning. With the academic rigor of college courses, the transition to a university-level education can understandably be challenging (it certainly was for Eric). Many of us aren't taught how to academically succeed at the college level, but fortunately, we can leverage many metacognitive techniques to improve our ability to learn and succeed in college-level courses. In this session, you will learn about and experiement with various metacognitive strategies and study skills for academically succeeding in your courses, which will be immediately transferable to your coursework in CSE 142 and beyond.
Speaker: Eric Fan
Zoom Link
This week, you will get to hear from a panel of TAs and faculty about their experiences navigating CS classes and careers and what tips they have to succeed here. You will also get an opportunity to chat with other students in 143/142 about their classes, tips they have, and challenges they have faced regarding CS. How has your experience in CS 142/143 changed from what you had expected? What are you looking forward to? Are there any resources you wish your CS classes had? Please come prepared to share your experiences and listen to others share theirs.
Speakers: Miya Natsuhara, Eyad Alsilimy, Elizabeth Xiong, Julia Ball, Shananda Dokka
Slides
Zoom Link