My plans for Summer 2025

It seems like just yesterday that the Winter 2025 term wrapped up. Though I guess, technically, it’s not over since yesterday was just the last day of final exams. Still, with the Summer 2025 term just around the corner there’s lots to do. Because, somehow, I’ve committed myself to a whole number of projects! Here are a few I can share.

CSC494H1 Projects #

I am pursuing three CSC494H1 projects this Summer. Two on designing interactive visualizations, and the third on curricular analytics. Fortunately, two of those projects are being co-supervised by the very seasoned Professor David Liu. And I’m excited to be working with six different students this term! Check out the archived project postings for more details.

Designing interactive visualizations for CS1 and CS2 #

This will be my chance to revisit the CSC110Y1 and CSC111H1 course notes after a long hiatus. While David and I have included lots of visualizations and animations in the notes, there is a lot of opportunity for interaction, too! I’ve heard from many students how much they enjoyed the notes, and I’m hopeful this takes them to the next level.

Designing interactive visualizations for computer systems #

In CSC369H1, we use the wonderful and freely available textbook Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces. And, in CSC368H1, we use a variety of references including textbooks and academic papers. I’m hoping that complementing those resources with some interactive visualizations will be helpful to our students. Both courses require a significant amount of procedural knowledge (e.g., how does state change according to some policy or mechanism?), which almost necessitate intricate animations to teach. Creating visualizations with some interaction can, in my opinion, improve the learning experience further here.

Curricular analytics #

I’ve been fascinated by curricular analytics for some time now. The DCS ambassadors of 2023-2024 may recall a similar sounding project that didn’t quite take off. So, when David told me he was interested in curricular analytics, too, we proposed it as a CSC494H1 project. David has a track record of successful projects, so I’m looking forward to this being another one!

In the Loop #

Professor Diane Horton and I just wrapped up our first meeting on Season 3 of our podcast. The early days are always very ambitious, and there are a lot of ideas floating around at the moment. But we are facing some challenges, like the absolute mess that is analytics across multiple platforms. It seems that each platform (Simplecast, Spotify, Apple) have their own metrics, which may be similar but not identical to each other. Because the data is fragmented, it’s difficult to reason about it and use the data to inform our plans for Season 3. But, fear not dear reader, we have a plan. Stay tuned!

Computer Architecture (CSC368H1) #

My proposal for hiring a teaching assistant to help me improve CSC368H1, a new course first offered in Winter 2025, was approaved! I’ve already received lots of wonderful feedback from students who aren’t shy to tell me things without the veil of anonymity. And, sometime in the next few weeks I should receive the full course evaluation data, which gives me a broader idea of what to target. Of course, I have my own ideas even without the feedback—but it’s always a good idea to target things that will have the most impact on improving the learning experience. Can’t wait to do a deep dive and iterate on this course further!

Conclusion #

Wow, that seems like a lot. And it’s not including other projects I haven’t (or can’t) talk about yet. Wish me luck!