#6 — Teachability is what's missing in LLMs
Going beyond foundational models
I know I'm really late (this should have been sent yesterday), but I have a good reason for running late: now I understand how hard it is to be chair of a conference/academic event. My first experience is proving exhausting, but the feedback has been very positive. More on that below in the "leisure section." Now, let's move on to this week's edition.
A paper about students' misconceptions of algorithms
This team from Aalto University investigated students' understanding of Dijkstra's famous shortest-paths algorithm using an interactive learning tool called a "visual algorithm simulation exercise". The exercise was based on the JSAV software originally written by Ville Karavirta. Students click the edges of the graph in the same order that Dijkstra's algorithm would add them to the tree of shortest paths. They collected data from these clicks and conducted various quantitative analyses.
The AI interactive tutor that knows you
Take a look at:
They market themselves as "the AI interactive tutor that knows you." What I liked most is their focus on pure interactivity. Here you can see the features they support.
View their Launch Video on YouTube
🔍 Resources for Learning CS
→ drawDB
I came across this tool for sketching your SQL database and exporting it to a schema. This tool can save a significant amount of time when starting a new project!
→ A weekly Coding Challenge to help software engineers level up
John’s newsletter offers some fun and challenging problems to sharpen your skills. Each challenge is designed to walk you through the process of creating an application and to be less than 8 hours of work.
You can take a look here
Two good bites from the industry
→ Building Faster with AI
Andrew Ng has helped shape some of the most influential movements in modern AI—from online education to deep learning to AI entrepreneurship. In this talk, he shares what he’s learning now: why execution speed matters more than ever, how agentic workflows are changing what startups can build, and why concreteness beats vagueness when turning ideas into products.
→ Early Facebook IC7 on Zuck, culture, and LLMs
This ex-Meta IC7 talks about working with Zuck, how he sees the archetype of "coding machines" in the LLM era (spoiler: faster with workflow, more productive) and why he left the company. Another good interview by Ryan Peterman. Both are a great inspiration.
We need more CS Education!
This is a clip of Hadi Partovi's discussion with Microsoft President Brad Smith about the importance of teaching computer science, changing the focus from "coding" to "AI", and Code.org's call to action around introducing every student to an Hour of AI.
I completely agree with Hadi. We need more CS Education! I notice people searching all the time for what and how to learn. And the fact is that the enormous growth of computer science globally and its impact on so many fields makes it pertinent to find ways that allow us to teach/learn it in a better way.
🔍 Resources for Teaching in CS Education
→ Nice website with an overview of lots of infinite canvas tools
Here's a good roundup of infinite canvas tools, similar to Miro. I'm just missing draw.io to complete the bingo.
→ A storybook designed to teach kids about how computers work
If you are a college hardware teacher who teaches computer architecture, this storybook designed to teach kids how computers work is great.
🌎 Computing Education Community Highlights
Registrations are now open for PkCEP-2025! Join us for Pakistan's first-ever workshop dedicated to Computing Education Practice (CEP), across K-12, higher education, and post-secondary levels. More info here.
The optimization group at Oregon State University is looking for Ph.D. students to join Leandro F. Maia over the next four years. He is looking for students who are passionate about mathematics and coding. They’ll work together on exciting projects to advance the field of continuous optimization and apply their research to areas like machine learning, AI, and data science. If you know someone who’s ready for this journey, please share this opportunity with them.
🤔 Thought(s) For You to Ponder…
You as a professor or as a PhD student don't need to feel fenced in by the choices you make directly out of grad school. There's more than one way to be a professor. There's a lot of things that you can do. And if you get into your first job and you find out that it's not exactly what you thought it was going to be, and it doesn't really fit where you want to be long term, you can make a move. And there are ways to change where you're aiming for that are going to hopefully help you find fulfillment as a professor.
This quote from Dr. Lindsay Jamieson in the latest CS-Ed podcast episode got me thinking this week... I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
📌 The PhD Student Is In
→ After being rejected by ITiCSE and ICER, we are now preparing for ACM TOCE
I strongly believe in transparency in academia. After two rejections, we are already considering some changes to this paper about information gathering in CS2 students while learning with LLM vs traditional methods in collaboration with IIT Kanpur and resubmitting it to a journal this time.
🪁 Leisure Line
One of the things I like most about academia is the collaboration and how friendly people are when talking about their work. I recently finished a book called Principles of Programming (Principios de programación, in spanish). Meeting its author Camilo Chacón in person was very exciting for me. If you're reading this, thank you for your time and best of luck with all your future projects! I follow his newsletter regularly - you should check it out too:
I'm serving as chair of the IESE-Pedralbes 2025 event, a management summer course related to my previous work. It's helping me realize what it takes to lead this type of event organizationally (and how intense it is), but also how satisfying it is when you see that all the hard work has been worth it based on the feedback you get from participants. Here are some photos from what has been a week of lectures with first-class management professors, talks with successful entrepreneurs, and other cultural visits like to HP headquarters and the Sagrada Família:
📖📺🍿 Currently Reading, Watching, Listening
Summer podcast recommendation: Sea of Lies is a fantastic true crime series from Canadian producer CBC. It all starts when English fishermen find a body in their nets. Who is it? How did it get there? A series of coincidences and chance events unfold into a full investigation that spans from Canada to Great Britain over more than twenty years. Really good and very entertaining.
This week I watched the first Oscar winner for a Brazilian film, I'm Still Here. A very moving, very human movie that sets ideology aside to focus on the importance of family bonds and maintaining hope. I was particularly struck by the cinematography, the soundtrack, and the dramatic pacing. Well-deserved Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
That's all for this week. Thank you for your time. I value your feedback, as well as your suggestions for future editions. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments.
Quick Links 🔗
🎧 Listen to Computing Education Things Podcast
📖 Read my article on Vibe Coding Among CS Students
💌 Let's connect on LinkedIn!