Tamara Nelson-Fromm

PhD Student, University of Michigan Computer Science

I study how and why non-computing students learn programming, in order to understand ways in which we might teach for alternative endpoints in computing education. My research has involved investigating practices in K-12 computing teacher professional development and interviewing arts and sciences students in general education computing courses. My research interests are broadly in computing education, teaching and learning, and qualitative research.

I am a PhD student in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Michigan, advised by Dr. Mark Guzdial. I earned my BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2020, where I worked primarily with Dr. Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider in the d7 group. My undergraduate thesis explored methods for making engineering academic program plans more accessible and understandable for students who are considering multiple majors or pathways.

If you followed a really old link, you might be looking for book reviews. You can still find many on my goodreads and in my blog archive. (in-progress)

Email: tamaranfumich.edu
Follow: @tamaraniac tamaraniac

Updates

March 20 2024 At this year's SIGCSE I will be co-hosting the Graduate Students in CS Education and Computing as a University Graduation Requirement Birds of a Feather sessions, as well as presenting at the NSF Project Showcase on our current project integrating Task-Specific Programming Languages into Discrete Math instruction.
February 19 2024 I am presenting my paper, "A Purpose-First Theory of Transfer Through Programming in a General Education Computing Course" at this year's PLATEAU workshop in Berkley, California!
August 7 2023 I am part of this year's ICER doctoral consortium in Chicago, with my abstract Open Ended Assignments for Teaching Contextualized Computing. I'll be presenting a lightning talk, as well as a poster, on Tuesday.
April 21 2023 Check out our newly published article in the Communications of the ACM: Putting a Teaspoon of Programming into Other Subjects.
March 15 2023 I'm attending SIGCSE 2023 in Toronto and co-hosting the Birds of a Feather session for Graduate Students in CS Education!
March 2 2022 I will be attending SIGCSE 2022 in-person in Providence, Rhode Island as a student volunteer!
December 13 2021 I recieved an honorable mention at the University of Michigan Engineering Research Symposium for my presentation "Investigating the Effect of Task-Specific Programming in K-12 Students" in the Research Proposal Competition.
September 1 2020 I started my PhD in Computer Science at the University of Michigan.
May 22 2020 My poster, "Visualizing Curriculum Commonalities and Prerequisite Chains Through Metro Maps" at the 2020 University of Illinois Undergraduate Research Symposium won Outstanding Poster in Science and Mathematics, putting it in the top 0.5% of presentations!
May 16 2020 I graduated with a BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
May 11 2020 I'm celebrating the release of my senior thesis: a visualization of the engineering majors at the University of Illinois, laid out in the form of an interconnecting metro map!
January 1 2020 For the next three weeks, I'll be in NYC, New York, participating in the Impact Labs Fellowship.